What is self-care?
Self-care is a term used when describing the actions we take to keep ourselves healthy mentally and physically. Self-care can also be used when we are talking about things like sleep, food, meditation and socializing with those that bring us joy.
Being an entrepreneur is especially challenging. Sometimes with everything that will be going on we start to neglect our own needs.
I cannot overstate how important it is for us to tend to our mental and physical health through self-care. It becomes difficult to manage our businesses when we don’t manage ourselves well. I always encourage working on the inside before we start trying to fix business on the outside.
With a healthy mindset, you are more capable of making good decisions unlike when you’re stressed and anxious.
Here are 6 self-care strategies for your success!
1. Breathe
This one may sound obvious, which is why I decided to start with it. We breathe all the time, even when we’re not thinking about it.
There are proven benefits of controlling our breathing patterns every once in a while. It helps us stay centred, be in the moment and not give in to stress. Other benefits include slowing our heart and stabilizing blood pressure.
We can adopt meditation routines or daily breathing exercises to our weekly schedule. This will fit in well with our self-care routine and doesn’t take too much of our time. You can even make some time for breathing exercises during a short break from work; I consider that a win-win.
2. Exercise
Goes hand in hand with breathing, if you can make time for it. Regular exercise is said to boost the parts of our brains that help with memory and learning. I believe it’s important to include exercise in our self-care routines. We don’t have to do hour-long workout sessions but it would help us in the long run if we set aside a few minutes every day just for some light exercise. Like breathing, it also helps us de-stress healthily.
And I don’t think I need to remind anyone of the value of boosting our memory and learning potential through exercise. Being an entrepreneur can be demanding, we need to always bring our A-game ladies.
(Note: I found having pets helps us stay responsible even with light exercises. Because we have to take them outside on walks and stuff)
3. Sleep
It’s as the subtitle says. We need sleep.
Studies have shown that when we don’t sleep enough our ability to make good decisions is reduced and it also affects our creativity. Now I don’t know about you but that little detail terrifies me.
Something as small as not having enough sleep can actually impact how I run my business and my ability to stay motivated. And the part that really sucks is once we start making poor decisions and failing to meet our own expectations the rest of our business suffers for it. Sometimes our businesses fail not because we can’t think of good ideas but because we’re burnt-out workaholics that don’t give our minds a break.
We have to sleep.
“But April, I have so much work to do! I can’t afford to sleep!”
If you’re having difficulties with time management check out the post I wrote on it here.
4. Enjoy hobbies outside work
If you enjoy art or making music, make time for it. It helps stop burn-out and it may even help you think of new ideas.
Think of it as a way to recharge and re-engage the brain when everything starts becoming boring.
5. Have a strong support system
We’ve been talking about what you can do for your self-care routine. But I think it’s important to touch on your surroundings as well.
I don’t think your self-care routine will work out well if you have people that discourage and undermine you at every turn. It would do well for our self-care if we surround ourselves with people who are honest and help motivate us to keep moving forward.
6. Have a good workspace
This one goes unnoticed a lot of the time that’s why I keep mentioning it in almost every one of my posts. Try to think of your workspace as an extension of yourself and your mind. If there’s a lot of clutter, consider that as a sign of you being distracted or overloaded with work.
Take a step back, breathe and make your workspace a little more comfortable (beautify it if you have to). Put a flower here, a cute picture there, anything that fires positive responses or feelings within you.
A good workspace will encourage you to focus and not be negatively affected when you’re in the zone. Also because you deserve it. We should be kind to ourselves because we work hard and we don’t give up. It’s only natural that we treat ourselves, no matter how small.