Ep. 126 – Finding Joy in Self-Care & Why Moms Struggle to Prioritize Themselves

by | May 4, 2022

Ep. 126 – Finding Joy in Self-Care & Why Moms Struggle to Prioritize Themselves

by | May 4, 2022

The Fresh Start Family Show
The Fresh Start Family Show
Ep. 126 - Finding Joy in Self-Care & Why Moms Struggle to Prioritize Themselves
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This episode of the Fresh Start Family Show centers around self-care for parents, especially moms. Wendy talks about why it is essential to care for ourselves so we can best be able to care for our little ones. 

In this conversation, Wendy walks through her own journey with self-care and how it has been pivotal for her own heart, soul & parenting walk, but also gives practical ways parents can start prioritizing their own self-care without feeling guilty! 

On today’s episode Wendy discusses:

  1. 6 reasons self-care is so challenging for many of us
  2. Why self care is essential for parents
  3. How to prioritize self-care when you are caring for kiddos 
  4. Falling in love with self-care & making it fun
  5. The importance of modeling to our kids how to fill our own buckets


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*Firm & kind strategies to navigate challenging behavior with firm kindness & connection (vs. fear, force, yelling, threats & bribery)
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*How to work WITH your kids instead of forcing them to comply or trying to MAKE them change


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Episode Highlights:

  • Importance of self-care 
  • Wendy’s self-care journey
  • Word of the year mid-year update
  • How & why to prioritize self-care
  • Why self-care is so challenging for us
  • Guilt surrounding self-care
  • Finding what fills you up
  • Info about the new Fresh Start Wellness Collective

Resources Mentioned:

Lauren Brooks – Fitness Coach & Trainer

Amanda Francis – Financial Management & Mindset Coach

Corrine Crabtree – Weight loss & Mindset Coach

Audacity to Be A Queen – Gina Devee

Fresh Start Wellness Collective


Not able to listen or want to read along with us?

Here is the episode transcript!

This episode is brought to you by the Fresh Start Family, free learning guide: how to use empathy to build connection and cooperation in your home had to freshstartfamilyonline.com/empathy to grab your copy now.

Stella:

Well, Hey there, I’m Stella. Welcome to my mom and dad’s podcast, the Fresh Start Family Show. We’re so happy you’re here. We’re inspired by the ocean, Jesus and rock and roll and believe deeply in the true power of loving kindness. Together we hope to inspire you to expand your heart, learn new tools and strengthen your family. Enjoy the show.

Wendy:

Well, Hey there, families and welcome to a new episode of the Fresh Start Family Show. I am your host, Wendy Snyder, positive parenting educator and family life coach. And today I want to talk to you about self-care. It is mother’s day this weekend. Oh my goodness. We should have a mother’s day every single month, but we get it once a year. So I’m excited to just pour into all of you incredible mothers who listen to this show and are students of mind and just supporters of Fresh Start Family. I love you all so, so much, but today we are going to be talking about self care, and this was actually my word of the year that I chose back in December for 2022, to help me just really focus on taking care of myself.

So we’re going to talk about the importance of self-care for parenting, but also, you know, just this idea of why it can be so hard for many of us to take care of ourselves, especially I think in a day and age where it’s so easy to fall into addictions of achievement and perfectionism, and just striving to be as good as we can in air quotes, as good as we can or better parents or better people or better humans, which actually is like a whole, whole thing that I’m going to record on soon, because I want to really encourage you guys with an episode about how perfectionism and shame are kind of intermingled deep in so many of us.

I want to really give you guys some support on how to recognize a cycle of striving or desperation to be better and how to unwind all of that, which really has been something God has been blessing me with over the past few years, it’s been a bit of an uncomfortable journey as I’ve learned about my own cycles with all of that, but it’s also been extremely enlightening and just, and just beautiful and really something that I’m just grateful for, that I’ve had the mentors to support me along that journey, but really what I realized late 2021 is that I was in a pattern of putting myself last and my body and my mind and my heart were aching.

There was a lot going on, I think physically and mentally. And I think so many of us can share in this same idea, right after coming out of two years of a pandemic and just doing our best as best as we could to endure the pain that came along with that, right? Just so much decision fatigue and worry. And I think just all of us trying to figure out handle how to handle the division in this world and all of the things that were being thrown at us, that we had to just handle as best as we could, whether it was, you know, homeschooling or juggling, you know, all the decisions or obviously fears around health.

And you know what we thought about the laws and, and, you know, everything that was happening, it was just, it was just a lot for all of us, right? So I think self care fell kind of to the wayside for many of us as we just kind of treaded water and did the best as we could. So for me, I realized that my body was screaming at me to, to prioritize self care. And so I chose that word, choosing a word for the year is a, is kind of a new practice for me. I’ve just been doing it two years in a row. Now one of my favorite friends and mentors, her name is Carissa.

She introduced me to this practice a few years ago, and now it’s something that I fallen in love with, because anything you put into the forefront, right? Like anything you put focus on grows. And so when you have a word that you write in your journal or your daily practice, when you’re studying scripture or whatever it may be when you put that word down over and over again, and you bring awareness to it, it really, because it could become something that you then make, you know, you put at the top of your list in your life. So it’s just kind of a cool, cool way that that unfolds, but I’m going to be sharing with you what I’ve been doing this year to prioritize self care.

But also we’re going to chat a little bit about why self care in my opinion is so hard for so many of us hard is actually a word that I’ve taken out of my language. It’s been about two years now. Every single time I say the word hard, I actually go back and redo it with something like it’s, it’s a journey for us. It is new for us. It is uncomfortable for us. Right. But, you know, I put that word in there. It feels so hard for us because I know so many of you are in that point where you’re like, Wendy, it is so hard. I’ve got wee little ones. I’ve got multiple kids. My husband works all the time, right.

Or there just is literally no time. It is hard for me. The finances aren’t there for me to do X, Y, and Z. Like, it feels very, very hard. So I’m praying that this conversation just inspires you to start seeing it different and just inspires you to get creative with what you can do to actually feel good about putting yourself first. And yes, what I mean that putting ourselves first, so inside of our foundations course, which is just our foundational learning program that I really recommend everybody, every human across the planet does every parent, it really, every human that is ever going to have another human, which let’s be clear is most of society.

And of course, every single parent that has children, the foundations course is really just essential. I think to just feeling like you’re empowered when you’re raising little human beings, but we talk a lot first out, out the gate in module. Number one about how self care is essential. If you want to be able to be patient and calm and empathetic and be able to follow through and be firm with your limits and your boundaries with confidence, you’ve got to make sure that your own bucket is filled up. So the question is, how do you do that? Right? When your plate is so full and why does it just feel so hard for so many of us?

