subject: Happiness And Fulfillment As A Mother [print this page] Happiness And Fulfillment As A Mother Happiness And Fulfillment As A Mother
Life is full of situations and events that can easily rob us of our happiness. We are bombarded with negativity and complaining at every turn. As a mother we take on not only our own worries and struggles, but those of each family member as well. It comes with the territory. Mothers are the go-to people when troubles arise. All of this seeps us of our strength and happiness, allowing for stress, anxiety and all types of negativity to creep in. How can we combat this in order to maintain our sense of well being?
There are quite a number of tactics to use, all easily employed, that serve to keep our levels of happiness and fulfillment raised. In this article I will only briefly discuss a few, but I do have a link at the bottom you can click on that will provide you with more in-depth knowledge on the subject.
One of the best methods to optimum happiness is to first break a bad habit (I have a specific one in mind I will review) and replace it with a good one. The bad habit to break is that of thinking negatively. We do this constantly throughout the day virtually unconsciously. But if you were to monitor your thoughts for about 20 minutes you will be shocked by the high percentage of negative thoughts that cross your mind. Thoughts such as, "I don't like this", "I can't do this", "I don't have the money for this", "I'm frustrated with this", "I'm so late", "This is so annoying", etc. The thought doesn't necessarily have to be bad, but the way we phrase it is in the negative.
To remedy this you'll need to replace each negative thought with a positive one. For example, instead of saying "I don't like this", say "I prefer this instead". Same idea, different pattern of thinking. "I can't do this", can be changed to "This may take some practice before I get it right", or "I can get this done tomorrow". Again, you are approaching the same scenario, just responding to it in a positive manner as opposed to a negative one. Once we begin to approach situations from a positive standpoint, our outlook shifts to a more positive one, which in turn will lead to more positive thoughts, ideas and feelings. So without changing anything but your phraseology you will begin to switch your mood and experiences to positive ones, i.e., happy ones.
This switch from negative to positive will require some effort, but it will produce long lasting effects. Remember, you are working against years and years of automatic negative responses, so it will take a little bit of time before the positive response becomes natural. But keep at it and trust me, it will become second nature. Teach your kids to do the same for a full house of happiness!
Another way to gain more fulfillment as a mother is to invest some of your time and energy into doing something you love, even if it's as simple as reading a novel for 20 minutes a day. We need to pursue a personal interest in order to feel fulfilled. For most of us cleaning the house and running errands just won't cut it. We may feel a sense of accomplishment for completing our to-do list, but not fulfilled per se.
It is vital that you as a woman find an activity you enjoy that is just for you and do it on a regular basis. You can work out at the gym, join a club of some sort, pursue a hobby, write in your journal, take a class at a community center or community college, learn a foreign language. It doesn't matter what it is, just commit time to doing something that brings you pleasure. If it's something goal oriented, even better, because you will feel more confident and fulfilled as you get closer and closer to reaching the goal.
I offer an entire series on finding happiness and fulfillment as a mother. Please click here to begin receiving it for FREE!
