Earlier, I shared with you guys HOW TO LEVEL UP YOUR LIFE and a lot of you loved it. I found out some new ways to level up and decided to do part two in order to share with you as much information as possible on this topic.

You can read the blog post or watch the video below. The video has more explanation and depth into the topic so you might want to consider watching it.

Self-awareness helps you to know yourself. It reveals to you the things you like and don't like. It also enables you to have a deep understanding of your reactions to different situations. Self-awareness is like having a new friend and making efforts to know them in order to build trust and a deeper friendship with them.

Take time to know and understand who you really are. It's very important to your level-up journey. It will help you to define your personality and what you want in life. And that is the foundation of your level-up journey

Doing the things that you love sparks some energy into you and motivates you to do even the things that you don't enjoy doing. Take a hobby or a passion and do it. The fulfilment you get from it will make you really happy and you need an energized and happy state of mind to level up your life.

Meditate on your desires to help them manifest. Meditate on them with belief and with a very positive mind. Think of all the positive ways that your desires can come to pass.

You can't do it all by yourself. You need God to make all your efforts worthwhile. Believe in God and ask him to help you do the right things to level up.

Believe in yourself because you were born to win and shine. You have all it takes to be a better person. You need to believe in your capacities because you were born with them. All you need to do is develop these capacities and become a better person.

This is one of the most important points you should consider. Work hard at the things that you need to do in order to level up. God will bless your hard work. Your desires will manifest faster when you work hard to achieve them. You will succeed easily when you work hard. Work hard and make your dreams come true.

My plans of becoming a mommy who didn't 'let herself go' failed right from my pregnancy days. I always thought I was going to be the type of mom who is able to be on top of her self-care game as I was before getting pregnant. But as soon as I was two months pregnant, I couldn't keep up with my self-care routines and tips. I was too sick for that.

Right until now that I have had my baby, self-care is still a struggle for me. but with time, I have come to learn how to care for myself by putting myself first.

There are many ways to put yourself first and as a mom, it can happen in the simplest ways. It's a way to frequently remind yourself that you also have a life and you matter. Sometimes motherhood takes the most of you and you lose your identity. You are no longer identified as you but only as somebody's mom. Every joy or pain you know comes from or hides behind motherhood. your needs are left behind. If you feel this way, then you need some self-care.

Putting yourself first isn't a bad thing. Kids are fragile and need to be taken care of but their caretakers need to feel taken care of as well.  You need to feel worthy too. Your needs matter. Your feelings matter. Your desires matter.

5 ways to take care of yourself by putting yourself first. 

1. Attend to your basic needs first

This one goes especially to my new mamas out there. When you've got a new baby, doing basic things like eating, sleeping and showering for yourself feel like such a luxury. In fact, it becomes a real luxury because you barely have time to do these things.

It is easy to forget yourself or put yourself behind while taking care of your baby. You may feel overwhelmed and don't know how to go about it. But the best way is to think about it this way. You need your basic needs like showering, eating and sleeping to be met so that you can be a better mother to your baby or kids.

So you have to put these needs first. I had a hard time doing this but on the days I did, I felt so good about myself and the day was easy to manage. Find a way to eat and shower first then make sleep a priority by going to sleep while the baby is sleeping. I know you may have lots of work you need to do while the baby is sleeping but you can take just a few minutes to rest mama. It will do you a lot of good during the rest of the day.

Eating first gives you the energy to take care of your child. You may run out of energy because it takes a lot of it to be in top form for your kids. So eat well and make sure you don't skip meals. When you find the time to eat before them, then do so. Feeding a child can be so energy-draining so you need to be well-armed.

Also when you shower early, you feel clean, worthy and ready care for them. There are fewer fears of transferring germs to them or anything like that. I used to feel that way a lot when I have to breastfeed my baby before I shower.

Acts as little as these make you feel cared for and it really makes you feel good about yourself.

2. Work on your career, passion or hobby

To sum it all up, find something you love and do it. If it means going back to your career then find a way to do it. Find a passion that makes you feel fulfilled or a hobby that makes you happy.

These things will energize you and give you a break from your routine of motherhood.

3. Love yourself as much as you love your family

Love yourself that much. You need to love yourself and show yourself that you love yourself. That's a great way to care for yourself. Loving yourself is offering the best to yourself and putting yourself first.

4. Take care of your mental health

Motherhood is beautiful. But being a mom keeps your mind thinking for so long that it can drive you insane. You need to take care of your mind and protect it from depression. Take out time to relax and destress. Alone time will be fantastic if you can get some.

5. Work on improving yourself

Improving yourself is one of the best ways to care for yourself. personal development is important and should be high up on your list. It's important to improve and be the version of yourself that you will be proud of.

So work on yourself to be a better person just like you work hard to become a better mom.

This is the first of a monthly update in which I will talk with you guys about how I have been doing with personal growth. Each episode will contain lessons that I've learned and how I managed difficult situations during the past month.

This is the first episode and it is for the month of November 2019.

I was very excited to be in the month of November and it felt so close to the end of the year already.

