Healthy Mom

What is one way you actively invest in keeping yourself healthy mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and/or physically?

Due to my life experiences as well as my personality, I tend to be a warrior for women and sound biblical truth. Couple this with a smart phone and social media, and my blood pressure can quickly go through the roof! For mental and emotional health I’ve learned to leave my phone and walk away from “stupidity.”

For spiritual health, after twenty years of being convinced of twisted Scripture and a God to fear (and not the right kind of fear), I make time each week to read both the Bible and books that help me learn of the God who loved me so much, He died for me.

When it comes to physical health, I’ve learned that sleep is just as important as working out. So my daily priority is getting eight hours of rest! When I awake, I allow myself time to slowly get into the day, holding myself back from rushing forward.

Here’s what the moms on staff had to say when I posed the same question to them.

I’d say one thing I do that works well in a few areas is journaling. I copy a Scripture passage, write what I’m thankful for, write out prayers, and use my journaling to process and work through the things that are going on in my life.

When I keep up with this consistently, it makes a huge difference on my spiritual, mental, and emotional health!

I have learned over the years that for my personality type one of the main things I need to do to reduce stress is to have some time completely to myself.

While sleep is important, for me the alone time is even more important, so I either get up earlier or stay up later than the rest of the family to make sure I get that time in. Taking a walk by myself is another way to get in my alone time while getting some healthy exercise, too.

For mental health, I set boundaries like not letting the boys interrupt me while I am working or making sure they are in bed on time. I also make it a point to have them help with chores.

For emotional health, I try to pay attention to my body’s rhythms and recognize that I am more irritable at some times than others. I am also open about my emotions to other people—it always encourages me when another mom admits that she lost her temper when her morning coffee time got interrupted for the third time in five minutes.

For spiritual health, I attend church regularly. For physical health, I use a Fit Bit to stay active, go for a motorcycle ride to de-stress, and use Sundays to read or watch TV. In light of recent health issues, I have made major life changes because no ideal or agenda not directly commanded in Scripture is worth wrecking my health over.

If my life is organized, structured, and consistent from day to day, it’s relatively natural for me to fall into healthy routines. Unfortunately, my life rarely lends itself to that type of consistency! So, I have to continuously find ways to be intentional, and I look for habits that strengthen multiple aspects of health at once.

Daily, my husband and I make sure we get up early enough to spend time in Bible reading, journaling, and prayer, as well as taking a few minutes to read books that strengthen us spiritually and mentally. Once the kids get up, we spend 40-45 minutes exercising together. Our family has also learned to adjust our schedule for a weekly withdrawal from work so we can enjoy fellowship and dive into some of those fun, restful activities that seem to always get pushed out of the busy schedule.

Because I know quality sleep is critical to my health, I give myself space for short afternoon naps as needed and make sure to squeeze enough time into my bedtime routine (sometimes just five minutes!) for “fun” reading to help my brain unwind.

Ultimately, intentionality always requires a sacrifice elsewhere, and that has been frustrating along the way. But I feel so much better when I’m diligent to make the sacrifice.

If mothers could learn to do for themselves what they do for their children when these are overdone, we should have happier households. Let the mother go out to play! – Charlotte Mason