Celebrating Mums with Self-care and Acceptance

In honour of Mother’s Day, we are releasing a sneak peek of our upcoming release by award-winning author Sonia Bestulic. This guide is like a warm and bright hug for mums. Motherhood is a very personal journey of self-discovery – a mix of delight and wonder, but also feeling challenged and overwhelmed – often, all in one day!

21 must-read principles to let go of the ‘mum guilt’, and practice self-care – it’s time to feel empowered.

‘Flourish for Mums’ is your perfect companion to develop 21 healthy ways to let go of unrealistic expectations and create space to celebrate your unique parenting pathway.

The weight of social media, societal expectations, and an ever-evolving concept of what it means to be a good parent play heavily in the minds of mothers. If the daily life of a busy mum is not enough this is the burden that can break a mother’s feelings of self-worth and success – personally, within work, and within the family unit.

Dear mum, it’s time to relax – replenish – FLOURISH.

‘Flourish for Mums: 21 Ways to Thrive With Self-care and Acceptance’ is available from Saga Egmont on the 8th of March 2022 in both eBook and Audiobook.

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Just reminding you – you are human!
It may sound a little silly to remind you of your humanness, but somehow the moment when you become a mother there’s a gross misconception that you now automatically know everything there is to know about raising a child! And that you also miraculously develop superhuman powers that make you confident, positive, loving, patient and full of unending blissful glee.
At that moment, the quiet quest for being a close to perfect mother, may begin.

In recent years there has been a surge of reminders in society telling us all to be ‘ourselves’ and practise ‘self-love’. Slogans are brandied across t-shirts, TV commercials and weaved within children’s storybooks. It makes me wonder – well what does that really mean? How do you actually love yourself?
The answer to that is going to be different for everyone of course – it is going to be unique to YOU.
But let us take it back one important step, the fundamental step that is needed before you can even consider self-love and accepting your uniqueness.

So why is it that I have included being accepting of others as a principle of self-care and self-love? Whilst it may take some practise to accept your own humanness and uniqueness, it also needs to be practised with those around us. Being able to do this – genuinely – offers enormous freedom. It dismantles any unrealistic expectations you may have projected onto another, and in turn, helps you better understand another person for who they are, and where they are up to on their life’s journey.

I sat down in the principal’s office.
‘Welcome to the school!’ the principal beamed.
I clutched my list of questions. Heart full of hope. Was this school the right fit for my young children?
‘We have so many extracurricular activities,’ she started. ‘Kids are spoilt for choice here!’
‘Okay,’ I nodded.
Enthusiastically she continued, ‘Almost every day, most students have something on after school, and many have activities before school. They have SUPER BUSY schedules!’
She seemed quite proud of this.
I felt quite concerned about this. I know that in many ways modern society has put being on a pedestal. It begs the question, What are we doing to retain our ‘busyness’ and why are we doing it?

I have said yes, many times, in life. You would potentially have called me a ‘yes person’. With a super curious mind, and always finding everything interesting in life, I found yes to be a regular default response without much reflection, or thought, without much self-questioning.
This meant saying ‘no’ was less frequent…Truth be told I am still working on saying ‘no’. Embarking on the journey of motherhood though, very much shifts the perspective on where your time is allocated and what you chose to commit to. Saying yes or no becomes more selective.

You might also enjoy: Audiobooks to listen to while breastfeeding

For more information about this title, or our full English catalogue contact Nadia on – nadia.lamond@sagaegmont.com or simply book a meeting.