Healthy Mama Magazine Issue 7 - January 2015 | Page 66
breath...
Today is yours
Inspiration from Happy Mama
Amy Taylor-Kabbaz
You also encourage mamas to take more self-care.
What is that exactly?
It’s to do something small for yourself every day. So, whether that’s a cup of tea at two o’clock every afternoon, boil the kettle, sit down and just for five minutes don’t look at your phone, don’t do anything else, just
breathe, smile at your children, listen to some music, whatever you can do, or whether it’s putting hand cream
on last thing at night and just thinking about the wins of the day before you fall asleep. Just rubbing your
cream into your hands and being thankful for your body and saying, “Wow, you did a really good job today”.
That’s gorgeous. I love that one. I often ask mothers about a major
turning point or challenge. When do you think was your turning
point when you experienced a great challenge and initiated change?
I went into labour with my third, my baby boy, when I was twenty eight weeks pregnant. That would be the
major turning point. I feel like I had snippets and glimpses of what I needed to do before, but this was the big
wake up call. As Oprah says,
“
If you don’t listen to the w h i s p e r s ,
the universe will end up yelling
”.
That was the yelling point. That was the universe and my body and my beautiful little boy
telling me enough is enough. At twenty eight weeks I was working five days a week on
breakfast radio. I woke up at 3:30am every day of the week and worked as a producer on
Sydney Radio and then would come home at midday and write my blog and rush to yoga
because that was on my ‘to do list’ and I thought that was self-care. Then I would rush to
pick up my girls and I would rush here and I would rush there.
So, your life became about ticking the boxes...
I’d been talking about self-care for ages, but self-care was still an achievement for me.
It wasn’t about kindness. It wasn’t about listening to my body. It was about ticking things
off the list. It was about looking good on Instagram. It was about doing all the things I
thought I should do rather than actually slowing down, being in the moment and being
happy with where I’m at.
We got to the point of contractions coming
every three minutes, so it was pretty full on. But they
managed to slow it down. I was in hospital for five days and those five
days were my awakening. In the middle of the night I was googling
meditations and how to change my life. It really was,"okay, I’m going
to have to change this", and I wasn’t allowed to move from the couch
for the next ten weeks. I couldn’t even sweep my floor. It was excruciating, but I am so grateful for those ten weeks of doing absolutely
nothing now, even though I was in tears all the time. “I can’t just sit here.
I can’t just sit here”. So, yeah. That changed my life. That’s helped me
see what’s important. Helped me realise that I am not my achievements. That I am more than that. Look, I am still an ambitious person. I still want great things and I still work really hard, but I come to
it now from a totally different place and I listen to myself first and then
approach all of those other things. I don’t yell at my kids like I used to.
I just am such a nicer person to be around!
MAG
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