It’s no secret that being a mom is one of the toughest, most time-consuming jobs on this planet. There are very few, if any, careers that require the amount of plate spinning as raising kids.
A 2018 study found working moms clock an average of 98 hours per week, which is about the equivalent of working 2.5 full-time jobs. So it’s no surprise that in 2020 a poll of over 1200 moms found that 89% were overwhelmed and exhausted.
On a recent episode of Influencers Radio with Jack Mize, Dr. Allyson Coffin, CEO and founder of the Happiermoms program, discussed how she is helping busy working moms who are juggling their family and their own business stay sane and find a sustainable work-life balance.
Through the Happiermoms program, busy Moms can learn simple ways to meditate and restore peace in their lives. During the interview, Dr. Coffin dispelled the pre-conceived notions some have about meditation and described how she helps her students develop the practice within the Happiermoms framework, saying, “The misconception of meditation is that you sit with your eyes closed in a lotus position, saying ‘ommm’, and just stare at your eyelids. That doesn’t sound very soothing to me. Most of the mothers I work with don’t have time for that and think it sounds ridiculous. The way that I teach meditation, it’s a way of ease. It’s an easy meditation; you’re comfortable the whole time you’re doing it, meaning you don’t have to sit in a certain position or be in a certain place. The meditation that I teach, you can do anywhere. And it’s not about clearing your mind, because as a mother, or even as a human being, we have thoughts in our mind all the time. That means we’re alive. So when someone says ‘clear your mind,’ that’s a very, very large task to ask somebody to do who is trying to meditate. Meditation is seeing the thought that you have, letting it drive by you, and just observing it. And if you have more thoughts, that’s also fine. But meditation is taking time for yourself where you’re not in the middle of a task; you’re just meditating.”
According to Dr. Coffin, one of the most important things humans can do is take time to care for oneself, saying, “It’s like being on an airplane and not putting your oxygen mask on first. I know that’s a cliche, but it’s true. If you don’t take care of yourself, you are not available to take care of the people around you. You might be physically there, standing in the same room as them, but you’re not taking care of anybody if you are so depleted, so tired that you can’t keep your eyeballs open, and you’re thinking of your end monstrous to-do list. And then parents start arguing with their children, arguing with their spouse, not getting anything done, and slipping into anxiety and depression. When really, it’s a proactive experience taking care of ourselves. And then it’s good not only for us but for everybody else. We must take the time to self-care for ourselves and figure out what that means. And meditation is a large portion of it, where you can retrain your brain, so you don’t respond to stress in a negative way anymore.”
A busy working mom herself, Dr. Coffin is also a private clinical practice owner, meditation expert, and a regular guest on NBC. For over a decade, she has been educating women on finding their key roles in life and identifying the people, places, or things that propel them forward or hold them back from happiness each day.
Dr. Allyson brings her over 200,000 hours of personal mediation practice knowledge to her clients along with research and hundreds of hours in anatomy and neurology labs to figure out how to get our brains to work for us instead of against us. She shares her expertise through public speaking, regular TV show segments, Youtube videos, and on social media (@drallysoncoffin), where she motivates working moms on how to enjoy life, stop yelling, set boundaries, and love this life they have now.
Listen to the full episode at https://InfluencersRadio.com/dr-allyson-coffin
To learn more about Dr. Allyson Coffin, visit https://drallysoncoffin.com
