Relaxation Tools for Moms
Parenthood has its perks, but let’s face it: there is also a ton of stress that comes with it—especially if you let it build up. From everyday frustrations and obligations to those occasional moments of intense chaos that can make one minute seem like a million years, the pressure is bound to hit sometime or other. As a human, it’s natural to experience a certain level of stress, and as a parent, it’s natural to anticipate dealing with even greater stress. Not only do you have to cope with all the anxieties and challenges of your own life, but you also have to contend with the anxieties and challenges in the life of your child, this separate, precious, vulnerable person for whom you are forever responsible.
Unless you proactively unload tension before it builds up, the stress of everyday parenting can soon overwhelm you and drag you down. Suddenly, parenting situations that would otherwise be enjoyable or considered funny become episodes of panic and frustration, and before you realize what’s happening, you’re well on your way to losing your sense of humor as well as your mind. Don’t despair! If you stay conscious of your stress level and take steps to calm yourself whenever you need to, you’ll be better equipped to handle acutely stressful moments and everyday anxiety alike.
From yoga and tai chi–inspired breathing exercises, meditations, and visualizations to magickal herbs, stones, and simple rituals, you’ll find in this chapter an assortment of powerful tools and effective techniques you can use to quickly calm the mind, body, and spirit. Try these techniques whenever you need to take a breather during a moment of intense stress, or utilize them every day to help maintain a relaxed and positive attitude no matter what life (or parenthood) throws your way.
Breathing Exercises for Relaxation
The breath is a wonderful indicator of your general stress level. When anxiety begins to show its ugly self, one of the first signs you’ll notice is that your breathing has become short and shallow. Your shoulders begin to rise up with each breath because you feel like you can’t get enough air in your lungs. You may even feel a bit lightheaded. If you notice that your breathing is becoming shallow or too rapid due to stress, take action. Being proactive about taking a moment to calm down and pause your thoughts can be a big help in keeping your breathing (and your stress level) on an even keel. Be aware of your breath, and enjoy each precious breath you take. If your breathing is too rapid, consciously focus on slowing it down. If your breathing is too shallow, consciously focus on taking deeper breaths.
There are also some really easy breathing techniques that you can do anytime, to start the day off right or to help calm you whenever you feel upset and anxious. Here are a few of the best breathing exercises to help you stay calm and centered throughout the day:
Full Yogic Breaths
Here’s a breathing technique that’s best utilized when you’re no longer pregnant. Super easy and very soothing, full yogic breathing allows you to use 100 percent of your lung capacity. It’s a perfect way to start and end your day. Lie on your back with your arms down by your sides. Keep your feet together and your legs straight. Keeping your arms straight, inhale and bring your arms up over your head until your knuckles touch the surface beneath you. Then exhale, bringing your arms straight back down to your sides. Repeat this process no less than five times, keeping your arms straight and synchronized to the speed of your breath throughout the movement.
Full yogic breaths can also be done standing straight against a wall. Stand straight with your back to a wall, your arms held straight down by your sides. Bring your heels forward an inch or so, enough to allow you to press your back firmly against the wall. Place your palms flat against the wall as well. This is the beginning position. On the inhale, bring the arms straight up overhead until the knuckles reach the wall. On the exhale, bring the arms back down to your sides. Repeat this five times.
With full yogic breathing, you are able to get the most complete breath possible without even having to think about it. Your diaphragm is responsible for 80 percent of your lung capacity. Another 10 percent comes from the chest, while the last 10 percent comes from the collarbones (clavicles.) In lifting the arms overhead, you are able to utilize all of these. When you begin to inhale with the arms by the sides, you first expand the diaphragm, then the chest, and then the clavicles. On the exhale, the opposite happens: you release from the clavicles, then from the chest, and then from the diaphragm, thus utilizing 100 percent of your lung capacity. And that’s just an added bonus. When we do this exercise, we tend to focus primarily on the speed of the breath matching the speed of the arms, and this shift in attention can calm the mind in a snap.
