self-care — Mum's The Word (Writing)

Advice from Mothers About Postpartum Illnesses

HI Everyone! It is the end of National Maternal Depression Awareness Month. On a previous blog, I shared a little of Carey’s story with her struggles with postpartum psychosis. Today I would like to continue the discussion of maternal depression awareness.

One recent study found that 1 in 5 women may suffer from maternal mental health disorders and 1 in 7 women may experience Postpartum Depression (PPD) in the year after giving birth. With approximately 4 million live births occurring each year in the United States, this equates to almost 600,000 postpartum depression diagnoses. Sadly, it is believed that postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety are much more common than these statistics reveal. Some medical experts believe that the rate of postpartum depression could be at least twice as much than what is actually reported and diagnosed. It is believed that while there are many diagnosed cases of postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety, only a limited number of women actually receive treatment, often because many women do not know they have postpartum depression/anxiety since they are simply adjusting to being a new mom.

Happy Mother's Day! Treat yourself like royalty!

Happy Mother’s Day, moms! Mother’s Day is celebrated in most countries around the world today. Treat yourself like a queen today!

Treat yourself to:

a bubble bath,

a walk in the sunshine,

or a day where you don’t have to do anything.

Put your feet up.

Watch a movie.

Allow your partner to make meals for you.

Take a nap!

Let yourself be pampered.

Do whatever makes you happy!

Self-care and rejuvenation is so important.

In this blog, I will be introducing the courageous women that I interviewed for my two book series on holistic childbirth around the world. Mothers from Canada, the United Kingdom (Ireland, Scotland, and England), the United States, France, Spain, Austria, Australia, Germany, Peru, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Israel, the Netherlands, India, Japan, and Uganda were interviewed.

How To Teach Your Children To Be Peaceful

Hi Ladies!

In my last post, I gave you some tips to return to balance. This is especially important as we are going through the Coronavirus, but of course, maintaining balance is always important. In today’s post, I want to focus on steps we can teach children to be peaceful. Our children may not understand what is going on right now, but we can teach them to find peace even if their schedules have changed, even if they are emotional, even if they cannot express their emotions as eloquently as we can.

Many people think that children are too young to learn meditation or mindfulness, but actually it is the best time. If we teach our children while they are young, they can incorporate these tools into their lives for a lifetime, have more peace, and return to balance quicker.

Today I am going to give you tools that you can teach very young children.

The first meditation was taught to me by spiritual teacher, Gabby Bernstein. She gave this example to a woman who wanted to teach her daughter to meditate.
Sit with your child and ask her (or him) to repeat the phrase: Peace begins with me. Then instruct her to tap her fingers softly starting with the thumb and forefinger as she repeats “Peace”, then her thumb and middle finger as she says “begins”, then her thumb and ring finger as she says“with”, and then her thumb and ring finger as she says “me.” Do the exercise with her, using your hand and say the words aloud for each finger.

How To Balance Yourself (During The Coronavirus)

Hi Ladies!

These are difficult times with the Coronavirus, but there are always steps we can do to empower ourselves and bring us back to balance.

One way to raise our vibes, clear our minds, release stress, and fear is to meditate.

Meditation can be easy. It can be as simple as breathing deeply. Inhaling and exhaling longer for several minutes. Or if can be listening to music, putting on headphones and simply listening to music that makes you feel relaxed. (If you can close your eyes and focus on your third eye chakra (in the center of your forehead) while you sit cross legged, breathe deeply, and listen to music, even better!)

Meditation can be as simple as watching water boil in a pan, to be fully focused on the bubbles coming to the surface, and not to be multi-tasking. Meditation does not have to long; It can be for 2 to 5 minutes or it can be for 15 to 20 minutes, if you have more time.

We should always meditate when we feel out of balance. Many people have the misconception that one has to completely clear one’s mind for it to be useful or that it requires a lot of time, but as I mentioned it can be as simply as breathing deeper, listening to music with your eyes closed, or focusing on an object and not thinking about anything else but that one object.