Motherhood has a way of filling every available inch of your life.
There are schedules to keep up with, meals to plan, appointments to remember, laundry that somehow never ends, and a thousand tiny things that need your attention before you ever get around to asking what you want.
Self-care for moms doesn’t have to mean a bubble bath, a face mask, or buying something pretty at Target. Sometimes it means making room for parts of yourself that have been pushed to the side for a while.
Here are a few ways to do exactly that.
1. Go Somewhere Alone
Not because you’re mad at anybody. Not because you need to escape your family.
Just because it feels completely different to move through the world without being responsible for anyone else for a few hours.
Go thrifting. Wander through a museum. Sit in a coffee shop. Take yourself to lunch. Drive somewhere pretty and walk around.
You don’t need an itinerary. The point is simply getting to hear your own thoughts for a little while.
Check out this article for boutique shopping spots around Columbia, SC.
2. Do Something You Used to Love
Think about what you enjoyed before your days became so heavily shaped by responsibility.
Maybe you painted. Rode horses. Played music. Read constantly. Gardened. Hiked. Danced. Went swimming.
You don’t have to turn it into a serious hobby or be particularly good at it. Pick something that used to make you feel like yourself and make room for it again.
3. Get Dressed Up for No Good Reason
There is something fun about wearing the outfit you keep saving for an occasion.
Make the occasion.
Put on the dress. Do your makeup. Wear the ridiculous earrings. Go somewhere that feels worthy of the effort, even if it’s only dinner and drinks with a friend.
Sometimes seeing yourself put together again can remind you that there are still a lot of versions of you beyond “Mom.”
Check out our date night ideas near Columbia, SC here.
4. Spend Time With Women You Actually Enjoy
Adult friendships can get ridiculously hard to maintain once everybody has jobs, kids, partners, and calendars that require military-level coordination.
Make the plans anyway.
Lunch with a friend, a girls’ weekend, a concert, a pottery class, or sitting on somebody’s porch talking for three hours all count.
Time with women who know you outside of your daily responsibilities can be incredibly restorative.
5. Move Your Body in a Way That’s Actually Fun
Exercise doesn’t have to mean forcing yourself through a workout you hate.
Try a dance class. Go hiking. Take a pole fitness class. Swim. Walk somewhere beautiful. Ride a bike. Garden hard enough to qualify as cardio.
Movement can feel very different when the goal isn’t punishing your body or changing how it looks.
Pick something that makes you feel strong, capable, playful, or simply more awake.
Click here for a list of our favorite Columbia Pilates studios.
6. Take Yourself Somewhere New
You don’t need a plane ticket or a week off.
Take a day trip somewhere you’ve never explored. Book one night away. Visit a town you’ve driven through a hundred times without stopping. Go somewhere with good food, pretty architecture, trails, antiques, art, or whatever interests you.
Novelty has a way of waking up parts of your brain that routine puts to sleep.
7. Make Something
There is something deeply satisfying about creating something that exists simply because you wanted to make it.
Try pottery. Bake something complicated. Plant a garden bed. Take a photography class. Learn stained glass. Paint badly. Cut gemstones. Refinish an old piece of furniture.
It does not have to become productive.
You are allowed to make things because making them is fun.
8. Let Someone Else Take Care of You for a Change
Book the massage.
Get your hair done.
Go have your nails done if you enjoy it. Spend an afternoon at a spa. Order dinner instead of making it.
Moms spend an enormous amount of time taking care of everybody else. Occasionally being the person receiving the care feels pretty damn good.
Check out our favorite Columbia spas here.
9. Do Something That Scares You a Little
Not something dangerous. Something that makes you think, I don’t know if I’m the kind of person who does that.
Take the class.
Go to the concert alone.
Wear the swimsuit.
Book the trip.
Try something you’ve been curious about for years.
Sometimes confidence grows from collecting evidence that you can do things you once assumed weren’t for you.
10. Let Yourself Be Photographed
Moms are very often the ones taking the pictures.
They document birthdays, vacations, Christmas mornings, graduations, first days of school and ordinary afternoons—and then realize years later that they are barely visible in the photographic record of their own lives.
Being photographed intentionally can be surprisingly meaningful.
That might mean family portraits, a beautiful headshot, photographs with your children, or something completely for yourself.
For some women, that something is boudoir.
At Bare Elegance Boudoir, I photograph women through a completely guided process. You don’t need to know how to pose or feel naturally comfortable in front of a camera. I’ll adjust everything from the position of your chin to the angle of your hands until the photograph looks effortless, even though I’m directing the entire thing.
And while a boudoir session can make an incredible anniversary or partner gift, plenty of women eventually realize that the photographs mean just as much to them.
They get to exist in front of the camera as themselves.
Self-Care Can Be Simple
You don’t need to reinvent your life to make more room for yourself.
Go somewhere alone.
Call your friend.
Wear something you love.
Learn something weird.
Make something.
Do something that reminds you that motherhood is an enormous part of who you are without being the only part.
And every once in a while, choose something simply because you would enjoy it.
Explore Boudoir Sessions at Bare Elegance
About Bare Elegance Boudoir: Bare Elegance is a private boudoir studio in Newberry, South Carolina, serving women from Columbia, Lexington, Greenville, Charlotte, Augusta and surrounding areas.
