I had the pleasure of hosting Ashley Brown, a Nurse Educator, podcaster, mama of two and owner of Routine and Things. Routine and Things is a business that strives to help women consistently live their happiest life one routine at a time. She does this by sharing her knowledge through her podcast “Routine and Things” as well as offering various products and resources that help women start, maintain, and enjoy routines. Today she shares routines that will help to energize us as moms.

The Importance of Routines and Self-Care

Routines are a form of wellness that can help improve your home, energize  yourself and your life. They don’t fit into a box and don’t need to be rigid or boring. They should be free flowing and fun!

Moms get so consumed with the external events and people around them, they forget about themselves and become extremely stressed. When in stress mode, you’re not thinking about yourself; it’s all about survival and surviving the moment.

You slowly detach from your core, your soul and from your spirit, where you can’t recognize who you are. Moms need to make themselves a priority in order to pour into their families, so establishing a self-care routine would be an excellent first step in the routine building process.

Steps to Prioritize Self-Care

1. Establish a self-care routine and get connected to yourself.
2. It doesn’t have to be time consuming or cost any money and can even be done with your children involved.
3. Take the smallest step of even five minutes and do something for yourself and slowly build upon this.
4. Establish a boundary. No matter how old your children are, explain to them the importance of carving out some self-care time for yourself as a mom.

Steps to Routine Building

1. Keep it simple!
2. You can have a morning or bedtime self-care routine and a planning routine.
3. Some examples of activities that you can do as part of your self-care routines: journaling, praying or meditating, listening to meditation music. Stretching and exercise can be part of your morning routine.
4. If you do a routine that doesn’t feel for good you, it’s nothing wrong with you. Maybe you’re doing something you don’t want to do or that routine just doesn’t flow with your natural rhythm.
5. Experiment by trying things to see what you like or don’t like and then create a routine that works for you.
6. Remember do what works for you!

Other Routines you can Establish

1. Schedule Planning: making a daily, weekly or monthly plan. Be flexible and have some margin in your schedule for things that pop up unexpectedly.
2. Cleaning/ Decluttering: having a home refresh routine inclusive of cleaning, vacuuming and sweeping to keep your house neat and tidy, as well as gathering old items for a donation to a charity of your choice.
3. Meal Planning: organizing the meals for your household in advance will help save you time.

If you have several routines doing all at once, its less likely that you will stick to them. Think about which routines you need in your life in order for you to feel good, grounded and in control!

Sticking to Routines

How you create your routine is important so, remember to:

1. Keep it simple.
2. Be flexible with it as life happens.
3. Make it fun.
4. Manage your expectations and be realistic!
5. Things don’t happen overnight, so be willing to give yourself permission to tweak things and start over again.
6. Recognize self-sabotaging behaviors that can derail your routine e.g. distractions etc.

Remember routines are not going to cripple or restrict you. They will free you up to actually do more of what you love and enhance who you are.

Check out Ashley Brown’s free Routine Assessment on her website routineandthings.com, where she will walk you through a series of questions that will help you to examine the good routines you have and those that need improvement.

She also has a free mini audio course through Listenable, called Routine Building 101. The course takes you through a three step process that helps you to get to the point and decide what is necessary when you are building your routine. The course is also available on her website.

And I want you to know mama, as always I am here rooting for you and you are not alone on this journey.

Resources

• Join our Facebook Community
• Find me on Instagram: @thepurposegathering
• Website: thepurposegathering.com
• Free Masterclass: Productivity with a Purpose
• Ashley Brown links: Instagram | Website | Facebook | Podcast