Full Belly Breathing
If you watch a baby breathe, you will notice how high the child’s belly rises with each breath. This full belly breathing is our natural rhythm, and by restoring that rhythm, even momentarily, we can reduce our stress.
Lie on your back and place one hand on your chest and the other hand over your navel. As you inhale, feel the hand on your belly rise up while the hand on your chest sits still. When we get anxious, the breath stays high in the chest. Our goal is to bring it down into the belly. Consciously breathing from the “valley” will relax your body and calm your mind. The goal is to use the diaphragm for the majority of your breathing. This means keeping the breath down low.
Fall Out Breaths
In a seated position either on the floor or in a chair, start with your arms down by your sides. When you inhale, stretch your arms out to each side and then bring them up to meet over your head. On the exhale, bring the arms back down, making an audible “ahh” sound. In using sound along with breath, you will be able to regain your sense of calm much sooner.
Yell
There is something magickal about using your voice to rid yourself of anxiety. Whether you are making a relaxing “ahh” sound or even a loud yell, there is something incredibly empowering about using your voice. When you yell, your exhale has a huge force behind it. This empties the lungs and detoxifies the body. It also releases a lot of aggression and fear. Go somewhere private where you won’t be overheard, then yell, roar, or make funny sounds and see if you don’t feel better afterward.
Counting Breaths
This is an easy and very helpful exercise. A lot of times when we think to breathe deeply, we think about taking a giant inhale and a little bitty exhale. Reverse that and you have a healthy, relaxing breathing pattern. Inhale for a count of four and exhale for a count of eight. In your ordinary breathing, you want the exhale to be at least equal in length to the inhale. In this exercise, it is better to make the exhale twice as long. Especially when we are feeling anxious, we do not want to think about the inhale. We want to focus on the exhale. Truly try to make the exhale long and deep. This will help your body calm itself and will take the mind out of its battle. Distraction by healthy practice is the key.
Breathe Between Your Legs
It’s old-school advice that when you get nervous or feel faint, you should put your head down and breathe between your legs. The reason this idea has stood the test of time is because it has merit. When you are overwhelmed and need a little help calming down, this is a simple yet powerful trick to try. Just move your head down below your heart and breathe from this position for at least five to ten breaths. After the repetitions, wrap up the exercise by coming up slowly on an inhale, and follow up with a couple of deep, full belly breaths.
Top Ten Magickal Stones for Peace and Relaxation
Another powerful tool for relaxation comes from the earth. Stones and crystals are storehouses of natural energies, each with its own unique vibrational pattern. You can tune in to these vibrations to help settle and soothe your own internal energies whenever those stressful moments strike. Here are the top ten stones to use for staying centered, calm, and relaxed. Carry them with you throughout the day, place them around your home (out of the reach of small children, of course), or simply take a minute to hold the stone or crystal in your hand to help calm yourself whenever the need or mood strikes you.
Agate (Blue Lace, Crazy Lace, or Moss): Eases fears, relieves stress, and encourages hope and cooperation.
Amethyst: Lowers stress, restores balance, brings contentment, transforms negativity, and promotes peace.
Aquamarine: Clears the mind, calms, relaxes, eases emotional burdens, and promotes peace.
Carnelian: Clears the mind, expands perception, grounds, calms anger, and neutralizes negativity.
Howlite: Calms deep-rooted stress, balances emotions, soothes tension, and encourages relaxation.
Jet: Absorbs negativity, alleviates fear, stabilizes emotions, and brings balance.
Lepidolite: Eases the stress of transitions, alleviates stress, and promotes calm and balance.
Moonstone: Brings serenity, calms, tempers reactions, and promotes emotional healing.
Rose Quartz: Calms, soothes, restores harmony, and imparts a loving energy.
Topaz: Releases tension, relaxes, brings feelings of emotional support, and aids in resolving problems.
