Hi guys welcome back to another mindful motherhood Monday in today's video I
want to share six ways for you to enjoy motherhood by being more present in the
moment and if you don't know mindfulness the definition of mindfulness is being
present in the moment so essentially I'm gonna show you a few ways in which you
can use mindfulness to enjoy motherhood this is something that I'm really
passionate about and it's the focus of my channel so if you're new around here
then hi my name is Ysis I make videos about lifestyle and parenting and I
focus on mindfulness for moms I have a series called mindful motherhood which
is this one that you're watching and it goes live on my channel every Monday at
7 p.m. and I love these videos they helped me as a mom so much and I'm
really glad to hear that they're helping you guys too so without further ado
let's get straight on with the video the first thing I wanted to say is that part
of this journey that I've been on of being a more mindful parent is to pay
attention to the way that I parent and the things that happen around me so I'm
gonna speak from the heart here and I feel like a lot of you will understand
me sometimes I feel so overwhelmed and so
exhausted by these huge demands that my little people have and personally when I
get overwhelmed it can go one of two ways
I either shut down completely or I start blaming the world for my problems
these are overwhelming moments that we all have we all go through in our lives
are usually the ones when I notice that I'm not enjoying motherhood to the
fullest and I catch myself doing things like talking to my children without even
looking at them or kind of huffing and puffing when I have to like refill the
snack bowl for the fifth time in five minutes so the little things that once
gave me joy are actually feeling like a chore the things that made me feel happy
and made me laugh are now feeling like the things that I can't keep up with and
I feel so guilty for being like that and I want to be better but how when I get
to that point this is how I get out of it
start enjoying motherhood again so I have six things that I do that help me
be more present in the moment with my children and help me enjoy motherhood
the first thing I do is to cancel all my plans now obviously this is not possible
every day but if I'm having a tree over whelming day that is the first thing
that I will do cancel anything that's unnecessary and I focus on just having
fun with the children go out in the garden and run around that you chase
them around the house and all of a sudden I'm in the moment with them and
I'm enjoying being their mum instead of being a mum who was in charge of the
whole house and has so many things in their mind I'm simply just being mum I'm
having fun they're having fun so that's the first way that helps me enjoy the
moment and be there for my children the second thing that helps me is to
remember how quickly our children grow up I mean I can remember not long ago I
had to hold my children's head upright for their heads not to fall and that
time is past and they don't need me in that sense anymore so it's about
perspective it's about making you feel like this time this phase is a dot
compared to the whole of their lives and it won't be long until they don't want
us and don't need us all the time for everything anymore and that always helps
me to enjoy motherhood that little bit more it's that sort of missing out on
those precious years that go by too quickly that make me feel like maybe I
need to be enjoying this rather than feeling overwhelmed by these their needs
and you know their demands which are only going to be for such a short space
of time third thing is to wake up before the kids and now if you have a newborn
baby or very young children or children who don't sleep well at night then you
might be looking at me and going no way no chance of that happening and I know I
get you because I was one of those people up until recently I still have a
child who does sleep through the night so I understand
being up in the night and feeling like every little second counts of sleep but
I'll tell you with me being a case study of what it's done for me
just by waking up 5 minutes 5 10 15 minutes before my children even if I
don't get out of bed if I just lay there in silence or if I look at the news on
my phone and catch up with whatever I need to do plan the day ahead in the
quiet peace does wonders for my mood and for my brain and it makes me feel when
the kids come into our bedroom in the morning like I want to play with them
and cuddle them and kiss them because I've had that time for myself as much as
it was only 5-10 minutes it was time that I had to just process
and to breathe and to you know just being me for five minutes so that does
wonders for me enjoying that first thing in the morning instead of feeling like
they're interrupting my time interrupting my sleep I feel like I
really want a cuddle from them and I want to talk to them and you know it
just really does great things for my mind and for my mental health and for my
mood in the morning I highly recommend it
I am aiming to get up - waking up one hour before the kids and to actually get
out of bed and get myself ready and get downstairs but I'm not quite there yet
because I still need a little bit of that extra sleep but doing the 5 to 15
minutes before the kids really does help me fourth thing that helps me might be a
little bit odd but it's just to shake it off physically and I mean like