All right. So number one, I think many of us are taught when we were young, that being alone is bad. And in the realm of self-care, like I said, I’m going to share with you some things I’ve been doing this year, and you’re going to hear some of it is taking time away for myself. Some of it’s actually purchasing products that have, you know, been life-giving for my body from a healing perspective. But you know, a lot of it is taking time out for ourselves, which there for every single one of us, there is only 24 hours in a day. Right. So it’s not like any of us are blessed with more time. Yes. We all have different circumstances for sure, with the amount of help we have or how much our spouses work or how much we work.

But we’re all given the same amount of time in a day. But this idea, you know, that in order to do self care, sometimes you do have to get away. You do sometimes have to be alone. Right. And I think when you think about why is this so hard for so many of us, I think many of us, like I said, we’re taught when we’re young, that being alone is bad, right? Like how many of you were raised with the idea of timeouts as a punishment or the idea of like go to your room? You’re grounded. I, I can’t even look at you right now. Like being alone was a bit of a punishment. So there’s a often, I think a subconscious relation between if we’re going away to be alone, whether that’s a hot bath or a hot shower or a half-hour walk or a jog up in the Hills, or we’re actually going to go get a massage or we’re going to go get a haircut or a facial or whatever, it may be a manicure.

Then I think there’s a little part of us that feels like that’s not life-giving to be alone. Right. And I know many of you are going to be like, Wendy, are you kidding me? Being alone is my favorite thing on the planet right now. And I feel you too. I’m learning more about what extroverted versus introverted means. Like which 1:00 AM I, am I an extrovert? Or am I an introvert? Because as much as I love being together with people, I’m realizing that being alone actually like really fills my bucket up. Like I, like I said, I want to host parties. I want, I obviously I’m a public speaker. I’m an educator. I’m a, you know, I love to help thousands and thousands of families each year.

I like to support my private support community in a group format. Like I love being with people and I’m realizing that being alone fills me up. But I think it’s taking years for me to become comfortable, not feeling guilty about that. Because like I said, when we’re young, we’re just, we’re just given the messages. Oftentimes through discipline, that being alone is unhealthy. Being alone is bad. So it’s one of the many reasons why I’m passionate about teaching parents to do things differently when it comes to discipline. So, you know, we talked so much about discipline last month here at the podcast and over on Instagram and all the things.

So this month, I really just wanted to take a more light hearted approach. And just again, kind of have more carefree discussions. It’s why we’re making the discussion around self care fun today. But, but yeah, disciplining our kids in a different way where we’re teaching self-regulation and self calming as a way to take care of yourself when you’re out of sorts, not as a punishment, but Hey, this is going to be life-giving for you. It’s always the starting point when we’re building up a compassionate discipline toolkit is you start by teaching and modeling your kids, self regulation and self control. Then we talk about natural consequences. Then we talk about logical consequences and on how to build those out.

So we’re teaching our kids important life lessons, but it really all starts with self calming, self regulation. Some people call it time ins, but we’re teaching our children from a very young age that taking care of yourself is one of the healthiest and best things you can do in your life. Especially if you’re feeling out of sorts. If you want to punch your brother in the face, if you want to roll your eyes at your mom, if you’re having doing, what’s asked of you going and taking time for yourself is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Okay. Okay. Number two is we’re often given messages about how selfishness is bad, but not a lot of messages about how selfishness is good.

Meaning why is it good to think about yourself? Okay. So again, raise your hand. If you can remember being raised with just, you know, a lot of messages of like, don’t be selfish, all you do is think about yourself. This is one that guys, honestly, I have repeated. Like I realized that this is one of those painful generational cycles that I have become aware of that I want to stop. Like there are times when I’ve said to Stella, you know, you think the world revolves around you. Sometimes it seems like you only think about yourself. And, oh, I look back at those times when I’ve said that and I’m like, Ooh, I don’t want to say that. Like, that’s such a weird message and it’s not true.

Yes. Our kids have moments where they make mistakes. And you know, maybe they’re not necessarily thinking about what’s going on for the other person in that moment. But to, to give a message that they’re being selfish or that they think that the world revolves around them is just something that I become cognitive about that I want to do different. So we want to make sure that we’re pouring into our children, that this idea that thinking about yourself is good. Taking care of yourself is good. And this is a word that I teach so much to my students is to use the word. And instead of, but, but is a term that negates what comes out of your mouth and as a word that compliments what comes out of your mouth.

So it’s good that you’re thinking about yourself. It is good that you’re trying to fill your own bucket and you can do that while also thinking about what the other person is going through, thinking about what they must be experiencing in their shoes. Right? But like I said, a lot of us were not given this message when we were young. So the idea of thinking about ourselves or putting ourselves first just feels bad. So then when we go to practice self care as an adult, especially once we have kids, it just feels like we’re doing something wrong. Right. We can almost hear our mom’s voice, right? Like, you know, or for some of us, it was our father’s voice. But that idea of like, oh, what you’re doing is just selfish.

You know? So again, it makes sense why self care becomes hard or feels hard. Okay. Number three, martyrdom is abundant in our culture, especially when our kids are young. So what happens is we often see our kids as helpless and they, we kind of develop this belief system that we have to lay down our lives, but to make sure they come, I’ve been really inspired by a lot of what conscious hippy mama is her handle over an Instagram, but her name’s name is Michelle. And she actually talks a lot about this. She has very little kiddos.

I think they’re like almost two and three and a half, but she talks a lot about how this is actually not factual. That it’s okay to put your needs first. But what happens is that we get super depleted, but we think we have to, or else we’re bad moms. And any, any time you guys, we think we have to do something often bitterness builds and resentment develops, but martyrdom is abundant in our culture. She’s posted about how a lot of people get really uncomfortable when she shares, you know, she’ll be maybe talking to camera and she’s eating her lunch or something.

And her little one is like having a meltdown on the floor. And she’s, you know, she’ll say things like, okay, well, you know, I can help you in maybe five or 10 minutes once I finished my lunch. And you know, again, she doesn’t, she oftentimes she won’t show them, but you can hear her little one just kind of freaking out. Like, I need you now. And she’s like, I know you seem, you know, you, you need help. And I’m going to take care of me first. And she’ll have people that just are so uncomfortable and send her messages of like, this is really messed up. Like, you need to put your kids first, or kids are only young for so much. Like until then they come first, like until they grow up, they come first and she’s just like, no, it’s actually not true.

So it’s inspired me to just look at this idea of martyrdom, right? Like, and I’ve actually had some clients or some students that I’ve been helping lately to really change these belief systems. And for a lot of people, it becomes such a heavy pattern. And then, like I said, they become very resentful of this idea that they don’t get to do what they want to do in life because of somebody else. So that’s where blame comes in. That’s where bitterness comes in. That’s where, you know, this feeling of helplessness, this feeling of feeling of a victim mentality, and it’s just abundant, it’s all around.