Using Stones for Relaxation
There are many ways to utilize the relaxing benefits of stones in your daily life. You might consider placing your magickal stones in areas of the home where stress typically occurs most often. This acts as a preventive measure to help ward off and soothe general anxiety and negativity that would otherwise build up in your living space. Be sure to keep your stones out of the reach of small children, though, as any small object presents a choking risk. You might place your relaxation stones in a potted house plant, letting a bit of the stone poke up out of the soil. Or you might arrange your stones in an attractive display in a curio cabinet, on the mantle above the fireplace, or on a high table or bookshelf. Place the stones on a rectangle of dark-colored cloth such as black velvet to help accentuate and highlight the beauty of your collection. You can even hang your stones, tying them to small lengths of cord and suspending them above windows. Just be sure the stones are securely attached so they won’t fall off and become a choking hazard.
If you want to utilize the relaxing properties of stones even when you’re on the go, consider wearing them on your person or carrying them with you in a pocket of your clothing or handbag. You might wear the stones in the form of jewelry, choosing a special ring or necklace pendant. You might create a special bag, placing your relaxation stones inside a small pouch or tying them up in a small square of fabric. Depending on the size of your bag, you can wear it as a necklace, or simply tuck it into your purse or pocket. By keeping your relaxation stones close to your body, you’ll have access to their calming energies whenever you need them most.
Stones can be used to help you stay more relaxed and calm in general, and they can also be a powerful tool for combating anxiety in the moment. Whenever you feel you could really use a time-out, take a moment to yourself and try handling one of your relaxation stones. Place the stone on your palm and gently cup your fingers around it. Let your stress and tension pour into the stone. Envisioning the stress as a black or gray beam of light can help you to transfer your negative energies into the stone. Imagine the stress pouring out of your fingers and going into the stone. When you feel like you’ve emptied yourself of as much stress as possible, focus on absorbing the relaxing energies that the stone provides. Open your mind to the stone’s vibrations, and allow these energies to enter into you. Concentrate on adjusting your own internal vibration to harmonize with the energetic qualities of the stone. If the stone seems to have a peaceful vibe, try to mimic that feeling. If the stone seems to have a loving energy, open your heart to receiving that love.
Using Scent to Soothe and Calm
In addition to breathing techniques and magickal stones, you can also incorporate into your relaxation arsenal the heady power of aroma. Scent is indeed magickal, able to transport our minds to other places and transform our emotions in an instant. Certain scents can help us relax, bringing a sense of peace and contentment. These scents are the stressed-out parent’s best friends, able to calm, soothe, and relieve daily anxiety in a flash.
Dried herbs, fresh herbs, or concentrated preparations like essential oils are all effective mediums for making use of the magick of scent. When working with herbs or essential oils, however, it’s important to be aware of potential dangers and to follow certain precautions. First off, always know exactly what you’re using. This means that if you’re not sure what type of herb or oil you have, or whether or not that particular herb or oil is safe to use, don’t use it. Some essential oils—like pennyroyal, for instance—are downright toxic and can lead to miscarriage or other serious health complications if taken internally. Others, like cinnamon essential oil, can cause severe skin irritation in many people. Do some research to ensure that any new herb or oil you’re considering is safe to use in the way you intend to use it. Also be aware that many oil preparations you’ll find are actually synthetic, containing various chemical additives. Be sure to buy products labeled as pure essential oil, so you’ll know exactly what’s in them. Despite the necessary precautions, there are lots of ways to utilize the power of scent safely.
Here are some additional guidelines to follow to avoid any potential risks when working with herbs or essential oils:
• To err on the side of caution, never use an essential oil or other concentrated herbal preparation internally, unless specifically directed to do so by your doctor or other qualified medical practitioner.
• Avoid applying essential oils to the skin during pregnancy unless you’re absolutely certain it’s safe.
• If you’re not currently pregnant and you want to use an essential oil on your skin, make sure the oil you choose is not a skin irritant, and always use it sparingly and in a diluted form of no more than 3 percent essential oil in a carrier oil such as jojoba or coconut.
