About the Book:
Title: Guilt Free Motherhood: A
5-Step Guide to Reclaiming Your Time, Health & Well-Being
Author: Amber Khan
Publisher: Rethink Press
Pages: 156
Genre:
Nonfiction/Parenting/Motherhood
Format: Paperback/Kindle
“Own your happiness. Reclaim your
well-being. Make a guilt-free lifestyle, your choice of living!
• Do
you think being a 'super mum' is your only option?
• Do
you neglect your own health while caring for others?
• Do
you struggle to maintain a happy work/life balance?
• Do
you often feel stressed and burnt-out? Then you may be suffering from 'Mummy
Guilt'.
Guilt Free Motherhood will guide
you to:
• Ignite
your passion to bring balance to your life;
• Take
practical steps towards self-care;
• De-clutter
your space, schedules and relationships;
• Let
go of the 'super mum' and the 'control freak' inside of you;
• Practical
ways of recharging your batteries.
A mother's journey should not be,
and need not be, a GUILT trip. Guilt Free Motherhood gives you the tools you
need to start living a more contented, healthy and energised lifestyle today -
right in the midst of motherhood.”
Is self-care selfish?
Mothers: Do you remember the last
time you took a nice long, relaxing bath?
Do you feel guilty about
indulging in such activities because it could be spend doing the leftover ironing
or hovering which you have been putting off for days?
“ There’s no problem so awful,
that you can’t add some guilt to it and make it even worse.”
― Bill Watterson, from The
Complete Calvin and Hobbes
I was at a conference day before
yesterday, which happens to be a Saturday. While networking, I met a lady &
the subject of motherhood came up. When she found out that i have 2 young kids,
immediately her tone changed from friendly to accusatory. Asking me shouldn’t I
be at home with the kids being a weekend as we already don’t spend enough time
with our kids in today’s hectic lives?
Firstly, don’t we mothers feel
enough guilt ourselves that someone else, in fact another mother wishes to
burden your conscious further?
So I said, I spend many a special
moments with my kids but i don’t need to be with them every second of the day,
week or month. I’m here because i wanted to be here. I feel no shame in
spending time & money on my personal development & networking with the
like-minded people (albeit on a Saturday). On this very day, my kids are
spending quality time with their dad & their aunt, they’ll be fed &
well looked after in my absence & when i return home, the joy of listening
to all their stories would be immense. So what is so harmful to them in such a
situation that i should be worried about & heading home right now?
Needless to say that our
conversation was cut short & she left with a disapproving look on her face.
It is a common belief in the
society that if a mother puts her needs before her kids than she is being
selfish. Really? What good a mother be if she is feeling ill, stressed &
exhausted? What good a mother be if she isn’t able to stimulate all her senses?
What good a mother be if she’s neglecting her health? What good a mother be if
she’s losing her mind in the vicious cycle of guilt?
PRESS STOP! Mothers, you need not
feel guilty about looking after your needs, your health & well-being. Your
family’s well-being depends on you (majority of the times) & hence YOUR
well-being comes first.
About the Author
Amber Khan is a Lifestyle Mentor,
Speaker, Author, sports enthusiast and a proud mum of three.
She is the founder of Guilt Free
Living which provides tools for the mothers to help them live a fulfilling,
healthy & energised lifestyle.
She has ran retreats, given talks
and written articles on the importance of wellness and how to re-energise the
tired minds and bodies of mothers.
Amber currently resides in
London, UK with her husband and their three children.
Book Excerpt:
I think you’ll agree that the
most important emotional issue a majority of mothers face, especially
twenty-first century mothers, is the feeling of guilt. The spectrum of guilt is
wide and varied, ranging from feeling guilty about not doing enough for your
children, to feeling guilty about spending time or money on your own
well-being, with hundreds more guilty feelings in between. I believe that a
mother’s journey should not be, and need not be, a guilt trip.
The purpose of this book is to
show how a mother can live a refreshing, blissful and blossoming lifestyle
through a guided five-step process by letting go of the mummy guilt that makes
us sacrifice our health, career and relationships.
Mummy guilt can be defined as the
feeling of self-condemnation that we experience when thoughts of spending time
and money on ourselves seem selfish. It can also be understood as the constant
worry we feel for our kids which eventually turns into guilt. In fact, anyone
caring for children is bound to experience similar guilty feelings.
Mummy guilt can start as early as
when the pink stripes show up on your pregnancy test. I used to feel guilty
about anything when I was expecting my first child. The first trimester was
very tough. I could hardly keep food down, felt nauseous and weak, and worried
constantly how it would affect the growth of my baby. Guilt sowed its seeds in
me at the very start of my motherhood journey.
Later on, if I left kids at home
with hubby for an hour or two, I felt guilty. When I went to work after
dropping my baby at the nursery, I felt guilty. When I decided to be a
stay-at-home mum, I felt guilt about abandoning my career. When I wanted to
join the gym (to lose the extra 20kg I had gained during pregnancy) and regain
my self-confidence, I felt guilty about spending that time and money on myself.
Even going out (once in a blue moon) with friends, always turned into a guilt
trip. Is a mother taking care of herself to keep her sanity and health, really
a selfish act?
Well in my case the lack of
self-care eventually turned into health problems. Back problems, weak joints,
weak and injury-prone muscles, and I was only in my twenties! Problems that,
you’d normally associate with old age, maybe. For almost a decade I neglected
my health; it eventually took my left knee giving way to make me realise that
if I didn't take care of myself now, I would soon end up miserable, in pain and
maybe even run out of recovery options. What good would I be to my family then?
Will husband have to quit work simply to look after me and the kids?
Book Trailer
Congratulations, Amber!
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