Thriving as a Working Mom: Eliminating Stress

If I were to ever write a book I feel like it would be geared towards working moms who need practical ways to balance home and work life. After my last post, “The Comedown”, I have been on a mission to get myself balanced and start thriving again.  I have been reading, researching, making mental notes, and doing a lot of self-reflecting on what it has taken to get back on track both emotionally and physically. With that said,  I wanted to dedicate the next few blogs about the practical steps on what makes me THRIVE. It started with finding ways to eliminate stress from my day and how I can best reserve my energy for what matters most to me.

#1 – I am going to bed early and getting up early. Bed by 9:30pm up by 6:30am. The first time I tried this I swear I couldn’t even will myself out of bed I was so tired. Let’s just say it took me a few mornings but after a few days in and I can tell a difference in my mood and productivity. I am enjoying my days rather than dragging through them.

#2 – a. Getting dressed at the beginning of the day, Honestly, I never did because I work from home. PJs were the norm but I would always be working past the deadline for picking up my kids and I would have to run and put on some real pants or look semi-presentable and it ate up valuable time and added unnecessary stress to my plate.

#2- b. Along with getting dressed, dare I say take that extra step put on your make-up and do your hair? The feminist in me is cringing right now but I have tried this the last week and something just switched in my mind. I feel great, don’t have to worry if an unexpected visitor pop’s in, or even a planned visitor I  just forgot about, hahaha.

#3- Making my bed in the morning. Everywhere I read, says that successful people make their bed every morning. It starts the day with accomplishment and supposedly does something to your psyche to create early productivity. I’m not really sure all this is true but I am trying it and it seems to be working.

#4 – Eating breakfast. Countless times I have started the day with no breakfast too excited to jump into any project I have. I get hangry and tired too early and usually succumb most fast food when picking up the kiddos.  Then it is a domino effect from there… I drag and feel yucky and after eating fast food I more poor choices from there. Something that works for me is just doing a protein shake, no decisions, no fuss, just something to keep the hunger away. So much stress saved.

#5 – I am trying to be early.  If you know me, I am notorious for being late. At one point I had a license plate frame that said: “Always late, but worth the wait”. However, after I started taking note of when I felt stressed, I realized that every time I am rushing somewhere cause I am running late I feel my anxiety flaring up. In the past, I thought it was exciting to try and beat the clock and find out how much I could squeeze into the last few minutes before I had to leave.  Now this “excitement” just adds pressure to my plate and let’s be honest, I don’t have any extra energy to waste! My compromise is to try and be 5 minutes early in the parking lot but bring a book to read in the car so I can walk in on time. I really don’t like being 5 minutes early to anything because it just feels weird to me, but hey, here is to taking baby steps!

#6 – A big switch we made to save stress is using paper plates. Honestly, this has been a game changer for me. I have not gone as far as plastic forks or cups because my guilt of ruining the earth will be too much. Now there is no more doing dishes every day. It is only once or twice a week now and for me, that took a lot of stress of my plate. Ha! If I cut out coffee then I would prob only have dishes once a month. My hole dishwasher is filled with coffee cups. Huumm maybe rinses and reuse coffee cups for the next day?…. Still thinking about that!

#7 – I am only washing what I have to! I could not believe how much time I spent doing laundry went up after having kids!  It was ridiculous. Countless weeks would have pile and piles and PILES of laundry. There are some ground rules though, Underwear and socks a must. I no longer sort my laundry, I just wash them all as one, No method why, just lazy I guess, but really it was more pressure to have to sort for me! So I reasoned, having dingy shirts was worth it for my mental sanity. God Bless my husband for never saying anything about his tinged “white” shirts.

#8 – Have a plan for dinner. I know all mom’s deal with this, but so much stress is added when it is 4:30pm and I start to ask myself what is for dinner! Ughh.  I have such lofty goals to sit down every Sunday and plan out my weekly meals, but you know how many times I have done that? Probably a couple. For me, it is at least taking out meat to dethaw in the morning so that I can have something unfrozen when it comes time for dinner. I love those sauce packets you “just add chicken or beef” and you have a meal. Or soups! Soups are so great because you can throw everything in a pot and bam there is dinner. I try to always buy those salad mix bags with all ingredients included so that I always have a side to dinner. Of course, when I am ON POINT and can make everything from scratch, I do. But today I am focusing on how to eliminate stress when you’re running on fumes. Better to have a semi-home cooked meal you can enjoy then a scratch-made meal you are too stressed to enjoy. Plus, I always seem to burn the scratch meals anyways! MORE UNNEEDED STRESS!

#9 – Another tip someone recommended to me, was to take Vitamins. It is an easy thing to add that can help balance your mood and hopefully eliminate stress. When you feel crappy, you act crappy. When your body, mind, and energy is filled up, you can be unstoppable!

#10 – Take time to fill your tank. I am going to do another blog post in the future on what this specifically means to me. For now, I will say that if my tank is not filled and I have spent too much energy meeting other people needs, I crash HARD. This will forever be a battle for me as I have a servant heart by nature, but what good am I to anyone, if I am not filled up?

You may be thinking, Cheree, this is all common sense. Believe me, I know, but when I really evaluated how much stress was being wasted on frivolous things, it was no wonder why I have not been thriving. I need to reserve my energy and time so I can invest in what really matters most.

What ways do you save time and stress for your day so you can focus on what you truly care about? I always love reading about peoples tips so feel free to share. Next time I am going to dive into time management and how that is necessary for a working mom to Thrive!