First of all, damn. The no coffee and alcohol life is treating me well! Turns out, my anxiety doesn't mix well with coffee. Who know? (Lots of people out there in internet land already knew, apparently.) But I'm a sleep deprived mother of two small humans, and making a cup of coffee for myself ASAP upon waking was a daily part of my morning routine. No more! Sometimes I'll do a mug of green tea if I'm feeling it, but since it's fucking sunny beautiful gorgeous warm springtime weather lately (!!!), it's been fairly painless to give up that breakfast cup of coffee. Surprisingly. And I generally limited myself to one cup a day. Which seemed so harmless compared to the unhealthy entire pot of coffee a day habit I had once upon a time pre-children.
Alcohol. I'm still processing my relationship with wine. Half of my family of origin is Irish. Drinking to "take the edge off" is standard. And it takes the edge off of anxiety. Quite effectively. So it's helping to give up coffee at the same time. I find that generally I have less of that irritable stressed feeling during pre-dinner time now, which is when I would frequently pour a glass of wine while cooking dinner to help me maintain my calm, happy mommy headspace.
My intuition is stronger. For surezies.
And I'm cogitating on becoming a Bradley Method instructor. I'm trying to figure out how I want to get involved in maternal health, and I'm feeling like that could be a good route. I am passionate AF about natural birth. And postpartum maternal mental health. And planting the seed with new mothers to value their intuition over society's opinions on motherhood and mothering. It's big decision time. I'm ready to start doing something. But not just anything... something that I give a shit about. I could use the change of pace. Our family could use more income. The new mothers of the world could use more educators and advocates. We will see...