There are many ways to incorporate the magickal power of scent into your world without having to worry about any risk of unwanted side effects and without having to do a ton of research on each specific essential oil you’d like to use. Just limit yourself to a quick sniff or two of the oil and avoid using it internally or on the skin. You might put a few drops of essential oil on a cotton ball and then place the cotton ball in a plastic bag. Whenever you’re stressed, just open the bag, hold your nose about six inches above the opening, and take a whiff of the calming aroma.
You might also create a scented sachet to keep in a dresser drawer, hang in a closet, or place in your handbag or in your car’s glove compartment. Just take a small square of fabric, about three inches square, and place in the center a handful of dried herbs or several cotton balls scented with essential oil. Gather up the sides of the sachet and tie up the top with a piece of yarn or ribbon to secure the bundle. Be sure to keep your magickally scented sachet out of the reach of children and pets. Whenever anxiety strikes, give the sachet a quick squeeze and enjoy the scent of relaxation. Electric diffusers are also effective, but avoid them if anyone in your household has asthma or other respiratory difficulties.
You might also choose to connect to the calming power of scent through living plants, planting a small garden of an herb or flower whose aroma you find particularly lovely.
Top Ten Magickal Scents for Relaxation
Here are the top ten scents to use for relieving stress, encouraging relaxation, and restoring calm and balance. Please note that these are intended for external use only.
Chamomile: Chamomile has a light, sweet, fruity scent. It’s great for easing stress, encouraging relaxation, and promoting a sense of overall calm and balance.
Jasmine: Jasmine has a sweet, warm, floral scent. It’s excellent for soothing frazzled nerves and promoting a feeling of calm and contentment. Do not use on the skin if pregnant.
Lavender: Lavender has a fresh, floral scent. It’s great for calming, encouraging relaxation, purifying negative energies, restoring balance, and promoting restful sleep.
Neroli: Neroli has a sweet, floral, citrus scent. It’s excellent for relieving stress, easing depression, and promoting positive feelings.
Petitgrain: Petitgrain has a light, fresh, woody, and slightly floral scent. It promotes feelings of joy, restores internal harmony, relieves tension, and eases irritability.
Rose: Rose has a very sweet, floral aroma. It’s especially good for easing stress in the moment as well as soothing sadness and depression.
Sandalwood: Sandalwood has a rich, sweet, woody scent with floral undertones. Use it to ease depression, relieve anxiety, and restore a sense of grounding and stability.
Tea Tree Oil: Tea tree oil has a fresh, medicinal scent. It’s excellent for relieving stress and promoting internal strength and balance.
Vanilla: Vanilla has a warm, rich, sweet scent. It’s great for promoting relaxation, relieving tension, and restoring feelings of well-being.
Ylang-Ylang: Ylang-ylang has a rich, sweet, heady, floral scent. It’s excellent for soothing anger, relieving stress, and easing depression.
Meditations for Relaxation
Meditation is another simple and effective technique you can use to regain your sense of calm and balance whenever anxiety strikes. By helping to manage everyday anxiety and reduce overall stress, meditation can be a great aid in maintaining a state of inner peace and contentment. You don’t need prayer mats, exotic incense, or any other form of equipment to meditate, and you don’t need to be a Zen master or spiritual guru in order to do it. You just need you, a quiet space, and a couple of minutes.
Meditation is whatever we make of it. It’s a time when we’re listening to our own greater awareness, when we take time out to simply slow down, calm down, and feel a sense of goodness and energy. Try the following meditations to get you started. Once you’re comfortable with the basic process, you’ll be able to formulate your own effective meditation techniques for powerful stress relief whenever you need it.
