Self-Care Tips for the Holidays and Beyond Edit
The holidays can be a time when a gal gets overwhelmed and run-down. See our tips for Self-Care that will keep you kicking booty long past the New Year.
Sisters, we are in the throes of the holidays! Thanksgiving is already fading into memory and Christmas looms large over our days. Not to mention, we are doing ALL.THE.THINGS! With all of the parties, social gatherings, holiday festivities, and traveling to see family, the holidays can be a time when a gal gets overwhelmed and run-down.
BUT! We don’t want that to happen to you. We’ve shared some helpful ideas for keeping your spirits up and your mind and body content – so you can keep kicking booty well past the New Year.
Ask for help. Speak up, Mama! You can’t do it all alone and no one expects you to.
Say no to things that don’t really matter. Set this boundary for yourself and (most importantly) respect it.
Take a moment to pause, reflect, and be still. Whether you find this peace over a cup of coffee in the morning or at night after the kids are in bed, take that moment and sit in your thoughts and feelings.
Observe the holiday wonder around you. Kids constantly remind us of what is really important- laughter and joy, adventure and excitement, and believing in things bigger than ourselves. Let children be your guide to what matters this holiday season.
Indulge mindfully. It can be easy to get caught up in the indulges of the season so, if you can, slow down and eat and drink intuitively. Enjoy the smell, taste, and texture of each and every bite or sip. Allow yourself to get swept away in the deliciousness, and stop before full, or before any shame spiraling events may occur.
Spend consciously. Opt for gifts that prioritize mindfulness over consumerism. Choose to volunteer at a non-profit for an outing instead of meeting at a restaurant. There are lots of ways to be frivolous during the holiday season; be frivolous with love, be frivolous with compliments for others, do not be frivolous with your money.
Move your body every day. When it is holiday season, the sun sets early and it can be freezing cold outside. But! If anything, these are more reasons why getting exercise in every day can be crucial. Go for a walk, hit up a yoga class, or meet your friend at the gym- we guarantee you won’t regret it.
Drink lots of water. Give your body the loving it needs – good old fashioned H20.
Advocate for yourself with your family and friends. When it comes to loved ones, it can be hard to say no or feel like we are letting someone down by not doing what they want of us. However, these wishes may come at the expense of your own well-being. No matter who it is, set and stand up for your own boundaries so that you can be your best on your own terms.
Feel the feels, don’t brush them under the rug. The holidays bring out stress, family dynamics, past experiences, and trauma. When these instances arise, take a moment to recognize how you are feeling and why you are feeling this way. Sit in it for the moment, and let this awareness serve you instead of holding you back.
Just as the old saying goes, you cannot serve others from a dry well. Self-care is vital for keeping yourself happy and healthy, and for keeping yourself balanced with all of the other people (both big and small!) who are counting on you. Keep rocking it out, beautiful friend.
If you are feeling like you could use a touch more support than these helpful tips, we invite you to see our Vlog about Self-Care for Success, or contact Brooke Jean Counseling and Coaching. We look forward to hearing how you practice self-care!
Take care of yourselves and therefore each other,
XO brooke jean
How to Manage Stress being a Working Mama
Learn specific ways to manage stress being a working mama among other tools and words of wisdom in this interview.
Learn how to manage stress being a working mama and so much more in this incredibly resourceful interview with one of my favorite boss babes.
In my summit, Moms Living a Life they Love, I interviewed several brilliant, power-house business women who are also Moms on how they overcome barriers to have both, a successful career and flourishing family.
This firecracker Mom, Michal Chesal, was so much fun to interview and her go-getter energy is just contagious. Three children, a divorce, and a thriving business later, she shares exactly what it takes to have both a family and thriving business.
She is a mompreneur who co-founded the Florida-based juvenile products company Baby K’tan, LLC. Shortly after the birth of her son, Coby, born with Down syndrome, Michal found herself searching for a baby carrier that could provide the sensory nourishment he required for optimal development. Unsatisfied with the options available, Michal began designing and creating her own modified carrier. Officially launched in 2007, the brand has since become one of the strongest names in infant carriers. Today, Baby K’tan, LLC continues to increase their product line, designing innovative products that promote the natural bond between parent and baby.
The culmination of her unique experiences has afforded her opportunities to be recognized in publications such as HuffPost, S FL Biz Journal, CBS & Miami Herald.
In my interview with her she shares:
How her bright idea was born out of her child’s necessity
Leveraging these 4 words to be successful: motivation, perseverance, patience and humility
Being a single working Mom, time management is critical
How to manage stress…
Set 3 small goals a day and making the moment important!
Don’t forget to Subscribe on YouTube!
