Why strive for wellness?
On my own path to wellness, I had to encounter a lot of mistakes along the way. I didn’t always know how to take care of myself, and I thought that it was someone else’s job to do that for me. I didn’t know I had a responsibility to do it for myself.
But now, as a single mom, achieving my own personal goals required so much of me to change my own mindset. I had to stop thinking that I couldn’t do anything for myself. I had to embrace that I had all the tools and abilities to reach my own goals.
What happened afterwards was total peace of mind.
Since wellness is a core value of mine, I made it a point to always strive for wellbeing in whatever I did. Now that I’m on a journey as a single mom, this became even more important.
5 values to adopt
I came up with 5 values that I’ve adopted to get to a place of wellbeing in everything that I do.
Don’t discount the natural abilities that you already have
Your children need your special skills, your uniqueness, the way you do what makes you who you are.
Trust in yourself, trust in your abilities, trust in the intuition that you have. That feeling will guide you in the direction that is best for your family.
Use help when it’s offered. Don’t discount those who are around you, too
Sometimes, help comes from the most unconventional places. Just because you don’t recognize it doesn’t mean it’s worth any less in value. Use the advice that you can, leave the rest alone.
When someone offers you advice or help, use it if it makes sense to.
But if the advice puts you or your children’s lives at risk, or it’s unsafe, then of course, DON’T. But try to assume that those who are close to you will have your best intentions at heart.
Take time to rest
Rest is THE best medicine, in my humble opinion. Rest is revolutionary.
When we rest, we are taking time out to recharge, to re-settle into ourselves, to re-set our clocks.
Everyone seems to be all about self-care, but it's because we've made caring for ourselves second to everything else. We take care of the kids first, we focus on our career first, we take care of the family first.
When self-care becomes a daily practice, we won’t need to re-learn how to take care of ourselves because it's already embedded in us.
Get in your body
So how do you start? Begin with listening to your body. Notice what she’s telling you.
Where are your pains, and aches, and sore points?
Which areas need a little more tender love and care.
Which areas feel good?
What does your body want more of?
We forget to give ourselves more of the things that also feel good as well. Listen to her. Don’t overindulge, but listen, because only you can know your body the best.
Take time to listen to your children’s needs
Children truly are special beings. They seem to not know how to communicate their needs, but they are very in tune with their own bodies. They are striving for a state of equilibrium.
They don’t know what it means yet to be busy, or stressed, or overwhelmed, or nervous, but their body sure does feel it. They just know that they want to feel good again.
They don’t know what it means to be selfish either. Even when that toddler stays up crying all night, it’s not to make mommy tired for her 8:00 AM meeting the next morning.
Children are only communicating their needs to us. They don’t know how to verbalize those needs sometimes, so they react in other ways.
Listen to their words, pay attention to their body language. Really sit with them to understand what is it that they need. If you sense that something is off, it’s probably because it is.
Feed your soul
Ok, here's an extra one for you.
Feeding your soul just simply means to do what makes you feel good, and makes you happy. It’s doing what nourishes you without having to apologize for it.
Us women, especially moms, are really good at knowing what makes us happy, but we hardly make time and space to do those things.
Being well isn’t just doing one thing in part.
It's acknowledging the wholeness of you and feeding your soul what she needs to thrive.
If you connect strongly with art, then make sure that you make space for that.
See that film you’ve been hearing about, go to a local art show, add new paintings to your home.
If you need music, then play music in the background while doing others things, discover new artists in your favorite genre of music, teach your child your favorite childhood song.
Momma, doing things to pour into yourself will fill you up and allow you to be on a path to wellness.
Because wellness starts with a healthy state of mind.
Love Always,
Momma Naturalista
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