Everwell Mama

Stop Pushing Through: Signs Your Body Needs a Break and How Moms Can Listen

• Siobhan Bingham • Season 1 • Episode 14

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Have you ever felt so drained that even a full night's sleep doesn’t help? This episode dives into the real reason moms are running on fumes—and why waiting for the "right time" to rest isn’t the answer. We’ll explore the hidden signs of exhaustion, from snapping over small things to forgetting why you walked into a room, and uncover what your body is really trying to tell you. Plus, you’ll learn simple shifts to recharge before you hit a full burnout. If you’re stuck in survival mode, this one's for you.

 
In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

  • How to recognize red flags of exhaustion before hitting a wall
  • The societal pressures that push moms into survival mode
  • The four types of exhaustion—physical, emotional, mental, and social—and how to identify them
  • Why “mom brain” isn’t just forgetfulness but a sign of mental fatigue
  • A simple mindset shift that helps you prioritize self-care without feeling guilty

 Noteworthy Quotes from This Episode:  

“If you’re constantly telling yourself, ‘I’ll rest when things slow down,’ but that slowdown never comes, your body is already waving a white flag.” 

 “You are more than just a mom, more than just a wife, more than just an employee—you deserve more than survival mode.” 

 “Self-care isn’t about escaping your life—it’s about nurturing yourself while living it."

 “Rest is not a reward—it’s basic maintenance for keeping yourself alive and well.” 

 “Feeling forgetful or mentally drained isn’t just ‘mom brain’..."

 “The price of doing it all is high—whether it’s snapping at your kids, crying in the bathroom, or feeling like you’re barely holding on.”  

Your Energy Matters—Let’s Protect It!

This week, take the #EnergyCheck Challenge: 
Pause for a moment and ask yourself—what kind of exhaustion am I feeling most right now? Physical? Mental? Emotional? Social?

Choose one small way to replenish that energy and put it into action. Maybe it’s a 5-minute break, saying no to one extra task, or getting to bed 30 minutes earlier.

Share your experience on Instagram and tag me—let’s support each other in making rest a priority!

Resources & Links: 

✨ How To Find Energy in Your Transition Times Blog Post:
https://alignedasamother.com/how-to-boost-your-energy-build-mindfulness/

✨ Book an Energy Strategy Call with me – let’s create a plan that fits your life! https://calendly.com/siobhan-everwellcoaching/30min

 ✨ Join the Everwell Mama Instagram Community for daily energy tips: @everwellcoaching

Connect with Siobhan:

About Siobhan Bingham

Siobhan Bingham coaches tired working moms to boost their energy to show up better for their kids, their partner, their work, and themselves. Using her ALIGN framework, she provides personalized strategies to break free from exhaustion and create a daily rhythm that works with your life—not against it.



