16 Soothing Emotional Self Care Habits for Moms

Joy, worry, frustration, and overwhelm: the ups and downs of motherhood are part of the journey.  But a little bit of emotional self care can help soften the falls and allow you to operate more from your center.    

I grew up in a family in which the adults had no control over their emotions.  I thought that was normal behavior until I started on my healing journey.  Since then, the importance of emotional self care has become increasingly clear to me.  

Consciously caring for your emotions is consciously caring for your energy.  You don’t have to be depressed to start nurturing your feelings.  In this post, discover 16 ways you can get ahead of your emotions and take care of yourself.  Your family will thank you.

Why Emotional Self care?

Emotional self care is intentionally taking actions to understand, process, and express your emotional needs in healthy ways.  It is being able to recognize your feelings and knowing how to regulate them, so that you can meet life’s challenges with clarity and an open heart.

Emotion is also “energy in motion,” according to Dr. Joe Dispenza and many other teachers.  

Taking care of your emotions is taking care of your energy.  The more you do it, the easier it becomes.  As you continue to reach higher emotions, you change your baseline for more capacity for happiness and inner peace.  

Your emotional well-being influences how you think, behave, and interact with the world in your daily life.   When you know how to manage your emotions, you build resilience, improve relationships, and protect your mental and physical health.  

16 Emotional Self Care Practices for Moms 

1. Let Yourself Feel Everything 

Of course, as busy moms, “fully emoting” is not at the top of our everyday “to-do” lists.  But prolonged suppression of uncomfortable emotions doesn’t make them go away.   The longer they fester, the more likely they’ll manifest as a chronic illness or life drama. 

There was a time when I suppressed all my feelings, although I didn’t know it at the time.  I felt depressed and lived my life in a constant loop of drama and stress.  I also numbed myself with alcohol and pot.  

Then I realized that I had not cried for years.  Not a tear, not a whimper.  Nada.  For years.    

So, as an interesting experiment, I set out to make myself cry.  I asked people for movie recommendations to help me cry.  Their choices were surprising and sometimes funny.  

But I finally found one, in a French movie about a little girl dealing with her mother’s accidental death.  I shouldn’t have sat down with my dinner to watch it, because the sobbing didn’t make it easy to swallow.  

But oh man!  It felt so good to cry and let it out!   

It also gave me something to talk about with my therapist at the time.  It opened many doors to my psyche and what I was shutting down inside.   

When’s the last time you had a good cry?  

If you feel like you’ve been suppressing your feelings, it’s time to feel them and let them go.  

2. Ask for and Receive Help

Honestly, this is a tough one for me. Because I am so used to doing everything on my own, I’ve approached motherhood the same way. That makes it especially challenging for me, this aloneness.

Asking for help is one of the most important forms of emotional self care for moms.

Many of us carry the belief that being a “good mom” means being endlessly capable and self-sufficient. This is at least partially caused by our society, where expectations are high but support is low for all moms out there.

But motherhood was never meant to be done alone. Reaching out for attention and support isn’t a failure—it’s an exercise of love for yourself and your family.

Reframing help as healthy interdependence changes everything. Asking for support preserves your energy, deepens connection, and models emotional resilience for your children. It shows them that relationships are built on mutual care—not self-sacrifice.

It might be your partner, your family, or maybe even your neighbor. Start small and be specific. Ask for one clear thing, without overexplaining or apologizing, and allow yourself to receive without immediately trying to give back.

Letting others show up for you is social self care at its core—and a powerful act of self-respect. I’m glad to say I have gotten better at asking my partner for help, though I still have a long way to go.

3. Lean Into Self-Compassion

By nature, our perspectives are limited to our thoughts, feelings, and affairs.  We live our lives mostly in our heads, processing everything through a filter that then constructs our stories.

The result is that we become the biggest subject of our judgment and criticism, whether we deserve it or not.     

Did you know that we’re the harshest critics of ourselves?  I dare say that this is especially true for moms.  So. Much. Mom guilt. 

Self-compassion presents a healthier way to relate to yourself.  

According to one definition, self-compassion “involves treating oneself as one would a friend, being more mindful, and understanding our situation in the context of a larger human experience.”  

One of the frameworks that’s been transformative for me has been approaching everyone, including myself, as on an evolutionary path.  We’re all evolving and changing, learning from our mistakes.  Therefore, judgment based on a single moment or choice would not be fair. 

So, next time you face regret, self-criticism, or guilt, remember that you are on a path.  Remember that you, too, deserve your love and patience that you so readily give to your children. 

4. Let Go, Let Go, and Let Go

Countless books have been written about the power of “letting go.”  It can be tricky, especially if you’re in it so thick that you don’t even realize there’s something to let go.

