It can knock you off your feet pretty quickly this stay at home mom depression and when it does you need to fight back quickly. You must be in tip-top shape in order to help your children as best you can. When you go down, they go down and it can quickly become a never ending spiral that is hard to climb out of. In order to stay on top of this black depression, or dig your way out of it, here are some tips that you can put to use immediately.
1. Start the day on a high note
No matter what your thoughts may be when you first wake up in the morning, make your way to the shower and get prepared for a brand-new day. Get refreshed and put on a bit of makeup. You don’t have to look like you’re dressed for the prom – just make yourself presentable so that you look and feel good. This in itself is a great picker-upper that will lift your spirits for the new day ahead.
2. Stop watching or reading the news
Quite honestly, when you read too much bad news or even worse see it displayed on a television set, it will get you down. When you witness all of the bad and evil in the world, it can seem that everything and everybody is experiencing something negative in their lives. This is far from true. In fact, there are a lot more good things going on in the world than there are bad. When you surround yourself with these bad news items, however, it can make the world seem like a hopeless mess.
When you look down at your sons or daughters you’ll want to envision a world where life is good for them. You’ll want to let them know that great things are in store for them later in life and that they can do anything that they put their minds to. You can do this best by implementing positive thoughts on your end by getting rid of the negativity that surrounds you. Turn off the news and stop your newspaper subscription. It will do you wonders!
3. Make sure you’re talking to adults
If you have children running around it’s hard to keep an adult perspective at times. You may find that you’re losing a bit of your identity by having to relate to younger people all the time. Make sure that you get out enough to talk to adults on a regular basis in order to keep your perspective of life in place.
A lot of depression is actually just caused by boredom and you need to have the stimulating conversation that can only be found with other adults. Without this, it’s very difficult to stay on track.
4. Learn something new and creative
Is there anything that you’ve always wanted to learn but just didn’t have the time to do it? Even though it doesn’t seem like you have any extra time it’s important to create some. Learning something new and creative will help keep you stimulated. Maybe it’s time to learn a new instrument. Perhaps you can finally sign up for those tae-kwon-do lessons that you’ve been yearning to take. Do something fun and exciting that you absolutely don’t have time to do! Fit it into the schedule and you’ll feel like a new person.
5. Schedule your time
It can be hard to stay upbeat and happy when you feel like you’re running around in circles all day. The thing that will make you feel better about yourself is getting things done. This can be hard to do when one child is fighting with another while the baby is crying for his bottle.
The best way to put a schedule into place is to start by listing everything that you get accomplished during the day. For example, when you have given the baby his bottle you have finished a complete task as a nutritionist. That’s a great thing! When you have broken up the fight between your two children you held the hat as a referee and successfully accomplished another task. When you keep listing these things down and put a professional hat beside the job you performed, you’ll start to see how valuable you really are.
Your kids can’t live without you and need you at your best. Take some time to implement the above tips to keep your head above water. Some day the children will grow up and you’ll have more freedom. At that point, you’ll want to have solid memories in place of the time spent with your young toddlers and won’t want to look back at a confused haze of depression.
