There is no secret here. Moms are busy ladies. And if you’re anything like I’ve been in the past, you probably use your “free time” over the weekend to catch up on all the things you couldn’t get done during the week.

See if this sounds like your typical weekend.

1. Wash 1000 loads of laundry. (Am I exaggerating here? Maybe not!)
2. Run kids to various birthday parties and extracurricular activities
3. Stand in long lines at the grocery store to get food for the week.
4. Clean out all the spoiled food in the fridge from last week.
5. Start (but don’t finish) some other household projects

By Monday morning your weekend is just a blur and you feel just as exhausted (maybe even more so) now as you did on Friday afternoon!

You definitely have the Monday Blues and you’d rather stay in bed and take a “mental health” day while someone (anyone) else handles your responsibilities.

Are you feeling this situation here?

Really Mama life doesn’t have to be that way. But first YOU have to decide that you don’t want it to be that way.

Sure we all have things we have to get done, even on the weekend, but I’m here to encourage you to use your weekend as a “tool” to make every Monday your favorite day of the week!

Here is why you should start making the most out of your weekends!

1. A little thing called REST

I feel like I write and talk a LOT about rest to my yoga students and clients because it’s so socially unacceptable for grown-ups to actually take a break.

Many of us feel that if we rest then we are being lazy and unproductive. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I talk about how to fit rest as one of the 3-steps to creating more ease in your mom life in a short video. Get that free video here!

The research on rest is clear!

Regular and (good quality) rest can help keep your immune system functioning optimally so that you get sick less often. It can help you concentrate better and have less “mommy brain”. It can also help you manage your weight!  So yes rest is important.

I wrote more about why moms, in particular need to rest in another blog post. You can read that here! 

2.  It’s all about BALANCE

If you were to ask the yogi in me, I would tell you that “health” is just a synonym for balance.

Let me say that another way. If you are HEALTHY then your body is in balance. If you are SICK  then you are experiencing an imbalance.

Think about it. You can’t just go go go all the time and never refresh yourself. NOTHING in the world works like that!

You work hard Monday through Friday doing all that you do. Don’t you deserve to take a chill so that you can be BETTER when the new week starts?

Yes, I know that its not always easy for moms to fit in the “balance” (I have three kids and I know it gets crazy). But when you have simple strategies that don’t require a lot of time or for you to be alone then that “balance” thing becomes more doable. I talk all about my favorite balanced mama strategies in this video. Get that free video here!

Working hard, and resting “hard” is what balance is all about.

3. Exhaustion makes you LESS competent

You may think that you are a super mama doing big things, but the fact is that an exhausted mama is also a stressed out and overwhelmed mama!

And when you are in that kind of stressful state it’s much harder to be kind to your family. It’s much harder to focus at work and do a good job! And it’s much harder to be happy!

Over my years of practicing, researching and teaching yoga I’ve come up with my own 3-step system to finding balance and keeping stress and exhaustion at bay. Learn about that simple system in this free video here!

4. Nurturing yourself makes you MORE competent

So if being exhausted makes you less capable, doing things you love often does just the opposite.

Dr. Christiane Northrup says that one of the keys to good health and happiness is to engage in what she calls “rituals of pleasure” on a regular basis.

For our purposes here, a regular basis could be every weekend!

Do something you enjoy just for the joy of it. Go take a walk. Go to a yoga class. Go on a girl’s night. Go hang out at the bookstore. Whatever it is that floats your boat, girl, DO IT!.

On a very practical level doing these kinds of things for yourself makes you feel LESS resentful towards your family when you do all those other things for them that make them happy!

5. Better Mom, Better Family

I just love when research confirms what little old ladies have been saying FOREVER.

Dr. Daniel Amen, studies women’s brain health. And he found that when the mother of the house, is healthy, happy and well adjusted then so are the kids and spouse. But when mom is NOT doing well, then neither is the rest of the family.

So really it boils down to this simple statement: When you take amazing care of YOU then and only then can you take amazing care of your loved ones!

Have I convinced you to really make your weekends delicious yet?

Wouldn’t it be nice to finish up a long week knowing that the weekend was going to be awesomesauce?

Wouldn’t it be nice to wake up Monday morning feeling refreshed and ready to go into another amazing week?

Yeah that sounds lovely to me too!

Want a Simple 3-Step Yoga Process to Get You Refreshed & Ready to Go Monday Morning?

Click below to get this free video and learn how!