Two weeks ago, my baby was suddenly very very ill. We rushed off to A&E and four days later we were still at the hospital with very little sleep, high levels of stress but relieved that she was getting better.

Through all this stress and chaos I learnt 3 very important life lessons:

Trust Your Mom Instincts

Faye has been sick with sniffles and colds many times, sometimes with horrible sounding coughs and I’ve never felt stressed or worried. But something just didn’t feel right this time in my gut and even though she was right as rain 18hrs beforehand, by the Sunday morning I just knew that something was incredibly wrong.

Mom’s have built in sensors and we sometimes worry that we are over-reacting. But I truly believe that as a mom you really do know when there is something really wrong with your child. I don’t mean a small cold or something that a bit of Calpol can fix but rather when there is something that really does warrant going to A&E.

Take Time for Yourself

After three long nights with very little sleep my family finally convinced me to go home and have a proper nights sleep while my husband stayed with Faye. It was extremely tough to leave, but I was definitely more able to cope with the stress and everything going on the next day with having had some real sleep.

That Thursday after a week of no yoga, I finally managed to fit in an hour of self practice and reinforced the lesson; taking the time for myself allowed me to be stronger for her and the rest of my family.

We often forget when we are stressed, tired and worn out that we need to take time out. We have a million excuses why we can’t most of them revolving around time and other commitments. Finding the energy and mental will power to take a step away and give ourselves a rest is really tough. But allowing ourselves some time even if it is only an hour to reset ourselves goes a long way to helping to restore the balance and keep us stronger for longer. Taking that time out gives your mind and body the time to be grounded, giving you the energy to continue to deal with stress, lack of sleep or anything else that life throws your way.

And particularly when that time out is done at a yoga class. Attending a class allows your body to gently stretch and strengthen, gives your mind space to heal and brings your attention back to yourself instead of everyone and everything around you.

Be More Childlike

Here was this very sick child, and at every opportunity she was all smiles and playing away. It makes you realise that we allow life to hold us back from finding the joy in any situation. That even at our lowest there is always something to smile about if only we are willing to look for it.

It is one of the burdens of being an adult; we are aware of everything that can go wrong. But just because we are able to understand the implications of things doesn’t mean that we need to let our worry and stress take over our lives.

Contentment is not the absence of suffering, but rather how we deal with that suffering.