Jenna Bush Hager isn’t here to tell you that self-care is easy as a mom. The former first daughter, Today with Hoda & Jenna co-host, and author is a busy mom (is there any other kind, really?) with three kids, and she recognizes that prioritizing wellness can be a challenge.
“Self-care is more than just like taking a bath, you know what I mean?” she tells SheKnows over Zoom. “I have three kids — my youngest is three — and definitely after my first two, I didn’t know how to handle all of it. The work, the kids, the husband, friends… There were times where my kids would be eating kale and salmon, and I’d have, like, a waffle with peanut butter. I just wasn’t taking care of myself the way that I was taking care of the people I love.”
For so many of us, that’s an incredibly relatable admission — we spin too many plates while snacking off of our child’s, and then wonder why our own cups aren’t filled and we’re feeling depleted — which is why Bush Hager is bringing attention to the issue, and encouraging moms to prioritize themselves.
“Of course, massages are great, but it’s not all about that — it’s about just making sure that we’re doing right by ourselves,” she says.
One way Bush Hager does that is by making sure she incorporates simple wellness practices, like exercise, active breathing, and eating greens, into her daily routine. In fact, she partnered with Amazing Grass in a “Get Your Greens” challenge as a way to promote an easy nutrition hack that’s making a difference in her life.
“Every single morning, I pour some of their mix into a water bottle and I drink it,” she says. “That’s the first thing besides water that I put into my body. And the reason why I feel like it sort of changed everything for me is that if I start my day that way, getting nutrients, getting all of these servings of fruits and vegetables — then it changes the way I eat for the rest of the day.”
Bush Hager also has an expansive definition of “wellness” — one that helps her achieve it. “Wellness means everything — it means how we feel, it means what we’re putting into our body, it means how we’re moving, and how we’re speaking to each other,” she explains. “It all relates; like, if you’re not eating well, if you’re not moving, then you don’t feel that good. And therefore, your mental health, your mental wellness, also suffers.
“We just try to do the best we can,” she continues. “I picture how I want my household to be, which is one where people feel safe and happy, and loved. And then we try to just kind of back into that.”
To hear more from Bush Hager’s conversation with SheKnows — including how she describes her parents, former president George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush, as grandparents and how her own sibling relationship with twin Barbara influences her kids Mila (10), Poppy (7), and Hal (3) — watch the video!
Source: Read Full Article