How to Thrive This Summer: 5 Strategies for Mom's Regulation

In this episode of the Sensational Moms podcast, we explore ways that moms who easily feel overwhelmed can make the most of their summer. Join me as I share personal experiences and offer practical advice on:

•  establishing routines
•  incorporating movement
•  prioritizing rest
• pacing to-do lists
• fostering meaningful connections (co-regulation!) 

If you're easily overstimulated and summer strikes fear in your heart or flies by without those purposeful, happy moments... you won't want to miss this episode. 

BONUS: You'll head into fall with some truly helpful habits supporting you and your family.

Join us for Summer Masterclass Series starting June 25th! Email whitney@sensationalmoms.com to reserve your spot or ask more questions.

01:53 Tip 1: Establish a Simple Morning Routine

04:57 Tip 2: Incorporate Movement Despite the Heat

10:18 Tip 3: Prioritize Rest and Wellbeing

12:28 Tip 4: Pace Your To-Do List

13:35 Tip 5: Foster Co-Regulation and Meaningful Relationships

15:56 Conclusion: Enjoying Summer and Preparing for Fall

Grab your summer masterclass spot here  and start fall feeling supported and empowered for the chaos waiting for you...See you July 2nd! 

This podcast is not meant as medical advice or a substitute for any medical advice. Please contact your health professional with any mental health or physical health questions or concerns.

Transcript

 Welcome back to the Sensational Moms podcast. Today we are talking about summer. I don't know if summer strikes fear in your heart, it stresses you out, or if it brings you joy, maybe somewhere in between, probably. Right. But for a lot of us as. Moms who are easily overwhelmed and overstimulated by our kids, the change can bring a bit of uneasiness.

So today's episode focuses on things that you can do for yourself to help you thrive through the summer. And also establish some habits that will help you start off your fall strong. Whether you homeschool or whether you don't, you will find this episode super helpful. But first, let's meet. My name is Whitney and I'm an occupational therapist turned homeschool mom of.

Four kids and I learned that I needed to take my understanding of, of the nervous system and apply it to myself so that I could go from being overwhelmed and overstimulated to being connected to actually enjoy the freedom that can come from homeschooling my kids. So I'm so glad you're here. We are going to jump right into it.

Here are five things that you can focus on this summer. To help you go from touched out and talked out to actually enjoying some of the extra time that you have on your hands with your kids so that at the end of summer you can actually look back and think, wow, I kind of enjoyed that. Okay, let's start with number one.

Have a simple morning routine for yourself. It's easy to focus on the kids and what they need instead. But it's also really easy to just float through summer and bounce from one concern to the next. And before you know it, summer is over. But predictability is very supportive of flexibility, which is in high demand for us as moms.

Right. I call it, uh, often ping pong momming. Yeah. Of going back and forth from one kid or one need to the next. Plans changing last minute. And yeah, that just requires a lot of our nervous system so we can support ourselves by having some predictability. And we don't really have to overcomplicate it.

We're not gonna choose a bunch of brand new habits. Start them all at once. Keep it really simple. So a morning routine this summer might be highly variable. What are you able to actually be consistent with? This is meant to be simple and supportive, not just another energy draining to-do list thing. So ask yourself what brings you joy.

And again, simple is the key word here. So if you have coffee every morning, maybe you can light a candle with your coffee and actually sit down and savor the moment. Another question you might wanna ask yourself with your morning routine is. What could you do almost on autopilot without thinking as you're considering your morning routine, be sure that you are feeding body senses that are so often undernourished as adults and as moms.

So. That would include especially movement, right? I've talked about that a lot before. We're gonna come back to that in our next thing on our list, because movement often looks different in summer. But I would also encourage you in your morning routine to include some auditory input that would be super regulating.

So think about music that might have a steady driving beat to help wake up your body and help you regulate as you enter your day before your kids bombard your auditory system. And the same goes for a touch as well before you feel bombarded by that touch input, that might be more irritating. Consider doing something like a simple massage with lotion or maybe dry brushing if you haven't looked into that before.

I know some moms also like standing on vibration plates, and that can be helpful as well. So easing your body senses into waking up before someone else does it for you, basically. Moving on to number two. So we talked a little bit about about movement in number one and how that is such an undernourished sense as moms.

And let's be realistic. If you live somewhere like I do where it gets really hot and sticky for at least a couple of months out of summer, then movement is probably going to look different for you in summer. So we need to be really aware of how often we're moving and the kind of movement that we're engaging in during this season, because you're probably less likely to do it.

I mean, where I live, I basically consider summer, kind of like winter when I live somewhere colder. When we live somewhere colder, people didn't get out as often and move as much. Of course, in winter, uh, winters here aren't so bad, but summer is really the season where you look out the window and it's beautiful, but you open the door and the humidity and heat kind of knock you down.

So we end up kind of camping out inside more often than we might normally. But heat really can get in the way of movement. So when we're thinking about ways to engage in movement through summer. The two things that we can change would be what we're doing or the activity and the environment. So you can, you can adjust the environment, right?

So what that looks like practically is considering the timing of trying to do things outside. I know that I'm actually a little bit more of a morning person in the summer. The sun's coming up a little bit earlier and I'm definitely more likely to go out. In the morning before breakfast. So practically speaking, that means that my kids in summer need to be a little bit more independent with making their own breakfast and getting things going in the morning.

And the age that my kids are, they're able to do that. Whether or not they wanna join me outside is up to them. For younger children, incorporating them in with us in our routine, it's gonna have little, it's gonna have differences, right? In how we actually implement that. Of course, there's also the evening.

We also tend to stay up a little bit later in the evening, and that is also a time where you can go outside if it has cooled off in the evening, if you're lucky. It actually does not cool off very much in the evening. Down here, of course, a summer classic. Just get in the water. Get in the water with your kids.

