5 top tips to help you relax as a new mom

Becoming a parent for the first time is an amazing experience but along with this new experience comes a whole lot of responsibilities.  Learning to feed, change and settle a baby can be challenging and when adding other life responsibilities on top it can soon become a stressful situation.

Stress can cause the whole atmosphere at home to change and your baby can sense this, which results in them becoming harder to raise.  But it doesn’t have to be this way, and in this blog post, we will look at some of the best ways to relax as a new mom so you can enjoy every second of being a parent.

Not all of these tips will work for everyone, so be sure to try them all out.  

Relaxation tip 1 – Deep breathing techniques

Breathing is a normal part of everyday life, it’s something that we don’t think about, but we can hack our breathing technique so that it can be used to reduce stress levels and anxiety.

The next time you are stressed out, find somewhere quiet and perform the following:

1) Inhale slowly through your nose for 3 seconds while breathing deep into your stomach.  Try to keep your chest deflated as much as possible and try to fill your abdomen with air.

2) With your lips slightly open breathe out very slowly for another 3 seconds.  

3) Repeat this process for as long as needed until you feel relaxed. You can perform this exercise with or without your eyes closed.  While doing this breathing technique I would also advise you to listen to your surroundings and realize that events happen without your input.

Relaxation tip 2 – Soak in a hot bath.

Breathing tips are excellent if you are on the go and you feel yourself getting stressed or anxious, but if you’re at home and you need to relax there is no better way in my opinion to ditch the shower and replace it by taking a soak in a hot bath.  

If you have a whirlpool bath this can be taken to another level as you can turn your home into a spa-style set up.

First, run the bath until it’s hot enough to be relaxing but not hot enough to burn your skin.  Next, add some relaxing bath salts and relax for at least 20 minutes. In these 20 minutes, you can either think of anything that’s been playing on your mind or you can do the opposite and not think about it and use the time to relax.  The technique you choose will depend on your personality.

Relaxation tip 3 – Exercise

Ok, you may think I have lost my mind when I’m telling you to relax by exercising, but as a mom, 90% of the time I am stressed is because of lack of sleep or I feel fatigued.   Exercise is not only a great way to take out your stress levels on something but it has been scientifically proven to lower fatigue levels.

For me, I love lifting weights when I feel stressed but you may not want to take it that far.  You could go for a walk or try joining a yoga class. Walking and Yoga are both great stress-busting exercises.

Relaxation tip 4 – Get creative

Getting creative in a form of art such as painting, drawing or dancing is another amazing way of taking your mind off your parenting stresses.  As a new mom, you may not have much time to take part in creating the next Van Gogh, but if you do have a spare hour it could be a great outlet to let off some steam.

Relaxation tip 5 – Listen to music

Listening to relaxing music when your other half is looking after your baby is a good way of not listening to your baby crying and gives your brain time to recover.  

For new parents a baby crying can cause all different types of feelings, for me, it made me feel very anxious and panicky.  Just 10 minutes of listening to music helped calm me down and gave my mind a much-needed rest.

If music doesn’t relax you, download a podcast and give it a listen, there are so many options out there that can help.  You could even download a meditation playlist.

Conclusion

Above are some of the top tips that have helped keep me relaxed as a new mom, which has allowed me to enjoy being a parent.  If you have any relaxation techniques please leave them in the comment section below.