Ways Special Needs Parents Can Add Rest to Their Day

Finding ways special needs parents can add rest to their day is important for both physical and mental wellbeing.

Being a special needs parent or caregiver can be exhausting and draining both physically and emotionally. This can take a toll.

While long stretches of rest may not be possible, let’s look at small moments of rest you can build into your daily routines.

Importance of Rest

We are not robots. Just like we eat and sleep, going all day long without breaks can add to an already overwhelming day or period in your life or special needs parenting journey.

Rest periods throughout the day can reduce feelings of mental and physical fatigue or exhaustion. You will then be better able to attend to needs as they arise for your child, in the workplace, and at home.

Rest When Time is Limited

There are many constraints on your time as a special needs parent.

The goal of this post is to give you some easy, actionable ways to add in short moments of rest during your day. Most ideas here are or short, five to ten minutes of rest.

While long naps, massage appointments, and afternoons walking through a park on your own are great sources of rest and relaxation, longer periods of rest may be very difficult at your current life stage. This is okay. Let’s build in rest where you are.

Your first step towards building in rest may be relaxing your definition of rest to fit it to your specific needs.

Quick & Easy Ways Special Needs Parents Can Add Rest to Their Day

• Create reminders to rest. These cues could be visual sticky notes on your bathroom mirror or in the car. You could also set alarms on your phone. You could even label the alarm “take five minutes.”

• Whether you are at work or at home, take five minutes of rest at the start of every hour. For example, at work take this time to stand, walk to refill a water bottle, or stretch and take a few breaths. This will probably need to be tailored to your unique schedule, but find ways to pepper a few moments in between tasks to regroup before moving on to the next activity in your day.

• Aim to arrive a few minutes before appointments so you can sit in your car and listen to a short video, enjoy a song, or take a few breaths. Use this time wisely and try to avoid mindlessly scrolling social media.

• When you arrive home, sit in your car for a moment and take five deep breaths.

• If possible, ask family members to give you ten minutes of transition time when you arrive home. This is not always possible, start small. You may need to physically go to your room to put your purse away. Take a few moments then to stretch and do some mindful breathing.

More Ways to Add Rest to Your Day

• Plan ahead when possible to save time. Currently, I am meal planning each week. Using the crockpot allows me to come home to a ready to go meal. I put it together the evening before when there is less time pressure.

• Build in margin between activities. This will reduce your feeling of being rushed. This may require adjusting the timing of activities. One way you can add rest in your evenings is to pause at the end of meals. This could be sitting and talking with your family, slowly savoring a dessert, or sitting on the back porch before starting the dishes.

• Do one thing at a time. While not a traditional rest activity, if you are busy juggling activities they often take longer to accomplish. This often drains you both physically and mentally. Let others know I am doing this right now and then I can help you with that.

• When children are younger, it can be difficult to take time in your room to rest. This is a good time to build in naps, quiet time, and a bedtime routine/schedule. Then use these times to rest instead of doing chores.

• Wake up five minutes early and rest in bed for a few minutes of stretching. This helps me slowly acclimating to the day. My mind typically races ahead to my running mental to-do list. I have been working on actively stretching or slowly moving my body from my toes on up. I also pay attention to what I can hear, feel, smell, etc. I then slowly sit up instead of jumping out of bed and into my day.

Summary: Ways Special Needs Parents Can Add Rest to Their Day

Life can become very busy. It is important that you actively take time throughout your day to rest. This will help you recharge your energy and can help prevent feelings of exhaustion and burn out.

Today we looked at just some of the ways special needs parents can add rest to their day. Try dome of these ideas out over the next week and see which ones work well for you and be on the lookout for more ways to add rest to your unique routine.

Remember rest can be different things to different people and in different stages of life. I enjoy moments of quite to do art work, read a book, do a few stretches, step away from what I have been working on to refresh my mind. It could also be taking a more scenic ride home, taking time to apply some lotion after washing your hands, calling a friend, or watching a movie without interruptions to tackle chores.

You may be interested in reading our post Self-Care When You Are Exhausted.

You will also find more time for rest by trying tips in our post Finding Time for Self Care as a Special Needs Parent.

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