Often kids are really great at self-regulating, and if we just join them in their play, then we will probably get more movement. So, yes, I, I have a pool in my backyard, but I often have to be really intentional about making sure that I'm actually getting in the pool and playing with my kids. And then after we play a little bit, I let them know that I'm gonna swim laps or I actually have some styrofoam water weights that I use.

I know it kind of makes me feel like an old lady, but it's actually really helpful in exercising and getting resistance. There are definitely tools that we can use to make the heat more tolerable. And again, maybe you think about using those for your kids, but don't think about using them from your for yourself, but they can be really helpful.

One of the ones that I like is a cooling towel that stays cold a lot longer. I don't know if you've seen those before. They feel kind of funky, but they're actually really helpful and they stay cold a lot longer and they don't get as drippy gross feeling as like putting a wet towel around your neck.

But I have found that very helpful. There's also like neck cooling tubes, so these things are really helpful, especially if they're placed around your neck or, um, wiping the front of your face 'cause of how it affects the vagus nerve. So, um, definitely worth considering investing in something like that.

There's misting fans too. There's all different options. I've seen these really cool fans. I almost bought one at Walmart the other day. You know, they kind of go around your neck if you haven't seen those. They're really cool looking. I might give that a try this year. Of course, specialized clothing that is more breathable and also provides protection against the sun is also helpful.

So these are ways that you can make sure that you're engaging in that physical activity and like going outside and enjoying and reaping the benefits of being outside for your mental health and your physical health. Even though it really does get hot and miserable through summer. Um, a little aside, um, this might be getting a little too personal, but we're gonna go there.

Um, sweat is can also be really dysregulating for a lot of us and it's just extras, extra touch and put that can be really dysregulating. So I found these really cool sweat wicking bra liners that go around your braw line and I might be giving that a try this summer as well. So look up that if that is an issue for you.

Um, okay, let's go back and talk about number three. So number one was getting a simple morning routine. Number two was making sure you are getting movement even though it's hot outside. And number three is prioritizing rest and wellbeing. So. I don't know about you, but I'm looking at my schedule this summer and I started cramming it full of stuff that I just hadn't done during the school year.

I think we can tend to do that, especially as homeschool moms, and before I knew it, I just, my list was just way, way unrealistic. So there was no way I was gonna be able to find time to rest. During summer if I had a list like that. So, um, your brain has a salience network, which is. A part of your brain that helps you be able to focus and analyze when you're thinking directly.

But there's a part of your brain also that's called the default mode network. And a lot of us as moms and women really just don't tap into that network. Um, think about like daydreaming, kind of just laying in the hammock or floating in a tube, going down the river. Um, I've kind of dismissively called it my husband's nothing box.

Um, I'm sure not just then have this, but um, I feel like it's been easier for my husband to go to the nothing box than it is for me. But having a balance of both of these networks in the brain is super important for you, for your own self-regulation. So if that is hard for you, like it is for me. I am gonna be carving out some time this summer.

It doesn't have to be, you know, like a 30 or 60 minute chunk of time. It can be small times here and there throughout the day or throughout the week. But I'm really gonna be trying to exercise that part of my brain, and I would encourage you to do the same too. So rest doesn't include just like physical rest and sleep.

It also includes mental rest. So get that a try and let me know how it, how it's going.

Number four, speaking of my to-do list, pace your to-do list. Look, I was cramming my to-do list, so full this summer of mainly home projects that I've put off and like delayed spring cleaning and yeah, that's not good. I mean, we've talked about in the past doing a time audit for yourself. Look at your summer schedule because you know, I, I had a good idea of what my capability was like during the school year, but then when I considered summer and I thinking about all this extra time, you know.

There's not necessarily tons of extra time, so making my to-do list unrealistic is really defeating and dysregulating. So, uh, make sure you paste your to-do list, look at your actual time availability and assign it to like specific days so you can actually see if you are setting realistic expectations for yourself.

So let's wrap it up with number five. Last, but definitely not least, and probably one of our areas of greatest weakness as moms is to foster co-regulation for yourself. Okay? What does that actually mean? That means investing time in meaningful relationships that are supportive of your. Real life that you can be honest and open in and feel seen and heard.

And I know why this is so hard for moms, right? Our time is in such limited supply. But what can you do this summer when your schedule is already different than usual? What can you do to slow down and intentionally connect with people who would fill that role in your life? I know this is hard, and I get it.

Your time has shifted in such short supply, but if you can take some of that time this summer to actually write on your planner or text to that mom that you've been meaning to catch up with, and I. Actually set a date to have an actual phone call instead of just texting each other or meet in person or FaceTime.

Those would all be great things to do to invest in your own wellbeing as a mom, and bonus points if you are able to connect with someone who is a couple of steps ahead of you, maybe five or 10 steps ahead of you even to really be able to bring perspective and wisdom. Into your life. Also don't forget the relationships that are already in your life that might just need a little bit more attention.

I'm thinking of that specifically as my husband is traveling, um, into a different part of the world and we're not really able to communicate very well because we're in different time zones and just thinking about ways to reconnect with him. Really invest in a relationship for the rest of this year when he comes home.

So if that is you and you're thinking of, you know, okay, well I need to connect with, you know, someone new or, or what can I find? Like, don't forget to just look what's already around you. Who is already around you that you're blessed with, that you. You need to be intentional about connecting with as well.

So there you have it. That's a wrap for today. I hope that these five things, even if you could just pick a couple of them, will be really helpful to help you actually enjoy your summer and start off fall on. A positive note, right? If you even just invest in one or two of these things, you will be so much happier and more connected and less stressed out and overwhelmed as you enter fall and all that it will bring into your life.

So until next time, I really hope that you are able to find connection even in the chaos.