21 Best Practices For Moms’ Health & Growth

These twenty-one “best practices” are the “best” because they are not self-care actions. You wont find, ”take a bubble bath” on the list, although a bubble bath couldn’t hurt.

We’re going for transformative, so hang on while I firehose my twenty-one best practices for you as a mom. I suggest you pick one a day to look at bringing awareness, attention, and intention to. This is where the magic happens!

Remember friend, that baby steps add up over time, and little shifts in paradigm become quantum leaps towards elevation.

Christina Reynolds

Here. We. Go.

Mama, I urge you deeply to care about how you feel. Why? Because you have others around you that are impacted, and also watching……

….Can you feel that there’s two parts to that?

First off, when we understand that the vibration & energy we hold ripples out to other people and they often mirror what we’re putting out, we can find compassion for not only them, but for ourselves too.

Second of all, these kids that we brought into the world are not always doing what we say in terms of soaking up the wisdom that we tell them. Whereas, they are almost always modeling what they see. If you want your kids to grow up and care about how they feel and take care of themselves, it has to start with you.

Caring about how your body, mind, & spirit feels impacts your quality of life, and the lives of everyone that feels the impact of your energy ripple.

If you care about your quality of life as a daily practice, and your health & growth will increase.

I won’t go into this TedX Talk now, but the truth is that Science has proven that our brains have neural plasticity. This mean we have the ability to change, which means that PTSD is not permanent and that programmed responses can be altered.

Science has now also proven that depression, anxiety, mood, and immune function can all be greatly impacted when the gut microbiome is in balance.

Incredible people in history and in your family and yourself have proven that humans can do really hard things and overcome obstacles and beat the odds.

Focus on these truths instead of the fears, and your ability to change, heal, grow, and do hard things will expand exponentially.

I have a blog post I would like to share with you all about connecting with other moms. I share how important connections are, not only your heath and growth, but also to the success of your family. I also share recorded audio that tells a tish of my story to drive this point home there.

This #3 is big, so I challenge you to dive into this. Know that it truly is one of the very best practices for your health & growth .

Christina, I don’t remember how to dream or have a ”vision”…..I only use my imagination when my kids make me.

Moms everywhere

Okay, so when I say “take baby steps towards your vision”, I don’t really mean that you need to have a big “vision” per se. If you are a beginner, (or life is really hard), often you’ll just catch a glimpse of what life could look like outside of your current circumstances.

So I’m talking about taking that glimpse-in-time, and expanding it.

Those moments brought me peace, strength, and faith to keep climbing the mountain in front of me named medical-motherhood. So, I expanded them, and spoke them into existence…

…..An existence in which I’m blessed to live in with my five-year-old and family at home today.

Therefore, one of the best practices for moms’ health & growth is to expand moments of positive future glimpses. Take a walk down the path of creative visualization.

*Friendly reminder~ Baby steps will get you there faster than no steps at all.

A movement I founded and often spread is all about empowering moms to put down what doesn’t serve them in order to take ten minutes at a time to refuel. Fill Your Bucket is a movement and message, as well as strategy.

I truly believe that adopting Fill Your Bucket is one of the best practices for moms’ health & growth.

Studies show that human connections can literally save lives.

Stop being so damn busy, slow down, pause the task lists spinning in your mind, and prioritize dating your spouse, your children, & your bestie…. regularly.

Do this as a “best practices” for your health & growth, and it will change your life and ripple impact outwards.

To be a student for life is what it means to take full advantage & blessings from our abilities and availabilities when it comes to support & resources. This is why it is high on my list of “best practices for moms’ health & growth” to find authentic teachers.

As we have three teenagers approaching adulthood, (Lord help me), we’ve had discussions about their education options. We want to support their path of least resistance and most abundance, in accordance with their biggest strengths.

I believe that to consider yourself always a student is of highest value to you and everyone around you, but that education comes in so many unique forms today in 2022.

Christina Reynolds

Never before in history have we have the time/space freedom mixed with (economic & situational) pressure to mold us into new ways of thinking and operating.

Today, my kids can see that at thirty-eight years old, I still learn from others. I can still grow. I hope they value education as the beautiful gift that it is, because they watched me value it.

I recommend Gabrielle Bernstein, Abraham, & Wayne Dyer if you are just getting started with spiritual teachers, and XXO Connect and MindValley when it comes to convenient growth platforms for a mom.

Ask for guidance to be led to your people to follow and learn from, as this is one sure and best practice for your health & growth as a mom

This is easy, but often overlooked as a “best practice towards moms’ health & growth” for your best quality of life.

Before you spend the evening on the task of unfriending people, know that you don’t have to do a complete overhaul if you don’t want to take the time, but start the practice today. Witness when someone you are following makes you feel icky, judged, or irritated, then give yourself permission to click unfollow.

Let this practice for your health & growth heal & bless you. Life is too short to set your sights on things that make you feel like garbage.

