Being a single parent has moments of highs and lows just like any other journey in life, but if there is one thing I’ve learned, it is that I have to think about myself just as much as my child or I will lose site of who I am as a person in this entire process. Our needs are important too and the better we take care of ourselves, the better equipped we are to take care of our children.
5 Ways to Love Yourself
1) Wake up 15 minutes or more before your kids. When you wake up in the morning, before checking Facebook or checking in with your text messages, check in with yourself. Do a few stretches in bed to loosen up your muscles, sit up and say a prayer for your day. Take those 15 minutes (or more) before your kids wake up to start the day in peace and calmness. Gain perspective before you rush about your routine.
2) Drive to work in silence. It is really easy to fill our day with noise to drown our how we are feeling or to move about a routine with fun and enjoyment. Noise and fun are great, but it is important for us to continue to learn about ourselves. The drive to work with an empty car is a great time to really think about situations, emotions or issues we may be dealing with but are too busy to confront.
3) Give yourself a gift. Budgets may be tight and the idea of shopping for us is last on our list. Treat yourself to one thing per week that is for you and only you. It doesn’t have to cost money. It can be a peaceful walk on your lunch break, a hot steamy towel over your face for a quick beauty treatment, eating the last cookie in the cookie jar. Little perks to yourself send messages that you are worth it.
4) Make a decision to realize your worth. You put forth extreme effort in raising your kids and doing that all by yourself! That’s a huge undertaking and you are doing it. Every single day! Take time each day to remind yourself of that. Even if you don’t believe yourself in the beginning, keep saying, “I am an important person and of great worth. I matter.”
5) Walk away from toxic relationships. Whether those are romantic or platonic, keep people away who are dragging you down and are negative. To be a positive person you need to be around positive people. It may hurt initially, but after time you will be better for losing the negative baggage. Negative people only know how to be negative. Positive people can be the game changers for you and how you perceive life and yourself.
Married at the young age of 20, a mom by 24 and divorced at 29, Meg Lowery brings her life experiences to her blog, The Single Parenting Journey, to provide hope and encouragement to others in her situation. Meg is originally from Southern California but now resides in Colorado Springs, CO with her son and is the Communications Director for Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk. Her blog is featured on their website, DrJamesDobson.org. Meg holds a Communications Degree from The University of Phoenix and has over 15 years experience in Marketing Communication in the worlds of Print, Radio, Web, Social Media and Customer Service. In her “spare time” she leads her private business for social media marketing and website strategy. Her clients have included: Dr. Meg Meeker, I am Second, e3 Partners and others.
The Life of a Single Mom is a national, faith-based, nonprofit that exists to see that no single mom walks alone. To date, the organization has worked with hundreds of churches to start a single mom’s support group in cities throughout the U.S. and beyond, as well as having served hundreds of thousands of single mothers with a variety of programs. Offering a large array of books, curriculum, training materials, online instructional videos, podcasts, newsletters, life skills education, and more, TLSM is one of the largest single mom organizations in the U.S. The robust selection of single mom programs focus on empowering single moms to grow spiritually, emotionally, financially, and parentally through Single Mom University, Single Moms Across America, the National TLSM Single Moms Conference, boot camps, and a variety of other programs. For more information, visit www.thelifeofasinglemom.com.
