When a child is born, a mother is born, too. 

And while this metamorphosis is beautiful, the pressure of suddenly being responsible for another human being can be anxiety- and stress-inducing for mothers. As a new mom, the best thing you can do for yourself, your child, your partner, and your family is to take care of your mental and physical health. 

Increasingly, studies suggest that practicing wellness rituals and embracing mindful motherhood can help new moms cope with this rollercoaster of emotional and physical changes. Today, we’re going to help you navigate the world of mindful motherhood, one step at a time.

What Is Mindful Motherhood?

The transition a woman goes through during pregnancy, labour, childbirth, and then becoming a mother can feel unsettling because your mind, body, and hormones undergo many changes in a short time. Mindful motherhood is a way to cope with these changes and build resilience, self-trust, and self-compassion during the transition.

An extension of mindfulness, mindful motherhood focuses on being present and grounded in each moment. It’s about being able to take in each emotional and physical change, accepting it with gratitude, minus the judgment. This can be exercised through wellness rituals, bonding time with your child, reserving some time for self-care, and spending quality time with your partner.

How Does Practicing Mindful Motherhood Improve Your Well-Being?

Mindful motherhood helps you embrace your new role in life with gratitude and joy. It has many stabilizing benefits for moms, some of which include:

• Body acceptance and better relationship with food
• Lower anxiety and stress levels
• Lower instances of postpartum depression (PPD)
• Stronger bond and attachment with your baby
• Improved mood and quality of life
• More sensitivity and responsiveness as a parent
• Balanced and healthy lifestyle
• Better emotional and intimate relationship with partner
• Stronger familial bonds
• Resilience in mind, body, and spirit

7 Mindful Practices Moms Should Practice Every Day

One may be inclined to think that mindful motherhood is centred around the bond between the mother and the child. However, this is only one aspect of it. Like with everything, you must fill your cup first and that’s why wellness rituals that focus on the mental, emotional, and physical well-being of the mom form the basic foundation of mindful motherhood.

Here are wellness rituals you should practice regularly for mindful motherhood:

1. Begin your day with box-breathing
   Calm the chaos in the morning by taking 64 seconds for yourself. Sit up in your bed, spine tall, eyes closed, and placing one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach, practice box breathing. 4 seconds inhale, 4 seconds exhale, 4 seconds inhale, 4 seconds exhale—this counts as 1 round. Do this for four rounds, or 64 seconds. This simple way of intentional breathing will help you start your day on a calm, collected note.
2. Chart Your Day Realistically
   It’s impossible to do everything and tend to everyone’s needs without depleting yourself. Have 3 things you want to get done through the day and leave the rest to everyone else, or for another day. Your day should include 1 bonding activity with your baby (like bathing the child, singing to your baby, or giving the child a massage with the The Blue Pond Neos Night Massage Oil), one activity for yourself (meditation, yoga, reading a chapter from a book), and one activity with your partner or family (watching a movie in bed, grocery shopping as a family, visiting parents). Anything else is a bonus.
3. Talk To Yourself With Love
   Moms can often be their own toughest critics. It doesn’t help that everyone gives new moms unsolicited advice on raising children. Shut down the negative voices. Show yourself compassion and understand that what you’re doing is good enough and wanting to be perfect is unrealistic. Affirm yourself by saying out loud: “I’m doing a good job. I’m a great mom. I’m doing the best I can. My baby is loved, protected, and nurtured.” You need to protect yourself not just from the judgment of others, but your own inner voice, too. 
4. Practice Self-Care
   Every day, make sure you do one thing just for yourself. This could look like a luxurious bath followed by a generous application of The Blue Pond Thalassa After-Bath Body Oil, a face massage before bedtime, a quick at-home facial with the Thalassa Volcanic Clay Mask on the weekend, or even a basic morning or bedtime skincare routine you follow religiously. Small acts of self-indulgence are the easiest ways to show yourself some love through action. A mother who tends to herself can tend to her baby with positivity.
5. Build Your Village
   It takes a village to raise a child, and while nuclear families don’t have the support system joint families used to provide, you can build your village by leaning on friends, family members, house help, neighbourhood mothers, therapists, and people you trust to take care of your child. These are the people who will be able to help build up your emotional and mental well-being by being your cheerleader so be judicious about who you choose for your support system. Communicate with them what you need while also being clear about your boundaries, and boundaries you’ve set for the child. 
6. Strengthen Your Partnership
   Be vocal about the role you need your partner to play if they’re seeming unsure. Sometimes, especially with men, your partner may be wired to think they need to fill the spot of a provider and protector, but what you may be looking for is nurturing and emotional support. Communicating proactively and openly makes it easier to problem-solve together and discuss what the present and the future will look like for both of you, now that there is a baby involved.
7. Practice Gratitude
   What are you thankful for today? Your child, your house, your partner, the bed you sleep on, the breakfast you ate… the list of what we have to be thankful for is usually very long, but we rarely give thanks for it. Every day, at any time of the day, call out 10 things you are thankful for. These could look similar or different every day. But the key is to feel the gratitude in every cell in your body, and every space between every cell. Revel in the positivity of the things you take for granted by acknowledging how lucky you are to have them, and you will see the profound gratitude it brings towards how you feel about motherhood.

5 Practical Tips To Practice Mindful Motherhood

While wellness rituals are about creating long-term habits and may take some conscious intent to adopt into your life, here are some simple and practical tips to embrace mindfulness as a mother:

1. Eat without distractions: Whether you’re having a cup of coffee or grabbing some toast for breakfast, sit still and enjoy the taste, smell, and flavour of your meal. Mindful eating for 10 minutes is highly underrated and often overlooked by mothers who eat while they’re feeding their kids or even have their children’s leftovers.
2. Go Outside: Don’t limit your surroundings to four walls just because you are a mother now. Taking your baby out to the neighborhood park in the stroller is a great way to get some sunshine, spend time in nature, see new faces, meet other adults, and improve blood circulation through movement in your body.
3. Shower Every Day: This might sound obvious, but ask a new mother and you’ll realize that showering every day can sometimes feel like a privilege. Most moms are grabbing a quick bath with their babies, freshening up over the wash basin, or soaping their pits and privates because their toddler is crying on the bathroom floor looking up at them. Showering every day in peace can feel like washing off the stress and resetting your mind and body for the day. For some added help, try a 5-minute meditation with the Epione De-Stress & Pain Relief Oil. You can apply a few drops to your temples, wrists, soles of your feet, behind the neck, and anywhere else you’re experiencing tension. Make time for it when someone is around to take care of the baby so that you have 10-15 uninterrupted minutes of me-time.
4. Read A Book: New-age moms find themselves scrolling on Instagram behind their babies’ heads while putting the little one to sleep. Put that device down. Be present because bedtime is a great time to bond, connect, and be present with your child. Replace your phone with a bedtime story for the baby, and then maybe a novel or book for yourself once the baby has fallen asleep.
5. Keep Calm: When you raise your voice or are irritated, your body is experiencing the whole gamut of emotions. You feel restless, your heart is beating faster, and you feel like you are going to explode. This restlessness that emits from you permeates through to your child because kids can feel negative vibrations. In fact, for the first 6 months to a year, most children feel like mom and baby are one entity. Intentionally observing a calm tone of voice has a very stabilizing effect on your mind, body, and your child’s mind and body, too.

In the end, remember that mindful motherhood is not about perfection. It’s about accepting the imperfections without judgment. Take the time to explore these simple tips and wellness rituals to enrich your motherhood journey, and create a strong foundation for parenthood as your child grows up. You’ve got this, mom!