I’ll say it again, life is too short to set your sights on things that make you feel like garbage.

Studies have been done on the effects that harmonic sounds, (as opposed to disruptive and chaotic sounds), have on the water in and around our bodies. Considering about 60% of our bodies are made of water, you’d think more education during childhood would be done to raise awareness around the importance of positive sound and vibration.

Some really interesting science suggests that the things that we watch and listen to will either elevate our health and wellness, or deteriorate it.

Start today by choosing a high-vibing audiobook, music, or podcast episode.

*Reminder- Baby steps will get you there.

Our support systems are vital for many reasons. Not only are they often able to tangibly help with a need, but they will also hold you on your darkest days, call you out when needed, offer solutions or resources you didn’t previously have access to, as well as remind you that hope works.

Often, just knowing that we are loved, guided, and supported is all the support we need.

And sometimes, we need a latte and five million dollars.

Build yourself a core clan that will be there for it all.

You’re doing great! Keep going.

This is one of the very first measures I took when I realized my Mom-life, (and personal health), had taken a turn towards crazyland, and has served me greatly as a best daily practice for my health & growth, as a mom and as a human.

This was smack dab in the middle of fighting for my baby’s life in the local children’s hospital, and a (well-meaning) staff member had the audacity to tell me that I was crying too much and not eating enough.

Who do they think they are to decide how much crying is appropriate under this circumstance? And I didn’t realized that I was assigned a nurse to monitor my caloric intake!

Raging Postpartum Christina

I was angry at myself for being so weak…..

….When in reality, I was so strong because of one strength: resilience.

On your rough moments, remind yourself who you are and all you have overcome, and the game will change. Follow your teachers and build your resilience muscles.

*Remember- You can do it.

This gold nugget of wisdom did not come from me, but many other teachers, gurus, and leaders in personal development.

I encourage you to sit with this and see what comes up for you. Witness with love, no judgement who and what you are blaming and not holding gratitude for, bless and release them. Then choose a new thought of thanks.

As my girl Gabby Bernstein says, ”feel the feelings until they no longer need to be felt.” I feel that applies here when talking about best things to do as a mom.

When we complain, the words embody an energy of negative charge and imbalance, (this can now be measured in a lab).

However, interestingly enough, the research also shows that allowing the feelings- feeling them like waves of energy crashing into you and washing away, (especially while in a visual and meditative state), can produce profound and extreme levels of healing on both the energetic and physical planes.

I am grateful for the amount of knowledge we, even as busy moms, have on the human brain, body, and biomes to use to better our practices and increase health, growth, and quality of life.

We as moms are often taking care of everyone a lot of the time and not getting our needs met. That seems to be the status quo and let me tell you why that’s actually alright, and where then the problem lies.

I happen to have my own free-thinking views on this, which I think can serve you if you chose to accept them, but that choice is yours entirely.

Mama, it’s all right if no one is taking care of you right now; this is the season of your life that you’re in that your soul desperately needs in order for its expansion. It chose this mission of motherhood knowing how much pressure it would put on your humanity.

The exhilaration comes from the expansion, which comes from the push in overcoming at times….

…..Overcoming our fatigue, overcoming our fears, overcoming our limiting beliefs, overcoming our traumas….This is high-level elevation.

The problem then lies when we don’t recognize that we have come to save ourselves and come to believe that Earth school is our creative playground., and we get angry at our spouse for not fixing their issues, and mad at our mom for being too involved, and mad at the economy for raising prices on toilet paper again…..

No one is coming to save you because you are capable of overcoming; you just have to remember who you are.

Once you do, you can release everyone else from their expectations.

Only then can you live a free life of accepting the things you cannot change, having the courage to change the things that you can, and holding the wisdom to know the difference.

This can be a tricky number if you have years of programming that devalues your own opinion, therefore may take a reasonable amount of deprogramming.

Luckily, there are simple ways to do this! Find an emotion code practitioner, (or hire mine), or go down your own rabbit hole! Whichever path you take, trust that you are being guided to find what you need.

However you decide to do it, just do it; it’s in your life’s best interest to find a way to value what you believe in and desire over everyone else’s opinion.

Not to say that loved ones’ words shouldn’t hold any weight, but if shouldn’t bulldoze you. If you make a choice that your mate, your mom, or your friends don’t like, the world will not implode.

Asking yourself where your discomfort is coming from will get you so much faster towards healing, as opposed to just accepting it or suffering through. Let pain teach you by showing you the path to healing.

Adopting this “allowed discomfort” as a best practices for moms’ health & growth will change your life.

I make a joke that Monday through Friday at 3:45, I get to show myself what I’m made of at school pick-up. It’s not so funny when I’m a mile deep in middle school traffic and need to pee, but its absolutely true.

Sitting in the worst situations and being able to cast a mental picture that strengthens your physical body to keep climbing forward is a skill, not necessarily a natural born ability.

