Today is my 34th birthday! I am actually away this entire week, camping on Lake Michigan with my family. But I’m planning ahead and wanted to celebrate my birthday on the blog with this post. (Last year in honor of my birthday, I shared 33 things you may not know about me.)
I’m slowly changing my approach to this blog just a bit in the coming months. While I will still talk about a variety of topics and resources for working moms in general, my main focus is going to be on physical, spiritual, and mental/emotional health. I’m still working out all of the details of how this will look. I do love to talk about all things personal growth and relationships (parenting, marriage, and friendship), but my overall theme will be geared more toward overall health and wellness for busy moms. Something that I think often gets overlooked or pushed to the bottom of the to do list for many of us.
I shared this on my Facebook and Instagram accounts last week and wanted to share it here as well in case you missed it:
As busy moms, we juggle a lot of priorities. Our lives are packed full of important responsibilities that must be done. We push and strive and hustle to be the best we can be for our families, employers, church, and community.
None of this is bad, of course, but how many of us sacrifice our own health and wellness for the sake of our to do list, accomplishments, and responsibilities? How often do we sacrifice sleep, run on quick and easy junk food, skip workouts, get too busy to pray, and too important to take time out for Bible study? How many of us hustle through every day with tension, anxiety, worry, and fear, dissatisfaction, and stress instead of a peace that surpasses all understanding like we’ve been promised we can have?
How much better could we be, how much more could we accomplish, and maybe most importantly, how much more enjoyable would life be if we decided to prioritize our own wellness? What would happen if we decided that our own physical, spiritual, and mental/emotional health became our top priority? I’m not suggesting a self-care routine of daily lattes and massages, I’m talking about solid daily habits that allow us to bring the best version of ourselves to our daily life. To be able to show up with energy, health, nourishment, peace, and a rock solid faith in God that can move any mountain?
Not an easy task, certainly. Adding more to our already full lives and schedules cannot be taken lightly. But what if the answer to doing it all didn’t just come from a new time management system, a strong support system, a better way to focus and be productive, but instead, to simply bring our best selves to the table each and every day. To show up to our lives healthy and well. To give from a full cup. To hustle from a place of health instead of exhaustion.
This is my mission at WorkingMomsBalance.com. To help women pursue health, wellness, and wholeness. To stop sacrificing our very lives in pursuit of our lives and instead start focusing on living from a place of health. To quit the cycle of exhaustion and stress and overwhelm that is killing us and making us miserable. To truly be healthy, mind, body, and spirit. I think that has the power to change everything. We prioritize our own health not to be selfish, but because we understand that the healthier we are, the better can be, the more we can accomplish, and the further can go.
Let’s stop sacrificing our own health and wellness. Let’s end our addiction to being a martyr to our own lives and schedules. God, health, and wholeness. Everything else will be better after that.
If this resonates with you, I invite you to follow along. Subscribe to the blog, like the Working Mom’s Balance Facebook page, follow me on Instagram and share the posts and resources with your friends. Let’s build a community of women who give up the life of stress and exhaustion and pick up a life of health, wellness, and wholeness.
So, in that vein and in celebration of my birthday, I thought I would share 34 simple health tips related to your physical, spiritual, and mental health that you can begin implementing right now. Enjoy!
1. Drink more water.
2. Move your body every hour, even if just for a minute.
3. Read ingredient labels instead of nutrition labels.
4. Put your workouts on your calendar, and then honor your schedule.
5. Stretch more often.
6. Spend a few minutes outside every single day, no matter the weather.
7. Don’t be afraid of all the germs and dirt. Play in the garden, walk barefoot in your yard.
8. Get rid of antibacterial soap.
9. Eat your vegetables.
10. Avoid snacks that come in boxes, bags, and other packages – an apple is just as convenient as a granola bar!
11. Eat only when you are hungry (not because it’s time or because you’re bored or because you’re sad/anxious/happy).
12. Give up (at least some) added sugars.
13. Avoid artificial sugars as much as you can.
14. Get more sleep!
15. Find an active activity you actually enjoy and do it.
16. If you hate running, exercise classes, lifting weights, or any other workout, stop doing it immediately. Why torture yourself? That’s not healthy.
17. Practice moderation – nothing should ever be off limits for ever unless you have an allergy/food sensitivity.
18. Don’t be a slave to your scale. It’s really not that important.
19. Talk to God all day, about everything that happens.
20. Meditate on Bible verses that apply to your current circumstances.
21. Do something kind for someone else every single day.
22. Read and discuss Bible verses and stories with your kids.
23. Make a gratitude list every single day.
24. Choose to think about good things instead of bad things.
25. Never let failure make you quit.
26. Don’t compare.
27. Remember that people-pleasing is lying. Live authentically as you are, not as someone else wants you to be.
28. Breathe. Slowly and purposefully.
29. Nurture your relationships well.
30. Unplug on a regular basis.
31. Set proper boundaries. Learn to say no.
32. Find healthy ways to manage your stress.
33. Get help when you need it. Find a counselor, coach, or doctor you can trust.
34. Make your health a priority.
Join the discussion!