completely with your body just like shake it all off and get out of an
overwhelming mood and makes you feel lighter and what I find in that that
usually makes my children laugh as well if I'm standing in the kitchen and I'm
really like stressed and overwhelmed and you know they're asking for loads of
things and I'm trying to focus on something that I'm doing and if I just
take a deep breath and shake it all off my kids look
like what are you doing and they start to laugh it just breaks the bad mode it
breaks that tension in the air and it just makes me feel lighter so I kind of
look at the situation differently from then onwards and you know it just I
don't know it puts a spring in my step and I feel like it helps me enjoy the
little moments a little bit more and gets me out of like an overwhelmed mood
number five is to establish some boundaries and I know that that's really
hard when you're a parent and you know boundaries personal space what is that
waking up with someone put your finger up your nose it's just a normal being a
parent isn't it so the word boundaries for parents is really difficult but I
feel like in order for you to properly enjoy your time with your children and
be present in the moment with them you have to have boundaries you have to have
children time mum time or whatever you call adult time and kids time and you
have to have that time for yourself obviously it depends on what stage of
life your children are if you have very young children it will be incredibly
tricky but finding any time of the day where you can have time for yourself the
traditional way of living is always to separate work in life you know the old
saying you don't take your home to work and you don't take work home that is
like the ideal work-life balance so drawing that parallel into parenting if
you're constantly in my mode you feel like you have nothing for yourself and
it's very quick from there for you to have a mummy burnout which I talked
about in a previous month mind for motherhood video I'll leave that links
below I talked all about mummy burnout and how to avoid it so when you have no
boundaries between your time and children time you're much more likely to
take your frustrations out on your children and to snap at them because
obviously you feel like you haven't had a chance to do anything and you haven't
had time to do anything in my opinion the best way to set your mind up to
enjoy your time with your children is to time without your children as harsh as
that sounds and as weird as it sounds you need that little reset button I feel
like when I spend a few hours away from my children for whatever reason even if
it's for work I come back and I miss them so much I'm much more likely to
want to play with them and talk to them and interact with them it literally
doesn't have to be long you can have loose boundaries and adapt it to what
your family needs but definitely having some boundaries is for me essential to
enjoying your time with your children and the last thing that helps me really
enjoy motherhood and be present in the moment with my children is to really pay
attention to them and really look at them when was the last time that you
watched your children play and watch their little brains working things out
when was the last time that you listened to a whole sentence by looking into
their eyes and fully taking in everything that they're saying and
marveling at how much they know and how develops their speech is and how they
can understand you and you can understand them when was the last time
that you really paid attention to your children that to me is a very quick way
to get out of an overwhelming situation when I just look at my children and I
pay attention to them I get so much enjoyment out of doing that it reminds
me of when I had my first child and I had all this time to just sit and stare
at his face and I remember him falling asleep in my arms and me lying there and
just looking at his face and I would literally like I don't know analyze
every little feature of his face I would look at his nose and his ears and his
eyes and I wouldn't know every inch of his face and that feeling of getting to
know your child can kind of wear off once they're a little bit older and
they're you know moving all the time they don't want to be held they don't
want to be coddled so much and you can kind of lose touch with that you know
with that part of really paying attention to your children so when I
remember the time that I used to spend sitting on my sofa with a baby asleep in
my arms just paying attention to him I go back
and I look at them my children now and I see everything I see their eyelashes I
see you know the little things that they have on their faces the way that their
faces light up when something happens you know the different expressions and
everything so that is a really great way for me to enjoy motherhood is to pay
attention to my children and watch them closely so I hope you guys found these
tips helpful please give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it and don't
forget to share it with your friends if you feel like this might be helpful to
someone you know as well if you're not subscribed to my channel I would love to
have you here I post videos three times a week but come in December I have a
very special surprise for you guys so stay tuned on the 1st of December is
something really really good coming up I hope you enjoyed this video and I will
see you all in my next video bye