The Mindful Mama: Your Brain on Mindfulness

Let’s face it - being a mom is stressful. Every minute is filled with something to do, cooking food, getting the little ones dressed, waking them up, putting them to sleep, washing clothes, cleaning dishes, the list goes on. If you are trying to do all of this while working from home, the challenges are even more insurmountable. It almost feels impossible to find a quiet moment, especially in pandemic times.

By being personally aware of the stress, seeing all of the news headlines, or reading the various messages on your social media accounts - we know that moms are struggling. CNBC reports that, “9.8 million working mothers in the U.S. are suffering from burnout. From attempting to manage remote schooling to rearranging their workdays to fill child-care gaps, there's no question it's mothers who are, more often than not, shouldering the increased responsibilities of caring for kids throughout the pandemic.” NPR also notes that, “moms are reaching [their] breaking point during the pandemic”. We all know this is true, and we need something to refill our buckets.

To help you overcome these challenges, this month at Huddle Up Moms, we are focusing on mindfulness. As our first blog of the month discussed, mindfulness is the ability to find a calm, focused attention on present matters at hand. As part of this month, we have been offering a series of mindfulness meditations that you can use to help cultivate mindful moments throughout your everyday lives. Though mindfulness is a trait characteristic, it is something that can be developed over time and with practice. Exciting new research shows that mindfulness helps improve the way we think and feel. In this blog, we discuss these findings, focusing on how your brain responds to mindfulness meditation.