Hey mama. Welcome back to Everwell. Mama, I see you the one that's running on fumes, telling yourself, I'm gonna rest when things slow down. But what if that slow down isn't coming and your body's waving a white flag right now? Have you ever gone into a room and thought, what did I even come in here for? Or snapping because your kid knocked something over by accident and then immediately thinking to yourself, this isn't who I want to be. If any of that sounds familiar, then this episode is for you. All right. Mamas today is all about noticing those red flags before you hit the wall and shifting self-care from a nice to have into something that you actually deserve.'cause this isn't about guilt, it's about coming home to yourself. How many times have you said, if I can just get through today, or this week, and then the next day and the next day, the next week and the next week, the next month and the next month, it's like chasing this finish line that just keeps moving. Society loves to celebrate this mom who does it all. The mom who is able to work full-time hours, always be there for her kids when they need them, is able to participate in all of the afterschool activities, during school activities, able to cook all the meals from scratch. Who's able to keep it an immaculately clean house and doing all of these pieces all on her own. This is either impossible to achieve or you're doing these things, but you're not really able to completely do all of them well. There's a price to being able to do it all. You're either snapping at your kids, you're crying in the bathroom, or you feel like you're barely holding on. You're just pushing through your days trying to survive, but you deserve more than survival mode. You're a human being who is on this earth. As more than just a mom, as more than just a wife, as more than just an employee, as more than just a business owner. You are here in order to live your best life, whatever that looks like. And if you've ever felt guilty for wanting break, you're not alone. I think that's every mom out there. Everyone needs a break, every once in a while. But remember that rest is not a reward. This is basic care, basic maintenance to keeping yourself alive and well. Even on the days when you don't check a single thing off of your to-do list, you matter, and you are probably checking off a lot more than you think. Every time you are able to sit down, look your kids in the eye. Every single time that you are able to tell them you love them, every single time, you're able to make sure that they get through the whole day. You know, you kept people alive today, including yourself. That is amazing, and you should celebrate that no matter what your day looks like. You absolutely matter, and the work that you're doing is invaluable. I'm gonna say that again, the work that you do is invaluable, let's get into the signs that your body is asking for a break. Now, when you start to feel like, oh my God, like my body's just giving out on me, like I just can't do what I used to do. I can't. Push myself out of bed anymore. I used to be able to do X, Y, Z with my body, and now I'm just like dragging along every day. If any of that sounds familiar, your body's not betraying you. It's talking to you. But the question is, are you listening and are you listening while it's still talking, or are you listening once it starts to scream at you? And if you've been paying attention and following along on Instagram, you've seen that I have been talking about the many different ways of being tired. And if you've listened to previous episodes, I have also gone into each of these in a little bit more depth. But let's give a little bit of context for how you can be tired and some signs that your body would be asking for a break in all of these different ways. So physically you've got that bone deep exhaustion. You've got headaches that are creeping in by mid-afternoon. You've got random aches and pains around your body that you don't remember injuring yourself or having any sort of reason for these aches and pains to be there. But all of a sudden you're really uncomfortable. This isn't just mom life. This isn't just getting older. That's your body waving that red flag saying, Hey, there's something wrong here. Pay attention please emotionally. Someone might think that you're in a bad mood or you're having a rough day, but it's when you're losing patience over things that normally wouldn't bug you when the whining seems to just be at its peak for you when you can't be the best mediator between sibling arguments when your partner says something to you. That is usually taken as a joke and you feel like you want to cry. That is not a bad mood. That is not you being sensitive. That's exhaustion. That is pure emotional exhaustion out there, ready to tell you, I am tired. Please let me rest mentally. This one, I think. Everyone can relate to very easily because this is one of the first ways that we often see that we're tired. I've had clients tell me before that I thought I was just really scatterbrained, or I thought this was just mom brain, or I thought that I was just like getting older and not able to have my brain work at peak capacity anymore. I thought this was just like a brain fog. But I realized that my brain was actually tired from carrying everything mentally. You show your exhaustion when you're forgetting things or you're literally dreading basic tasks. All of these things are not just mom brain. It's not just brain fog, it's not just being scatterbrained. You're not a space cadet. Your mind is overworked, it's tired, it needs to rest. So take a little breath for a second because naming all of those can sometimes feel a little triggering And then I want you to just take stock of where you're at right now, this week as you're listening. Okay. Which one of these signs sounds the most familiar to you? And remember, to be honest with yourself without judgment, just noticing which one do you think you are right now? Are you more physically tired? Are you more mentally tired, or are you more emotionally tired? And I also wanna add in socially tired, because this is something that we don't always. Think of, unless you're an introvert, you probably think about it a lot, but you usually don't really think about being socially