Stacey Hoffer Weckstein is the Chief Mom Officer at The Mom Renewal Project, which is a mom community to recharge – body, mind, & spirit – so you can live your best life as a woman, mom & partner.  When Stacey became a working mom back in 2003, she quickly realized that self-care was something she had to intentional incorporate into motherhood if she was going to be able to live her best life. As a life coach and social media mom, Stacey is committed to helping other moms recharge in body, mind, and spirit, so they can also live their best lives.  She gifts the world with phone-based self-renewal circles for moms and in-person self-renewal circles in the Chicagoland area. She can be found online at The Mom Renewal Project, InspiringSocialMedia.com, StillLookPregnant.com and Twitter.

“Self-care is not about self-indulgence, it is about self-preservation”.
~ Audre Lorde ~

It was the winter of 2003. I had my first son the day after Christmas and in a flash everything change because I became a mom. I was transforming. My wise inner motherly instincts were emerging. I was having a love fest with my baby boy.

Around week 3, after we had settled in a bit as a new family, I remember feeling really proud of my motherly instincts – but something, which at first I couldn’t verbally describe, was suddenly missing inside of me.  It took me a few months to realize what was missing.

But eventually, once I started sleeping more and once some sort of routine took form, I was able to look back on my first few months of motherhood and identified my missing piece.  My missing piece was….ME.

I realized I was so busy nurturing, loving, and taking care of my child that I had forgotten to also continue to nurture and take care of myself. I realized I had not exercised in months, that I had rarely brushed my hair, that I wasn’t finding time for stillness in my life, and that I was not making myself a priority.

I realized I had to intentional incorporate self-care into motherhood if I was going to be able to live my best life as a woman, mom, and wife. I also acknowledged that no one else was going to make my self-care a priority except for myself.

And that was when I made a commitment to put self-care structures and routines into my life style to fully be able to recharge my body, mind, and spirit on a regular basis.

As a mom, this commitment to self-care is not something that is easy in our fast-paced busy society. But I know that moms who are physically tired, emotionally drained, mentally unfulfilled, and spiritually disconnected to their natural inner wisdom cannot fully be present in their own lives and with their children.

So six years later, I continue to honor this commitment of taking care of myself first because it is the only way I am able to be the best ME and the best mom to my boys. Am I perfect? No. Do I forget to take care of myself sometimes? Of course. But self-care is one of my personal core values and I’m proud that it is also a family core value that my children embrace.

Self-care allows all of us to better service others.

Moms – I give you all permission to take care of yourself first. I give you permission to practice self-care and to put yourself back onto your priority list.

You and Your Children Deserve It!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 at 11:00 am and is filed under MAMAELAN. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.