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Writer's pictureBrenna Stanford

Top 3 Ways to Create a Stress Free Summer

Updated: Jun 28, 2021

Summertime can be stressful for several reasons. Whether you’re a stay at home mom, work from home mom, or work outside the home mom, when kids come home in the summer things can get a bit more stressful.


I remember calling my mom at work so many times when my sisters and I were young that she finally said, “Don’t call here again unless someone is dying.” Haha, we might have been a bit mean to each other and we might have made a few too many calls to her work. Yes, this was before we had cell phones and could text! Wow that seems like another world!


When I was working outside the home I remember the expense of extra childcare, then I came home and felt pressured to be the mom with all the activities so kids didn’t waste away in front of the tv. Now, as a work from home mom, with a husband who left his job the same day my kids left school for the summer there seems to be a different atmosphere here. Check out how you can cultivate the atmosphere in your home. Regardless of what fills your day, you can still use these Happy Mom Hacks to keep the stress down this summer.


We say this all the time in Empowered Motherhood, setting intentions and communicating expectations is vital to successfully living with others, especially our children. So often we forget that children are human beings too. They aren’t some foreign being who can’t understand and reason, or who have no intentions and expectations of their own. So as you take in these Happy Mom Hacks, Mindset Tools, and Kingdom Principals keep this in mind, your children are people too.




1. Set Intentions

Setting an intention means that we make a choice of what we want or intend in any circumstance. We can choose who we intend to be, or what we intend for our family to experience. Here’s the important piece, we can only set the intention for ourselves. We cannot make choices for others. So when we talk about intentions, we are talking about your intentions for who you want to be or what you want an experience to be like, and then use that intention to influence and direct your thoughts, feelings, and actions.


Most of the time we go straight from school time to summer time without ever reevaluating our intentions. We don’t realize that our children have gone from a rhythm filled with mental and physical exercise to a rhythm that can be quite absent of anything.


Take this moment and choose, what do you intend for this summer to feel like for your family? Who do you intend to be this summer? What priorities will you rearrange so that they are in alignment with your intentions? What expectations will you set to help your family experience this summer the way you intend it to be?



2. Regulate Expectations

Expectations can be horrible things and they can also be wonderful things. So regulating them is vital. The killer of relationships is unmet expectations. If you look into every poor relationship or every failed relationship you will see that there is an unmet expectation. Expectations can place burdensome loads on people when they’re unrealistic and unspoken.


Expectations can also give people something to grow into and a goal to meet. The difference lies within a couple of things. This Mindset Tool, regulate expectations, will help you to shift the way you think about your expectations.


Are the expectations that you’re holding realistic?

In order to know this you need to discover who and what you are looking at to set those expectations? Is this an expectation that was set within yourself with the guidance of the Holy Spirit? Or is this something you decided to hold as an expectation based on something or someone else?


Proverbs 16:3 “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.” Setting goals and expectations with God will help you to keep them realistic, Kingdom reality is different from worldly reality. Doing this will also help you to have peace, patience, and grace as you journey there.



Have you communicated your expectations?

If you do not speak to others and share the expectations, then how will they ever know? There is a Kingdom Principal found in Romans 10:14 about helping people to know by speaking. “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” This scripture is talking about people sharing the gospel and helping them to accept Christ. The principal remains, if you want someone to know something you have to tell them.


Chances are, if your family understands the expectation, then they are more likely to do their part to meet it. Please remember, all too often we hold kids to higher standards than we hold ourselves. I’d like to invite you back to the blog next week to hear from our Conscious Parenting Coach, Natalie, on this subject. So let’s make sure that one of our intentions is to be grace-filled and grace-giving.


Have you helped your family get excited about these expectations?

One of the best things you can do to help relieve stress while setting expectations for your summer is to help your family get excited about them. But how? Identify what it is that each of your family members want? What is important to them? What would they like to accomplish? Then help them to see that if this expectation is met, then this will happen for them. Helping others to get what they want will help you to get what you want.


3. Create Your Stress Free Summer PAM

Now it is time to create your Stress Free Summer PAM! I am going to teach you how you can do just that!


Keep your intentions and expectations in mind and then begin to work on your rhythm refinement. Make empowered choices about your rhythms and insert the experiences that will help you grow into the expectations that you have this summer. If you’re looking for more help with that, check out the Rhythm Refinement Guidebook.


As you refine your rhythm, stay aware of the moments that may cause a bit more overwhelm, or the transition moments that could use a little empowerment. In these places insert a Stress Free Summer PAM.




Basic PAM Formula:

What is my Intention for this moment?

An affirmation or declaration.

An aromatherapy tool that supports my intention.

3 - 5 meditative breaths.


Additional options:

Water, snacks, stretching, music, designated quiet time, implementing other Happy Mom Hacks, Mindset Tools and Kingdom Principles that help you to reach your goal.






There you have it!

3 Ways to Create a Stress Free Summer. I’d love to help you with any of this you have questions about. Share with us what is in your Stress Free Summer PAM!




Chat soon!

Brenna Stanford

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