Blog

Fight the Funk

26 June 2018

We all have those days – the ones where we want to call in sick, or have a ‘mental health’ day but you can’t ‘cause you’re a mum and there are tiny people depending on you for their very survival – bugger.

You might feel flat, bored, overwhelmed, frustrated, exhausted, empty, agitated, tight-chested or like everything is just too bloody hard (*aka funky), and as grateful as you are to be a mum and as much as you love your little cherub/s (OBVS!), you just can’t seem to break yourself out of the funk. Ahhhhh! 

Now usually I’m a big advocate for ‘surrendering’ to everything that comes with mumming. But in this instance – nup! NEVER surrender to feeling funky. Fight the funk.

Enter your ‘emergency evacuation out of funkville’ list.

This is list of all the things you can do (while still mumming) that will relieve some of that ‘heaviness’ you’re feeling and make you feel that little bit happier. You can pick one or ten to focus on for the day depending on how proactive you’re feeling. 

Here’s some examples.

  • Wash and style your hair
  • Get dressed in a nice outfit
  • Paint your toenails
  • Pick a mantra (one related to your biggest struggle on the day) and say it over and over again
  • Sit or walk on grass (barefoot. Mind the green ants!)
  • Write a list of the things you’re grateful for
  • Give yourself a facial
  • Have a ‘thought vomit’/write a journal entry – a great way to figure out what’s going on in your head
  • Facetime somebody
  • Laugh/joke with your best mum friend about how bloody hard motherhood is
  • Light a candle
  • Bake something
  • Listen to a podcast
  • Look at photos of when bub was born to remind yourself of how far you’ve come and what an amazing thing you’re doing
  • Make a photo album (Chatbooks are my fave #notsponsored)
  • Watch an episode of your favourite show while baby sleeps/feeds
  • Take a day trip
  • Read a book (or at least one page)
  • Organise coffee with a friend
  • Find a playgroup
  • Take bub to the library for a rhyme time session
  • Go for a run/walk with bub in the pram
  • Download a meditation app and do a session when bub sleeps
  • Do an exercise class on YouTube 
  • Have a picnic lunch 
  • Talk to yourself like you would talk to your best friend
  • Put bub somewhere safe with some toys/entertainment, lie next to them and try to catch 40 winks, you’d be surprised at how effective even a 5 minute nap can be!
  • Make a smoothie bowl
  • Put some tunes on and have a dance with bub

So go! Go and write your happy list, and FIGHT THE FUNK!

Keep it somewhere handy, heck even hang it on your bathroom mirror and refer to it when you feel those funky feelings creeping in. Eventually you might find that you have less days where you even need to look at it because the ideas will start to come naturally to you, which means essentially, you’ll be training your brain to choose happy, all on it’s own. How empowering is that?

(pic cred: @mother_ofall_adventures on Instagram)