Be Inspired and Calm, Mama

Hello Everyone- time for another guest post! Let me introduce you to Brianna, an awesome mama who I met recently and was immediately impressed with. I recommend that you check out her blog as soon as you finish reading this article for even more awesome content because she is FULL of great tips, compassion and more.

Without further ado, here’s what she has to say:

Hi! If you haven’t met me yet, I am Brianna Hosack, aka The Calm-Inspired Mama.

I’m a Mama to three, plus fur babies, and I run a dayhome out of my house full time, with extra babies for me to love!

I am also a Calm-Mama Coach, and I have a blog (The Inspired-to-be-Calm Blog) where I post… approximately weekly.

A little about me:

For almost 10 years I struggled with uncontrollable rage due to unresolved childhood depression, postpartum depression & postpartum anxiety, as well as battling my ADHD.

I grew up knowing I wanted to be, and WOULD be a Mom, and yet I was turning out to be the most horrible one yet (in my eyes).

I couldn’t keep up, I was overwhelmed, I could barely keep it together during dayhome business hours and in front of other people. My family wasn’t so lucky.

I am extremely blessed that they stuck with me and are allowing me to earn my forgiveness every day since I discovered that depression could look like ANGER instead of just SADNESS.

It is something I had to learn from a Facebook post, and that I had never heard of before that.

Once I learned it, I knew I couldn’t be quiet about it.

I was a natural-born leader, and had never been afraid to speak my truth.

So even though I hated my truth, I knew that I needed to speak up and help other Mama’s who were struggling with the same things – I knew I wouldn’t be the only one.

And since then, I’ve made it my mission to help overwhelmed, busy Mama’s to find the CALM Mama who has been buried under the craziness of motherhood and selfless sacrifice; trapped in a cycle that they can’t seem to break free of on their own.

I’ve shared a lot about my own story, in the past, on my blog and other places online.

Today, I really want to outline some key things that any Mama who is struggling can focus on, to find some relief.

The FOUR things that any calm, and inspired Mama has, or needs to have in place & set up:

Takes time to help herself, and knows she is valuable enough to spend time on real self-care.
Learns. Improves her calm parenting methods continuously, and takes time to connect deeply with her kids, individually.
Removes excess, unwanted, time-consuming clutter from her life & home & schedule, AND has basic routines in place that keep her on track even when life gets crazy.
Has reasonable expectations for herself and her family members so that the self-doubt and self-sabotage are held at bay, AND takes action that is aligned with her goals, instead of random pot-shot/ spaghetti against the wall attempts, hoping something sticks.

This looks like:

Self-Help Practises.
1. This looks like digging deep to know what areas of yourSELF need work, and then…
2. Learning all you can about better ways to do it.
Self-Care Practises.
1. This looks like gaining awareness of where you are deficient in treating yourself as well as you treat others, and then…
2. Making it a TOP priority because you know you won’t do anything ELSE as well as when you are taken care of first.
Intentional Connection with your kids.
1. This looks like choosing to be present even when you don’t feel like it.
2. It looks like putting away your phone & letting your kids decide on an activity
3. It can also mean hearing them when you think you already know how they feel or think about something.
Calm Parenting is a practise too.
1. If you struggle with staying calm with your kids, there is no magic, overnight solution.
2. If you want to be a calm parent, you will need to choose it, again and again.
3. You will need to learn methods to control your own emotions, and choose to implement them each time.
4. The absolute BEST way to implement calm parenting tactics, though, is to find ways to PREVENT the issues that cause you to lose your cool.
Implementing More Routines
1. If this sounds overwhelming to you, don’t be fooled!
2. Overwhelm stems from a lack of control.
3. Choosing in advance how & when you will do something, creates control over your circumstances for you.
4. Routines are pre-made decisions about events or actions that need to be repeated over and over again.
Decluttering
1. This can be applied across the board in your life.
2. Decluttering simplifies and makes things more clear, mentally AND physically.
3. Example: Decluttering toys makes it easier for your kids to clean up their own toys & removes a task from your to-do list.
Lower Your Expectations
1. WHAT?! No, this isn’t a joke.
2. The more you expect of yourself, the harder it is to meet your own expectations.
3. When you don’t meet your own expectations, it causes a sense of failure and you feel guilty and ashamed of yourself.
4. When you lower your expectations, you succeed more easily, and more often!
5. The more you succeed, the more confidence you have in yourself, which causes…
Increased Productivity!
1. The more productive you are, the more confident you are. It’s a WONDERFUL cycle, unlike many negative cycles we get into (especially as moms)
2. And the absolute most exciting part about productivity is the time it leaves for CALM…
3. Calm, quiet time to yourself (for self-care)
4. Calm parenting methods (because when you aren’t as rushed, you aren’t as stressed!)
5. Calm, quiet time with your partner (for stronger bonds & relationship repairs)

The INSPIRATION comes in the quiet moments; the pauses.

The smallest things will inspire you when you slow down and open up to it.

You’ll find the inspiration to grow and heal…

The inspiration to breathe and connect.

The inspiration to clear out the old and make room for the wondrous and new.

The inspiration to get things done on a whole other level and to be kind to yourself and those around you despite your flaws.

The inspiration to be the kind of Mama you always intended to be.

This week (from Wednesday to Saturday) I am running a Free Workshop in my Facebook Group “Finding Calm in Motherhood for Work From Home Mamas”, and I’ll be diving deeper into these four key pillars in every Calm & Inspired Mama’s foundations.

If you haven’t signed up yet for the Productive Parent Workshop, make sure you do! Even if you can’t make the live training, you will be entered in the giveaway simply for registering!

What will you win?

One week of CALM Mama Pocket Coaching at no charge!

(Don’t know what that is? Check it out here: CALM Mama Pocket Coaching)

Other things you can do to earn entries:

-Share the workshop, inviting people to join in & tag me in the post (1 share= 1 entry – can share on multiple social platforms) I am @thecalminspiredmama on pinterest & instagram, or The Calm-Inspired Mama on Facebook

Invite friends to the group to participate in the workshop (1 friend who joins= 1 entry)
Show up live to the trainings (4 days= 4 entries)
Comment & participate in the training while it is LIVE (1 comment= 1 entry!!!)

Anyone can win, but there’s only one to give away, so get as many entries as possible in order to have the BEST chance at winning! No limit on the number of entries you can earn!!

So join us now by signing up at the link below. I can’t wait to see you there!