Rediscovering yourself after becoming a mum
Workshop Forum Meeting held on 22nd January 2018
“Finding yourself after becoming a mum”
Come and share Fun tips on:- How to be you again, getting in shape, getting your mindset right, happiness health and finding 5 minutes for yourself in a mad hectic day of juggling motherhood, wife/partner, work and cooking….#
Minutes of the meeting
Introduction to Adanna Women’s’ Support Group.
Adanna Women’s Support Group is a community group which was established in 2008. We aim to alleviate poverty in women and children through education, business enterprise and support for the benefit of mainly but not exclusively BAME women. Women from immigrant communities and young parents living within the East London area of Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge, Newham and Walthamstow.We also provide financial education for disadvantage communities to enable them to alleviate poverty and integrate more in society.
The Adanna Women’s Support group meetings offer a supportive and energetic environment where the club members are able to bounce ideas off each other as well as keeping each other motivated to really go out and achieve their personal and professional goals.
After the initial introductions, the questions were asked:
Q1: Are there any personal things you would have liked to have done or achieved before you had your children?
From everyone’s comments, it was clear that their destinies & choices had changed after they had their children. Some of the ladies had even lost hope of ever achieving their dreams as they felt it was too late. They didn’t have the money or there was nowhere for them to leave the children.
Q2: How much time do you have to spend on yourself?
The general answer was no time or not enough time. This is a common theme with mothers and so it is important that as women we take time out to recharge our batteries so that we are strong enough to give our best to our children.
A number of excuses and blocks were put forward as reasons for not taking time out such as the children won’t listen & go to bed so I can relax; I don’t want to put my child in childcare. There were lots of discussions around the welfare of these women and how to overcome these barriers
Next there was a 10 minutes meditation session.
All women were asked to quiet their mind for 10 minutes in order to be able to focus better. No one had done this meditation before and so we were encouraged to try and do this for 10 minutes every morning to clear out the mind and relieve stress.
In the final part of the workshops, the women got into pairs and talked about in more depth. What they would have done before the children and what they would have done before the children and what they liked to do but don’t have time to do.
It was a very revealing and interesting exercise because of how difficult it was for some of the women to really think of what they like doing for themselves as they had spent so much time on the children, they had forgotten about their own likes and needs beyond the basic survival things.
The meeting ended with each woman going away with action points on what they intended to start doing for themselves.
FOUR TOP TIPS
- Do something just for you
- Do things on your own
- Indulge in some retail therapy
- Get out there and make new friends