My sacred hour

I’ve been a mum for 13 years. It’s a busy job – round the clock and unrelenting but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Being a mother has taught me more about myself and the world than I could have imagined in my pre-mum, singular, career focused brain. It has also taught me about the importance of self care so that I have the energy and strength necessary to care for and guide these two human beings that rely on me, and this is where my sacred hour comes from.

Every morning I get up at 6am to have an hour to myself. This is before the children wake for the day, my husband is often up and out early too so I have this one hour of quiet and calm, before the busy-ness of the day begins. When I have told friends about my special hour, they have asked me “But what do you DO?” I tell them what I do (light a candle, have a cup of tea, listen to my podcast and gently wake up into the day before any demands are made of me) but really the point of my sacred hour is not ‘doing’ – it is ‘being’.

Every mum knows, you rarely get time to ‘sit’ in a typical day. You are picking up, dropping off, shopping for groceries, brushing hair, laying out clothes, making breakfast, gathering homework and items for ‘show and tell’, going to work, doing work, making lunch, making dinner, doing laundry, you get the picture. There is little time in all this for the luxury of doing nothing and just ‘being’ and this is what my sacred hour is for.

It took me time to find my sacred hour. For years I was in the mindset of doing and not being, but I think as you get older, you are interested to learn about new ways of living and new ideas. You are open to exploring and feeling in a way that you didn’t have time for before. I find that having my non-negotiable sacred hour each morning enables me to firstly feel calm and entered before starting my day and it also allows me to connect to myself. It is a mindful practice. Sometimes I meditate, sometimes I just listen to my podcast but either way it is a restorative act that makes the rest of my day flow better.

Having my sacred hour is my time for me. It is what I do for myself before I do for anyone else. Before I had this ritual I would do for everyone else before I did for myself. This is a recipe for exhaustion and disconnect and is the opposite of self care. You wouldn’t take out your phone without charging it and expect it to do what you want it to do. This sacred hour is my recharging session. I plug into what I need and I get my energy levels to 100%!

I love to hear how other busy women look after their own self care. Do you have a regular practice that is dedicated to you and if so – what is it? Do you think you are neglecting your own self care and if so, what would you like to do to change that. Let me know in the comments and let’s see if we can get a discussion going on this topic – I’d love to learn from the collective wisdom out there.