For almost a year now I have been working with a counselor to learn to cope better with being overwhelmed. One of the main things that she keeps telling me is to make sure that I don't lose sight of who I am as an individual. To do that I must take care of myself physically, emotionally, and spiritually in order to be whole. Unfortunately one of the first things I always tend to forget is working out my spiritual side.
According to Dictionary.com spiritual means "relating to the spirit or soul and not to physical nature of matter; intangible."
How many times do we as mothers take time to stop and think about how our soul is doing, let a lone what we need to be doing to strengthen it. For me my day is so busy getting kids dressed, feed, educated, not beating each other up, etc. Then I have to take care of the house, the bills, checking on extended family, and working on my marriage. Unfortunately this means that I often don't get down my internal checklist far enough to think about how my soul/spirit is doing.
I'm learning that you can strengthen your spirit through many different ways. You can go to church and find strength through the sermons/lessons. Listen to your favorite music. Let loose and dance. You can have personal scripture study. You can go up into a mountain or overlooking the ocean and soak in the beauty of the earth. You can meditate. Basically anything that feels you with peace or helps you to calm inside.
I didn't realize how little I was able to do those things I personally needed to strengthen myself over the last year. With my back surgery last year, plus three little kids at home who rotate being sick, I would only get to church one time out of four if that. I also had stopped listening to music for me, didn't feel I had a moment to sit down and study the scriptures, etc.
In January I made a goal to try and find new ways to get that soul strength that I needed. Since I couldn't seem to make time to sit down and read scriptures I downloaded them on my mp3 player and started listening to them while in the car. Then, whether or not I could make it to church, I would find out what lessons were planned for that week and I would read up on the lesson anyway. If I did make it to church then I was doubly prepared, but if I didn't at least I had that drop of spiritual nutrition.
My car is also one of the older vehicles that only has a cassette player, so I went to a thrift store and found talks or education related tapes and would listen to them in the car as I drove from appointment to appointment.
It was amazing the difference these little things did for me. On days that I would do these things I was kinder to my kids, happier, and could deal with life a bit better. Well the last few weeks have been really rough for me and it was only on Friday that I did a face palm and realized what I was doing wrong. I had slipped back and wasn't doing those things. And because of it I've been grumpier, more stubborn, and not dealing with life that great.
So my suggestion today is the same thing my counselor keeps telling me - make sure you are taking care of the whole you.
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