Five Things Overwhelmed Moms Can Do Right Now
Five Things Overwhelmed Moms Can Do Right Now
Five Things Overwhelmed Moms Can Do Right Now
When you’re in a space of overwhelm, you don’t have the bandwidth to do the critical thinking necessary to know where to start. How do you get off the hamster wheel of overwhelm? I sure didn’t. And honestly, if it was that easy, would any of us be on the overwhelm ride? No. It’s a tough one to get off. Here are five things you can implement to begin to slow the ride down.
MINDSET
It’s okay to be overwhelmed and be happy and grateful at the same time. A lot of us minimize the overwhelm or feel guilty. They can coincide, you can feel both of these things. Which leads me to tell you, you are not a failure. This polarity, in my opinion, is the see of negative mindsets in moms. We fear failure and experience guilt when we feel overwhelmed. It’s okay to not be okay. You’re still a great mom. You’re still awesome. Watch your mindset. Don’t let it mean girl you.
STOP
It’s counterintuitive, I know. We are terrified to stop. If we stop we lose momentum. If we lose momentum, we fail. We have to face ourselves. It’s in this stopping that we regain energy. Just like a road trip, when our tank hits the “E” we never, ever think “I’m just gonna see if I can keep going here.” No. We stop. Does it add 10 minutes to the trip? Yeah. BUT if we didn’t stop for gas, it could add HOURS to the trip waiting for a tow truck. Stop now. Don’t succumb to waiting on the road for a tow truck.
What does stopping look like? Eating meals. Closing your laptop. Hiring help. Asking for help. Letting [it] go. Closing social media. Taking a walk. Meditating. Sleeping. Sitting still. Literally stopping.
EAT
Seems silly I know. But your body will fall apart and shut down if you don’t. For whatever reason, every mother seems okay to skip this part. It’s always the first thing to go. From the pressures of motherhood to our misconstrued societal pressures to look a certain way, we let go of this one basic need. Your brain will regulate and function a whole lot easier with some meals. Go ahead. Stop and eat.
FIND YOUR TOP THREE
I’m a huge fan of a day’s “Top 3”. Listen, “A mother’s work is never done.” Is not a phrase that came from an untruth. The work is literally never done. So, why then do we try and cram it into one day?? Every day?! Pick your top three things. It helps you prioritize, helps you even out the pace of your running and ultimately will lead to getting more done.
DELEGATE
Again, it’s one of the hardest things to do as moms. Asking for help means we can’t do it ourselves. It means we failed. But hey, we have WAY too much on our plate. We need help eating. And people love to help. Also, consider how asking for help and sharing duties will model things for your kids. Do you want your daughters to grow up feeling the way you do? Do we want our sons growing up thinking that women “do it all.”? If we do different, they’ll know different. Ask for help!
I know this might seem foreign, especially those of you mamas who are truly stuck on the ride of doing it all. I’ve been there. I know it well. If we do less, we feel worthless. This isn’t true. This is a limiting belief.
Your worth is not in what you do. It’s in who you are.
Do you know who you are? Do you know how valuable and worthy you are??
Take time to see it, mama. The overwhelm isn’t worth it. We are hurting ourselves and everyone around us. It’s a hard change of pace but worth it.
I know moving out of this pace of life is so hard. We can read all of the blogs and listen to all of the podcasts but we need more support than that. The Layered Growth Academy may be an option for you. Take time to review the details and sit with it if this is a mentorship opportunity you feel like you need in your life. It’s here for you, you simply need to trust yourself, know you’re worth it and take the action.