So we get to have the opportunity to rise up against that and say, that’s actually not factual. Like we don’t have to lay down our life. So to speak for others to the point where we are, we are lacking, we don’t have our own bucket. We don’t have nutrition in our bodies. We don’t have the sleep that we need. We don’t have practices that bring us joy all because we have to do this for our kids. Okay. I also have a dear friend who, you know, this is happening with her two year old and sleep. And you know, there’s, there’s a lot, it, there was a lot of trauma when her little girl was really young and was in the hospital for quite some time.

So it, it makes sense to me why it’s happening for her. But, you know, it’s very clear to her. She’s like, I know that I am not putting myself first. And it’s to the point where she like, can’t even take some medicine that the doctor has recommended for her. Cause she’s battling some like, really intense asthma that has kind of come out of nowhere. I think a lot of it has been stressed induced from the past two years, really? Yeah. Two and a half years, because when she had her little girl, it was just such a Rocky first two months of her life, but she’s unable to take this medicine that could really help her and her asthma and prevent it from turning into something really severe.

But she’s not doing that because she’s still nursing her little girl at night and her little girl has been unable to develop a pattern of self soothing, which again makes sense. But she just hasn’t gotten the support that she needs yet to end that and put herself first. So she still wakes up in the night with her little girl. She still is really unable to go far distances because her little girl has trouble self-soothing so it’s just a whole thing. And you can clearly see it that it’s just become a pattern for her. Right. And so it’s just a joy to, to continue to support her, to get, you know, whatever she needs to when and whenever she’s ready. Cause that’s the thing, you guys, we have to be ready to end the cycles.

When we become aware of them, we have to be the ones that are ready. Like there’s no making someone, right? Like there’s no making anyone feel guilty. Like we’re all in our own journey. And I will tell you that for me, this was the year after years of feeling like I was kind of having martyrdom to my business and like the amount that I was overworking and killing myself to build this business and grow this business. This was finally the year where I was like, dude, I’m done, I’m done with that. I’m done killing myself. Like I’m done like putting myself last. Right. But you have to be the one to get to that point.

Well, hey listeners, I want to pause and take a moment to thank ForeverLawn for their support of the Fresh Start Family Show this month. ForeverLawn is a faux grass company that provides the most advanced superior quality artificial turf available. And I just love the kind of company they are. I know this family personally, and they are legit, just good people who founded this company in 2002. So they’re celebrating 20 years this year of providing beautiful backyards playground surfaces, pet-friendly areas, golf greens, and so much more. One of the things I love most about ForeverLawn is that they have really, really great customer service. And I’m finding that companies with great customer service and great products, of course, to just really win my heart these days.

I will tell you families that we’ve had faux grass throughout our backyard here in Southern California now for nearly a decade. And I can’t imagine life without it. It’s incredibly easy to care for it. And we never have to worry about the dogs killing it. And the best part is we don’t have to cut it. So if you’re interested in learning more about how artificial turf would look and feel outside your home, I highly suggest you reach out to ForeverLawn and look into how they could add value and beauty to your home. You can find them at ForeverLawn.com. Okay. Back to the show.

And I have a client who, you know, I had been really deeply supporting over the last, let’s say six months. And she actually started to have some, some mindsets that were almost taking herself backwards, where she had grown so much with her kids and was finding so much success. But I think again, it could have been a result of the pandemic who knows. I, for sure, I think it was the pandemic and just the stress that that brought on. But she started to go almost backwards in her mindset and started to engage in a lot of scarcity mindsets, a lot of fear based mentalities around her, her son or her kid’s behavior and almost fell.

Not almost she did. She fell into operating from a victim mindset to the point where things really started to become chaotic in her home again. And her little boys started to really suffer too. And it didn’t matter how many times I delivered the message and coaching of, Hey, heads up, you you’ve you’re in this mindset. The only way to get out of it is to declare that you are done with these thoughts. You are done engaging with them. You are thought you are done with feeding the fears you are done with this scarcity. Like, you know, you got to get out of this in order to be able to get into the creative mindset, to be able to help your child.

It didn’t matter how many times I delivered that message or my team delivered that message. It wasn’t until she had a moment of clarity that realized she was living in guilt. She was living in scarcity mindset. She was living in a victim mindset. She actually messaged me and said, Wendy, oh my gosh, I see it. Now I realize that this is, this has been happening, not just for six months, but actually for five years now. And even though there was moments where I was able to bring myself out of it, it was still there. And I’m now declaring, I’m fricking done with this. And it’s been about, I think two months since that happened and now, oh my gosh, she’s just back to herself.

Right. But it took her declaring that. So there’s convincing anybody. Like I believe it’s a God thing. It takes us being willing to surrender and say, God, I’m done. I’m done with this. And I’m willing to see things differently and do things differently. Okay. Number four, I think most moms can’t handle their kids being sad. So what I mean by that is when it’s time for date nights or, you know, to allow our kids to be sad or maybe have some tears when it’s time for nap or quiet time or to, you know, when it’s time to check them into kids club at the gym or whatever, it may be many, many, many, many parents are not set up with the ability or taught or mentored or coached on how to allow people.

They love to feel sad or scared or hurt without attaching to that energy. So w which I get you guys, I mean, I even saw this kind of come up in my own personal life a few days ago where I had this moment where I decided that instead of Terry and I spending let’s see, it was going to be possibly 12 hours on the road this weekend to go to a volleyball tournament that was up in LA, like east LA with Stella. So she plays indoor volleyball and beach volleyball right now on a competitive team. I decided that I was going to coordinate a carpool and, you know, see if somebody wanted to take Saturday. And then someone wanted to take Sunday. And when I lined this up and someone actually said, yes, I had a moment where I was like, oh my gosh, I feel bad because Stella was sad on Saturday.

Like, she was like, oh no, mom, I wanted you to take me because I wanted to do my makeup on the way home. Cause she had a birthday party that evening. Stella is her whole finger right now. Yes. It’s about volleyball. It’s about music, but it’s just friendship. Right? Like being a teenager. Do you remember those days where like, it just, everything is around being with your friends. Right? She was like, mom, I wanted to do my makeup in the car, ride home. And it’s going to be embarrassing being with somebody else in their car. And for a moment, like I went into like, oh my gosh, I feel so bad by putting my own hour. It was really like a terrain. I think like our own needs first and not being on, on the road for 12 hours instead, six, I felt bad.

And then thank God I had the practice and the tools to be able to let that go and just allow her to feel sad about the fact that she would have to do her makeup with a shaky mirror, with a friend next to her that, you know, she knows pretty well, but she, it’s not like one of her best friends on the team. So does that make sense? Like I get it. Like I get how that, and that might be a silly example to some of you, but it was still the same feeling inside of me. Like I felt bad. I don’t want Stella to feel sad. I don’t want her to be scared of something. I don’t want to put her out, but you know, it was important. It was important for me and Terry to not, to not over exert ourselves.

