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Welcome to this breathing exercise.

Regardless  what age your children are, it is hard to have them at home all day with little to do, and trying to find ways to keep them both occupied and safe. This can be very demanding for you as a mother, and can make you feel pushed to your limits.

It’s important to realise that the very best thing you can do for your whole family at the moment is to take care of yourself. It’s not an easy thing to do when you are used to putting your children and other family members first, but scientific research  shows that if you look after yourself you will be much calmer and happier, and a better support for your family.

So this is a short exercise you can do at any time, no matter what you are doing, and if it helps you, you can introduce it to your children as well:

Taking just a moment to become still in your body, whether you are sitting or standing, and as you do so, noticing that you are breathing. How often do you actually notice that you are breathing? You don’t have to do anything with your breath, or change your breathing, you can simply be mindful that you are standing or sitting here breathing. Letting the breath flow in and letting the breath flow out – and again, the in-breath flowing in  and the out-breath flowing out. Just breathe – in and out. A short moment of peace and love for yourself. It might feel that you are doing very little, but it helps to know that this simple exercise of taking a little pause, just spending a few moments gently breathing, can be a great start to calming your nervous system and helping you to look after yourself first so that you can be a wise and strong support for those you love.

Prepared by Sarah Foale. Visit her website or try our other mindfulness exercises.