With the birth of a child, the “woman” takes a backseat and a “mother” takes over. By doing things for the child primarily, there sets in a kind of frustration after some time. This is the beginning of the monster called PPD (Post Partum Depression). This is where something called “Self Care” comes in.

According to psychology, “Self-care is any activity that we do deliberately in order to take care of our mental, emotional, and physical health.” To read more about this, click here. This means there are some basic activities that we do, on an everyday basis, in order to keep ourselves happy. To reiterate, a happy mother leads to a happy baby and a happy family.

Self Care techniques:

For any new mother, to even do certain activities that she used to do earlier, is difficult. So before thinking of what activities that a mother can carry out on a day to day basis, one needs to accept that the life has changed. 

Lot of mothers, follow simple techniques on a daily basis that not only keep them happy but also connected to their old lives.

Below is a list of the things that have been recommended by new mothers that have helped them:

1. Listen to music and if you feel like dancing, do that. Preferably, use speakers to play the music. Involve your child as well.
2. Read eBooks because reading paperbacks may not be possible with a baby around. Download some PDFs and read them on your phone/tablet/kindle.
3. Have a cup of good tea or coffee to get you through those sleepless nights or just for that kick.
4. Have mommy friends with whom you can share your woes and feel happy that you aren’t the only one who is miserable.
5. Be active on social media, just for a virtual social life. Being active on Instagram, not only kept women busy but also helped them make some good friends.
6. Dip your feet in a bucket of warm water and if possible, add a few drops of essential oils in it. This helps you unwind and relax.
7. Don’t indulge in emotional eating. Most of us have a tendency to indulge in binge eating while we are sad. It would be best to avoid it because emotional eating only helps in putting on weight that would be difficult to shed at a later point in time.
8. Go out for walks along with your baby. Alone is also fine. Just go out.
9. Meet your friends once in a while, call them home if you can’t go out.
10. Don’t think you are making a sacrifice. Stop thinking that you are making a sacrifice by staying at home with your baby. This sacrifice starts weighing down on you slowly, pushing you into a state of loneliness and depression.
11. Accept your body, the way it is. If you hate people who indulge in body shaming, first stop doing it to yourself. Accept your body and slowly work on it.
12. Have some dessert once in a while. Sugar releases instant energy and helps in mood lifting.
13. Ask for help. If you feel overwhelmed about doing things or you are tired and you need a break, ask for help. There is no rule which says that the mother needs to do everything single-handedly.
14. Vent it out. Keeping things bottled up, leads to frustration which would be of a higher intensity.
15. Do one thing that you like every day, be it reading, listening to music, eating something, colouring, painting.

What do you for self-care? What activities do you do on a daily basis?\

Do you have anything that we haven’t shared here? Write to us at info@togetherforher.com!

Team Together.