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I feel this has been talked about a lot and will remain one of those subjects that are forever discussed.

The consequence of prolonged stress on our bodies and how it relates to our self-worth.

How does long-term pressure affect our body? What happens to our bodies when we apply prolonged aggressive pressure?

If I stay in a yoga pose and put direct pressure on the bone or muscle aggressively the body has no other alternative but to collapse or a fracture/tear. Breaking the bone or a tear of the muscle.

Neither one is what we want to experience during a yoga practice. That would be irresponsible and unsafe and yet we do it all the time to ourselves through our attitudes towards how much pressure we can take mentally.

I had a “forced break” at the end of 2019 when I fell and broke my neck.

My youngest was still waking in the night and I got up too quickly, hoping not to wake anyone else in the house and as a result all of the blood drained from my head and I fainted in the kitchen. I fell backwards onto the cupboards and my chin was forced forward breaking the C6 bone in my cervical spine 

I had nerve damage that ran down my right arm to my fingers and around my right scapula and if I sit in meditation for a long time I can still feel some discomfort in my upper back.

What was I doing?

I was pushing through…….I was trying too hard to do it all while my children were young and I dismissed my own needs and didn’t ask for more support.

I desperately needed a break and I wasn’t prepared to gift myself one so life decided the only way I was going to slow down and sit still was to give me a forced break.

I can appreciate this is not the case for a lot of parents in terms of a forced break. Still, if I was to have a point, it is that prolonged stress on the body eventually catches up to us and the need to keep pushing is related to our relationship and our beliefs around our own self worth.

In my experience and what I have seen in others, the extreme stress symptoms are not always present when our children are young, it starts when they are older, a time when mothers (typically) can start to have a bit of space or slow down and consider themselves, that’s when they notice the pain and disorder(s).

Mental and Physical.

Potentially it has been numbed out for so many years, they only start to see the effects of the lack of attention to themselves when they stop.

I’ve heard a few stories over the years working in yoga studios and the theme of women who have had a forced break is heartbreaking.

They would describe themselves as go-getters, nothing wrong with that, what an amazing example to have growing up…..But is it balanced? They would have managed the house and a full-time job, they set everything up in the family which meant they were the go-to person for everything, sport, playdates, driving lessons, holidays, schooling, and household organisation. As well as being an attentive parent and partner. 

They didn’t see the imbalance at the time and just keep going, symptoms were often present but numbed out with alcohol, food, TV, phones, being busy and painkillers.

And this can go on for years without too much disturbance until our body is no longer able to keep sending us notifications of our declining health due to pushing too hard, and we have a breakdown or burnout or diagnoses.

We have already experienced a lot of symptoms but we kept going, hoping it would one day go away. Or we reached out to external practitioners to solve the “problem”.

Signs & Symptons

• fatigue
• insomnia
• headaches
• digestions issues (most illness will start in the stomach, even if it ends up in the liver or kidney or another organ)
• Physical pain, inflammation, sore joints, and muscles
• low or high blood pressure
• feeling tight around your heart
• Shallow breathers
• Hormonal imbalances
• Low libido
• Skin sensitivities

I feel passionate about this one as it’s in our power to change.

It means us taking a deep look into our relationship to our self-worth. 

What are we doing to satisfy that need to cover up the belief that we are not worthy of love, support, kindness, rest, respect, time, fun, peace, excitement, joy etc?

Running ourselves so hard and overcompensating to keep everyone else happy. It’s not a fair agreement. The trade-off is our health and stifling the life force that is running through us.

Yes, we can use external means, this is very helpful to start your journey into health and your best practices, and would be useful alongside working on your relationship to self-worth. 

Without doing the self-worth work, the other practices will not penetrate deep enough to intrenched belief systems.

Life can be full of distractions and excuses, but it is up to us as individuals to be responsible for our mental and physical health. 

When we are not ourselves, something has shifted internally and we need to pay attention. 

It’s the body signally to us to pay attention, it’s our chance to learn something and to put into action what is required.

For most Mums, Space, Attention & Care is all that is needed to bring the balance back.

Do all of the things, AND practice giving yourself space, attention and care, knowing that you are worthy of all of those things.