Our guest blogger this month is Anna Barr, a S.L.A.M. Indy mama and Indiana native. She is married with 3 kids. Anna is a former public school special education teacher and has now been homeschooling for 7 years. She hosts The Awkwardly Anna Podcast and she is a certified life coach helping women live life better one simple step at a time. Her website is www.awkwardlyanna.com and email is helloannabarr@gmail.com
Back to school! As a former public school teacher and now 7 years into being a homeschool mom I can tell you what a perfect time of year this is for stress to creep in. I’m unsure why this has become how we discuss back to school. The to-do lists, sports starting back up, new bedtime routines, weather changes, lunch decisions, meal planning, forms that need to be signed, all might all have something to do with it.
What if we decided not to buy into the mandatory stress this year though? What if instead we used this time of year as a launching point into our most intentional season yet?
What sounds better:
Feeling stressed and overwhelmed that summer is over.
or
Feeling excited for a seasonal transition into better routines and more pockets of joy while intentionally reducing stress?
I’ll take that second one.
Even if back-to-school time isn’t stress-inducing for you (or you don’t initially by default see it as a stressful time of year) it is still a great time of year to rejuvenate routines and rejuvenate how you’re going about your daily life. We do this by first starting with rejuvenating our mindset.
Rejuvenating or reframing your mindset doesn’t mean that we’re living in a la la land. It doesn’t mean we’re invalidating our feelings or gaslighting ourselves. It means that we take an initial default thought we have (which we might not even realize we have) and make it better. It could be as simple as “I’m so stressed” or “I can’t believe summer is almost over” made into “I’m looking forward to learning how to manage our routines with balance and ease.” Here are some more examples of common default thoughts, and thoughts we can replace them with:
Default → Intentional Thoughts
TBH You would be fine thinking those default thoughts but what if you want better than fine? You’re a SLAM mama after all so I know that you go for better than just fine. Those default thoughts creep in and weigh heavy on our brains without us realizing it. Read back over those intentional thoughts. Can you feel how much lighter those thoughts feel?
This new season is a perfect time to decide to practice replacing those heavy thoughts with lighter thoughts. This practice works whether you have littles, older kids, or somewhere in between, whether you’re a seasoned mom, whether you’re a brand new mom, or whether you’re a pregnant mama, all of these different phases will all benefit from initially just declaring that a change of season equals rejuvenation. It’s a decision you are making to rejuvenate. Rejuvenation starts with your mindset. You’ve got this!
Now that we’ve done a mindset warm up we move on to planning our month with intention. Think of this as our workout. We have 12 months in a year so you do this 12 times a year. You’ve got this.
There are two ways I like to recommend people start with this (decide which one feels like a better fit for you)
Option 1– 15 minute pockets:
15 minutes first thing
15 minutes in your most likely to feel overwhelmed part of the afternoon
15 minutes before bed
For each of these 15-minute pockets, you pick a life-giving action to take. AM could be stretching while saying gratitude. The afternoon could be drinking some sparkly water and sitting outside with the sun on your face and no technology. PM could be taking the time to wash your face, inhale a scent you love, and say 3 kind things to yourself as you look in the mirror. You can get creative with this! This is you deciding to show up for yourself in ways that your soul needs. I love helping clients with this so send me an email if you need some inspo!
Option 2– Month Planning (SLAM themed)
- Set a theme
- Lay out tasks with day designation
- Appointments & important dates written out
- Make time for FUN
Here’s a visual example of how I do this:
I recommend giving yourself a theme/focus for the month regardless of which option you choose. You can go back to that focus when things start to feel wobbly. If you start feeling like you’re not a good enough mom (you are a good mom), start feeling like your to-do list is longer than your days, etc. you revisit your focus and remind yourself that you are choosing to be an intentional and well-balanced mom. You have planned your month and stress plus not feeling good enough wasn’t on there. You are a great mom.
Now on to our cool down.
Breathing exercises are a perfect addition to a life lived with reduced stress. If you’re not already doing these I invite you to find one that works for you. There are plenty of options out there to choose from but for now, let’s start with a simple box breathing.
Remember we are actively deciding to not choose stress and instead we are planning for balance and creating space for joy. We can feel stress and not have it define our day. We can have stressful moments and not have it be the “theme” of our month. Stress gets to ride in the back with all the crumbs. It’s there but gets vacuumed up upon your choosing mama.
Submit a comment down below with which planning option you’re deciding to try out first!
Remember that your SLAM Family is cheering you on in class and outside of class!
Anna
Recent Comments