I had a massive week with work this week, and by Thursday I just needed to unwind. As parents, particularly mum’s, we have a tendency to always feel like we have to be ‘ON’ so even having a simple drink to help us unwind is often done whilst cooking dinner, folding the washing, etc. However, it really is important we give ourselves permission to turn ‘OFF’ – to think of no-one else but ourselves. I needed to do this badly this week – so here is my recipe to unwind.
Ingredients
- diffuser and oils if you have them, or your favourite candle
- a glass
- a bottle of drink of your choice – for me, it was red wine. Some ideas are soda water with lemon, kombucha, coconut water, wine – you get the idea
- a book
- a cosy spot
- Do Not Disturb – instructions for the family – this must be verbal, and emphatic
Method
- Set up your cosy spot by burning your candle or turning on your diffuser with your favourite oils
- Ensure there are snacks and drinks available for your family, or at least your partner or kids know where everything is
- Take your glass and pour your drink of choice into it – you can just splash this into the glass in big glugs or you can pour it really fancy with a twist of the wrist at the end. It doesn’t matter, as long as it’s full
- Find your book, put it with your drink
- Give your Do Not Disturb instructions to your family. This could go like this – I need some time out, and so I am retiring to read my book and have a drink for the next 20 minutes. Please do not disturb me unless something is life threatening. Is this understood?
- Pick up your drink and your book, and relocate to your cosy spot with your oils or candle burning
- Put on a timer for 20 mins. Turn it down real low.
- Enjoy your unwind
- When the time goes off, turn off the timer really quickly. If it sounds like no-one is killing each other in the house, keep unwinding, squeeze as much out of this time as you can – they will come and get you when they realise it’s been longer than 20 minutes.