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Mommy burnout can indeed occur when your parenting responsibilities feel endless. Here are some useful tips based on real-life experience!
Did you know that a report published in the journal Frontier of Psychology (from the university Catholique de Louvain in Belgium) confirmed that “Just as people can burn out from their professional jobs, mothers and fathers can burn out too”?
During this survey, a study was conducted on more than 2000 parents. They found in the results that “12.9% of mothers and 11.6% of fathers had high burn out”. It means that they felt exhausted, less productive and emotionally withdrawn due to the pressure of completing multiple parenting responsibilities.
I am sure you would all agree that these statistics are not shocking. As a parent, we have all faced those emotions once or more in our lifetimes.
There is no doubt that the joy and wonder of parenthood is simply incredible. Nothing could be more satisfying than raising and nurturing our little ones.
On the other side, being a parent means 24×7 responsibilities and duties. And this continuous pressures of completing responsibilities often leads to a state of ‘parental or Mommy burnout’.
Being a mother of two, I have also experienced this feeling of exhaustion from time to time.
With passing time and experience, I have learnt some effective ways to combat parental exhaustion.
In this post, I am sharing those 5 effective tips to cope with parental or mommy exhaustion. Read the post to know more!
Carve out more ‘me time’ is my first and most effective strategy that always works great at reliving parenting exhaustion/mommy burnout. Though I loved to keep myself engaged in different forms of creative activities (painting, crafting, DIY activities), among all these, writing and working on my blog is my favourite.
Around four years ago, I had started my blog just as a hobby to share my parenting journey with other moms. But now, this hobby has become an integral part of my life. With this ‘me time’ activity, I always feel refreshed and get a new and positive energy to work again, to complete my household and parental responsibilities.
I believe that talking to your friends and family members is one of the most positive things that helps a lot in relieving any kind of stress. This heart-to-heart conversation also helps in solving many routine problems. For me, my mom is my best friend and I cannot resist talking to her, even on a single day.
It is a kind of ritual that helps a lot in relieving stress. With this simple chit-chat I always feel more positive and confident.
As a parent, we are all bound to do the same sequence of repetitive tasks every day. And sometimes these routine responsibilities create a state of exhaustion and boredom. I believe adding a creative touch to your routine activities works great in relieving stress and boredom.
Being creative is the key to feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. Here are some of my favourite ways to add a creative touch to routine things.
By doing these simplest of things, I feel refreshed and experience a good mood and positive energy. These things work wonderfully in relieving parental stress and exhaustion.
Being an avid yogi, I firmly believe in the power and magic of yoga. Yoga is not only a form of exercise; it is a way of living life. To begin with, your body gets good flexibility and better posture with this amazing form of exercise. To add to that, yoga works very well at relieving stress and maintaining a calm mental state.
Even with a few deep breaths and simple stretches, I feel de-stressed and positive. In fact, when you have to deal with hard parenting situations and the pressure of multiple responsibilities, yoga helps a lot in relieving stress. It also create a state of calm and balance in mind, body and soul.
Whenever I feel over-stressed and over exhausted, I always try to spend at least 30 minutes for practicing yoga and meditation. And this small step helps me get de-stressed from the routine stress of completing multiple responsibilities.
It is a well-known fact, that nature has amazing healing qualities. Nature works very well at reliving mental, physical and emotional stress. Even a few quiet moments spent with nature works wonderfully for improving our overall well-being.
Whenever I feel exhausted or overstressed, I just go for a long nature walk, I sit down and spend some quiet moments with nature, and this tiny step helps me to feel refreshed and rejuvenated in no time.
Being a qualified homeopathic therapist, I want to end this post with a note of caution.
Though feeling a little tired or exhausted is a normal part of the parenting journey and with these tiny steps you can get new energy and positive mood, if you suffer from some serious signs of exhaustion for a long time, then do not ignore it.
It could indeed be ‘Mommy burnout’ that needs closer attention.
Sometimes long and chronic parenting stress could lead to a state of severe physical, mental and emotion exhaustion. In this state, parents usually always feel tired, no matter how much sleep they get. Also, a feeling of reduced personal accomplishment and mental irritation is common with mommy or parental burn out.
Though it is not a serious medical condition, the symptoms are more severe than normal exhaustion and includes:
If you are suffering from any of these symptoms since a long time, do not ignore it and do not hesitate to ask for professional help.
Pic credits Sonika Agarwal via Unsplash
First published at author’s blog
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