Take care of yourselves and therefore each other,
XO brooke jean
The Power of Positive Thinking in Achieving Goals
In this interview, hear how the power of positive thinking can help you achieve your goals.
Be inspired by Eva’s vision to become an author and how she leveraged the power of positive thinking in achieving goals, and oh so much more!
In my summit, Moms Living a Life they Love, I interviewed several brilliant, power-house business women who are also Moms on how they overcome barriers to have both, a successful career and flourishing family.
Eva Pohler retired from a twenty-year position teaching writing and literature at a university in San Antonio, where she lives with her husband and three kids. Now a full-time writer, she’s the Amazon bestselling author of eighteen novels, including The Mystery Book Collection and three series for young adults: The Gatekeeper’s Saga, The Purgatorium Series, and The Vampires of Athens. Her books have been described as “thrilling” and “addictive.” A Kirkus reviewer said of The Gatekeeper’s Sons that it was “sure to thrill Hunger Games fans”.
In my interview with her she shares:
Take your big long-term plan and break it down into manageable goals
The power of positive thinking
TAKE TIME OFF
Work when you can and when you’re in your flow of genius
Don’t forget to Subscribe on YouTube!
Take care of yourselves and therefore each other,
XO brooke jean
Stress Management: 6 Quick Techniques
Feeling stressed? Here are 6 quick and easily accessible Stress Management Strategies.
6 Quick Stress Management Strategies
In reaching our greatest potential and becoming the very best version of ourselves personally and professionally, we MUST be protective and selective of our energy.
In this context, energy means your overall output as a human being. This includes your thoughts, beliefs, intentions, and behavior.
All too often, I find that a major block to clients performing at their highest and achieving their life’s goals is that they are spending a great deal of energy STRESSING.
They are worrying, scheming, plotting, analyzing and their blood pressure is escalating throughout each and every day. They are feeling overwhelmed and burning the candle at both ends in an effort to make it all better. This becomes a major distraction to our higher, more wise and intentional selves.
From a general health perspective, I think we all know stress can really take its toll.
On a cellular level when we have a negative (stressful) thought, our brain stimulation produces the hormone cortisol, which is basically a toxin in the body. From there we experience a feeling that we label an emotion and we tend to take action from that place.
Let me walk you through an example. If you have the thought “I am not prepared for this meeting,” you will create cortisol, have a yucky feeling in your body which you might translate to anxiety and then take action from that place, perhaps over-preparing and bringing your anxiety into the room when you present. This then hinders your ability to be authentic, to effectively think and speak on your feet, to have channels open to receive what you might need during the presentation, and the energy might be felt by your audience and viewed negatively.
Yes, one thought has that much power and can create your reality.
When you think about how much time in your day, week, month and year you are stressing and how much energy that consumes, think about what else, more productive, you can do with that energy…
So I wanted to share some strategies to combat stress. This only touches on the surface level and I go into much more detail when working with clients individually and in the group setting.
Become aware that you are stressed. Pay attention to your thoughts, feelings and body sensations. I encourage clients to put a reminder on their phone three times a day to check in with themselves and rate their stress on a scale of 1 to 10. Just bringing awareness to the stress then allows you to do something different with it.
Name it. Just say it out loud. I am stressed. This takes away its power. Its no longer subconsciously messing with you.
Identify how the stress is currently impacting you. You can say to yourself something like, “I notice stress has me feeling nervous in my belly, has me speaking rapidly, has me disconnecting from what’s going on in front of me, is taking too much of my energy, whatever it is.”
Use a breathing technique. You can start simple. Take a 4 second inhale, one second pause, then 4 second exhale. Do that a couple times and then increase your seconds to a 5 second inhale and exhale with a 2 second pause, followed by a 6 second inhale and exhale with a 3 second pause. Do this until you literally feel yourself calming down, and more present in the moment.
Take a break if you need to. Walk outside, get away from your desk, your kids, or whatever has you stressed. Take in some vitamin D and focus on what’s beautiful around you.
Come back and take CONSCIOUS action. Remember your why. Whatever your goals and intentions are, I’m fairly certain they don’t include being a stress ball. So take a moment to reconnect to your why. I am working on becoming a calm and approachable leader, a more patient parent, a compassionate partner. And in doing so I must take a conscious next step that is in alignment with that.
Some additional tips that have been known to help with stress are meditation, exercise, stretching, and talking it out with someone you trust.
Know that stress is part of the human experience. I am not suggesting we can completely ELIMINATE stress, but we can train our mind, take back control, and clean up our energetic output to yield different results.
In doing so you might feel better and notice you have the energy for the things that really matter and help you create the life you want.
If stress and negative thinking is getting in your way, give me a call today!