Anxiety Strategies for Working Moms
If you don’t prioritize your emotional and mental health, the cost is burnout, strained relationships, and a life that can feel out of control. Being a working mom can make life feel out of control often. Your children, work, politics, your partner or ex, managing the home, family, and so much more can make you feel anxious at times.
Here is the good news, small intentional changes can reclaim your calm.
I didn’t feel huge amounts of anxiety until I became a mom. I would feel anxious when the baby was crying, anxious when she couldn’t sleep, anxious before school drops and work, and later on, a lot of anxiety when my daughter started having panic attacks. I was not comfortable with feeling anxious and it made me even more self-critical as a working mom. Can you relate at all?
By studying positive psychology and applied neuroscience, I learned a lot about emotions and reframed my relationship with them. Understanding how emotions are physical and mental and that there are no “negative emotions”, there are painful ones, but none are bad. I started to understand emotions are information and my mindfulness practice deepened my understanding of them.
Here are three pieces of advice that I wish someone gave me at the beginning of my working mom journey:
#1) Know and understand your triggers - What environments, people, events, situations, etc. make you feel anxious? Explore these by talking to a friend, coach, therapist, by journaling about them, and meditating. Be curious and non-judgemental about your experience.
#2) Heal - As children and as adolescents, we had overwhelming experiences. Our triggers are indicators of the parts of us that are unhealed. Read, “The Body Keeps the Score” and choose to invest in healing your body, mind, and spirit. My anxiety decreased so much after this investment.
#3) Give yourself compassion - Talk to yourself the way that you talk to a friend and be KIND to yourself. See your anxiety as information and learn from it and let it guide and support you. You are worthy and amazing, there is nothing wrong with you.
You are enough.
Your kids love you so much.
Everything is going to be ok.
Tia
PS - I am going LIVE today from 10:00 - 10:30 AM PT for The Joyful Working Mom Event. Hope to see you there!
Register Here