And why not? Why not create a carpool if we could. So putting ourselves first often comes with a feeling of, I feel bad and really I’m encouraging us to change that too. I’m taking care of myself and I’m taking care of others. And sometimes that feels uncomfortable and scary. Like sometimes it feels scary to walk away when your child is freaking out, when you let them in the church nursery, and then you go in and you take care of yourself. You listen to worship during church, you have a F you know, a moment to actually spend thanking God for all of the blessings, whatever it may be. But that moment when you’re walking away and your child is freaking out, then that’s going to be uncomfortable and often scary.

The first, let’s see it was the first, probably year and a half that we took Stella to the church nursery. She would freak out so hard that she would get a rash all over her face. You guys for months and months and months and months, I meant. And then finally there was one couple Chris and Ida who they just kept encouraging us. They were like, you guys go take care of yourselves. Go get time with God. We got her. This is, this is not too much for us. She’s fine. She’s going to be okay. You’ve got to go take care of yourself. Right. And thank God for them because they were the ones who finally got her to stay without crying, at least crying to the point of a rash all over her face.

Okay. Number five, I believe we didn’t have a lot of models growing up of what taking care of ourselves look like. So many of us had moms who maybe worked multiple jobs, did all of the housework, all of the scheduling, all of the cooking, all of the cleaning, all of the carpooling, all of the Christmas planning, all of the diapering. Right? You get the idea, all of the things, but then often felt guilty going and doing things or buying things for themselves. Can any of you, does this ring a bell to any of you? So it’s, it was just like this idea that, you know, watching someone do all of these things and then feeling like they didn’t deserve to go like really spend time alone or go to, you know, go get a massage.

Or even if they bought things for themselves, maybe they, you know, felt guilty or thought like, I don’t really deserve this. I’m like just doing what I have to do or need to do. So. Yeah. I dunno. I, I definitely can see where I had this model to me growing up there, wasn’t a ton of like, Hey, I am going to go buy myself a few new things today because buying new, you know, and a few new pairs of jeans or a jacket for the winter season makes me happy. It brings me joy. And I just love being alone, like for a few hours. So I’m going to see you guys in a few hours, but I’m just going to go take care of myself. And then when I come back, I’ll share with you what I bought and how tell you why it brings me so much joy.

You know, like I just, my mom, my mom would read my mom read, like thinking back. I’m like, okay, my mom read. I know that was a form of self care for her, but I really can’t tell you what else she did you guys that was like taking care of herself. She just was, she did everything for everybody. So I just, I just can’t tell you, like, I’m sitting here trying to think about it and yeah, I just can’t think of where my mom like went out of her way to take care of herself except for reading. So I would love to hear from you guys, you know, tell me, did you have a mom who modeled for you how important it was to fill their own bucket?

I would love to hear, okay. Number six is scarcity mindsets were abundant in many of our homes growing up. So there was not enough time. There was not enough money. There was not enough help. And then I think oftentimes moms often worried a lot about not having enough and the easiest place to cut back was on themselves. Does that ring a bell for any of you? Right. So learning about scarcity mindsets versus abundance mindsets, it’s really been probably about a year and a half that I’ve gone deep into understanding how this shows up in our lives and how by us being the one to really break these cycles is so revolutionary for our families.

But when looking back, scarcity mindsets were freaking thick in our house. So financially it was heavy like financially I’d say that was probably where it showed up most in our home growing up was it never felt like there was enough money. And we were, you know, we were a middle class family. I grew up in the country of Maryland. My parents worked so hard to provide for us. And, you know, we always had our needs met. We had a roof over our head, like a roof over our heads. We always had plenty of groceries, you know, but we were definitely like, there was always the Safeway brand and there was always, always an immense amount of worry and discussion of like barely having enough in the checking account to get by.

There was always, you know, just like we can’t afford that type of mentality and like finding financial people to help me break financial mentors to help me break that mindset has been just really, I’m going to talk just in a little bit here about what I’ve discovered over the last six months, especially, but really the last year, like certain mentors and people who have helped me with self care, but breaking financial scarcity mindsets has been very, very life-changing for me. I found a teacher, her name’s Francis, many of you are not gonna like jive well with her. And then many of you are going to be like, oh my gosh, Wendy, I’m obsessed with her.

I fall into the camp of being obsessed with her, learning about what she teaches from a financial mindset. And the financial abundant mindset has just been, like I said, something that has brought me joy and just so much clarity about how to break the financial scarcity mindset. But can you relate to what I’m talking about? Right. Like there was just not enough instead of we have plenty and we’re going to create the life that we want and we’re going to do that together as a family. So if we want more time, if we want more money, if we want more support, we are going to manifest that we are going to create that.

Like, we are going to focus on what we want. We are going to envision it. We are going to dream big, right? Like that was just not something that was modeled to many of us. So those are just some of the ideas I gave you. You know, I just laid out kind of six. I riffed on really six things that I think is part of the reason why self care becomes so hard for us as moms, especially. But for me, for myself, the past decade, a lot of my self care came in the form of parenting education and life coaching, which was really just a beautiful way to take care of myself and resulted in a total transformation of my heart and having a good mentor or life coach or a good therapist or a parenting teacher that you spend time with consistently allows you to have the support you need, which over time results in such, I think a relaxing of our nervous system, which radically affects our parenting.

So a lot of the times, if there’s a lot of drama in a home with kids, right, which most of my students, and this was my story too, before I found positive parenting, before I became fluent in this work dude, there was drama in our home, especially with Stella, who was three at the time when I, when I found positive parenting, but there’s often a lot of emotional blocks. There’s a lot of limiting beliefs that need to be turned upside down. There is painful generational cycles being repeated there’s protection behaviors going down. And there’s just a lot of unlearning that has to take place. So self care through parenting education and life coaching is just an important form of self care.

But for me, for nowadays, God has been doing a ton with my heart to clear away shame and also just physically take care of and heal my body. I found that lately that I’m just really inspired to make self-care fun and also joyful like activities or things or mentors that make me smile that make me laugh. That make me feel good. That make me feel strong and just happy. So let me tell you a bit more about what I mean, and I think I’ll just kind of go through what I’ve done this year, this year, especially, but you’ll, you’ll hear maybe again, it’s been probably like a year and a half.

What, what I’ve done this year to focus on my own heart, my own body, my own skin and my own care. And the most exciting news you guys is that I have felt so inspired by this self care journey this year. And really it has been a culmination of years and years of wanting to do this. But like I said, this was the year that I’ve just declaring that it’s happening. And so I’m thrilled to announce the launch of the fresh start family wellness collective, which is a division of fresh start family focused on helping moms put themselves first. Yes. First, so more on that exciting venture coming in just a bit, but I want to get back to sharing all that I’ve been doing this year to really shift into a new level of self care and healing.

