CARING FOR YOURSELF

Parenting young children can be extremely difficult at times. To rejuvenate, do things for yourself.  If you have not made any investments in yourself, you will not have anything to give to your child. Some say that every day you should do at least one thing to take care of yourself in each of the following domains: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.

You will be taking care of yourself and modeling positive self-care for your child. Your child will learn, by your example, how to care for themselves when they are emotional or even having tantrums. When children become teenagers and adults, they will be exposed to destructive ways of dealing with life’s irritations such as drinking, 3 hours a day of TV watching, eating frozen chocolate chip cookie dough  in front of an open freezer door  (my personal favorite), gambling, exploding in anger, etc. Your positive example will serve as an alternative.

I would make it explicit to your chid that you are off to self-care. What you or your child can do to feel better:

Mentally

Journal- multiple pages a day GAME CHANGER

This is good for self-awareness. Write stream of consciousness for 3 pages. Don’t look at what you read. You will get to the point that you figure out what is hard and then move towards problem solving.

Read

Engage in a hobby like cooking, sewing, woodworking,or  growing flowers

Physically

Take a bath

Throw a ball against a wall

Paint toe nails

Eat well

Go for a walk/run

Emotionally

Help others

Hold door open for someone. Make a card for an elderly neighbor.

Hang out with positive people

​Plan your day

At the beginning of each day, set aside 15 minutes to plan your day and think of how it could go more smoothly.  At the end of each day, set aside another 15 minutes to reflect on what went well and what you would like to improve.

Hug a stuffed animal

Spiritually

Meditate- lots of apps for that

Pray

Read spiritual text   

Do something to make the world better.