tired. Socially tired is like when someone is being spoken to all day. Think about how many times a day you hear the word mom or mommy or mommy or whatever it is that they call you, how many emails you're getting that you feel like you have to respond to that day. how many meetings you're in, all of those social obligations that you are being a part of. And then at the end of the day, if literally anyone even talks to you or looks at you, you like wanna scream inside, that is you being socially tired. Like if someone tries to reach out to connect with you and you instantly want to put up a wall and say leave me the hell alone, that is being socially tired. So again, think about which one of these signs sounds the most familiar to you right now in this week. cause that is the first one that I want you to focus on. Remember that anything that you do, you are no trying to overwhelm yourself by fixing everything in your life all at once. It's not gonna work, it's not gonna be sustainable. You're gonna burn yourself in even more trying to make those changes. We wanna make really small, meaningful changes in the areas that we need the most help in right now. Now, if you've been listening at all, I'm sure you know that I am all about self-care. Being a part of your normal day-to-day life, it's not something that you're having to sacrifice for. It's not something that you're having to run away and escape your life for. It's about nurturing yourself while you are going about your day, while you are caring for your kids, while you are caring for the work that you do every day. How are you also taking time to nurture yourself and to make sure that you are doing your best? So an example of this would be that age old. Idea of mama staying up late after the kids go to bed and everything else is done so that she can get a little bit of quiet time, right? She's like, okay, I have too many things on my list right now. I'm just gonna like, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, all day long. Keep it going, keep it going, keep it going, and I'm gonna rest after the kids go to bed. After the dishes are done, after the living room's cleaned up, after all of these things, then I'll have time for myself at the end of the night. And then she's probably gonna stay up late scrolling on her phone or doing something else that's gonna keep her up even later. And then she's probably gonna be woken up early and she's gonna be even more exhausted the next day because she's pushed herself throughout the whole day. She's tired, she's staying up late, she's waking up early. None of those things are gonna help you to have more energy. So instead of thinking, I'm gonna rest later. Try and shift that mindset a bit to, I'm gonna grab five quiet minutes now, because whatever it is that's waiting for you, the laundry, the dishes, whatever it is, those things are going anywhere. They're still gonna be there, ready and waiting for you in five more minutes. But when you take those quick moments for yourself throughout the day. You're filling up that tank before you fully crash, before you fully empty that tank. It's kind of like if you're driving in your car and you see a gas station, right? And you're like, oh no, it's fine. I've got like another 50 kilometers to go. I can keep going. So you drive some more. And then you hit another gas station and you're like, Hmm, should I fill up here? No, I've got another 25 kilometers to go. I'm gonna keep going. And then eventually you're at like five kilometers left and you're like, I really need a gas station right now. Otherwise my car is gonna break down on the side of the road. But if you had stopped at that very first gas station. Gave yourself just a little top up, like you didn't have to do a full fill up, but just put in that extra 20 bucks, whatever it is, right? Then you would have enough to have kept going past that last gas station. So how can you this week choose to nurture yourself and get that little tiny fill up, that little tiny boost of gas throughout your day so that you're not running on empty at the end of the day? Another way to make sure that you are going to succeed in making these changes and making sure that you aren't going to keep running on empty is to really be mindful of your why. Why are you listening to this right now? Why are you wanting to make a change? For me, it was. That feeling of being constantly overwhelmed, like there was just so much on my plate. Even when I asked for help, I still felt like I was bogged down. I was snapping at my kids, like I just wasn't the parent that I wanted to be. And that wasn't to say that I was a bad mom or a bad employee or a bad business owner or any of those things. It was just my body asking for more care. What is your why? For me, it's my family, and so my family doesn't need me to run on empty. And your family doesn't need you running on empty either. They need you whole, and if you are in the thick of it right now, if making that shift feels impossible, I've got you book a quick energy strategy call with me and I can help you figure out where to start without adding more to your plate. But let's get right into how to start listening to your body. To listen to your body, you need to get out of your brain for a minute. Your brain? Very good at running at a hundred miles a second. Your body? Not so much. So pause for a second and think about how your body feels right now. Okay. Do you have tight shoulders? Do you have some big bags and tired eyes? I just want you to notice it. Don't think that you have to fix anything right now. Just notice what's going on. Notice where you're clenching. Is it your jaw? Is it your hands? Is it between your eyebrows? Just try to let that soften up a bit. And this is a quick thing that you can do any day at all times of the day in 30 seconds or less. As you're sitting down typing that email, just let your shoulders drop down a little bit as you are. Maneuvering through traffic unclench your jaw. Just notice how you are feeling and how your body is responding to your environment in the moment that you're in. This is a quick mindfulness practice that can really make a huge difference in your energy levels every day. Another way to listen to your body a little bit better is to allow yourself the honor of