Since getting pregnant, life has been a whirlwind. I have had all of this mixed emotions and feelings go through me that I was never expecting. I’m excited then worried, anxious then patient, scared then confident, and motivated then distracted. It obviously is all coming from entering new territory, but it is just nothing I have ever gone through before.
The past eight months have felt so fast, but also so slow at the same time. Going into this, you also get so much unsolicited advice from everyone. It does not matter who they are, how close you are to them or what, but everyone feels the need to give you advice. The point I am trying to get at, is that life will be confusing and chaotic, but you need to have healthy habits to navigate through those.
I am very fortunate to have an amazing husband that helps ground me and keeps me from straying to far from the path. He is very much into finding the right habits and sticking to them, especially when it comes to personal health. So, one of the first things I had people bring up to me when I announced the pregnancy was that I can’t workout like I used to. I did my own research, and it actually shows that you can keep doing the same exercises throughout. Now, did I want to? That’s a different question, and as I have progressed into later months, I have been trying to focus on core and pelvic stretches. Anyway, working out has made me feel somewhat normal, and I believe it is the reason that I haven’t had crazy mood swings or food cravings.
Now, there are other things that I make sure I keep up with, because they are just too good for my mental health. Every night, Shaun and I tell each other five things we are grateful for from that day, I journal and I read before going to bed. This night time routine, helps put my head in a positive place, let’s me reflect on the day and calms my mind from the chaos that occurred that day. Do you need to try something exactly like mine, no, but I would definitely consider it.
When I talk about journaling, I don’t mean you have to write a novel every night. My daily entries are 4-8 bullet points. I like to write if anything exciting happened, what things I did well on that day, and how I can improve the following day. I also, have a little checkbox habit tracker for the month that I like to fill in everyday. This way, I can look back on my entries at the end of the month and see what I did well and improve on, and where or why I dropped the ball. For awhile, one of my biggest struggles was I would go on my phone and scroll too much. Now, with a baby on the way, I have been trying really hard not to do that as much, because it is such a waste of time and energy. After writing it many, many times in my journal, I put restrictions in place. I have a timer on my social media apps, this way, I don’t have to hope I have the will power to get off, it does it for me. I also, deleted Youtube all together, because that was an issue no matter what I did.
In your life, try to add some constants that you know you will always do and your mind can trust you will do them. Having these simple habits can help you feel the calm instead of the storm. They will help you remember who you are and what you want and not what others are telling you. So, do a little research and trials of what little habits can help you mentally and find the calm in the chaos.
Keep pushing
From Your Life Tutor
~Sam
Tutors of Life 