Did you know that on average, you have 6,000 thoughts a day and make around 35,000 conscious decisions?
That’s a lot of thinking. It’s no wonder that you’re exhausted by the end of the day. Your brain is fatigued. Add kids to the mix, and your brain is nix.
Being a mom is a demanding role. It can be easy to get caught up in the daily tasks and responsibilities that come with it.
That’s why you need to take regular mental breaks, even when you’re ‘just at home with the kids’. These breaks allow you to step back from these demands and focus on yourself for a little while.
If you’re lacking motivation and think you can get away without letting your brain rest, here are 9 reasons why you need to prioritize mental breaks, especially when you’re a busy mom:
Stress reduction
We live in an era of perpetual stress and anxiety, with deadlines, responsibilities and commitments all vying for our attention. It can be easy to become overwhelmed, feeling like you’re constantly running on a treadmill.
Taking regular mental breaks can be an effective way to reduce stress and restore balance in your life. Studies have shown that taking time out from work and kids to focus on yourself can help clear your mind, release built up tension and help you better manage stress.
Check it out on AmazonIncreased happiness and wellbeing
When you take a break from your daily routine, you give yourself the opportunity to relax and recharge. I don’t know about you but I’m always happier after I’ve taken a break. It doesn’t even have to be a long one. Even a short break helps.
Even if you only have a few minutes to do some deep breathing exercises, go for it. You know it helps you not shout at the kids as much.
Check it out on AmazonImproved focus and productivity
When you take a break, you allow your brain to rest and recuperate. You almost always find it easier to focus when you return to your tasks after a proper break.
In fact, a break will refresh your mind and recharge your energy, allowing you to return to your kids with renewed focus and motivation.
Reduced anxiety
Anxiety and stress seems to go hand-in-hand and almost always follows fatigue. Taking a mental break allows you to relax and clear your mind, providing an opportunity to slow down and address those anxious thoughts.
When you’re feeling anxious, your mind can become fixated on your worries, which can make them seem larger and more overwhelming. By taking a mental break, you give yourself the chance to shift your focus away from these worries, which can help you gain perspective and reduce your overall level of anxiety.
Increased energy levels
I didn’t know this until recently but when you’ve been concentrating on something for a while, the neurotransmitter glutamate builds up in your brain. This leads to a cascade of other hormones and neurotransmitters that can cause you to feel fatigued, both mentally and physically.
Taking a mental break actually allows glutamate levels to reduce naturally in the brain, renewing your sense of energy. And we know we need lots of that to deal with our energizer bunny kids.
Increased memory power
You know you’ve hit rock bottom when you can’t remember your kids’ birth dates. Sadly, this has happened to me. My memory is only just starting to return to me, years after the birth of my first child.
Taking regular breaks and focusing on something else can increase memory power by giving your brain a chance to rest and consolidate the information it has been absorbing. This makes the information more likely to be remembered later.
Engaging in physical activity while on a break can help increase blood flow to the brain, which can help improve the formation of new memories.
Improves relationships
Throughout the years, when I was feeling down or overwhelmed, my automatic reaction was to pull into myself and avoid other people. Over time, this had damaged many relationships.
I also find that when I’m in a heightened stress state, it’s much harder to deal with anxiety and negative thoughts. I also often have a negative perspective on things and this has caused me to react in ways I wouldn’t have if I was in a sunnier frame of mind.
In the words of Sarah Wilson:
Living with a wobbly mind is akin to carrying around a large, shallow bowl filled to the brim with water. If you waiver and get unsteady, the water starts to slosh. And if you don’t bring yourself back quick enough, the sloshing gathers momentum and, well, you lose it.
That’s why taking time out is important. It gives you the chance to take care of yourself so you can continue walking stably and avoid ‘sloshing’ over everyone else.
Self-care training
I think of ‘prioritizing self-care’ the same way I would think of any other skill. The more you make time for yourself and take breaks, the more you’ll do it.
When you take regular mental breaks, you’ll realize how important self-care is. Being in a better frame of mind will also help you plan your life better so you can fit even ,more self-care activities into your dream life.
Check it out on AmazonReduced physical and mental health risks
You know people used to say hard work never killed anyone. That’s because those who worked too hard didn’t live long enough to tell their side of the story.
No, that’s not true. Hard work doesn’t kill. But stress does.
Frequent mental breaks will reduce our risk of mental health disorders like chronic stress, anxiety, and depression. This directly improves our physical health as well. Stress is proven to affect our immune system, cardiac function, and every other system in our body negatively.
I hope I’ve convinced you that busy moms need rest too. In fact, the busier you are, the more you need to take mental breaks.
- The $10K framework for a regular mom - September 1, 2024
- Using the Ticktick Eisenhower Matrix for my $10K Framework - September 1, 2024
- One daily chore you can do to keep up with housework - September 1, 2024