I reflected on the fact that the year is almost over and I am not where I want to be, nor have I achieved the things I hoped to achieve by this time. But I didn't want to stress that. I let it pass as a thought.

The most difficult thing I faced this month of November was combatting the feeling of stagnation and this made me feel so powerless. I realised that there are things beyond my control and it can be so frustrating to not have control of the things that mean a lot to you.

The one thing I'm proud of is that I was pushed beyond my limit of patience so many times and I still managed to stay calm and talk myself into keeping going ahead and finding new ways to obtain results.

Following a dream can be frustrating at times when you can't see how it will end and facing the fears of what if it doesn't work out. I think that's the hardest part of chasing your dreams. I was tested with this a lot this month. But I am glad that I am still here believing and pushing harder to make this dream a reality.

I have heard many people say that you shouldn't take advice from people who haven't succeeded at something you are looking forward to succeeding in. And that you should focus on those who have made it. I think this response is logical too. I mean, those who have made it in life did it right and thus should know how to help you get it right too.

But isn't failure a lesson? If that is the case then those who 'haven't made it in life' have many lessons to give as well. When someone who failed at something wants to give advice, it is easy for us to wave it away and ask why they didn't make it if they know all that.

But I think that we should listen to those who failed as well and here is why.

Why You Should Take Advice From Someone Who Has Failed In Life

1.  They know how it feels to fail

2. They have imagined success but have tasted failure. This gives them a little more experience.

3. They must have tried all the possible ways to succeed

4. They probably know why they failed and that lesson can be helpful to you

Those who made it might have had it on the first try - who knows?

So while you listen to all the successful people, take some time to hear those who didn't succeed either in life in general or in a particular domain you are looking forward to succeeding in.

Motherhood is like a school where you must attend the course yourself in order to understand it. There are many assumptions and corrections we make before we become mothers and then we discover a bunch of other things that we didn't expect. Though some of these things may not happen to you, here are ten things that come with being a mother - whether you like it or not.

10 Things That Happen To You During Motherhood 

1. A deeper voice

I think I am experiencing this one. I just feel my voice has changed ever since I gave birth and guess what? It's deeper. I think it comes because motherhood needs an authoritative tone to go with it, lol. Or we are too tired to form small voices, lol.

A deep voice is a common change in motherhood. Some women may love it while others don't but it is something to be expected.

2. Forgetting things more

Let me share an example; I go to get something and upon reaching there, I forget what I wanted to get. And this happens so many times a day. Sometimes I forget completely what I did just yesterday. It really surprises me how I forget things.

In my opinion, it is caused by tiredness or the fact that we work like robots as mothers. When you've got a list of things to do, it's easy to be forgetful. That's why it happens often.

3. Always tired

Even when I'm just getting out of bed I'm already tired. Thinking about what I have to do during the day makes me tired already.

4. Always sleepy

Moms never sleep enough BTW. There's so little time to rest and so much to do. It's even hard to get two hours of sleep without interruption.

5. Always worried

I worry about a lot of things and all of them are centred around how my baby will be affected. Even when I worry about my wellbeing, it's mostly because I know my baby needs me to be in the best of health so that I can take better care of her.

These and more can get you worried even in your sleep. You may not even want to leave your baby alone for fear that anything can happen to them during the one second that you are away.

6. More grateful

Yeah, I'm more grateful than I was before. I just feel grateful for life and health and everything good that happens daily no matter how small it is.

Seeing your baby grow little by little is something to be grateful for every day.

7. Become more patient

Motherhood has a way of testing your patience. It has made me more patient. I still do get angry quickly but I have to swallow it most of the time and apply patience instead of reacting without thinking.

8. Value little things even more

Little moments matter even more now. The best moments are those we spend smiling; laughing, cooking, and eating together. These moments create the best memories and as a mom, I tend to cherish them the most now.

9. Pray more

I pray more for my baby myself and my family. I pray anytime, anywhere. I have conversations with God like I'm talking to a friend and I love how close I have become to God.

10. Make more sacrifices

Being a mother comes with sacrifices. You sacrifice your time, energy, health and sanity to be a good mother every day. And though it's sometimes difficult, these sacrifices are just one of the best things to give your children.

Yet this doesn't mean that you can't get enough of self-development. It's necessary to improve and develop yourself daily but you may also need to stop or slow down for a while in order to get the best out of it.

It doesn't entice you any longer.

Self-development can make you feel worse when all you do is read books, and blogs and watch videos or audios without a break. 

When you don't see as much result as the effort you put into self-development, you may begin to feel like you need to stop because it's not working. 

Does every content you see on self-development look familiar? Do you feel like you've seen it or read it all already? When you can tell the rest of the article or video after seeing the title or intro then you've consumed enough self-development content.

When you are looking for more personal information that applies to you and what you are passing through, then you have consumed a lot of self-development content. 

Take out time to try them out and verify the information you have acquired.

Rome was not built in a day. You need time to learn new habits and practice them in order to see results.

Slow down on getting more self-development ideas. Work on the knowledge you already have.

