Scandal's Katie Lowes Shares Her 5-Minute Me-Time Trick

Editor's Note: This is part of a new GoodHousekeeping.com series, Month of Me. This January, we're officially banning "should" (as in, "I should go on the treadmill," or "I should clean the garage") and encouraging you to give yourself a break after the holiday season. During the month of January, we'll be sharing personal essays and more inspiration to help you take time for yourself. Here, ABC's Scandal star and new mommy, Katie Lowes, finds balance with quality over quantity — and a little popcorn and wine.

On finding her way as a new mom:

"Being a new mommy really is the best. I can't even remember anything before Albee. There is this bursting love you feel, but it's so intense and so all-consuming. I've become one of those psychopath mothers who loves looking at my kid and being with my kid and then when he takes a nap I'm just looking at videos and pictures of him on my phone. I'm obnoxious. To be honest, I didn't really love it at first. The first two weeks I was like, 'Oh no what the hell did I do to my life,' then all of the sudden I get hit by a lightning bolt and now I'm just beyond, beyond happy and thrilled."

Katie's 5-minute escape:

"I've noticed that 5 minutes here and there really does make a difference. It can be hard — just doing nothing for 5 minutes is a feat in and of itself. One of the things I'm really into, and this is going sound really weird but, I'm a super smell-based person and I am obsessed with these scent diffusers from doTERRA ($52, amazon.com). When I start my mornings I put some essential oils in a diffuser; it might be orange blossom or jasmine to energize and spruce me up or lavender at night to really calm me down. I set up a little bit of a sacred space, put some aromatherapy drops in my diffuser, maybe put on a mask, and take some really big, deep breaths. I'll actually set my alarm because that's usually all I have, before somebody cries or somebody is needing me and zone out for 5 minutes. This has been the saving grace to get me through motherhood. Just 5 minutes here or there a couple times a day. Then, I'm right back running in the game!"

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On taking a lesson from Olivia Pope:

"I don't know if it's because of Scandal, but I am a huge wine and popcorn fan. There's nothing better now than putting my kid to sleep at 7 o'clock and pouring myself a heavy pour of a beautiful red wine and popping myself a big bag of popcorn. I'm a popcorn connoisseur at this point. I always pop on the stove, and sometimes pop with coconut oil which gives the popcorn a kind of coconut flavor. Sometimes I sprinkle a ton of nutritional yeast on it which sort of makes it a cheese dusting on top of it, or a lot of sea salt. I even put agave in the stove top so I do my own sort of kettle corn. It depends on the day and the mood. I rock the biggest bowl of that and a lovely glass of red wine as I start to just completely daze out on my couch — then I'm woken up three hours later when it's time to feed the baby again."