And what I’m going to share with you is honestly, probably just some like it’s, it’s going to be a lot, but it’s some of the things I’ve been doing, but I just want to share with you, right? Like I know you guys, you know, you, you take interest, you, you enjoy hearing what I’m doing. I think that a lot of what I teach my students includes me just going first and just sharing, Hey, here’s what I’ve done. Here’s what’s helped me. And if you want to join me great, if you don’t that’s okay. Right. But this year starting out early in the year, it was actually right before Easter, I did a 40 day fast, our church kind of an invited kind of, they did invited me into this.

And at first I was like, oh my gosh, another fast. Because every year I do a fast Terry and I do a facet at the beginning of the year to kind of kick things off and just reestablish our relationship with, with Christ. And it’s, it’s always beautiful. And oftentimes we’ll make it to like, it’s usually a 21 day fast and we’ll make it to like day 14 or day 18. And then we’ll be like, oh, okay, we’re done. And that’s kind of what happened this year. And we always feel great and it’s fantastic. But this year we ended up doing a second fast, right before Easter. And when I got the invitation, I was like, wait a second, like dad. But I could feel immediately that God was like, yeah, again, we’re going to do this again.

And this time Wendy, you’re going to, you’re going to stay with me. You’re going to do this. And it’s going to be amazing. And so I felt I, I, when we went into it, my intention with God was to really lean into prayers of supplication, that he was going to heal me from some emotional eating and drinking patterns that I had developed, especially over the last few years. And he did that’s the good news is he did like, God, I love laying out an intention is putting prayers of supplication out and then receiving the benefits. So during this time he blessed me with a new eating, emotional eating and drinking coach. He’s really a weight loss coach, you guys.

But I thought I would just share with you about her today. I’m not an affiliate or anything of her programs, but her name is Corinne Crabtree. And her program is called no BS women, but it has been ground breaking for me. So for about the last decade, I’ve responded really, really well to anti-inflammatory eating programs, but after they were finished, I’d always kind of, yo-yo back to eating kind of normal again. Now I still was very healthy compared to how a lot of others eat. But the problem for me was I knew how my body wanted to eat and drink. And really like, if you don’t know what I mean by an anti-inflammatory Tory diet, it really looks like this.

You know, the elimination of sugar, caffeine, alcohol, dairy, gluten, some people do soy. Some people do lagoons, but for me, that was kind of the big things. Oh. And processed food. So when I went into this fast and I was praying for God to heal me from these emotional eating and drinking patterns where I I’d go. And I, you know, I’ve seen a lot of doctors over the years. And even though all of the tests have never proven like, oh, Wendy you’re celiac or you’re allergic to gluten or whatever these things are. I knew that when I ate like this inflammation in my body would go down.

Like I have a lot of injuries, a lot of sports injuries, a lot of surgeries, a lot of achy joints and bones. So I just knew that when I ate in a super healthy way, that I felt better. So during this fast, I was like, God, I hear you. You know, I want to draw closer to you. I want to be able to hear your voice more. And I want you to strengthen me, like I’m expecting you to strengthen me and heal me from this emotional eating and drinking that after I experienced such radical results from these type of, you know, things, these eating months, month-long things that I do.

Then if I have a super stressful day or I get really scared, or I have a flare up where I feel like I’m not good enough, or, you know, worry that people are judging me or that I’ve made a mistake, oftentimes I’ll just kind of fly off or fall off the bandwagon. Is that the term? And then I’ll like eat a bunch of girl scout cookies, or, you know, like have a bunch of 700 block, like or whatever, whatever. But I view that as emotional eating and drinking, like when you know that your body does not feel good when you put gluten and dairy and sugar and alcohol and caffeine and processed food in it, and then you fly off the handle and you do those things anyways, like it was just haunting me.

I’m like, why? Like, I am very clear that I know how I want to eat and drink. And that doesn’t mean that I want to be perfect. Right. Like I knew that I still wanted to be able to go on date night with Terry and have a drink, or, you know, be able to enjoy a glass of red wine while I’m cooking dinner or drink, like, you know, a really nice clean tequila, fresh, squeezed, no sugar margarita when I wanted to and not feel like I couldn’t write. Like I knew that if I really wanted to have, you know, a piece of like organic, like gluten-free birthday cake that I could write, like I don’t want it there to be rules.

I’m really into intuitive eating and, and, and honoring my body. And at the same time I knew I know how my body feels, and I know what my body wants. So over COVID it was like, it felt like two years of just succumbing to the emotional eating and drinking. And what happened to you guys is I put on 20 pounds of weight, 20 pounds. And for, for me, I, you know, I’m not a super tall girl. And so I started to really feel the effects of having that extra weight on my body. And so when I did this fast, this year, it’s, which it always does, but especially this year, the anxiety that I sometimes experience was almost a hundred percent gone.

I could feel the inflammation in my body just comes way down. My knees are less achy, my shoulders, less achy. I had less pain in my joints. I was able to sleep better, so much better. And we all know a full night’s sleep is just so transformative. And then I, I experienced weight loss, like a tremendous amount of weight loss. You know, I’m now almost, almost, I have almost released 10 pounds of weight that I believe wasn’t meant for me. Right? Like you guys, no shame. If you’re someone who put on weight during COVID, this is not to feel bad about that. And if you’re comfortable in your own skin and you’re feeling healthy, who cares, who cares?

But if you’re not feeling healthy, if you’re not feeling like your body is that’s what the weight you’re supposed to carry, then find someone to help you release it. And that’s what Corrine has been for me. I knew that my emotions would take over and I needed someone to help me. I really have been praying for a human for a long time to help me understand like how the emotions were taking part with the emotional eating and drinking. And when I found Corrine, it was just, it was instantly, I knew I wanted to invest in her as a coach. I wanted to invest in her programs. And so it’s just that fast has been pivotal for me.

And I believe being blessed with a mentor. Like, I believe God put her into my life that has been pivotal. And once again, I’m now able to prioritize self care when it comes to what I put in my body and start minimizing the amount that I’m eating, like emotionally eating and drinking. I hope that all makes sense. So again, like take, take what you want from that, but that’s just my experience. The fast I love fasting. I think it’s an exceptional way to grow. Draw closer to God, to purposely choose to not put certain things in your body and go through the temptations and those feelings of withdrawal with God.

