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As parents, we can feel that we need to dedicate every aspect of our being to the welfare of our kids. After all, it’s a motherly instinct, but there can be a point where you give away a little too much. And this could be to the detriment of a healthier lifestyle. What is the answer? Is it about ensuring that you have a healthy lifestyle, and go to the gym regularly, or is it about something a little bit simpler than that? As parents, we can feel our sanity being stretched to its very limits, and this will have a negative effect on our ability to be a good parent. Having time to yourself is essential, but why is this, and what can you do to ensure you are getting the most out of this in spite of a busy calendar?
The Time To Recharge
It’s mentally exhausting, especially if you have young children running around; everything poses a hazard, and this can have a positive impact on your brain in one respect because you’re always exercising it. But at the end of the day, you are so exhausted; you could pass out in a heap and sleep for hours. We need that opportunity to recharge, not just in a physical sense, but in a mental one as well. And having a few hours to not worry about anyone else, we can feel the tension melting away. That time to recharge is sacred, and it doesn’t appear to exist much these days. After all, we’re always out doing something, and while it does wonders for our social life, we can feel that our brain is being pulled in so many different directions.
It Makes You A Better Parent
We can have a lot of mom guilt, especially if we feel that we need to go away for a few hours or even a couple of days. And having that time away from any situation where it’s relentless gives you that ability to decompress, but it also gives you the distance in which to achieve a proper sense of perspective. By having time away, in a different environment, this gets you off the treadmill of parenting and lets you be a more relaxed version of you. As such, you have that mental and physical space to process everything. Maybe you’re not doing the best right now because you are stressed or anxious, and so by having that opportunity to get away, you will feel the benefits, and so will your children.
You Recapture A Sense Of Who You Were
You might feel that you are a better person all around now you’ve got more of a purpose in life, but sometimes it’s nice to feel what it used to be like before children came along. There wasn’t so much pressure, it was less responsibility, and all you needed to do was pay the bills and decide where you were going for food. But now, you can feel like life has turned you into something completely far removed from what you were.
Many parents feel that having a child makes them relax because they gain a sense of perspective. But others tend to find that there’s just duty after duty, and it never ends. In this respect, taking the opportunity to meet up with old friends, especially those that have not been in your mind since having a child can help you to relive the old days. And sometimes the past is best where it was, and it’s nice to relive this for a short period of time.
What Is The Best Way To Recover?
It doesn’t really matter, just as long as you are getting that time away. You could easily get a room in one of the many Carlsbad hotels or go visit some friends for a long weekend. What’s important is that you actually take the opportunity to switch your brain off from everything. There’s a lot of discussions these days about decision fatigue.
But what about parental fatigue? You have to make so many decisions, not just for yourself, but for your children, that it’s all too simple to get overwhelmed. It can seem like par for the course as a parent, after all, you’re always worrying. But if you can get to that point, wet even just for a short amount of time, that you can truly relax and not think about anything, this will prove beneficial in the long run.
And once you know the feeling you’re after, you can find the best triggers to put you into this state. Some people like to go down the new age route and do meditation or yoga, but others want to treat themselves to a spa day because the atmosphere is the most conducive to removing physical and mental tension. And, probably the most important thing you can do as a parent to ensure you are recovering properly is not having to make a single decision.
Decision fatigue is common, and if you can just have a day where you don’t need to decide anything, and just go with the flow, not only will you feel better in yourself, but you’re also going with the flow a lot more. Because we can feel bound by timetables and routines, we have to give ourselves license to let all this go. In one sense, being rigid is beneficial for everyone, but this constant pressure will wear us down.
We shouldn’t ever feel guilty about me time, even if we’ve got other duties in life that means we never have the opportunity to truly relax. What really helps when we do get that opportunity to spend a day with ourselves is that we can start to fine-tune the best triggers to relax us. It doesn’t take long to realize that you just operate better after you’ve had some quality downtime. As such, you need to actively crave this.
And it doesn’t have to be a weekend away all the time, but you can still reap the benefits by having quality relaxation time, rather than quantity. You should never feel guilty about “me time” because it makes you a better parent.
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