5 ways to mellow out your Mama anger
You know those days (and sometimes weeks) when you feel stressed and overwhelmed and just SO DAMN TIRED that there is an anger bubbling just under the surface. When you can feel yourself grating your teeth at the thousandth time you’ve had to say the same thing and the kids are STILL whinging about whose turn it is with one toy in the house that they absolutely must play with, but only when their sibling has it.
I was asked the other day for a yoga class to help mellow out some Mama anger. I’ve previously shared a yoga class for calmer parenting but I thought that this topic deserved a conversation. In today’s video I’m sharing five ways I deal with the anger that can come up in motherhood. I’d love to know what works for you. Watch the video or scroll below to find a snapshot of the 5 tips.
Yoga (are you surprised this is my number one?!)
Yoga helps me get out of my head and into my body. As Mums our brains never sleep. We’re always running over mental lists in our heads, planning all that we need to do and often thinking for everyone else as well. Giving yourself a break from this every now and then can really help lose some of the stress that comes with the constant thinking.
Meditation
Just like yoga, meditation helps to create some space in our brains so that we don’t feel so overwhelmed and frustrated. If you think meditation is impractical in your life as a Mum, think again. You can meditate while you rock your baby to sleep. You can meditate while walking. You can even meditate while you wash the dishes. At the end of the day it’s just the practice of observing the mind in the moment.
Brain dump
How do you start your day? By checking your email or Facebook? Perhaps you walk straight into the chaos of a messy kitchen with breakfasts to prepare and lunches to make? Try starting instead with a piece of paper and a pen and dumping out whatever is on your mind onto the paper. If you’re an overachieving list maker (like me!) try listing ONLY the top three things you want to do that day and see how good you feel when you get them done.
Be mindful of how you spend your day
Are you taking on too much? Do you really need to be doing all that you do? Can you stop doing some things and let someone else do it for you instead? Will the world fall apart if you do? We all take on too much and we really do need to evaluate why we’re doing so much. If it’s bringing you joy and making you happy – keep doing it. If it’s causing you to feel overwhelmed and stressed – can you quit it altogether, get someone else to do it, or just put it on pause for now?
Talk about it
Having someone to share how you’re feeling when things get too much really is the number one way to deal with stress, anger and overwhelm (as much as I like to pretend yoga is). Being able to get the thoughts and feelings off your chest and share the load with someone who really gets it can help you to start shifting these feelings for good.
So tell me … how do you deal with anger in motherhood?