Self-care ideas to help you stay sane are absolutely a priority for parents. It’s one thing to know we need to take care of ourselves, but it’s another thing to devote the time and energy to making it a rhythm in our week.
Here are four ideas to help you incorporate mental, emotional, and physical wellness into your daily lifestyle.
Myths of Self-Care
- “I don’t have the time or money to be concerned about self-care.”
Sometimes, we hear a term like “self-care” and think it must be elaborate and expensive. Or it has an unreasonable time constraint we can’t meet.
But self-care can be a five-minute ritual you do each night before brushing your teeth or a two-minute prayer on the way to work. It’s essential to look for ways to fit it into your right-now lifestyle, not your someday life.
- “I feel selfish taking time for something I enjoy or need.”
This is a common rebuttal from parents because, often, parents — moms and dads — shoulder the weighty responsibilities of family life: making dinner, shuttling kids to practice, helping with homework, or overseeing electronics and media usage. The list feels never-ending, and it can seem more burdensome to add in one more thing.
But adding some self-care regimen has shown benefits to your mental and physical health. It can also boost your relationship with your spouse when both of you maintain a stress-relieving practice.
- “Self-care involves getting a facial or taking the day off work.”
Self-care ideas can be anything that brings you peace and perspective. So, the ways to care for yourself are as comprehensive and far-reaching as God’s creation.
4 Self-Care Ideas to Help You Save Time, Money, and Sanity
We’ve got some ideas to get you started that will save you time, money, and sanity.
1. Set a tray to help you be more inentional with your downtime.
If you work from home or are a stay-at-home parent, it can feel hard to relax in the same space you’ve been working or taking care of kids all day long. It’s easy to numb out over Netflix or a movie (and there’s nothing wrong with that). However, if you want to be intentional for a portion of your downtime, set a tray a few days each week that helps you make conscious choices about how to spend your evening free time.
Reverend Summer Joy Gross, author of “The Emmanuel Promise,” talks about some ideas for a tray in her latest video. The idea is to set out what you think will revive and refresh you, even if you only do it one or two nights a week to begin.
2. Combine routines with something you already do during the day or at night.
If you have children who are involved in a sport or activity, look for ways to find refreshment during the time they’re at practice.
- Can you walk for 20 mintutes around the building where your daughter takes ballet classes?
- While your son is at football, would it be refreshing to sit on a park bench and read?
- Try to keep errands reserved for one to two days a week; this frees up your time during your child’s activities to find moments of restoration.
3. Talk to your spouse about your needs.
Sometimes, it’s easy to say to ourselves, “I’m going to start walking after dinner for 15 minutes,” or “My hope is to read for 20 minutes each morning before I rush out the door.” But if our spouse and kids aren’t “in on it,” they don’t know not to interrupt us, ask us questions, and before you know it, that time evaporates.
One idea is to sit down with your spouse at a date night and make a list of things you both enjoy doing that fill your spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical buckets. Then, work out one or two times a week that each of you can pursue those activities. The key is to start small and build as you practice. Remember, it’s about practicing self-care, not perfecting it.
If your spouse knows that you’d like five minutes to read your Bible or listen to a podcast before you leave for work, corraling the kids’ shoes and lunches doesn’t have to be your job during that time. Or the children who are aware (and old enough to self-monitor) can make a morning list to guide themselves, freeing up a few minutes of your time to pursue a refreshing activity.
4. Try to get in the habit of asking yourself two questions each day, building up your micro-practices.
According to an article on the CNBC blog, one of the most important things we can pass down to our children is the habit of positive micro-practices. But if we aren’t doing them ourselves, it’s hard to pass them down to our children.
Asking yourself these two questions daily can be a micro-practice that leads you to a better self management and helps you build up your children over time:
- Where do I feel “spent” today? Is it physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually?
- What has energized me or reminded me that I am loved today?
As you ask yourself these questions daily, you can process what your needs are and how you find refreshment. This can trickle down into how you speak to your kids, too, showing them that their value is not in what they achieve but in who they are — a whole person who is worthy of love and attention.