Is your mojo lost? Did it get left at a quirky Italian restaurant you discovered in your 20’s or on a backpacking trip overseas? Girl, let’s get your mojo back, she’s waiting for you. First, let’s figure out why she high-tailed it out of here. Is she gone because you’re tired? How much of being tired is your own doing. Yeah, I said it. Now I’m not talking to the mom who’s been up all night with a newborn (praise you!) or the mom who’s struggling with a situation most of us can’t fathom, I’m talking about the average SUV driving overwhelmed with everything/underwhelmed with herself mom. First off, it’s okay to admit that you’re tired. It’s totally okay to be tired. It’s also okay if you didn’t make your kids’ birthday cakes from scratch and it’s okay if your kid had a grape today that wasn’t organic. Social media and Pinterest can be mojo killers. Don’t let the outside world take your mojo. She likes to be free and doesn’t like to be told what makes someone a good person.
Take a little time to examine how you feel physically. Is your back achy? Do you have tension in your jaw? Do a quick mental scan of your body to try and nail down where the mojo is lacking. Maybe you are tired because you feel overwhelmed.
How can you reduce the overwhelm?
Well, how busy are you? I hate to use the term “manufactured crisis” but being overwhelmed and busy is kind of just that. Don’t get caught up in the lie that you have to be busy in order to create the life you want. Feeling overwhelmed because you’re busy is a feeling. How you feel about something is entirely up to you. Get your mojo back simply by choosing a different feeling. Wait what? Yeah, you heard that right. You only get one go at this. You only get to be the age you are for one trip around the sun, not two or three or seven. How you feel emotionally changes everything. So how do you change the way you feel? First off, decide you’re going to view the things you have to get done as “get-to’s” rather than “have-to’s”. The other day I let a little (maybe a lot?) irritation creep in because I had to drive my daughter to her friend’s to borrow a pair of Birkenstocks for “VSCO girl” day at school during Homecoming Spirit week (Still 100% not understanding what this is, Spirit Week I get, VSCO girl day what? What is a VSCO girl? It will remain one of the great mysteries of life along with why you don’t weigh less if you suck your stomach in while weighing yourself but it involves wearing a shirt so big it looks like you don’t have pants on and carrying a really expensive water container. Scrunchies also a plus and bonus for uttering strange phrases from some YouTuber). But instead of viewing this errand running as a ‘have-to’ I opted to flip that tired mom attitude around and viewed it as a ‘get-to’. I GET TO be a part of my daughter’s high school experiences. What an honor!! So I GET TO hang out with my daughter and have all these interesting conversations. I GET TO do laundry because I’m a mom and I have these kids that are the light of my life. They kind of do their own laundry but you get the idea. If you change the way you think about the way you spend your day and you change the language you use, suddenly you’re in control of your day, not the other way around. Who doesn’t love a little control? ;) It’s empowering rather than exhausting.
I read somewhere once that when you’re feeling exhausted and worried to make a list of all the things. Write down what you need to get done and what’s stressing you out. Go back and circle the things that God can take care of. These are the things that are out of your control. Maybe you worry something bad is going to happen to one of your kids or you’re worried about the world we live in. Those are things to give to God. Now look at the things that you could delegate or not even do. Maybe you get your groceries delivered or maybe you cancel that dinner party you really don’t want to go to. What you’re left with is the stuff you really can tackle. Your list just got a lot smaller!
How much of your energy is spent worrying about what others think?
Don’t question or base your worth on the perception of others. No one really knows what you’ve been through. They may think they know, but they don’t. The beautiful thing is YOU get to decide how you feel about YOU. If you don’t think you’re a rockstar, how do you expect anyone else to think that about you.
Flip that switch and stop trying to impress EVERYONE and start impressing yourself! Stop being your worst critic because that is super exhausting.
Go back to that body scan and let’s talk about self-care. “Self-care” has become quite the buzz word and it kind of bugs me. I completely get the “put your own oxygen mask on first if you want to help anyone else” analogy but I also think this has become a clever marketing tool to sell face masks and overpriced potions. The kind of self-care that will get your mojo back are things like exercise and journaling, not necessarily spending money on face creams. Make space for you. You are how you feel physically and emotionally. Take time to read a book (some of my picks here) or savor a glass of wine or light a candle or do all three. Other mojo inducing treats? Make tea for yourself. Maybe put some oils in a diffuser or take a few minutes to meditate. I always preach this but just like YOU get to decide how you feel, you get to decide what is luxury and how to infuse that into your everyday. Luxury to me is sitting out on the patio with my husband enjoying the sunset and a glass of rosé. Luxury might mean taking the carbs you bought in the drive-thru line at Starbucks and putting them out for pretty and using a carafe for your coffee instead of the paper cup.
YOU get to decide how YOU feel, what to think and how you choose to treat yourself. In the same way I posted here about setting some small (and I mean small…like itty bitty yay me I did it!) goals, try celebrating YOU. You cannot expect anyone else to fix your overwhelm, or to make you get your mojo back, make you feel a certain way or treat you a certain way. All that….it’s on you! You’ve got it because it’s always been yours!!
Shop the sweatshirt here– exclusive to Aedriel.com