PARENTING SELF-CARE | PUT ON YOUR OWN OXYGEN MASK FIRST
Before we get started: This post was originally shared with my email community in April 2019. I’m sharing it with you on the the blog today as gentle reminder of how important it is to prioritise our maternal mental health, not just for our creativity but for our fundamental well-being.
This post also gives a little insight as to what you might expect from my fortnightly Letters from the Road. If you’d like to receive letters like this to your inbox every other Saturday, you can sign up below. You’ll also receive my complimentary 7 day guide to better photos with your children.
Last week, mid-afternoon, I had a bath.
The mountain of chores lay in wait, Jaz was nipping at my heels and I had an endless number of creative projects I was itching to get to, but in that moment, I came first.
Taking this time was fine. No one died. I put my plate-spinning, balls-in-the-air life on hold for an hour and all was well. Very well in fact.
I’ve been adding to my list of things to do lately and feeling the pressure to produce. Surprisingly, a moment away from my thoughts, to sit in the bubbles, gave my ideas time and space to incubate. Later that evening, I had the urge to write and the words flowed freely. In fact, these lines you’re reading now are the product of my time out.
As an added bonus, I think I may have come up with the perfect activity to do with Jaz. We chatted as I bathed. She poured water on me with her watering can. I relaxed whilst she was busy. We connected from our own places of comfort. It was a total win win.
As I got out the tub feeling blissfully rejuvenated (and not at all guilty), I had to ask myself, why didn't I make more time to prioritise my own basic needs? This little window was perfectly achievable and did me (and us) the world of good. Reconnecting with the notion that I matter too, left me feeling lighter and more cheerful for the the rest of the day.
I know I’m not alone in my thoughts and feelings. As Mum’s we’re pretty much hard-wired to put the needs of others above our own. We’re so often relegated to the bottom of the list, which we never get to. But what if we decided to prioritise ourselves a little more often? Put on our own oxygen masks first?
So here’s a suggestion. Take some time this weekend to be nice to your body. Move it, nourish it, rest it, pay attention to it. Dress it up and say nice things about it. Put this at the top of your to do list, above everything else. In the words of someone wiser than me, “The better our bodies feel, the happier and more productive we are”.
Suzie x