One-Minute Candle Meditation
One simple meditation to try can be performed in just a minute, so it’s a great one to use whenever you need to take a quick time-out and catch your breath. To start, light a candle and sit in front of it. Focus your eyes on the flame. Allow your breathing to become slower and more relaxed. Make your breaths become rhythmic. Watch the flame as it moves, calming your body and mind as the light grows and shrinks. Enjoy a feeling of peace and calm, then extinguish the flame.
Full-Body Relaxation Meditation
Here’s another meditation that will help you relax both the mind and the body. Begin by lying on your back or your side. If you like, place a pillow under your head and also under your knees. Get as comfortable as you possibly can, and do your best to minimize distractions. You may want to put on some relaxing music and light some candles.
To start the meditation, first focus your attention on your feet. Curl your toes for a moment, then relax them as completely as possible. Say to yourself, “I relax my feet … my feet are relaxing … my feet are relaxed.”
Then move up to your legs, first tightening the muscles and then relaxing them. Say to yourself, “I relax my legs … my legs are relaxing …my legs are relaxed.” Proceed in a like manner throughout your whole body, progressing from legs, to back, to stomach, to chest, to shoulders, to arms, to wrists, to hands, to neck, to head, to face, to eyes, to nose, and to lips. Next, relax your brain, lungs, and heart, envisioning a calming energy entering these areas. To finish, affirm out loud or to yourself, “I relax my entire body … my entire body is relaxing … my entire body is relaxed.” Let your body feel heavy and limp, and allow yourself to drift off wherever your thoughts carry you. Let your mind become calm and empty. Feel your eyelids become heavy. Let your lips soften and relax. Feel how your top and bottom teeth separate slightly in your mouth and your tongue rests like a wet leaf against the roof of your mouth. If practiced at bedtime, this meditation may help you drift off to sleep.
More Quick and Easy Meditations
The following meditation techniques take only a couple of minutes at most, yet they’re tremendously effective at relaxing both the mind and the body. Since these meditations are so quick, they’re useful tools for helping you regain your cool and relieve stress fast in the midst of a particularly challenging moment. You might consider performing these meditations daily for general stress relief and to help maintain an overall sense of balance and relaxation:
• Sit comfortably and put on music that has a good, calm flow. Close your eyes and simply smile. See what you feel from there.
• Follow your own thoughts without judgment. Just step back and become an observer of your thoughts. Give the conscious mind a break, a mini vacation from the stress of the moment. Go beyond the mind chatter and just step away from all of your thoughts and lists you start to make in your mind of things you need to do and don’t want to forget. If you need to stop and write them down, do that and then start over with this.
• Imagine yourself being bathed in a light that beams from inside you, radiating far and wide to the outside universe. Visualize this light in a color that you feel is calming or healing. White is always a beautiful, pure color, as is gold. Blue helps to calm the body and the mind. Green is for healing and so is light pink. Purples and violets are always helpful for opening the third eye and the crown of the head.
• Open your palms, allowing your hands to relax. Visualize a flow of good energy penetrating into your hands and diffusing throughout your entire body.
• Place your palms in prayer position to take yourself deeper within, or open your arms wide to receive energy and insights.
• While sitting or lying down, rub your hands from your chest all the way down your body, imagining that you are cleaning off any stress or negativity as you do so. You might also drum your hands along your body to help break up the tension.
Be willing to take a few brief moments out of each day, several times a day if you like, for a quick meditation. Parenting can be overwhelming, so allow yourself some time to step back and let go of the pressures of the outside world, if only for a short time. Meditation really is not that hard to do, and the benefits in keeping your stress level down are tremendous.
Visualizations to Calm the Mind
Visualization is another technique you can use to help reduce and manage the stress of everyday life as a parent. Visualization is the act of forming mental images or pictures, just as we do when imagining or daydreaming but with the important addition of intention and conscious focus. By visualizing what we want to occur, we activate the subconscious mind, which in turn connects to the conscious mind, directing it to act in a way that will help produce the intended result. For example, if you can visualize your daily stress as a balloon that inflates with each challenging moment and then visualize that balloon of stress bursting into oblivion or floating away high in the air above you, it can make it a lot easier to actually let go of that stress in the physical reality of everyday life. Try these simple visualization methods to help release and relieve stress in both the short and the long term.