It’s just amazing. Okay. So number two. And, and I should say about Corrine Crabtree, you guys go Google. Her work. Her program is called no BS. She has an amazing podcast, but just know she cusses a lot. Same with Amanda Francis. These are not your typical, like Amanda Francis is not your typical financial abundance coach. Like she is different. And I love her Corinne. Crabtree is not your typical weight loss or emotional eating and drinking coach. She is, she cusses a lot and she’s amazing. Like, I am obsessed with her mentorship. And again, it’s just been pivotal for me. So just know that if you’re going to go research them, they cuss a lot.

If that’s not up your alley, then to find someone else. Right. Like, but I think I just, I love her. I cannot say enough about Corrine Crabtree and how she has helped me understand the connection between the emotions and the, you know, the eating and the drinking that makes me feel out of control. Okay. Number two is I started a new exercise program that is bringing me enormous amounts of joy. And once again is, is something that I see as such a blessing from God, everything in my life that is good. I see that God placed it there, but you guys, my body is full of injuries and past surgeries, six to be exact, I’ve had two knee surgeries, two shoulder surgeries, one emergency C-section and also a planned C-section.

And so through the two long years of COVID, you know, putting on the weight, like just, I think age came up to starting to really have my body start screaming at me. Like it didn’t like what I was putting inside, what I was eating and drinking all the time. My knees just took a crap. Like they just literally stopped working by the way, we have a new term for poop now in our home. I don’t know if anybody is watching the Johnny Depp trial, but Terry and I are dying of laughter about what’s happening in that trial. He’s like he was married or engaged or something to like a very famous model.

And now it’s like, they have this very public separation trial. And I think it’s like a, maybe a child custody case that is just being aired. Some for some reason, publicly, I have no idea why it’s being aired publicly, but he was on the court, like on the court, the front of the court, whatever that’s called one day. And he started to explain it, explaining how his like wife took a poop in the bed one day to like spite him. It was the weirdest story ever. But he used this term grumpy. He’s like, excuse me, judge. Obviously you guys all know who Johnny Depp, right. Is. He’s like a very famous actor is he was in pirates of the Caribbean.

Like I love him as an actor, Edward Scissorhands, all the things, but he’s just so odd. And he’s describing how his wife did this. Like very revengeful act him and she pooped in bed and he’s, and he uses this term. He goes, sorry, sorry, judge. To use this, to use this term. But she took a grumpy in bed and all these people will have like sort of remixes the statement he took because it’s like, what, what is this term grumpy? But now our family is just cracking up. We can not stop using the term grumpy when we refer to poop. So my knees, my knees have taken a grumpy this last year.

Hey families, let’s just pause this conversation for a moment and talk about the new, Fresh Start Family Wellness Collective, a celebration of self-care. You can head to freshstartfamilyonline.com/wellness to learn more about the products included in this collective and the brands Fresh Start Family is partnering with to help you take care of yourself with joy. Okay, let’s get back to our conversation.

So in the past, my exercise lineup included surfing, jogging, skiing, Pilates, and Peloton. We got a Peloton bike last year, but after a knee injury this last year, I’d say early 20, 21, after picking up a fricking cooler with Terry, it turned into a torn meniscus combined with like exposed bone and really tons.

I went to see tons of different doctors and they were like, yeah, your knees are just like done. They’re like, basically, you’re probably a really good candidate for knee replacement surgery already. They’re like, but you’re not going to consider that for like a few decades. Right. And I’m like, no, I’m not going to have knee replacement surgery, but really they had no answer for me. So I had to stop. I chose to stop skiing and jogging and surfing. And honestly, you guys, it kind of crushed my soul. There was a lot of emotions that came as an athlete. If you’re an athlete, you can relate to this, right? Like when you’re not able to do your sports that you love doing it is soul crushing. So my knees, all of a sudden became very filled with pain and just had so many physical limitations, like coming down the stairs and even walking at times.

But I started to kind of freak out a little in my head thinking, oh my gosh, like what is happening? It was such a huge life change that just had so many emotions that I needed to process along the way. So God knew my heart was hurting. And I believe, you know, he was behind connecting me with her friend who also happens to live just four minutes away to start training with kettle balls and do doing strength training. And it has been amazing. I have now been going four times a week to these strength training sessions. And also, I’m going to tell you about this. You guys, I have been drinking a high quality Marine collagen, drinkable collagen, and I am feeling so strong and my knees are feeling so much better.

I used to say the phrase, like, I don’t want to jinx it, but I’ve stopped saying that because it’s dumb. Like there’s no jinxing anything. Like I only plan for the best. Now I only envision the best now. And instead, I’m going to say that I believe that the strength training combined with the liquid collagen that I’m drinking and the vitamins that I’ve started along with eating healthy, like healing from the emotional eating and drinking patterns also like upping my water intake by. I probably have uptaken my water intake by three or four fold that I am, my knees are going to be completely healed. Like I will be able to ski again one day.

That’s my biggest goal surfing. I’m kind of done with I’ve declared that I’m just completely committed to body surfing. Now I have officially signed up to be in the world, body surfing championships, this August and Oceanside, California with Terry I, and I’m just like totally okay with that. But skiing. I was not okay giving up. And so I need, and I want to be back on the mountain, dropping him at the top of mammoth with my children one day and just feeling like my knees can handle that enormous load. So finding a new exercise and trainer that I love and also supplements this, this Marine collagen that I feel like is healing, helping to heal my knees and my body from the inside out has just been extremely joyful, which I think is an important part of this conversation.

You guys, self care needs and should be fun when it comes to exercise. If you haven’t found something that is fun yet, keep searching and also go check out Lauren’s programs again, not an affiliate for her programs, but she has online programs that, you know, she has, I think over 400 members that you can join online. She does her live in cost in-person classes in her backyard, but she also streams live. And you can join in from all over the world, but it’s kettlebell training at strength, strength training, and she is just incredible. And you do classes with me. I’m there now four times a week.

Okay guys, next up, let’s talk about this new collagen in skincare line or collagen and drinkable line and collagen skincare lines that I’m literally obsessed with. So it’s called Celetoi, and I have been consuming this Marine based collagen that comes in the yummiest little like shots. I call them, they come in like a beautiful glass recyclable bottle. And then also, like I said, I started using this luxury collagen Marine based skincare line that is derived from the same incredibly like high quality collagen. And in my opinion, just completely different than any skincare that I’ve ever tried.

So, so I’ve started, I started using these products probably about it’s. It’s been, I think, two months now. So it’s been 60 days and these products were personally recommended to me by one of my mentors. Her name is Gina Devee and it’s just created like a daily joy in my life that is kind of new and lighthearted and just fun, honestly, because like I mentioned through the fast and just really leaning into self-care with nutrition, I have basically stopped eating all sugar. And I know from my friends and colleagues and mentors, like from better intuitive eating specialists, like I’m not trying to make a food bad or good.

