Managing Your Mental Health as a Single Mom

If you’re a single mom, you sometimes might feel as if the weight of the entire world is upon you. With little to no help with your children, this can greatly affect your mental health in more ways than one. You might feel like you’re burnt out and at your wit’s end on the daily. Small tasks might feel like they’re too much to handle, and that’s because your struggling to manage your mental health as a single mom. And COVID likely made this stress on yourself and managing your mental health even worse.

Need some helpful tips on how to better manage your mental health as a single mom? Keep reading for our best advice for single moms just like you…

Try therapy

Gone are the days when therapy was labeled as taboo. Therapy is healthy and can drastically change your perspective and outlook on life. And purging those thoughts swirling in our minds is cathartic and necessary. Sure, we have our girlfriends to gab with, but entrusting our personal struggles with a licensed mental health professional can be life-changing. Sondermind offers wonderful online video and in-person therapy options for you to choose from, and many therapists will accept private pay if you’re not currently insured.

Start a Gratitude Journal

If you make a conscious effort each and every day to spend just 5-10 minutes writing down things you’re grateful for in your life, you’ll be amazed at just how quickly your mindset will shift towards all things positive. Attitude is everything, and that’s what they mean when they say to practice an attitude of gratitude. It will also help you to realize that often your problems are subjective, and there is so much beauty all around us to be grateful for. Especially when it comes to those precious children who get to call you mom! (I’m particularly excited about this idea as it brings us right into November as we begin a new theme at SMS: Grateful Mamas Have Great Strength)

 Be Kind to Yourself

When you’re a mom, your own needs often get placed on the back burner. And as a single mom, your needs often go unmet for far too long. This is why to manage your health as a single mom, you need to be kind to yourself. Allow yourself to sleep in or take a nap when you can. Let yourself watch some television and relax, the laundry can wait. If you’re trying to rest but not actually resting, this is terrible for your mental health. Be kind to yourself, give yourself some grace, and try to relax in the few moments when you can.

Establish a Strong Support System to Support You

You are a human being with needs. And you need to have support sometimes to help you meet those needs. As a single mother, the brunt of the responsibilities often falls on our plate. But enlist the help of loved ones or your child’s parent to help you establish order so that you can get breaks too when you need them. It doesn’t have to be all the time, but you do need a break as not to lose your sanity. If you have a hard time asking for help, that’s okay. Chances are, those that love you will want to help but don’t want to step on any toes or make you feel like you can’t manage. And you will never know if you don’t ask!

Single Mom Spot™ is an online community for single moms that brings resources for real, offline change. We want all single mamas to live their best lives right now. 

Do you have any advice of your own to share that helps you to manage your mental health as a single mom?

We’d love to hear what they are, please leave us a comment and share.

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