Self-care has been the buzzword of the last few years, conjuring images of spa days, bubble baths, and other ‘relaxing’ activities. In reality, self-care is about protecting your physical and mental health and ensuring you are resilient enough to tackle whatever may arise in your business and personal life.
Being a business owner, leader, or entrepreneur is not an easy life! The demands that you face each day can start to take their toll if you don’t make time for self-care, but it can be hard to justify prioritising yourself when there is so much else competing for your attention. To help you to understand how important self-care is, and how it can benefit you and those around you, let’s start by considering what it actually means.
What is Self-Care?
Nourish helps you flourish as they say, and self-care is about nourishing your mind and body so that you can perform at your best. That can include eating a healthy and balanced diet, moving your body and getting fresh air, and replenishing your mind and soul in whatever ways work best for you.
It is as much about doing things that ‘top up your tank’, as it is about saying ‘no’ to things that diminish your resources. At its core, self-care is the opposite of pressuring yourself into doing too much.
Why Do We Need to Practice Self-Care?
Self-care plays a vitally important role in managing your mood and psychological well-being, but it also plays a part in your physical health. Stress, anxiety and burnout all have physical symptoms too, and exhaustion and illness are not going to help you run a successful company.
How Does Self-Care Benefit your Business?
If you are lucky enough to be a leader or entrepreneur in a business that you love, it can be easy to believe in the benefits of working around the clock. If you are passionate about what you do, and enjoy managing your own schedule, and get to work with people you love, you may be tempted to put in a lot more hours than you should each day. The reality is that entrepreneurship requires a lot of self-discipline, focus, and resilience, all of which are threatened if you don’t take care of yourself.
How Do You Practice Self-Care?
Self-care is not one-size-fits-all, but the first step is to create space to care for yourself. You do this by setting boundaries and creating time in your life to do the things that make you feel good. This can be as simple as saying ‘no’, for instance, you could say “no, I am not always available” by not checking your email after your set work hours.
Once you create the space, use it for whatever self-care routine works for you whether that is binge-watching Netflix, or going on a 10 mile run. Whatever cares for your mental and physical health is the right self-care routine for you.
To learn more about practicing self-care and winning back your vibrancy, you may be interested in reading my book Stepping Stones to Self-Care.
If you’d like some support with taking better care of yourself, please contact me here.
