How Yoga Can Help Busy Moms Overcome Exhaustion
Moms are superheros.
Moms are superhero’s. They fiercely love their kids and families; they plan, cook and clean up meals; they work extremely hard whether it’s in an office or at home; the tackle mountains of laundry; they organize the family calendar. They take on a lot. Unfortunately, many moms do all of these things for others and forget to take care of themselves. This can lead to exhaustion, overwhelm, burn out and a feeling of being run down. This is not how superhero’s are meant to feel, nor how they can perform their best.
One of the best ways to address this is for moms to take a little time away to recharge. One of the best ways to do this is through self-care practices and my personal favorite is a yoga practice.
Some people think that yoga is all about being flexible and spending hours on your yoga mat. This is just not true. The goal of yoga is not to be flexible; the goal of yoga is self-care. Taking care of the body and the mind through rest and relaxation. Yoga can be effective in any increment of time, even just 5 minutes.
Yoga started thousands of years ago as a meditation practice only. As the world grew busier, yoga poses and movements were added as a form of moving meditation. The goal has always been and remains to be to clear the mind and still the body.
When we are able to do this, it shifts our body out of our sympathetic nervous system (“fight or flight” mode) and into our parasympathetic nervous system (“rest and digest” mode). In today’s world, we are often in a constant state of stress with the speed at which life moves from deadlines to phone notifications to worries about school, work, friends and family. We often don’t even realize that we are in stress mode because we’ve become so used to it. When we are in this stress mode, our bodies raise our heart rate, shift energy away from bodily functions and to increasing blood flow for our limbs so we can be ready to respond to threats. This means our digestion, our sleep, our oxygen levels might suffer.
A yoga practice can help you calm your body and mind and shift your body out of stress and into relaxation. Our bodies crave this relaxation to recharge and function properly.
Benefits of shifting your body into the parasympathetic nervous system include:
Feeling rested & more energized
Improved circulation
Improved immune health
Improved digestion
Improved sleep
Lower blood pressure
Improved mood
Reduction in anxiety and depression symptoms
Yoga is self-care and all superhero’s need to take care of themselves to be at their best.
Reach out to me to find out what yoga class would be best for you to try.
