guest post by Ray Holmes

When someone is depending on you so much for their care, it can be hard to pinpoint when it’s time for your own self-care.

Being the special needs mom of two, it can be a daily struggle for me to make time for myself in the midst of busy therapy schedules, behaviors, meltdowns, routines, mealtimes, playtime, and bedtime.

I get lost in it all. But I have come to realize your body will let you know when it’s had enough.

Just take my visit to the ER at the end of 2018.

Oxygen levels? Great.
Lungs? Great.
Heart? Great.

“Then why can’t I breathe?” I asked the nurse.

“Well sweetheart, do you ever have panic attacks?”, she asked.

I couldn’t believe for the 3rd time (yep you read that right, the 3rd time), I was in the ER because of anxiety induced symptoms.

Thankful that I wasn’t dying, I realized that I needed to get a hold onto my stress-levels or there would probably be a fourth visit.

I’d love to say that I immediately took the time to take care of myself and made sure that I was practicing self-care, but that would be a lie.

Fast forward to this year. Months of anxiety had begun to build up again. A lot of days were filled with rapid breathing and fatigue. I felt anxious and weak. Each day drained more from me than the day before. I felt like I was failing my family.
And like I was begging for a fourth ER visit.

Something had to give.

The only logical thing that I could think of was to take a break from my blog. The thing I had been working so hard on, for so long.

I constantly stressed about it. The logo, the color scheme, the blog posts, the message, and the images. Everything.
I wanted so badly to spread a message of positivity, hope and to give an authentic look into our autism journey. But every time I tried to sit down and write, I would just be staring at a blinking cursor. Which would stress me out even more. And writing “fake posts” for the sake of just having content is not my thing.

So even though I didn’t want to, I decided to take a break for a bit. To gather myself and give myself time to learn more, grow more, relax, and experience life with my family. To let our journey be just that, a journey, not a possible blog post. To take pictures, and not thinking about if they will go up on my blog.

And this was me practicing self-care. Not the spa, not wine, not a vacation (even though I want all those things, and they sound amazing), but by cutting myself some slack. I can’t do it all. I’m not supposed to.

All the things that come with being a special needs mom, have definitely shown me that self-care is important. And sometimes you may have to get a little creative. Me taking this break from blogging will allow me to come back to the blogosphere better than ever, rested, ready and more experienced.

Words of wisdom from Ray: “Dear Autism Mom, you are allowed to feel sad, happy, scared, confused, optimistic, excited, tired, proud, overwhelmed, weak, strong. This is a journey. Take one day at a time.”

“There is Nothing as Powerful as a Mother’s Love, and Nothing as Healing as a Child’s Soul.”

“I mentioned this in one of my blog post recently, but long story short, a parent at my little one’s therapy place asked me if J was low functioning. And I was shcoked because I’ve never heard someone just casually drop that in a conversation. And I was upset. Very, very upset. That word has no place in defining a person, period.”

“There needs to be a lot more emphasis on what a child can do instead of what they can not do.” -Dr. Temple Grandin