Working Mothers – One Thing You Must Do to Reduce Stress, Create Work Life Balance and More Success
As a working mother, you have to balance your work and family life, and juggle many responsibilities. Are you feeling stressed, overwhelmed, or getting sick easily? There’s something you must do, in order to be a successful working mother.
As a business owner and working mom myself, I know my family and my business depend on me being healthy and functioning at my full capacity. The other day, when I realized that I was too sick to be productive, I decided to take a day off and just rest. It turned out I needed more than a day. I let myself sleep as much as I needed, ingest and diffuse pure therapeutic-grade antimicrobial essential oils to help me recover faster, spent quiet time meditate and read, and did minimal cooking & housework. After a few day’s rest, I’m once again moving full speed ahead. I had to reschedule a bunch of appointments and some projects got a bit delayed, but, I’m so glad I took time to take care of myself.
A friend & colleague of mine sent me an email saying “Congratulations on taking care of yourself, you woman nurturer you!” That made me smile, realizing I’ve come a long way.
Up until a few years ago, I used to put my family, my work, and a lot of other priorities before my self-care. The “old” me would have dragged myself out of bed, forcing myself to do everything I “should” do as if I wasn’t sick, until I totally ran myself down. Sometimes I ended up being sick for a long time, because my immune system was compromised due to lack of rest. Sometimes I was able to “power through” an important project, only to get sick immediately afterward.
Sound familiar? Then you need a little TLC.
More often than not, you might be the one who is withholding your own self-care. Perhaps you think you should take care of everyone else FIRST, before you can take care of yourself. Perhaps you believe that you must finish all the work, before you can take a break or play. Or, perhaps deep down you don’t believe that you deserve the care. Let’s be honest, when will you ever be “done” with all the work and caregiving? If you do not take care of yourself now, it might cost you more than your health.
It doesn’t matter why you have not put self-care as a top priority. What matters is, what do you choose to do from now on? The first step is to give yourself permission to practice Intensive Self-Care. Why not write yourself an Intensive Self-Care Permission Slip? I wrote about this in my upcoming book Intensive Care for the Nurturer’s Soul: 7 Keys to Nurture Yourself While Caring for Others. What feeds your soul and makes your heart sing? What is one thing you can do to nurture yourself today? Go and do that.