Celebrating You: Moving Beyond Survival Mode After the May Chaos

The whirlwind period many parents know as "May-sember" has finally passed. That chaotic collision of end-of-year recitals, teacher gifts, graduations, and yes, somehow Mother's Day too, leaves many of us emotionally drained but without the space to process what we've experienced. 

When your child crosses a significant threshold like high school graduation, there's a profound emotional transition happening beneath the surface of all the ceremony preparations. Have you given yourself permission to sit with the complex emotions of seeing your child transform into a young adult? That relationship is evolving in real-time, and acknowledging this shift matters deeply for both of you. The values and truths you've instilled continue as your legacy through them, but the day-to-day reality of your relationship is changing.

While many of us practice regular self-care—the daily workouts, meditation sessions, and nature walks that keep us functioning—there's a critical difference between routine maintenance and genuine celebration. After surviving May's marathon of events, you deserve more than just your regular self-care routine. Whether it's scheduling that massage, planning a weekend getaway, enjoying a hotel room in perfect solitude, or finding time for unstructured joy with friends, intentionally celebrating your accomplishments isn't frivolous—it's necessary. Your role in nurturing others through their milestones deserves recognition too. What will you do beyond routine maintenance to truly celebrate yourself? You've earned it, and your emotional wellbeing depends on it. Find what brings you genuine joy and make it happen.

Chapters

• 0:00 Surviving May-Sember
• 1:19 Processing Graduation Emotions
• 1:56 Time For Self-Celebration
• 3:47 Reflection and Joy

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Well, at this point we're into June Did you survive May-Sember? I felt like I barely did, and that always makes me reflect and remember that it is important that I focus on doing something for myself. I know so many of you were busy with end of school teacher gifts, recitals. Many of you were busy with end of school teacher gifts, recitals, graduations, grandbabies being born all of the things coming to a head, it seemed, in the month of May, on top of oh, here's Mother's Day, because you really have a chance to actually enjoy that in the midst of all the chaos. So what I need you to do right now is I need you to look and reflect on what you survived, what you have gone through, deal with the emotions that you may not have dealt with, because, as someone who has close friends that have had boys graduate from high school, I don't think that they've really dealt with the whole. Okay, my babies are now not babies. They have graduated, they are young men, they're going out into the world to do the things and I think you need to make sure that you take the time to do that. And what kind of relationship are you going to continue to have with them, moving forward and for just really actually sitting with the emotions of what that entails.

Speaker 1: 1:19

I know when my friend's boys graduated, my focus that day was on them what do they need? And the first question I asked my very close friend was did you eat breakfast before we go and sit out and wait for graduation and probably won't eat again until one o'clock in the afternoon? And she said no. So I quickly made up some breakfast for her, ran it over to her and made sure that she ate anything that she needed. I was trying to make sure that I was there for them so that they could enjoy the moment, sit with their emotions, and I think that that's important that you do that and at the same time, reflect upon it.

Speaker 1: 1:56

But also take time for you. Take time to understand what it is that you are going to do for yourself. I have masterminds that I run and we routinely ask. One of the questions is always did you hit your goals for the week? What were your goals? We go through goals and then my last question is always what did you do for yourself? And oftentimes the response is Pilates, I worked out, I went for a walk, I sat in nature and those things are good Like those should be part of your everyday routine.

Speaker 1: 2:31

But after surviving Maysember, there should be like a celebration of you. So go and get that massage, go and have a girl's day, go and get away for a weekend. Go to a hotel and go and enjoy either your partner or just enjoy the solitude. Go for a hike. Do something extra beyond your regular thing that you are doing as part of your routine maintenance so that you don't kill someone. Yes, that would be why I work out every single day so that I don't hurt anyone in my family.

Speaker 1: 3:04

You have to go beyond that and do something for yourself. So really take the time to think about, reflect what you have been through, where your relationships are moving towards, how you see yourself progressing, but then also take time to celebrate you and the fact that you helped that 18-year-old get through high school and now become a responsible, kind adult that's going to go out into the world and again continue your legacy, because you've passed on your values and your truths to them to them. So my most important thing that I want to make sure that I emphasize today is that I want you to take time to celebrate you and do something beyond the normal routine maintenance. Find that friend that you can go out and have a drink with, or go and dance with, or go on a hike with, whatever it is. That is your thing. That would bring you joy. I want you to do it.