Mindfulness for Mums: 3 Simple Techniques to Reduce Overwhelm (Episode 38)

In this week’s episode, we dive into the world of mindfulness and I share 3 simple tips to help you feel less overwhelmed and more calm. Let me show you that practising mindfulness isn’t hard or yet another task on your to-do-list.

Listen to this episode to start incorporating those doable techniques into your day-to-day life with ease.

Transcript:

“Welcome to the Calm Resilient Mama Podcast. I’m Cindy Graham-Schmidt. I’m a Life Coach and mama of two. On this podcast I share with you coaching tools and tips to help you deal with challenges that life and motherhood throw at you. I will help you to enjoy your life more TODAY, because tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone.


Hey mama,

How are you?

Today we dive into the world of mindfulness and I’m going to share 3 simple tips to help you feel less overwhelmed and more calm. I want to show you that practising mindfulness isn’t hard or yet another task on your to-do-list. So keep listening to this episode if you want to start incorporating those doable mindfulness techniques into your day-to-day life with ease.

According to the Oxford dictionary, mindfulness is “a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.”

This definition basically leads me straight to the first tip and that is: being present in the current moment. So whether you’re changing a nappy, doing the dishes or are on the playground, try to notice your surroundings and how you feel instead of being on autopilot or trying to multitask. Ask yourself, “What can I see? What can I hear? What can I touch? What can I feel?”. Pay close attention and focus on your breath and on whatever it is that you’re doing at that moment. Asking yourself those questions often can be a simple way to incorporate more mindfulness and calmness into your day-to-day life. 

My second tip is to share kindness with the people around you.

It’s all too easy to focus on the difficult moments or the challenging behaviours, but how often do you make the time to notice the positive things and make genuine compliments to others or truly acknowledge the people in your life? It doesn’t have to be through big or expensive gestures either. For example, you could write a little love note, acknowledge a quality that you admire in someone, or say out loud how genuinely grateful you are for someone or something. Simple gestures like that can make a huge difference for others and for yourself and how you feel and how you perceive the world around you. Give it a try today.

My third tip is to incorporate mindful movement into your daily or weekly routine.

Whether that means yoga, stretching, or a short dance break with your kids. Movement can help release tension and boost your mood. It really doesn’t have to be anything big, complicated or time consuming. In fact, the easier it is for you to incorporate it into your daily life, the better, because doing something for a few minutes every day is better than doing something for an hour but only every few weeks. And whatever type of movement you choose, it doesn’t have to be perfect either. Simply become aware of how your body moves and feels, and what thoughts pop into your head while you do it. That’s basically what mindfulness is all about.

And if you pratice a little mindfulness everyday, you will soon notice a change in your mood and in how you approach things. And how great and simple is that?

Just a quick recap of the techniques to help you remember them:

1. Practice being fully present in the moment by asking yourself “What can I see? What can I hear? What can I touch? What do I feel?”

2. Share kindness with the people in your life.

3. Incorporate mindful movement into your day.

I share those 3 simple tips with you, because my hope is that you can see that mindfulness techniques are not hard or yet another task on your to-do-list like I said earlier. It can actually be the complete opposite. They can be simple and help you to deal better with challenges and all those things on your to-do-list.

In short, practising mindfulness will help you to feel more calm and resilient and that’s why you listen to this podcast,isn’t it?


And if you want to feel calm and resilient more often than not, check out my coaching program, the Calm Resilient Mama Project. In there we focus on you and how you can meet your needs every day in order for you to be the mum that you want to be, even in the challenging moments, even amidst the tantrums and meltdowns and fights. In 7 weeks you can increase your capacity to better deal with all the not so fun things that come with being a parent. So if that’s what you want, and let’s be honest if you’re still listening to this episode, that is what you want, then reach out to me and let’s get started rather sooner than later. Simply send me an email at cindy@cindygrahamschmidt.com.

That’s it from me for today. Take care and I’ll talk to you next time.”