What did I do with all my time before I had children? It's a question that probably every parent asks themselves. Suddenly, you're living a life where your children's needs are a high priority and your own often fall by the wayside. Then it can be good to think about what you need to change to create healthier conditions in your everyday life. In this article, holistic coach Lina guides us step by step to create more balance in our lives.

1. creating awareness

The first step to finding a balance in your life and creating long-term change is to be aware of how you are currently living. What are you happy with and what do you want to change?

As an exercise, you can look at and describe different areas of your life. These areas could be physical health, mental health, career, family life, recovery, housing and relationships. It might be helpful to get out a pen and paper so that you have a clear picture of all areas of your life. Then think about and write down what you enjoy in each specific area and what you not are comfortable with right now. You may not be able to change everything as much as you would like - but what is most important to find balance between the different areas of your life?

2. Focus on the right things

Many of us, not least parents, carry a lot of anxiety in our daily lives. All this worry has a tendency to drain us of energy. An attempt to let go of your anxiety could be to stop and ask yourself if the worry is something you can influence? If you realize that it's an unnecessary worry that you can't actually influence - try to accept it. Then think about what in your life you can influence and what energizes you. Write it down! Maybe you can have it as a background on your phone or as a note on the front door as a constant reminder.

3. Create good habits

Have you ever thought that when you consciously decide on a habit that you want and repeat it, it will soon happen by itself? This is precisely the key to creating and maintaining a good habit. Similarly, it is the repetition of a behavior that creates "bad" habits that can be difficult to break.

Think about whether there are habits that you want to bring into your life, but also whether there are habits that you want to get rid of. Maybe you can even replace a bad habit with one that you want? It could be replacing scrolling on your phone in the evening with reading a book. Letting go of cleaning up after the kids in the evenings and instead accepting the mess and going for a walk?

4. Practice makes perfect - practicing recovery

What constitutes recovery is highly individual and only you know what makes you feel most recovered. Generally speaking, recovery is described as something that allows you to 'just be'. However, just being is something that can be difficult during the toddler years, but it is also a habitual thing and a repetition of things you want to get into your life that will soon become a habit. Therefore, you can try to do something else than what you usually do when the children have fallen asleep for the evening. Maybe light some candles, put on some soothing music and relax on the couch? The more you practice recovering, the more present you will probably feel in everyday life.

5. Create balance in life with reasonable goals

Remember to be gentle with yourself as you review your life and the habits you want to have. There are only 24 hours in a day (we know, it feels less than that with kids) and the essentials have to come first. Even if one workout a week would have seemed minimal a couple of years ago, maybe it's just right now?

Here are tips for exercising after giving birth!

It's healthy to strive for a good balance in life. Especially when you become a mom, because we moms are experts at prioritizing ourselves for our children. At the same time, we all know that a happy mom is a good mom! So when you feel it's time for a change and if you want to start prioritizing yourself more, remember that you don't need to have sky-high goals. It's probably more healthy to lower the demands on yourself and find appreciation in small things

Are you interested in personal coaching? Then you can contact our health coach Lina at www.coachbylina.com or [email protected].