Have your daily dose of motivation while you apply other self-development tricks you have learnt. 

Self-development is great but can be overwhelming when you are not seeing results or have had too much of it. 

I'm enjoying reading blogs from French-speaking bloggers. I used to read these blogs when I just started blogging because I was trying to understand the world of blogging. But now, I read them for my own pleasure (and to keep learning from them of course). I enjoy their way of writing and telling stories. I hope to tell stories as good as they do.

I'm showing the real me because I don't have the energy to fake anything. I haven't been posting every day because I have been confused for the longest time about how to present myself to you guys on Instagram. I'll go with the flow and talk about my interests on Instagram. I hope you guys find it interesting too.

Those are a bit of the things I am doing right now. I'm looking forward to sharing more beautiful posts with you guys in the days to come. 

A few weeks ago, I had a migraine and I remember feeling intense pain in my neck. It didn't start all of a sudden as I had been feeling a lot more tired physically and mentally prior to that.

I even talked with a friend who told me to take it easy with whatever I am doing because I need to stay healthy to take care of my daughter.

The most stressful thing about being a mom is having the feeling of not doing enough for your kid(s). This feeling can haunt you throughout motherhood. It can make you stressed out and always want to do more so much that you may begin to neglect your own wellbeing.

We don't have only kids to worry about as mothers. There's also the rest of the family, our friends, taking care of the house, our love life and our jobs to worry about. Adding all these up can make life really stressful for a mom especially when she has to do it all by herself.

Not paying attention to your health as a mom will affect not only you but also your kids. It can make you sick, tired, and stressed and affect your relationship with those around you. If you are in this condition you may not be able to give your children the love and care you always wanted to give them.

That's why it is necessary for moms to take good care of themselves in order to be strong enough physically and mentally to raise their kids.

And in this post, I'm sharing with you six things moms can do to stay healthy physically and mentally so that they can be the best parents possible.

Moms, Do These 6 Things Daily To Stay Healthy Physically & Mentally

Eat

It sounds so easy but when you become a mom eating can be a struggle. And by the way, moms do eat to stay alive but most of us don't eat well. Some moms live on coffee throughout the day and others eat snacks because it's fast and easy to make.

I was feeding my daughter the other day I kept thinking of how much I worry about her eating right and having all the necessary nutrients for her to grow and be healthy. Then I remembered that while doing that, I barely have time to eat. This made me decide to eat first each time. Feeding her needs a lot of energy and doing this while hungry can be so draining. So it's important to eat first, mama. Get the strength you need to do the things you have to do.

Sleep

Sleep is medicine. When I had a migraine, I decided to just rest. I couldn't do anything anyway so I had no choice. I left chores like laundry for another day and used my free time to sleep. It took me three days of rest to begin to feel like myself again.

I just wasn't sleeping enough and while I slept I had a lot of things on my mind about what I will do the next day, how to be more organized and how to do things better. These thoughts never end. We are always thinking of how to be better moms every day and we don't realize how tiring it can be trying to be good enough every day. This stress may accumulate and cause fatigue as in my case. And like I said there are many other things to worry about too which may make us really tired at the end of the day.

So take time to sleep, mama. Your body needs it.

Drink lots of water

There are a lot of things that make you lose water as a mom. Sweating from doing chores and running behind your kids and for those who breastfeed that's a major way to lose water.

You need to replace your body's water in order to not dehydrate. Dehydration can make you feel weak, cause headaches and slow you down. Always drink water and eat fruits and vegetables that contain lots of water like watermelon.

Pause

Take breaks. This goes especially to the stay-at-home moms. When you are a stay-at-home mom you can just go on and on non-stop with your kids. You may forget to take a break because you are trying to get things done as much as possible. But I have come to realize that these chores have no end. They just keep coming and you just find yourself always doing something.


You need to take a break mama. Even those who work with organizations and companies have a break time. You need to take a break too. Read this post on five ways you can take a break as a mom to know how to take breaks from your motherhood schedule.

Appreciate yourself

Before anything, I want to let you know that you are doing well mama, though nobody sees you. Just know that you are doing well. You are doing your best and you are highly appreciated.

I know that because I am a mom too and I understand what it means to watch a baby or kids throughout the day non-stop. I was thinking about having a day to myself alone one time then it occurred to me that I have been spending time with my daughter for the past seven months, day in and day out and I am still sane. I need a pat on the back for that. And not only me but all the moms who are doing their best to nurture and protect these kids.

Bravo mama! You are doing well.

Do what you love

This is necessary for your sanity. Your mental health is as important as your physical so do something that you enjoy doing like a hobby so that it will lift your spirit, relax you and give you energy.

This could even be your career. If it means that much to you and gives you so much pleasure, then you should consider it again. Don't let your dreams be drowned by motherhood. Find out how to do both and do it.

Put yourself and your feelings first. Your desires are as important as that of your kids. Don't always show up as their mom, also show up as you. Your personality is important. Don't lose yourself, mama. You need to stay healthy physically and mentally so that those who depend on you will have only the best of you.