3 Ways To Deal With Mom Stress & Anxiety During Lockdown

3 Ways To Deal With Mom Stress & Anxiety During Lockdown

By Jailan Heidar

 know your time is valuable. You can listen to this message here (5 minutes).

I want to send you a little message and remind you to be kind to yourself.

It’s OK if you can’t plan activities for your kid, or if there’s just pasta and pizza for dinner or if you use the TV as a babysitter.

This is a transitional phase. You are experiencing something completely new. None of us have had this kind of lockdown experience before or at least not for this long.

It will take some time to create a new normal.

In the meantime, let’s think of some simple tools that can help you start making more calm out of this chaos. These are little changes you can start making one at a time to help you and your family.

1. The mind is an amazing organ. It runs our feelings and emotions but it can also be trained, shaped and molded into what you need. Right now you need tools to help you reduce your anxiety and stress.

Most of us are freaked out and stressed because we feel trapped, alone, isolated. We don’t know how long this will last. We fear us or our loved ones getting sick. There are things you can control and things you can’t control. Focus on what you can control. Every time your mind wanders to what you can’t control (the number of people getting infected) divert your attention to what you can control (staying home, sanitizing, minimizing your trips out, social-distancing, etc). You’ll find this gives you more strength and reduces your anxiety as you focus on what you can control in your environment.

2. Meditation is a great way to help you through stress and anxiety. It allows our minds to calm down and repeat positive mantras. Life coach and Happiness Evangelist Julie Leonard shares two beautiful meditations with you.

You can listen to Julie’s Self Compassion Meditation here and the Stress & Anxiety Reducing mediation here to practice them at home!

3. Antirumination can help us get out of a depressive state. One of the simplest practices you can do is to include in your nightly routine literally 2 minutes to highlight what you are thankful for. Pick 2 things you are thankful for. It would be even better if you could write them down as writing helps the brain engrave those positive thoughts. As you repeat this practice daily, the connections in your brain that notice these moments of gratitude become strengthened and you start to train your brain to focus on the positive rather than the negative.

If you feel you need support or want to reach out to share what’s on your mind just click reply here and it will come straight to me.

I wish you all the best of mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health.
PS. If you feel you need ongoing support from experts and other moms join us every Tuesday at 8 PM CEST in the Free Moms Together Support Group. Get the call links here.