But when it happens, the benefits are astounding.  

You conserve time, space, and energy that can now be redirected to heal, build, and create.  There is more space for joy in your everyday life.  

5. Laugh More

To practice letting go, there are resources you can count on.  I have found Michael Singer’s work to be profoundly helpful whenever I’m in a loop.  You can check out his ideas on letting go here, or in the video below, and from The Michael Singer Podcast.

Even if your kids are making you laugh out of your chair already, there’s room for more.

How, you may wonder.  If you’re choosing your next book to read, look for something light and funny.  Same thing for your next Netflix show. 

You can consciously choose to surround yourself with higher frequencies of laughter and joy.  You also may want to think twice before giving your attention to anything that you don’t want to experience or create more of in the world.   

This does not mean that we don’t read the news or put on a blindfold to injustices.  But it does mean that we limit our exposure to stressful events and focus on uplifting solutions.

Leaning into joy and laughter is a conscious choice.  Fill your life with things to laugh about, and bring your children with you!

6. Set Healthy Boundaries

This is a big one.  Learning to say “no” is an art that takes courage.  It’s also something I’ve gotten better at with age.  

As moms, we are faced with so many choices to say “yes” or “no” on behalf of ourselves and our children.  And it’s not always clear what feels “safe” to choose.        

It might sound daunting at first, but healthy boundaries protect your energy and respect your emotional limits.  When you honor your own needs by saying “yes” to what feels good and “no” to what doesn’t, you create space for emotional balance and well-being.

Maybe it means taking breaks from conversations that drain you, limiting time spent on social media, or telling a loved one how you want to be treated.  

A healthy boundary is less about pushing people away and more about communicating what you need. Honesty and communication can foster deeper respect and understanding in your relationships.

Remember, taking care of your emotional health isn’t selfish—it’s essential.  With practice, saying no or asking for space becomes easier and helps you feel stronger.

7. Get Proper Rest

We’ve all been there.  The baby woke up twice last night, and you had trouble falling asleep.  You still show up for the playground and are not feeling it.  You push through, as you always do, but man!

Our relationship with sleep transforms overnight after we become parents.  For many of us, it can become something we chase all the time, with some heavy consequences. 

Getting enough sleep is essential to your mental clarity and emotional stability, just like regular exercise and a balanced diet.  Taking regular breaks during a long work day keeps you refreshed and focused, helping you be more productive in the long term.  

For more pointers on how to get proper rest, check out Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity.  Its author, Saundra Dalton-Smith, MD, outlines seven types of rest that address our needs more holistically: physical rest, mental rest, emotional rest, social rest, sensory rest, creative rest, and spiritual rest.  

8. Practice Gratitude

Ah – so many things to be grateful for!  Gratitude is a powerful emotion that improves your mood and overall well-being.  

Regular practice of gratitude for at least six weeks can enhance mental well-being, a 2020 study found, possibly with lasting effects.  This is consistent with an earlier study, which found that people who “counted [their] blessings” reported better well-being than those who didn’t, with benefits to emotional health and relationships.   

Your energy goes where your attention goes.  The more you practice gratitude, the more you’ll find things to be grateful for.  In the process, you change the way you view your life and feel better about your place in the world.  

The best thing about committing to an “attitude of gratitude” is that you can incorporate it throughout your daily life. 

Whenever you notice something good, lean into your feeling of appreciation and say “thank you.”  It’s contagious, and you’ll have your kids thanking you for little things in no time. 

If you want to see examples of intentional gratitude, check out Rhonda Byrne’s book,The Magic.  It provides a 28-day program with 28 different ways to be thankful.    

9. Write Down Your Feelings in a Journal 

Okay, so I know you might not have a lot of time to journal, but please hear me out.  Journaling your emotions can be like free therapy, especially if you do so without judgment.

Freewriting is the act of letting the words flow out of your hands without stopping or correcting.  As a journaling technique, it allows your stream of consciousness to flow and is a great way to release your negative emotions.  

Like talking to a close friend or a therapist, you feel calmer and lighter after writing it all down.  

You don’t even have to do it every day.  But whenever you feel like you could use a little more attention on your feelings, pick up that pen. A beautiful blank journal can inspire you to jumpstart your practice.  

10. Move Your Body  

Most moms already move a lot, especially if you have little ones.  But we’re talking about intentional movement here, because physical activity is vital to your emotional well-being.  

Research during the COVID-19 lockdowns found that people who exercised more experienced less depression and anxiety than those who didn’t.  That’s because being active releases chemicals in the brain that are associated with feeling good, including dopamine and serotonin.    

You don’t have to sign up for an expensive gym membership to move.  Consider taking daily walks during your lunch breaks, preferably outside.  Walking between 10 and 20 minutes every day can have surprisingly powerful benefits to your physical, emotional, and mental well-being.  

