We caught up with The Psychology Mum, Dr Emma Hepburn for a set of practical ideas parents can use to help with feelings of stress, anxiety and generally feeling overwhelmed.
Read on for some useful ideas you can build into your day to day life as a parent 鈥 just click on the images and then click the labels to explore the activities.
Capacity Cup
Have you had a cup of tea or coffee recently? There鈥檚 only so much you can fit in the cup until it overflows. Just like our cup, we all have limited capacity and if we take on too much we overflow, resulting in feeling overwhelmed, stressed, anxious, and irritable. Too much stress for too long can impact on our mental and physical health, so it鈥檚 important to be aware of your stress levels and manage this when you can. You can visualise how much you鈥檙e able to take on as a cup that鈥檚 filling up.
As a parent, there are lots of demands on you. It鈥檚 important to notice how full your cup is and take action to manage this before it overflows. What are your signs that you are in the different zones? How do you know you are in the red zone and close to spilling over?
Click on the labels to explore ways in which you can take action to increase the space in your cup:
Compassionate thoughts
Parenting young children can be stressful, and every parent is learning on the job. It seems that when you become a parent, guilt and worry come along as part of the picture. This is partly because your brain has an instinct to pick up threats, and this is heightened when it comes to your children. When we add stress, uncertainty and sleep deprivation into the mix this can result in us being more sensitive to negative information and more critical of ourselves.
Critical thoughts about ourselves make us more stressed. However, kind thoughts about ourselves help to reduce stress. Most of us have an inner critic waiting to punish us, so how can we look at developing more kind thoughts instead?
Click on the labels to find ways to manage your critical thoughts and develop more compassionate thoughts:
Tiny Moments of Relaxation
Parenting is a demanding job, that means we are busy nearly all the time and can have very little time to think about ourselves or our own needs. This can create stress and have an impact on how we feel. However, because we are so busy, doing things to look after your mental health can feel like another thing to add to the already overwhelming to-do list, so it gets forgotten about.
However, looking after your mental health doesn鈥檛 require big tasks and doesn鈥檛 need to take lots of time. Even adding tiny moments of relaxation into your day can help manage stress and have a positive impact on how you feel. These tiny moments can help us respond better to stress and calm us down. They can also create positive emotions that help us feel good in our mind and body, and the effects can last longer than the moment itself.
Tiny moments can also be about taking time to nurture yourself - drink some water, take a nap if possible, or eat something that gives you the boost you need. Fitting in or planning for a few tiny moments throughout the day is a simple and manageable way to help you look after your mental health proactively.
Click on the labels to explore different types of relaxation that are good for your mind, body and soul:
For more ideas, check out The on Instagram.
If you're struggling with your mental health, the 大象传媒 Action Line has links to organisations that may be able to provide help.
