Ah, the elusive “me time.” Whether you like to get a massage, go for an early-morning run, or immerse yourself in your favorite paperback novel, all moms long for regular time to take care of themselves and rejuvenate.

Not everyone has thought of going to therapy as a kind of self-care, but it is. It really is taking care of yourself from the inside out. Here are some ways that taking care of yourself emotionally can help you achieve your goals:

* Healing the emotional reasons you overeat can help you stick to your weight-loss plan.

* Healing childhood hurts can improve your relationships with your spouse, your children, and maybe even your parents.

* Healing your mood problems, whether mild or severe, can increase your motivation, decrease your fatigue, allow you to experience the joys present in your life, and give you the power to make good choices.

* Processing unresolved anger and grief can break harmful behavior patterns that have been passed down in your family for generations. It can help you break the cycle for your own kids.

Therapy is a process more than a product. It is not something that your therapist does to you; it is a process that your therapist walks through with you. Wherever you are stuck, wherever you have pain that you can’t seem to overcome, whatever hurdles you are having trouble jumping — therapy can help you get free, gain victory, and move on.

Talking beats just thinking about it, hands down. Sometimes your whole perspective changes when you hear yourself just say it … no matter what “it” is. That process of taking your thoughts, translating them into language, and then putting that language out into the space between you and your therapist … it has the power to transform.

When you go to therapy, you are talking to someone who will keep it confidential, who is not part of your family or circle of friends and therefore doesn’t have a personal stake in what you decide to do, and who has expertise in what has worked for others in your situation.

Therapy is about empowering you to live the life that you most deeply desire to live.