Samskara Visualization for Undoing Negative Thought Patterns
Samskara is a Hindu word used to express the concept of “mind grooves,” lasting impressions that are worn into the mind as certain thoughts, or mental tracks, are repeated. Just as a river etches its way through the landscape, so too do our thought patterns cut a path of least resistance through the physical make-up of our brains. The anxiety that comes with parenthood inevitably takes its toll and can easily become a habit if we let it, a repeating cycle as we pound into our brains the notion of how very stressed and overwhelmed we sometimes feel. This visualization will help you undo this cycle and create a new mind groove, a new samskara.
Begin by imagining your mind as a large, tangled intersection of various roads and pathways. (Readers familiar with Atlanta might picture the massive interchange known as Spaghetti Junction—a tangled mass of highways, underpasses, and overpasses, all crisscrossed and zigzagged this way and that.) Imagine now that along this confused and intertwined jumble travels a semitruck, representing your fears, your anxious thoughts, your daily stress, and the amount of negativity with which you approach your everyday challenges as a parent. Think of the deep ridges in the pathways of your mind that have resulted from this heavy truckload of stress traversing the same paths of negative thinking day after day.
Now focus your mind on a new thought, something positive and affirming, and visualize this thought as a shiny new race car. Picture that race car driving straight over any imprints, or samskaras, left on your mind by stress, and visualize new roads being formed as the old samskara is wiped away. Make sure the new thought is powerful enough to affect your mind; it must be something that elicits within you an emotional or spiritual reaction. You might try focusing on an optimistic view of the future, or create a new mind groove with a positive thought and visualization of yourself as a relaxed and calm parent, capable of anything. You can strengthen the visualization with an affirmation, perhaps stating, “I’m a relaxed, loving, and capable parent, and I’m only getting better.”
Visualization for Deep, Full-Body Relaxation
For a more in-depth visualization, try this. Lie down and relax your body, beginning at your feet and working your way up to the top of your head. Once you’re in a safe, peaceful space mentally, imagine that you are lying in a meadow. You are lying on your back on the greenest, softest grass. Behind your head is a giant tree, and you notice that the roots of the tree run for miles beneath the ground. This tree is majestic and the leaves are beautiful. To your side is a small stream. The water is so clean that you can see the colorful rocks and crystals lying beneath the water. The water is calm and its sounds are barely audible. As you lie there in this meadow, notice the scent of the air. With each breath you take, feel a clean, crisp, cleansing air enter your nose and fill your lungs with health and peace. With each exhale, let your body release all the stress and tension that no longer serves a healthful purpose in your body.
As you lie there in that space, notice that from the top of that tree, one leaf separates itself and begins to float aimlessly in the sky. Side to side this leaf slowly glides, making its way down to the water below. In your mind’s eye, put your hand into that stream, still lying on your back. Open your palm and feel the leaf make its way into your cupped hand. Feel this leaf; pick it up and place it between both of your hands. Visualize how the leaf looks from up close and from far away. See the veins in this leaf that from far away look so simple yet are in fact so delicate and intricate. Feel the water drip between your fingers as you imagine yourself still holding the leaf in your mind’s eye.
As you visualize the leaf, imagine your stress as a small speck of dirt, and place this speck on top of the leaf. Slowly place the leaf back in the water, and watch as you let it float away along with your stress. Now notice what you feel like in this exact moment. Surround yourself in a bright white light, visualizing it forming a protective bubble around you. Seal this light bubble tightly around your being so that whatever negative energies you have banished cannot return. Lie peacefully in this space for as long as you can.
When you’re ready, gently begin to wiggle your fingers and toes and lift your arms over your head in a big stretch. Slowly turn onto your right side (turning that way follows the blood flow from the heart and is the softest way to get up from lying down). Stay on your right side for a moment and rest there for a few breaths. When you’re ready, push yourself up into a comfortable seated position with your eyes still closed, remaining in that relaxed state.