If you have to work at a desk all day, take frequent movement breaks.  Standing up and walking for 5 minutes every hour in a sedentary work environment improved people’s mood, retained focus and attention, and dulled hunger pangs, a study found.  

11. Spend Time in Nature

Mother Nature does it again.  And you deserve some outside time, too. 

Spending time in nature is associated with a variety of benefits, according to the American Psychological Association, including “improved attention, lower stress, better mood, reduced risk of psychiatric disorders, and even upticks in empathy and cooperation.”

Even spending just 20 minutes a day in nature goes a long way to lower your stress hormones, according to research.  

Spend time outside in nature today and bring your kiddos with you.  The playground works, but you can also picnic, hike, or garden together.  See how it makes you feel.  

12. Limit Screen Time

There’s so much that can be said about screens.  As moms, intentional screen time protects our own well-being and provides a model for our kiddos. 

Higher levels of screen time are associated with many health problems, including obesity, unhealthy diet, depression, and poor quality of life.     

It is also linked to numerous mental problems, and the impact can be more severe if you grow up with unfettered technology. 

Obviously, increased screen time means less time engaging in physical activity, building meaningful relationships, enjoying hobbies, and sleeping.  

If you haven’t already, break yourself away from the constant text messages, emails, social media, and barrage of information. Set aside times—an hour before bed—to go tech-free for the whole family.  You might be surprised what fills that space. 

13. Find Community

Human beings are social animals, and our need for connection and social interaction is fundamental. 

Research shows that a person who feels less like a part of a community has a significantly higher chance of experiencing depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms.  On the other hand, people who enjoy a greater sense of community in their lives are more likely to be happier and satisfied with life.  

After you become a mom, finding a kindred mom friend can really fill a space that no one else can.  The good news is that you can probably find a local mom group near you. 

You can also get involved at the school, find a knitting circle or a book club, or a community of gardeners nearby.

The hard part is taking the first step, but the benefits are worth it.  

14. Meditate or Practice Mindfulness

I swear it can be done.  Even if you feel like you’re an “especially bad meditator” or can’t imagine how you’d find the time. 

Mindfulness is the practice of bringing awareness to what’s happening in and around you.  Meditation is a more formal practice of mindfulness, in which you dedicate some quiet time to go inward and focus.  

Mindfulness and meditation help you become more aware of your negative thoughts, regulate your responses, and reduce emotional suffering.  They create space between trigger and response, leading to greater clarity, calm, and emotional resilience.

Countless studies confirm meditation’s efficacy in emotional regulation.  One study found that meditation literally changes your brain functions to help with emotional regulation and mood disorders.  

Meditation is also a practice of spiritual self care and mental self care.  It is easy to start, especially these days when so many videos and meditation apps are freely available.  

Start with a couple of minutes of quiet sitting time at your convenience.  Focus on consistency over duration, and see how it feels for you. 

15. Find a Creative Outlet

For me, having a creative outlet on a regular basis has always been crucial to feeling content.  And I see it in fellow moms everywhere: in their personal businesses, school bookfair decorations, hobbies, and homes. 

Even if you don’t feel like you’re a creative person, you might still benefit from the endeavor to create.  Whatever that is! 

An abundance of scientific research confirms that creative expression benefits our mental and emotional health: emotional regulation, cognitive flexibility, and social connection.   

Take advantage of that crafting time with your kiddo, or learn how to knit.  The possibilities are endless!  

16. Seek Professional Help

In life, there are times when getting the help of a support group or professional counselor is not only appropriate but also crucial.  

There’s no stigma attached to seeking professional help these days.  But I often find that people are in denial about their mental health.  

Maybe they genuinely don’t realize that they can feel better, or that there is another way.  Or they still feel like it would be a sign of weakness to talk to someone about their problems.     

It’s time that we reframe this entirely.  If you had an achy tooth, you’d go see a dentist.  If you fell and hurt your back, you’d see an orthopedist.  

Your emotional self deserves the same care and consideration.  If you’ve been sad or anxious for a very long time, consider seeking professional care.    

It may take a few tries to find the right therapist for your needs.  But stick with it, and talk therapy can be a part of your next healing journey.  

Final Thoughts

As moms, taking care of our own emotional health is much like taking care of our family’s emotional health.  We are the spoke of this precious wheel, and how we feel directly impacts our loved ones. 

Emotional self care is about taking care of your heart and spirit.  It’s not as tangible as going for a walk (which helps).  But there are many practical steps you can take to help yourself feel better, in any of life’s moments.  

I hope that these emotional self care practices gave you some ideas to try right away.  I’d love to know if you did, and please comment below!