Parents feel stressed as never before with many verging on parental burnout. Parental stress is bad for the mental well-being of parents and children as it causes a stressed and tense family environment. Resilience is especially important for parents as being resilient helps to control your emotions, persevere your mental health and bounce back more quickly from setbacks.
Here are some ways how you can built your emotional resilience:
Use controlled and rhythmic breathing to calm you down and relax in stressful situations. If you find you are losing your cool and you are just about to shout at your children, stop and breathe. Before you say anything stop and breathe. This will slow your heart beat and blood pressure. It will also move the focus of your mind from your anger to your breath. After three deep in and out breaths you will be in a much better state to respond to the stressful situation in a more measured and rational way.
Take your breathing a couple of steps further and use it as the core of your daily mindfulness practice. Rhythmic, diaphragmatic breathing calms your body and mind. You can feel how the breath flows slowly through your body. Mindfulness mediation is scientifically proven to improve your mental health and relax your mind for the long-term. When you consistently practice mindfulness mediation you will find it much easier to control and regulate your emotions. It will make it easier for you to deal with stress and negative thoughts. Practice mindfulness daily for at least 10 to 15 minutes, ideally in the morning to set you positively up for the day.
Practice self-care. You need to take time out to look after yourself. This is not selfish or an indulgence. It is necessary to regain and preserve your energy and mental health so you can be the best parent you can or want to be. Self-care includes the things you like doing or find relaxing like pursuing a hobby, spending time with friends, reading a book, listening to podcasts or music, going for a long walk, doing some yoga or other exercise or taking the time to prepare a lovely healthy meal for yourself. Make a proper schedule for your self-care activities and include your daily mindfulness mediation as well as one other self-care activity. Make sure that you actually do this every week.
Try to get sufficient sleep. This will be difficult when your child is young you will be likely woken up during the night. Find ways to catch up on sleep at early evenings or over the weekend. Make your bedroom as restful and sleep friendly as possible. Use sleep mediations to fall asleep or get back to sleep.
Say no to unnecessary tasks and commitments. Cut down on volunteering or other social pressures like writing Christmas cards for everyone. Focus your efforts on the important tasks only.
Build a support network of family members, friends and professionals that can help you out with certain tasks or in emergencies. In addition, exchanging your experiences with other parents will show you that you are not alone with your struggles. This is comforting and provides some mental strength.
Become more organised and efficient by setting time aside for the key tasks you need to accomplish. Take one evening every week as personal and family admin time when you schedule children transport and their social lives. It will make your parenting task a bit easier.
Make sure your partner is properly contributing to household chores and parenting responsibilities. While there will likely be imbalances if one parent has to dedicate more time to their work than the other, both parents should share some of the parenting work.
Look after your physical well-being. Get out into nature and green environments to calm your mind. Do some regular exercise to stay physically fit. Eat well, drink plenty of water, don’t smoke or use drugs. If you drink alcohol drink little and stay within the government health guidelines.
All this actions will built and improve your mental resilience significantly. You will be in much better shape to deal with your parental stress. So take action now.
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