You can end this visualization with a prayer, an affirmation, or a simple expression of thanks.
Rituals for Relaxation
Rituals are like visualizations with accompanying actions, and they can be a great tool for general stress relief. By connecting our intentional thoughts and visualizations with the power of physical action, we send a message to ourselves and to the universe at large that we are setting a new, more positive pattern. Rituals can help us externalize and release the everyday stress and woes of parenting so that the negativity doesn’t build up inside and drive us to the breaking point.
Here are some simple rituals to try to help you let go of stress and embrace a more positive attitude whenever you’re feeling especially grumpy or frustrated.
Banish the Bad and Grow the Good Ritual
Here’s a simple ritual you can use to help you embrace the positives of parenthood and release any negative thought patterns that hinder your ability to maintain a feeling of calm and contentment. Take out two pieces of paper. On one piece write the word “Embrace,” and on the other write the word “Release.” On the Embrace page, write down all the affirmations you can think of that express your greatest joys of being a parent. These might be statements like “It makes me happy to see my child play and grow” or “I take good care of my children and myself.” On the Release page, write down all of the negative feelings that you are willing to release or that you desire to release. Be brutally honest with yourself. Your Release page might include statements like “I fear I’m no good at parenting” or “I feel like I sometimes get overly stressed about relatively petty frustrations.” Mother guilt can be a serious source of stress, and it’s important to address it so you can get past it. As parents, we’re bound to make some mistakes, and the only thing that can be done about those mistakes is to make it right and move forward. Whatever you want less of in your life, note it on the Release page, and whatever you want more of, place on the Embrace page. When you’re finished, take the Embrace page and bury it somewhere in the earth, visualizing the positive energies represented on the page as seeds that will grow and flourish. Take the Release page and shred it or burn it. As you do so, visualize the negativity and stress represented therein disintegrating along with the paper.
Bubble Ritual for Relaxation
Here’s an easy and fun ritual that will help you release stress while nurturing your own inner child. You can even share this ritual with your kiddos, if you like. All you need is a bottle of bubbles. Go to a pretty place outdoors, take a few deep breaths, and start blowing bubbles. As you blow each bubble, let go of any stressful, fearful, critical, negative, or cynical thoughts. Let each bubble surround and trap those negative energies, and feel your heart grow lighter as you watch those bubbles drift up and away. If you like, you can strengthen this ritual with a simple affirmation: “I am free to let go of stress. I am free to be joyful and lighthearted. I am free to shine like a child.”
Relaxing Bath Ritual
For this simple yet highly relaxing ritual, all you’ll need to do is take a bath. Place ¼ cup sea salt in the water as the tub fills. While you bathe, imagine that all your stress, worry, and irritability is flowing out of your body and into the water. It may help to visualize this negative energy, seeing it in your mind’s eye as a tinted light radiating from your skin. Get out as much stress and anxiety as you can, letting it flow out freely until you have a sort of “empty” feeling.
Now take a few moments to just sit in the tub and relax. Breathe slowly and deeply, letting your mind drift. When you’re finished and it’s time to drain the bathwater, envision all the stress and negativity you released flowing down the drain and out of your life along with the dirty water. Rinse the tub and dry yourself thoroughly.
You’ve Got This
Although there’s no one-stop, all-powerful solution to stress management, by applying the tools and techniques in this chapter, you’ll be much better equipped to handle the everyday challenges and anxieties of parenting. Relaxation is elusive for the average parent, but if you make a point of it, it’s entirely possible to achieve it. The next time stress strikes, remember that you’re now armed with many magickal tools and practical techniques for relieving anxiety and restoring a sense of calm both in the moment and in the long term. Without a doubt, parenting is often stressful, but as long as you don’t let that stress get the better of you, the joys of taking care of a child far outweigh the challenges.