We all know that we’ve got to incorporate healthier habits into our lives, but as parents one of the biggest things that can be too much is stress. We can feel frazzled or ready to snap and throw into the mix commuting, jobs, and everything in between, it’s hardly a surprise we’re feeling the pressure. So what can we do to manage parental stress in the right way?
Be Precious With “Me Time”
If you have a very busy day and the children go to sleep you may think that now is the ideal opportunity to spend time with your partner and do a debrief of the day’s events. But if this is not going to help you because you are, in essence, reliving the stress, so you have to put a limit on how long you talk about the stressful things. A very useful tactic for couples is to set a time limit on bringing out all of their frustrations. Because if you can spend more time being relaxed rather than stressed, you are playing the law of averages and you will feel better in the long run. As far as relaxation is concerned, there are no limits as to what you can bring into your life. From using hemp products like Delta 9, or just sitting outside with your thoughts, if you spend even five minutes in a “parasympathetic state” (also known as “rest and digest” mode), it makes a big difference to how you handle everything.
Focus on the Fun
When we spend 12 hours a day seemingly focused on duties, we’re not making much time for fun in our lives. The fact is that we can all find ways to enjoy ourselves more. If your kids are young enough, maybe it’s worth playing with them more, or just watching something that you find incredibly hilarious? The health benefits of laughter are well-documented, but if we feel that we can’t relax until the day is done, this will be to our detriment. Our children are going to think that we are just too serious when we are just trying to make sure that we do everything right by them, but if we focus on perfection, we’re not going to get it!
Ask for Backup
If you feel overwhelmed, you need to ask for help. We all feel like we need to be “Supermom,” but if we are constantly feeling frazzled, we’re going to make poor choices. When we feel overwhelmed, we have to remember that reaching out for help is going to benefit everybody, not just us. Because when we reach out and realize that we’ve hit a limit, we won’t feel as frazzled and tempted to yell and will be keener on modeling proper behavior. Because if you find yourself worried, learning to laugh is an amazing way to bypass a lot of those concerns. Of course, if you feel continuously worried, there is no shame in talking to your healthcare provider.
As we learn what is good and bad for us, stress is one of the things that is almost always detrimental, not just to our frame of mind, but to our bodies as well. So if you feel like everything’s too much, learn to reduce the stress where you can.
