By Phindile Ndlovu- Tapula

Hello Moms! Who else feels like stress loves them or they are in fact in love with stress? Does stress get you down, binge eating and moody? Does your mind race during the night fixing problems and anticipating for problems?

I am that mom. I think I am worse; I create problems in my head to stress about ways I could solve them. Yes, I love to panic. I stress about everything, even stress for not having something to stress about. This is because as a mom, I am so accustomed to putting out fires, and constantly in damage-control mode.

At times where I felt burnt out, stressed and out of balance- moving my body has helped. Though at this point I thought I should go out partying and the dancing would do the trick. Yes, dancing my sorrows away would do the trick in the short term, but I was looking for sustainable ways to learn to cope with stress and pressures that come with being a working mom. Gym, intentional exercising would string me at the face.

Please do not get me wrong, I hate the thought of exercising. I do not like how it makes me feel - my chest burns, and my body becomes sore the next day and It is just so tiring! The sweating, huffing and puffing is not my kind of scene, but I have run out of ways that will instantly turn the noise off and allow me to step into mindfulness.

That is what I seek, being mindful. Being here, now and not thinking about where I was or where I need to go. Being here, now is all we need. How can stress thrive in a mindful person? I bet not but I struggle on many levels to keep up the mindfulness. So, I have one more shot- making exercising a habit to cultivate mindfulness.

I have realized I need to learn to establish good habits that make me feel good and which have sustainable effects. I have several bad habits; I have done my life audit. While we are human and are not perfect, it is our duty to learn how to balance the good and bad we may put out in the world. This meant, realizing I need to develop good habits. I hate how training must be one of these habits, but it must- for my sanity, it must.

This Mothers Month, I will do walks for an hour every day and spend 15 minutes on strength training. I am exercising not because I hate my body- not the motivation this time around. I am exercising because it will help with regulating my emotions and allow me to be mindful and present. That is far greater than abs and an hourglass shape. Being able to show up for my son is most important to me. I plan to make this habit and last longer the month of May. I want to look like a actually enjoy exercising, have a spring in my step and not dread stairs the way I do now.

If I do lose some weight, great, but this time, it is purely for my peace of mind. Let us move and challenge our bodies, what do we have to lose? Weight? That’s right! What to gain? Peace amidst the stress, strategy amidst the confusion and alignment in a world of destruction.

Phindile Ndlovu–Tapula is passionate about Community Development pertaining skills development and education for the youth. She is experienced in driving life changing community development campaigns. Passionate about self-development and leadership, she works and speaks with young people across the Gauteng Province in South Africa, motivating and coordinating her vision and goal setting workshops through her organization, Bhekizenzo Foundation. Her skillset is based on project design, brand awareness and organizational surveys, amongst many others. Phindile has strong, professional media and communications expertise, particularly with event coordination and campaign strategy planning. She has obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Political Studies and Sociology at the University of Witswatersand Johannesburg. Learn more.