Self-Care for Busy Parents
Do you have absolutely no time for yourself? I got you! Here are a few ways to carve out time to recharge your battery that take 5 minutes or less. Most of these you can do in conjunction with your current daily routine.
SELF-CARE
Teresa Strong
8/20/20261 min read
Making time for yourself is hard enough, but it gets immensely harder as a parent. Between soccer games, school pick up, and bedtime routines, it can be incredibly difficult to fit in time for you. However, if you can find time and make self-care a priority, you can prevent burnout, improve your overall mood, and minimize overwhelm. Here are a few ideas of ways to make this feel more doable and some examples.
Things that can help:
Incorporate self-care into your already-existing routines.
Examples:
Deep breathing (and sighing it out) while taking a shower
Planning your day out while your morning coffee is brewing
Stretching out your neck and shoulders at stoplights/signs while on your commute to work
Self-care doesn't have a minimum duration.
You don't have to have 30 minutes to take care of yourself. Start with whatever time you have and use that! Even 15 seconds of deep breathing can make a difference, especially if you can fit this in a few times a day.
Evaluate if there is anything you can take off your plate.
Sometimes you truly don't have any extra time in your schedule and it's grinding on your well-being. If this is you, consider if there is anything you can take off of your plate, delegate to someone else, or outsource (if you have the resources).
Examples:
Hire someone to clean your house once a month
Ask a friend or family member to watch your kid(s) once a week for an hour or two
Say "no" to a volunteer job that you no longer have capacity for
