Listening to this episode in your closet or by yourself in your car and just trying to steal a few quiet moments? YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Summer can make us each want to get in our cars and head to Mexico for a little peace and quiet because this season requires so much of us as moms. Often, our rhythms get interrupted, our sleep gets off and we stop taking care of ourselves. The still, quiet moments where we snuck away to spend time with the Lord may slip away in the unpredictability of summer and we can find ourselves run down and even depressed.

We’re talking in this episode about the signs of depression, what to do if you start to experience them and how to implement healthy rhythms so you take care of yourself this summer.

• Summer-Onset Seasonal Affective Disorder (SO SAD)
  
  • Signs: sadness, lethargy, apathy, unmotivated, anxious, excessive sleepiness, food craving; especially carbohydrates, irritability or loss of appetite and insomnia
    
    
  • Don’t wait to get help! Reach out to a counselor and tell your friends if you’re struggling.
    
  
  

TIPS to help take care of yourself this summer:

Monitor your caffeine intake

Keep exercising

Get time with your friends

Drink water

Take rest days

Keep your healthy rhythms

Limit social media

Let others help

And most importantly:

Spend time with the Lord

And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.

When you struggle, ask God to help you focus your mind on him. Are you getting anxious preparing to travel or about getting into your swimsuit? Ask God to help focus your mind on him and what is true.

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Summer will reveal weaknesses in each of us. It shows our limits, our lack of patience, the heat puts us on edge. As unbelievable as it sounds, we can celebrate that. Actually revel in it. Those weak places are where our God shines. When you see the temp tip past 100, look to your God and say: You’re up! He’s ready and wants to show his power in your weakness.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Moms, summer is such a blessing of more time with our families but can also be a stressor as it often requires more of us. Take care of yourself and check on your friends.

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