9 essentials strategies to safeguard your sanity as a working parent through the winter pressures

Sara Campin,
Founder & CEO of The Nourish App

The last 2 years have challenged the mental health and wellbeing of every single one of us. But the prolonged and ongoing battle against COVID-19 has left many healthcare workers and others on the front line of care, exhausted, overwhelmed and depleted. Burnout levels are higher than ever and yet the pressures of the winter months and the new wave continue. 

As healthcare workers continue to be called upon to dig deep and show up with compassion and care through these challenging times, finding ways to positively support and safeguard their mental wellbeing is critical. However, as parents, we rarely have more than a moment to ourselves, and it can be hard to know where to even start. 

The good thing is, self-care doesn’t need to take much time or even energy. Here are 9 simple mindset tips and practical strategies to help you safeguard your sanity and find more work-life balance, even in the midst of the current pressures. 

1. Remind yourself of your why and give yourself permission to nourish you

What is most important to you? Why do you do what you do? What does your mind and body need to be able to do that role? We all only have finite energetic and mental resources available to us. We can think of this as our energetic bank balance. As parents and as healthcare workers we are constantly giving out to others, spending all our internal resources and often leaving us in the red. This leaves us exhausted and depleted, possibly irritable and low, with nothing left to give to those around us, let alone ourselves.

Self-care is nourishment for the mind and body. It is the means by which we make deposits into our mental and energetic bank balance. By practicing self-care we top up our mental and energetic reserves. Self-care is far from selfish, it is essential for helping us navigate the stress and strains of work and family life with more peace and ease, and in helping us show up more often as the parent, carer and professional we aspire to be. 

2. Create a daily ritual to check in on YOU

It is so easy for us to walk through our days on auto-pilot and not even notice what is going on for ourselves, until we lose our patience with our kids or our colleagues, or find ourselves in a downward spiral of feelings of failure at not being able to keep all our balls up in the air. By creating a daily ritual to mindfully check in with what is going on in our mind and body and explore what we need to show up as the best version of ourselves, we are more likely to take positive action.  

3. Create your personal mental wellbeing toolkit

Self-care looks different to each of us and what we find nourishing, restorative or uplifting in one moment will be different to the next. When we are in the midst of exhaustion and struggle it is very difficult to think creatively and reach for nourishing activities. However, if we have a multidisciplinary self-care toolkit that we can refer to and reach for in different moments for support, we are more likely to make positive choices.

Take a moment to think about all the different activities and practices that nourish your mind, body and soul and write it down somewhere easily accessible - your phone, your fridge, a special note pad? And think about what will help you most in different moments. e.g. When I'm exhausted I will.... When I'm feeling overwhelmed I will... 

4. Schedule in self-care as a necessity/essential and not a luxury

It’s so easy to say to yourself “I’ll get to that later” and push your wellbeing needs to the bottom of the pile. If we schedule time in our day and block it in our calendar it is much more likely to happen. Even the physical activity of writing it down or entering into your phone will help you create that commitment to yourself. Even better, share your self-care commitment with someone else and notice how that creates accountability to make it happen. You could even ask them to check in with you as to whether you have done it or not.  

5. Dot micro-moments of nourishment through your day

Practicing self-care doesn’t need to mean a spa or retreat weekend, a long run or even a 30 minute meditation. Don’t get me wrong, all of those things would be amazing. But they are often unrealistic for working parents. Instead, think about how you can dot micro- moments of self-care through your day - that could be a 3-5 minute meditation or 2 minute breathing exercise, a stretch or yoga pose or even a mindful shower or mindfully drinking a cup of tea.

The small things all add up. You never know, you might even notice how once you start taking small moments for yourself, you start giving yourself permission to take longer each time.

For bite-sized self-care inspiration from 2 minute yoga poses, to breathing exercises to mindful and compassion based exercises, check out the Nourish app. 

6. Habit stack 

To create new habits we need a trigger, a cue. Rather than creating a new reminder, which you might forget to set anyway, you can stack the new habit you want to create on top of existing habits in your everyday life.

That could be taking some deep breaths or using some affirmations while walking between wards, completing your patient notes or while stacking the dishwasher. It could be throwing a yoga pose while the kettle boils, while the kids are in the bath or while you’re waiting for the next patient. It could be listening to a short meditation on your toilet break, lunch break or commute.

Have a think about the natural pauses or activities in your day that you could stack short self-care practices on to.  

7. Tune into moments of connect and joy

In the exhaustion and business of the day to day, it is so easy for moments of connection and joy to pass us by. However, these moments are what top up our happiness and feed our soul. By mindfully making an intention to tune into the present moment when we are with our kids, or our partners, we can more easily savour these magical moments.

When you wake up in the morning or on your commute home from work, why not set some intentions with yourself to tune into the here and now with your loved ones?  Practicing mindfulness helps us build the mindful muscle and tune into the present moment more often.

If you’re new to mindfulness, you can find a wide range of short meditations on the nourish app, all tailor-made for parents. 

8. Give yourself permission to rest

We live in a world where busyness is almost a badge of honour. As working parents our to-do lists are never ending and we can find it really difficult to take a pause, let alone a proper rest.

But, research shows that resting is essential for not only our wellbeing but our cognition functioning and productivity. It gives our brain an opportunity to heal and re-energise. So actually resting IS productive. While having a nap might be impossible, try a yoga nidra meditation to help promote physical, emotional and mental relaxation.

You’ll find a number of restful and restorative yoga nidra meditations on the Nourish app for you to try. 

9. Remind yourself you are only human

Compassion for others, starts with ourselves. We are all only human and only one person. There is no such thing as the super-mum or super-dad. No one has it all figured out and is the perfect, fun, calm and patient parent, whilst also acting it at work and holding it all together without any help.

See if you can let go of perfection and appreciate the amazing job you are doing, knowing you are doing the best you can and that is more than enough. 

But, most importantly, remember that there is dedicated wellbeing and mental health support available for NHS professionals if you need it.

Locum’s Nest and The Nourish App have partnered to offer all healthcare professionals a free premium version of The Nourish App until the end of April 2022, find out more here.