How to Reduce Stress

Many stay-at-home parents become truly wrapped up within their children's lives to the point that they will leave Veggie Tales music playing in the car, long after they have dropped their child off at a play group. If this describes you, then you may not realize it but you are losing yourself without even realizing it.

Surveys exist that show that many mothers feel as though they have made significant sacrifices for their children. In fact, 70% of those moms who were surveyed admit that motherhood is a lot more demanding and exhausting than they had expected. Another 86% of mothers who do not believe that they get the respect that they deserve and 80% agree that this is particularly true for full-time mothers. Nearly 24% of these mothers feel as though they have lost their identity since becoming mothers.

It seems that mothers are feeling quite frazzled sometimes. Nevertheless, you may feel that it is selfish to want to have your own needs met. This self-annihilation doctrine is one that many mothers have been taught for so long that they simply start to believe that it is true. However, if you believe this then you have confused selfishness with taking care of yourself. After all, you are the one that is responsible for making sure that your own needs are being met, nobody else will.

You need to choose to affirm your own life. This is not what you are doing when you do not even have enough time to ensure that you are wearing matching socks.

The seat of your will and intentions is your heart. You choose to keep this well fed and maintained whenever you choose to express your thoughts, attitudes and emotions. Whenever you allow other people to control this part of you, then you are choosing to allow your person to die.

Your mind is the home to your intellect, mental health and creativity. This is probably the easiest place to keep healthy because the decisions that you make from minute to minute are what keeps you healthy here. You can choose to watch TV, listen to music, engage in gossip and thus not take care of yourself. Or you can choose those things that are positive and thus able to nourish your soul.