having small rests. So it could be as simple as sitting down for three minutes while you have your hot drink, whether that's your coffee or your tea, whatever it is, and just not letting yourself go to that list of to-dos that counts. That is a small rest. It's very little time out of your day, and it's giving yourself that little boost, that little extra oomph to keep going. And especially if you are a mom who is very good at seeing the next thing that needs to be done and wanting to achieve the next task, check off the next thing on your to-do list. I want you to put it into your calendar, put it into however you plan out your day, these little breaks. It could be one 10 minute slot, it could be. Five, two minute slots. It could be two five minute slots. However much time you've got in your day, plan it in. Say for these 10 minutes, for these however many minutes at a time, I am going to take a break and these little bits of time can shift your entire day. You are going to have so much more energy by the end of the day by allowing yourself those mini moments of rest and break so that you're not constantly on the go, running, pushing through all of the time. And again, you deserve that time. You matter and your time matters. So utilize it to the best of your ability. And again, we're not overhauling your whole life. We're not saying you've gotta take a whole hour every day, or you've gotta spend these exorbitant amounts of time or money to get rest. That's not realistic, that's not gonna happen for most moms. But having little sprinkles of moments of care in your day is still gonna make a big, big impact. Think about if you go to a pond or a body of water that is still preferably, and you find a really big rock, and you take that rock, you heft it over your head and you toss it in when it goes in, it's gonna make a huge splash. It's gonna ripple out, and then it's gonna be done. And until you have the strength and energy to pick up another big rock. That's all you're gonna get from that one big rock. That's the equivalent of you going on that spa day or doing that big thing. It's great for the moment. It's a big thing. It feels really good, really heavy, really impactful. But it's gonna ripple out for maybe a couple days and then you're gonna be tired again. You're gonna be back in the same situation you were in before. Now, if you were to take a handful of pebbles though. And toss in a couple here, a couple there, and like just keep tossing a couple. Every now and then you're gonna see a bunch of ripples happening, and it's gonna be spread out. It's gonna be more sporadic and it's gonna keep the water moving for a longer amount of time. So this is the exact same thing that we're trying to do with our energy levels. We don't want to just throw that big rock once. And be stuck in the same situation. We want to have little sprinkles of care in our day, little sprinkles of moments just for us where we can have this time to really care for ourselves. I actually had a mom reach out to me on Instagram not too long ago who said that she has gotten so much more time. For herself in the day and energy for herself every day by trying my trick of transitions. So for 15 minutes after dinner, she would just sit outside and she said that it was the first time in weeks that she felt like herself and like how incredible is it that she was able to do that? To take those small bits of time in that transitionary period. You know, the kids were off to play, hubby was cleaning up from dinner and she was able to just sit outside for a little bit. And if you are at all curious about transition times and how to make the most out of that, I will put a link in the show notes to my blog post that I did on the aligned as a mother blog that has a bunch of different ideas of how to incorporate moments of care into transition times. Because I promise you, you've got a lot of those in your day. Now, unfortunately, as much as we would love to be back in our school days, maybe not back at school, but back when we were kids and we didn't have so many responsibilities. If you think back to school days, you would probably have some sort of hall pass or bathroom pass or something like that that allowed you to go and take your break, right? You could go to the bathroom, you could take your time as you're walking through the hallway, feel really cool and that was your way and permission slip to kind of have that little bit of rest mentally between recesses or between your break times that were already scheduled into the day. Now that you're a grownup and now that you're a mom, no one is going to be handing you that permission slip to rest unless you've got an amazing mom or mother-in-law who don't work and have all the time and energy in the world to help you. No one's gonna be handing you that permission slip to rest. So you've gotta go ahead and write your own permission slip. You've gotta claim it yourself and say, I am worthy of care. Not because I earned it, but because I exist. So say it with me. I am worthy of care. Not because I earned it, but because I exist, period. You are worthy of care my friend. Because you exist. So my challenge for you this week is to think back to what area you were feeling most exhausted in which part was feeling most challenging, and think about just one tiny shift that you can make today, not next week, today. cause you don't have to keep pushing through. Your body's talking to you, and hopefully it's still just talking and not screaming at you, but your job is to listen to it. So pause for just five minutes today. Close your eyes. Breathe. Just check in with yourself and see how you actually feel. And in case you didn't get the message yet, you are not a bad mom for needing rest. You are human. And humans deserve care no matter how old they are or how many responsibilities they have on their plate. And if you are ready to stop running on empty and you have been listening and you're thinking, yeah, you know, I really need to make a change, but I have no idea what tiny tweak I'm gonna try, I have no idea what the next step looks like for me. Let's figure it out together. You can book a free energy strategy call with no pressure, just support, and the link is down in the show notes and until then, I will catch you in the next one.