I did a short 2 hour course today on mental health awareness for Managers and whilst the stats were alarming 1 in 5 woman suffer from depression and 1 in 8 woman suffer from anxiety (it even made me stop my negative self talk during the session), one thing that stuck with me was the answer to the question: what am I doing as a Manager to cope with these type of situations where a staff member or colleague is not coping i.e. what are my coping mechanisms?
Recently I have started meditation and yoga. I love my exercise but I also should take more time out during the day and take a walk during lunch at least. What are you doing?
I have also recently started meditation with the kids before bed, mainly due to the fact there is not a lot of time between me picking them up from grandparents houses and them going to bed.
I used to find that when they saw me at 630-7pm for the first time since before school, they would both get super excited and charged up again, which then in turn made their wind down super long. This was also so exhausting for me!
We have always had a night-time routine, pjs, lights dim, teeth, toilet, no screens (well sometimes I give in to that 😫) from around 7-730pm but I felt that I needed something extra for them and the meditation has worked well so far. They still are not asleep by 8pm, but at least now it’s closer to 830-9pm and far more relaxed.
All I get them to do is to take a few deep breaths, close their eyes, and then relax each part of their body starting from their feet until we get to their head! I.e relax your toes, relax your feet, relax your ankles… you get the drift.
It literally takes 2-3 minutes each child and they are both super relaxed afterwards and so am I. Sometimes we need to go over it again, because they decide to tell me everything that has happened that day, even though I have asked them about their day in the hour prior and the answer was “nothing”!
But, linking the course I did today, the presenter spoke about meditation tracks that are great for kids called Blissful Buddies. Click on the image above to go straight to their website you can also find them on Instagram. The kids and I haven’t tried or listened to them yet, but I have already downloaded the album into my Spotify account.
Apparently great to play to kids that struggle with the wind down and also to go sleep. I will give them a try tonight!
The Corporate Mum Petra 
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