How to deal with postpartum anxiety and low mood | 8 holistic healing methods
Postpartum anxiety and low mood can make those early days of motherhood feel really hard. Whether you spend a long time worrying about your baby's health. Or, perhaps doubting whether you are a good enough parent. Or, for many, you may be feeling like you've lost your self-identity. You may struggle to motivate yourself to do anything that remotely feels like you.
This post will share some holistic methods of dealing with postpartum anxiety and low mood. This will include a mixture of emotional support and ways to deal with anxiety's lesser spoken about physical impact.
Using these coping strategies, you can experience less physical tension and more emotional freedom.
Spend time in nature
The benefits to your mental health of spending time in nature have been widely recognised. It was found that hospital patients who faced a window with a nature view felt less upset and recovered quicker than those patients who viewed a wall (Ulrich, 1984).
It has even been found that nature helps re-wire the brain. A study by Bratman found that after 90 minutes in nature, participants had decreased activity in the subgenus prefrontal cortex. This area is associated with unhelpful rumination patterns, which are common among depressive and anxious states. Therefore, spending time in nature can help you ruminate less and feel happier.
Try to schedule as many opportunities as possible throughout your week. A garden, park, beach or woodlands can all help with the healing!
2. Meditation
Meditation is a way to counteract the physical tension caused by stress and low mood. One form of meditation is deep breathing. This can help to bring oxygen to all parts of your body.
A 2018 study has shown that meditation helps improve the functioning of the vagus nerve, which in turn you to regulate your emotions and deal with life stresses. These are all essential skills when looking after a baby.
A simple way to help yourself can be to spend 5 minutes breathing deeply into your belly. Take a deep inhale through your nose into your stomach and a deep, long exhale out through your mouth.
This is an easy way to regulate your nervous system, ground yourself in times of stress and improve your coping skills for the inevitable difficult times that come with looking after a baby.
3. Create mindful heart-to-heart moments with your baby
Postpartum days often bring a lot of love and connection. However, there can often be moments of pain and even despair during the more difficult times. It is easy to focus on the more challenging moments. However, it is important to recognise the good times and allow yourself to be present in moments of joy and happiness.
Next time you are cuddling with your baby, try placing your hearts so that they are near. Allow yourself to be fully present in the feeling of connection between yourself and your baby. Let yourself be fully present at that moment with your child. Notice how you are feeling and let these feelings sink into your body.
Although enjoying these moments simply as they are is enough, you may also want to try writing about some of these moments. This may help you remember the joyful parts of the postpartum days and the more difficult times.
4. Dance to your favourite music
Dancing to music has many benefits. Listening to music that you love can help boost your mood. It may be particularly relevant in helping you to deal with postpartum anxiety and low mood.
Firstly, music can help connect you to others parts of you. Having a baby may leave you struggling with not feeling like yourself. Music can help you remember happy memories or reconnect with feelings within you that you may not necessarily feel during the postpartum days.
Secondly, movement is excellent in helping anxiety feel less all-consuming. Dancing can interrupt negative thought patterns. It can help to 'get out of your head' and quiet some of the anxious thoughts you may have.
In addition, movement can help release some of the physical tension carried in the body. When your body holds stress, it may feel tight or hunched over. Moving your body has a way of releasing some of this trapped energy to help you feel more relaxed and improve your anxiety.
5. Connect with others to normalise your experiences
Disconnection breeds loneliness. Loneliness is a massive contributor to anxiety and mood issues. Often, new mums don't talk about their struggles. This can lead to a misconception that you are the only one going through these difficult experiences. What you are going through is much more common than you think!
Find ways to form meaningful connections. Accept support from others whenever possible. New mums need help and love! As well as connecting with existing friends, it may help to attend baby classes or use apps such as Peanut or Bumble Bff.
I know baby classes aren't for everyone. If this isn't your thing, try joining a gym with a community focus or being part of online or offline organisations that help connect you with others. Some clients I've worked with have joined women's circles or online group meditation practices. As with all of these things, making time for this will feel more manageable as your baby gets older.
6. Journal your emotions and experiences
You've probably heard about journalling being helpful, but you may not know exactly why.
A 2002 study shows that journalling help people recovering from psychiatric conditions recover faster. Anxiety or mood difficulties often involve unwanted thoughts and unhelpful rumination. Journalling can help you process these experiences quicker, which means that you may be able to let them go.
You can try free-writing about your feelings and experiences. Alternatively, you could try using journal prompts. Journal prompts can be used as a way of checking in with yourself to alter negative thinking before you spiral into a negative place. Some prompts might include:
~ What went well today?
~ What didn't go so well?
~ How do I want to feel tomorrow?
~ How can I help myself to feel this way?
7. Massage
It's no secret that giving birth takes a physical toll on your body. However, due to the pressures of caring for a newborn and not being able to prioritise our needs, the physical healing that is required can often be forgotten.
Massage is a wonderful way to support you postnatally. It can help to relieve stress and physical tension that it is highly likely that you may be carrying in your body. This relief of tension is a great anxiety cure.
Massage can help bring awareness to the body. This, in turn, increases the mind-body connection. Any way to bring your mind back into your body in times of stress will help you deal with postpartum anxiety and low mood.
8. Learn to comfort yourself
Self-compassion is something that doesn't come naturally to many of us. Learning to identify what you need and speak to yourself with kindness can have a healing impact.
Try talking to yourself like you would to a friend in times of pain. This may look like, "I'm sorry that you feel this way. What can I do to help?"
For further impact, try placing your hand on your heart to soothe yourself. Your nervous system doesn't know the difference between the touch of your hand or someone else's. This means that you always can comfort yourself in times of distress.
Hi, i’m Sophie
I am a therapist and mother. I love helping new mums overcome anxiety and low mood to feel confident and content.
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