In order to support my mental health, I’ve begun waking up early. Yep! Like 4:30am in the morning early. Gasp! Now I bet you’re wondering how waking up when it’s pitch black outside could actually make the day go better. Well, let me tell you.
After a second session with our family hypnotherapist, she helped me realize I was getting absolutely zero breaks throughout the day. I was with the kids a minimum of 7am-7pm without any kind of true rest. Throw in nighttime wake ups, and I was basically on call 24 hours a day. Pretty anxiety provoking, right?
Yev and I used to cherish those couple of hours we had after the kids went down, but we’ve been too tired to enjoy them now. I would find myself glued to my phone just trying to numb out after an excruciatingly long day. By the time I would pick myself up off the couch, it was almost bedtime, and I hadn’t had any time to write.
Then I would try to cultivate the creative juices and just throw some words on a page, but it started feeling a lot like throwing spaghetti at a wall. I was sluggish, limp, and tapped out of everything.
And let me tell you, I need to write. Reading and writing are breathing for me, and when I can’t do them, I suffer. And as you can tell by my last post, I was already suffering so much.
So I set the old alarm and worked my way to a 4:30am wake up call. I figured, if I’m so tired at night, why not just go to bed early 🤯? I switched my me-time from night time to morning time, and against all odds, I became more patient.
Having some alone time before my hooligans get going has been a game changer. I am absolutely more bleary-eyed when waking up, but after my morning shower, I’m just normal, everyday exhausted. It’s great! And I no longer wake up feeling like I’m behind all day. I’m ready for them. Bring it ladies.
There is one caveat to this experience. I think we have to be ruthless about preserving it.
One of the girls woke up early and wanted to hang out because her other sisters were sleeping. I was still newly awake and all the emotions just raged out of me, and I replied, “I didn’t get up early to take care of you. I got up early to take care of myself.”
And then I just felt like a heartless b*tch. My kid needed me. How could I abandon her?
Because ladies, we need to put our own oxygen mask on first if we want to save anybody else! If we exhaust ourselves, we can’t actually help anyone.
So pick your time and guard it. Treat is as your most valuable treasure. Every other relationship in your life stems from your relationship with yourself. How could this not be the most important time spent?
Jacqueline Pinchuk 
We need to work on ourselves even before saving someone else. I agree! Although, I can’t relate to being a mother yet. It must be really exhausting. I hope for the best!
If you like to see my one month old blog, you can visit me at https://theonlycharm.me/ I write mostly about self-love and enlightement. I hope you might find something useful. 🙂
Thank you. ☺
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Being a mother makes taking care of ourselves so much harder, but also that much more important. Thank you for the well-wishes ❤️.
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I like how your earlier wake up times leave you feeling just ‘normal, everyday exhausted’, because that probably sums up a lot of other people’s lives, and if waking up earlier makes you feel that way, then I say it’s a pretty good tradeoff for getting an extra hour in your day! Wishing you all the best for your me-time.
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I’ve found as a parent of four little kids, I’m almost always tired. I make sure I get as much sleep as possible, but I also have to squeeze in time for mental health. It’s a delicate but essential balance 🙂.
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