3 Minutes To Calm Practice
Waking up to yet another surreal day of quarantine and social distancing, it’s hard not to ask yourself if this is all not just a bad dream.
Yet however surreal, it is real and we are left trying to figure out how to cope (at the same time as trying to figure out how to take care of a tiny new human).
Being a new parent even in the best of times often brings an increase in stress, anxiety as well as tension in your relationship with your partner (or other loved ones). Add a global pandemic into the mix and it goes without saying, that you are going to be feeling it!!
Approaching this time with mindfulness by developing a mindfulness practice can help us to ground ourselves, calm our bodies and quiet our minds. It can teach us how to respond with wisdom instead of reactivity.
I know what you’re thinking “I don’t have time or mental energy to meditate now! I have a baby to take care of!!”
Trust me I get it. I know that you have very little time and when you do, all you want is to drink your coffee and take a shower!
The thing with mindfulness is that it doesn’t mean that you have to sit down for 30 minutes on a cushion with your eyes closed and ‘clear your mind’.
According to Jon Kabbat Zinn, the creator of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, mindfulness simply means
“paying attention
in a particular way:
on purpose,
in the present moment, and
non-judgmentally.”
Once you learn how to do just that and start to implement it into your life, your whole experience of stressful situations can suddenly start to seem a whole lot more manageable.
I’ve created this 3 Minutes to Calm practice just for you so that you can get a tiny taste of this (really it’s only 3 minutes long)!!! You can do it solo, with your partner or your baby. Subscribe at the bottom of this page or send me an email at aliza@mamacarehealth.ca and I will send it along.
With love, compassion, and connection, we will get through this.
*This information is not therapeutic advice and is the opinion of these authors and is not in lieu of mental health support from a licensed clinician in your area. If you are struggling, please reach out to a licensed mental health worker in your area.