You can learn to not let that person trigger you, that noise distract you, that belief interrupt you by sitting in the worst situations and practicing doing the positive thing you desire anyways.

A mentor named Cassie Woods once said, (and it clicked deeply in me), that she chooses to live her life in vision and imagination for her future instead of in history and memory.

I was jolted awake the moment I heard that. YES.

I get to choose my belief system. I can choose to live in a mental space of vision and imagination for my future instead of history and memory of my past. All the time. Or as often as I humanly can. Until its fully integrated in me as my new normal. Boom. I took my own power back.

Even if you have no historical proof that it could be true for you.

Ans even if you’re the first one in your family to do what you were wanting to do.

Again, even if you have a long list of challenges ahead of you, and you can’t see the way….

Believe in what you want as a best practices for your health & growth.

It will make all the difference in your quality of life and outcome.

Warning I’m going to rant for a second…..

I’ve spent so much damn time listening to myself and other moms talk about taking their kids to all their appointments. All the while, we keep putting off our damn appointment for whatever the thing is that we need to be seen for.

Mama, make a damn appointment and take the mental load off, creating space and new energy.

And because peace of mind equals better quality of life.

You should make the damn appointment because early diagnosis leads to better prognosis….and quality of life.

If you need to, justify making the damn appointment because our kids need to see what it looks like to make appointments for ourselves.

I implore you to make the damn appointment because you only get this one body this go around…..

Making the damn appointment is your first step in best practices for your health and growth as a mom.

Your eyes and nose and lungs and heart and reproductive system have been carrying you around for a long time. Take care of your body parts and make a damn appointment when its necessary.

There’s no badge of honor for caring for others as the expense of yourself.

Okay. With love, end rant.

Think about this. Most times that we want to do something, we then also accept the distractions that come into our experience. Then we use those distractions as excuses, (often legitimate), to not to do thing.

What does this look like?

Well, for example, perhaps we say that we’re going to wake up early before our kids so that we can be more centered throughout the day. But realistically, it never quite seems to happen because our bodies also need sleep.

It’s also realistic that some of us have toddlers climbing into our bed, or medical machines going off throughout the night, or ptsd or whatever. When our sleep quality is disrupted, we are legitimately tired and don’t wake up before the kids.

We then believe that because we did not wake up before the kids we will not have a centered day for reasons x,y, and z.

The power in your words to yourself can wake you up before your alarm even when you slept like poo.

The power in your words can keep you in a stuck pattern…. or break cycles.

Mom on the Climb

Obviously this waking-up-early thing is just one example, and you can fill-in-the-blank whatever your circumstance is.

Perhaps saying that you want to set more intentional time for reading or self-care or date nights with a loved one or start therapy….these are all things that you do have power in claiming and following through on.

But don’t just say you’re going to do something; Say you’re going to do something, and then do it. Take that one with much love from me.

*I’ll say it again…. Remember baby steps will get you there.

As moms we are great at justifying tasks that need to be done in front of us, but that’s not necesarily the same thing as the tasks that matter most.

That means different things to each of us, so I challenge you to sit with that and ask yourself if how you spend your time is the best way to get you your desired outcome.

Therefore, this nugget makes it to my list of twenty-one best practices for moms’ health & growth

Bonus

This mantra got me through some dark days, & gift it to you to test out as you see fit. From after school pick up to grocery store lines to hospital emergency rooms, this little gem always brings me back. Back to the truth that the moment I’m in right now is fleeting, which is both a blessing, and a curse. Use the moments wisely, & just keep climbing.

Take a few minutes each day to put your hand on your heart and tell yourself you are loved.

Anonymous

Prioritize yourself at least once a week!
Forgive yourself for not being the mom/wife/sister/daughter/employee/etc that you “think” you should be. You are enough!

Anonymous

Start the day off with something you are grateful for.

Anonymous

How to set and hold boundaries…

Anonymous

Invest in your mental health and learn DBT…DBT is complex, and it’s generally not something that people can do on their own without the guidance of a trained therapist. However, there are some things you can do on your own to help you develop new coping skills. Developing those skills 👏 are 👏 game 👏 changers.

Anonymous

Get out of the house… have fun dates with your kid(s), have an alone date and have a date with significant other, & have girl time with friends.

Anonymous

Eliminate stress, which I do by prayer, low carb diet, resting.

Anonymous

Own your worth and take 100%accountability

Anonymous

Mindful meditation and hire a new best friend (counselor)
Also vitamin d

Anonymous

Mental health, emotional regulation

Anonymous

When I am in a stable/happy mental state our home/family reflect that. When I am not in a stable/happy mental state…. Our home and family reflect that 🤪

Anonymous

Also, teaching my children to emotionally regulate in a healthy way at a young age so they don’t need to learn to do it as an adult

Anonymous

And you can too.

Take these twenty-one best practices for moms’ health & growth as my gift

to you, and go live your best life!

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