All I know is that I don’t need sugar in my life. Like it is just one of the things that I’m like, I’m okay. I don’t feel like it really gives me that much joy. Doesn’t give me that much benefit. But at the same time, I mean, you know, I get it like a little sugar here and there can be yummy, but it’s, it was one of the easier things for me to drop now, Sauvignon Blanc, my white wine. And that’s another story, but sugar was no biggie, but these little shots, they do have a little bit of sweetness to them. So looking forward to them twice a day has just been fun and uplifting and something that I’ve enjoyed building into my routine, knowing that I’m putting something in my body that is helping me from the inside out.

And I will tell you guys, I have spent months and months trying to find a collagen and product that I could stomach. I knew like I’ve had. So I’ve heard so much about the benefits of college in, and I’ve tried so many powders and even have friends who own companies and would send me free products, but it was always either animal-based or like a powder that just kind of grossed me out. So when I was invited to try this new brand, this new collagen in product that has been giving people seriously incredible results. And it tastes like heaven. It’s not fishy at all. I mean, seriously, not at all. It just felt like a total godsend.

And I was like, oh my gosh, thank you. Literally, thank you God, for putting this product into my hand. And then the skincare line, you guys, I have tried so many things over the years, but nothing felt this luxurious on my skin and literally felt like skin food. So again, it’s called Celetoi, and it’s like the same as the drinkable collagen, but they’ve taken kind of the same technology and high quality ingredients and put it into a skincare line. But it comes in the most like beautiful white bag that you can ask my family. I carry around with such pride, like morning and night at night, when we wind down as a family to watch a movie or a few episodes of the office, I promise you guys, one day when your kids get older, you will watch fun shows together.

Like the the office, but the bad news is when your kids get old, they stay up as late as you do. When they’re little, you have to deal with like paw patrol or, you know, Disney Flix, but they go to bed at 7:00 PM and you actually have time at night to connect with your spouse or have some alone time or take a hot shower or whatever. But anyways, you know, w when, when they’re older, they, they actually stay up. They stay up as late as you do. Right. So it’s, it’s a funny give and take, but this skincare set has given me something that is very self calming and luxurious to look forward to twice a day. It’s really the first thing I grab when I wake up and like, this is how it feels, right?

Like, this is like, it’s the first thing I do at night to relax. So the feeling that I get when I put this skincare line on, and I, and I actually combine it with some self-care thoughts, some kind of abundant thoughts of like, I am deserving. I am like, my value is not in how much I get done or how much I do, but in just who I am, who God designed me to be like, I combine putting this four-step skincare process, like with some of these thoughts, like prayers of supplication doing that twice a day, it just feels good. And it’s relaxing. And it’s just like pouring into myself, but it’s helping me kind of end the app. The habit, I will say, at the end of night, the end of the day of just like grabbing a glass of seven Yon blank to unwind, or even like a second glass of wine to kind of wind down and relax, right?

Like how many of you can relate? Maybe you’ve developed a pattern. Like I definitely did during COVID of like, you know, having a nice glass of wine is what I need to relax. But really this, this, this year of self care has caused as has caused me and giving me the opportunity to instead find other ways to relax, to find other ways that feel really life-giving. Okay. So I’m on top of that. My skin, you guys has never felt better. I’m finally prioritizing taking care of my skin. I have been the worst over the years, you guys, and it wasn’t a big deal with my skin because I don’t know. It just kind of like, it just endured the lack of self care, but now that I’m in my forties, I can see that it’s essential that I take care of my skin as much as I wanted to not care about the many, many fine lines on my face that have come from years and years of smiling and joyful memories.

And, and let’s be honest, quite a bit of worrying too, but all those lines on my face and my neck, and kind of like my decla Taj area, I wanted to love them. You guys, and I have a lot of friends who are so like, incredible with the amount of messages they create about loving yourself. And I wanted to love them, but honestly, with the amount of filming that I do, and I was just finding it difficult to see all those fine lines as like, as beautiful all the time, honestly, and to accept that the fact that they were getting worse, like in my forties, right. That’s kinda what happens, right? Like as you age those fine lines, they do become more abundant.

Right. So when I started using this collagen and skincare line and using the drinkable collagen mine, and my skin became like, it just responded so well, I feel like I could tell immediately. And, and definitely in the matter of a few weeks that I just, you know, I’ve had someone stop me just the other day at the post office and that like, Stella’s old volleyball team, one of her mom, one of the moms, and I was like, oh my gosh, how are you doing? Give her a hug? And she’s like, oh my gosh, you’re glowing. Like, whoa. And I was like, oh, thank you. I did just get my eyebrows done. I get my eyebrows tinted and wax. But I was like, but it, I think it’s this new collagen that I’m using.

And it was just, I’ve never, I don’t think I’ve ever gotten maybe when I was pregnant, but I’ve, I’ve never had somebody, people stop me and say, wow, you’re glowing. So that it’s just, I just am obsessed. Like I’m obsessed with this new skincare line and this drinkable college. And then, and then as I mentioned on top of that, it’s I literally feel like the collagen is contributing to the healing of my knee. So really it’s just a product that inspired me to go ahead and make the jump to create the fresh start wellness collective. My mentor said, Gina Devee said, well, Wendy, I told you, you were going to love this stuff. So why don’t you just go ahead and join me as a brand ambassador of the Celetoi line.

And at first I was like, Gina, I’m a parenting educator and a family life coach. I’m not a brand ambassador. And she was like, Wendy, I’m a transformative life coach that has helped thousands of women manifest the life of their dreams. And literally Gina is like a very high level women’s mentor. Like she’s, she’s, she’s also a trained psychotherapist. She’s an incredible woman of God, but she’s, she is a very high level transformative life coach. So she just said to me like, so what if you love a product and you want to introduce your community to it, and you want to create a really abundant stream of passage, rigid residual income.

Like, why wouldn’t you share these projects with your community? And she’s been someone who’s helped me break the cycles of financial scarcity, the thoughts, the patterns, all of that kind of stuff. And so I really just started listening and I consulted with God and I felt a big heck yes, come over me. So, you know, over the years you guys, I think it’s been, I think this is true for every entrepreneur, but especially for me with fresh start family, it’s been emotional as I’ve built this business, right? Like the work I do is fun and my passion, but it’s also just a lot when it comes to designing programs and also invitational messages for parents to step into growth and learning.

And honestly, I get really tired sometimes. Like I’ve invested so much over the years to learn how to help parents say yes to the transformational programs we offer here at fresh family, which by the way, you guys, it is wild and wonderful to realize just how much we have built. Like I have put blood, sweat, and tears into building the programs we offer here at fresh start family. Over the years, we have over 14 parenting and life coaching programs to help families find more peace, joy, and connection in their homes. Of course, we have this podcast that we pour our heart into. I have my volunteer work that I do with my church, where I teach Jesus guided parenting.

