Your mother means the world to you. When anyone in the family is hurt or sick, she is always there. From a scraped knee that needs bandaging, a sick child who needs soup, or to be taken to the doctor, mothers are often the main care givers. However, while making it a priority to see that everyone is as fit and as healthy as possible, mothers often put their own health on the back burner.
This Sunday on Mother’s Day, and while husbands, sons, and daughters will be taking the opportunity to express their love and gratitude for mothers everywhere, take a moment to consider her health, which she may have neglected over the years.
It’s important for mothers to take care of their own health and for families too to ensure that she is taking care.
Here are a few things mothers need to do to improve their health.
Stay active and exercise regularly. Regular physical activity is necessary for good health, though. Make time in your daily routine to take her for a walk around a garden, encourage her to enrol in a yoga class or a gym.
Eat a healthy diet. Be it your mother, or your children’s mother – between her office, running errands, and work around the house, she may not a chance to have a sit-down meal. Pack her some snacks or plan ahead and pack her a dinner/lunch for her busy day.
Your mother has probably cooked endless amounts of meals for you, so why not cook something for her?
Manage stress. If your mother is stressed, give her a day off regularly from some of her responsibilities. Her old parental responsibilities may have been replaced with other responsibilities such as taking care of older family members.
Stress can have a negative effect on health, so you can’t just ignore it. Help her destress – take her for a vacation, or for a music show that she likes, gift her a spa treatment, enrol her in a meditation centre if she likes that.
Get regular breast cancer screenings. 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. That’s why it’s so important to get screened for breast cancer on a regular basis. The earlier breast cancer is detected, the better your chances of treating it successfully.
Go to the doctor. She has taken you to the doctor regularly for an annual check-up, so you should do the same for her. Your primary care doctor is your guide to good health and wellness – take the doctor’s advice and plan a check as per her age, family history and risks.
Not every gift needs to come from a store. This year, dig deeper, your thoughtful behaviour can show your love to the woman who raised you.