But what I’ve realized is that, you know, sometimes I just get really tired trying to convince parents how they, they have the power to change their entire life and legacy. If they just say yes and make a commitment to this work. So the idea of creating a division of fresh, a family that is light hearted and just easy, like there’s nothing complicated about it. The fresh start family wellness collective is about wellness and beauty products that just make me happy. That bring me joy that have helped me heal. And there’s not a bunch of limiting beliefs and fear of judgment or protection behaviors, or habits that I have to help parents overcome in order to say, yes, it’s just great products that I personally use and love.

So with all that said, you guys, this is kind of an official announcement about the fresh start family wellness collective, but it’s here and that it’s live. You can learn more by heading over to freshstartfamilyonline.com/wellness, where you can find out more about the Marine collagen products and also the makeup line that brings me so much joy. And I even have decided to be a brand ambassador for a manicure and pedicure line that I’m obsessed with too. So if you want to try the products, they all have money back guarantees. And I know, I know you’re going to love them as much as I do. And then the coolest thing about the wellness collective is that for those of you who like the idea of being on my team to become a brand ambassador also, and share the products with your own friends and family and clients, if you have a business too, I’d love to invite you to actually join my wellness collective team.

So this means there’s a great way to build passive residual income. And if you’ve never heard of that term, it basically just means that by introducing the products to your friends and family, which means you find two people which find two people to try products, it’s just a social kind of networking and a social sharing program. The company rewards you. So it becomes very easy to pay for your own products. If you end up loving the products and it becomes very easy to actually build up from there. And if you want to take it to the next level and be mentored by me and beyond my team and on the team of Gina Devee, you guys, which if you don’t know her work yet, I highly recommend grabbing her book audacity to be a queen.

My students know, I talk a lot about how much that book really changed everything for me. She’s who taught me about the power of manifestation alongside of God. I had found, you know, I had been introduced to a lot of manifestation teachers over the last few years, but this was also new to me. Like learning how to practice prayers of supplication was like, really just something that was different. Like I had been very fear-based or worry based, or I realized scarcity thought based. But when once when I met Gina she’s, who taught me how to manifest the life of my dreams all while honoring and staying deeply connected to God.

So she just is something that’s very special to me. And I just, I love, I love her and I’m really grateful for the opportunity to be on her team as a brand ambassador. So anybody who decides they want to try the products and then be on my team, you automatically become part of Gina’s team too. So yeah, it’s just, it’s inspiring. She’s inspiring. I think there’s a lot of people who are part of this community, whether you just listened to the podcast or whether you’re a student of mine too, who you want to hang out with me more like I’m, I’m now realizing like part of my journey over the last few years, to really clear out a bunch of shame and heal.

I now see as part of me just stepping into and, and really seeing that I have a lot to offer the world, like being around me is inspiring. And I don’t say that to toot my own horn, but I bring a lot of light into people’s lives. Like literally just being in my presence, I believe really elevates people. And I didn’t quite realize just how, like, how awesome that is until I realized that when I got invited to be on Gina’s team, I just, I didn’t, I didn’t even care so much about like the, the, I do care about the products. I mean, the products are amazing, but I just wanted to be in her presence.

I just wanted to hang out with her. And I realized now that that’s what happens for a lot of people with me, right. They meet me, you might meet me on Instagram or you might hear my podcasts. And you’re like, oh my gosh, you fall in love with my teaching, with my voice, with my guidance. And you just want to hang out with me more and be mentored by me. And I’m now realizing that yeah, I get it. Like some people you just want to be with more. And by being with them more, they, they bring so much, so much growth and light into your, your life. So why wouldn’t you take up an opportunity to be with them more? Right. So, so again, if you’re interested in either trying the products that I’ve chosen to be part of the fresh start wellness collective, just go check it out.

And it’s kind of, you know, you get to choose your own adventure, freshstartfamilyonline.com/wellness. You can try out the products just as a way to invest in yourself. By the way, I just bought a new hat from Vuori. One of my favorite like lifestyle athletic brands that says investing in happiness. And it has like a big sun on the top. You’ll see me wearing a ton on Instagram because I’m now basically in Vuori workout clothes all the time, because I’m at Lauren’s house four days a week. But again, if you just want to try the products just as a way to indulge in self care and invest in your happiness, awesome. Or if you want to join my team and become a brand ambassador with me.

Awesome. But either way, you guys just have fun with it. Self care can be fun. It can be joyful. We can do the work. It takes to shake the guilt of spending money on ourselves. Taking time away from our family to pour into our own hearts and souls and minds and bodies. We can allow our children to wait or even feel sad about it while we finish a workout or still leave for date night or lay down why they do their quiet time, or even let them cry a little bit, because they don’t want to take a nap. By the way, I’m going to record an episode soon about this concept of putting ourselves first as mom, moms, even when there’s really uncomfortable emotions happening with our kids.

I’m going to actually interview Michelle from Conscious Hippie Mama over on Instagram to talk about this. So now that that episode is coming soon, but happy mother’s day, fresh start mamas. May this be the year that you really step into guilt free? Self-care that lights you up and models to your children. That in order to operate in the world with dignity, integrity, energy, and joy, we have to fill up our own buckets first while also filling the buckets of those we love around us. But again, it’s okay if we come first, it’s more than, okay. It’s essential. So go check out the new, fresh start family wellness collective, and then drop me an email to [email protected] or just shoot me a DM on Instagram.

I’m over at FreshStartWendy, just saying that you’re interested in the wellness wellness collective, whether you’re interested in trying the products or interested in joining, joining me as a brand ambassador on my team, I’ll respond right away and help you take the next steps. So big hugs you guys. I love you all. Thank you for listening. This episode turned out to be a little longer than other episodes, but as always, if you loved it, please share over on Instagram, tagging me @freshstartwendy, lots of love. And I will see you soon for another episode of the Fresh Start Family Show.

For links and more information about everything I talked about in today’s episode, head to freshstartfamilyonline.com/126.

For more information, go to freshstartfamilyonline.com. Thanks for listening families! Have a great day.

Well, Hey there families. I hope you loved this episode. As much as I loved recording it for you. Don’t forget to grab your free, fresh start family learning guide, how to use empathy to build connection and cooperation in your home. Had to freshstartfamilyonline.com/empathy to grab your copy now.

If you have a question, comment or a suggestion about today’s episode, or the podcast in general, send me an email at [email protected] or connect with me over on Facebook @freshstartfamily & Instagram @freshstartwendy.

 

Learn more about how Positive Parenting Curriculum can transform your life through the Fresh Start Family Expereince.

Want to see what Positive Parenting looks like #IRL? I love to stay active on both Instagram & Facebook, giving you guys a glimpse into my real family life!