Self care/love v burnout and fatigue
Whether you like it or not, showing self-care and self-love to yourself shows that you have self-worth and self-value to the other people looking in at you. If you aren’t looking after yourself, other people around you will be subliminally picking up on your lack of self worth and value and may be taking advantage of you.
You maybe were taught to care for others first and you last? Put your happiness second? Be there for others ahead of yourself?
Your happiness must always come first as you will always have more energy and love to give others. How can you share from an empty cup? If you are depleted, there’s nothing to give. I was an over giver in my business as well as at home for years and this lead to burnout and fatigue, including depression. It is therefore essential to work on your own self love and care on a daily basis and to know that you are worth being paid for your products and services within your business and that you are deserving of financial success. If you have bad habits about looking after yourself, then it is time to step up and change.
How past traumas can affect your business and why you need to work on them
Often when individuals start a business, it can be because something bad has happened or that their circumstances have changed which means that having a business rather than being employed is the only option for them. For example, they may have been made redundant and they can’t find a job which suits their qualifications or they think they can do a better job than their employer so start up a business. They may have been bullied in the workplace or been discriminated against. Often women who are returning to work post maternity leave, opt to have a business so that it can fit around childcare or it maybe that their employer was less than accommodating about supporting them to work and in managing their childcare.
Whatever the reason, often there is a lot of anger/resentment/fear built up in that person about what has happened to them as well as excitement and relief that they can create a life of their own without being told what to do. It can make a person stubborn about change and doing what others tell them to do (yes, lots of people ignore me, even though I am always giving sage advice and never deliberately try to offend, lol……)
The negative emotions a person is holding onto can affect their confidence and make them feel insecure and not worthy. This can affect their ability to sell and will often cause them to self sabotage their success, to procrastinate on completing tasks which they know they need to get completed and can become overwhelmed. They are pretty bad at self care and self love.
Basically, the person is traumatised and doesn’t realise it. They may have had other traumas happen in the past such as abuse, accidents, ill health, etc and the toxicity of this can build up in your body and your energy field (aura) which makes you feel unwell which will affect how well you can do your job and perform in your business.
It is easy to become busy being busy in your business. You throw yourself into work to ignore how you are feeling with things such as bereavements, separation/divorce, challenges with your or other family member’s health, challenging pregnancy/birth/miscarriage, etc. It can cover up trauma that you are ignoring and not acknowledging and dealing with. It will in the long term make you ill and will reduce the effectiveness of your business and its stability. It will affect your business’s ability to grow and scale if your energy is not positive and you are not feeling 100% empowered, confident and healthy. Wellbeing must be at the heart of your business
Reasons to love and care for yourself more
- You will be more effective and productive as you can make quicker and easier decisions
- You will get into flow more and as you release trauma and allow yourself to live from love not fear, you will find better opportunities come into your business
- You will be more profitable as your health is your wealth
- You will be able to make a greater impact to yourself and the world and will serve a wider amount of people as you will have the energy to do so
- Your positive wellbeing rituals and approaches will have a ripple effect to your staff, customers and suppliers. Positivity breeds positivity
Tips for Looking After Yourself
- Delegate and outsource tasks that you don’t love or you clearly aren’t good at e.g. accounts, administration, social media posting. This will save you time and will stop you getting frustrated at something you hate. NB. If you do delegate your accounts, make sure you do look at them regularly even if you aren’t the person tracking expenditure as you need to be projecting figures and your growth from your mind, so you need to own the numbers.
- Ensure you have a regular time each day to stop work. This signifies to your brain, the change between work and home life. It also will benefit your relationships with family and friends and your significant others as they will know when you aren’t working and will have a structure of when they can see you. Partners can often feel left out if you are always busy with your business, and it needs to be part of your self care routine that you include them as a relationship breakdown will massively rock your business. Listen to them if they are saying you are spending too much time working.
- Implement a regular morning routine to get your mind focused and ready for the day. A common routine is to meditate for 10 minutes, to say positive affirmations for 10 minutes, visualise your day for 10 mins, exercise for 10 minutes, read a personal development book for 10 minutes and journal for 10 minutes as well as writing out your intentions for the day. You will be more productive and calm by applying this consistently in your life. I discuss this more in my book Are you worth it? A spiritual guide to managing your money mindset. You may also like to read The Morning Miracle by Hal Elrod. Find out more at: https://insightfulminds.co.uk/are-you-worth-it-mindfulness-book-by-liz-almond/
- Apply self care techniques on a daily basis such as having a morning routine to keep your mind fit as well as other things such as eating healthily, exercising and spending time on your hobbies and doing what you love e.g. gardening, making cards, watching your favourite box set, etc. Ensure that you have relaxation time built into your week and that you are not always working. Buy yourself flowers and things which give you pleasure to look at rather than waiting for someone else to give them to you
- Ensure you are comfortable at work. Arrange your office to make you feel great and only have things within it which make you feel good. Make sure your seat is comfortable or consider getting a standing desk if you are sitting down for too long
- Set boundaries with your customers e.g. opening hours or what times you will reply to emails/messages. Be self disciplined and don’t answer outside of the times you set. You are just as important as your customers and they will soon learn that you recognise your value too
- Look at how much screen time you are having. Do your best not to be working at an electronic device – laptop/mobile/tv for more than 40 minutes without a break. Get yourself into nature even for 5 minutes and breathe in fresh air. Open your windows every day and let fresh energy/air in
- Declutter, clean and paint your space. Ensure that where you are working feels good and allows you to think clearly. Deal with piles of paper, get things organised and employ someone if you feel overwhelmed by doing this yourself. I’m actually considering offering this as a service at Insightful Minds as it something I can do with my clients to empower them. Let me know if you might be interested!
- Ensure you have defined relaxation time for doing hobbies and things that you love. This might be a regular night for having a bubble bath or having a pedicure. Schedule self love and self care things into your diary as they are just as important as client appointments. Prioritise learning self help wellbeing techniques to keep you calm such as The Balance Procedure. This tool helps you manage your energy and to bring your mind into the present quickly. For as little as £17.50 you can have an empowerment tool to use on a daily basis to balance your energy. Learn more at: https://insightfulminds.co.uk/the-balance-procedure/
If you would like some help to work on your self sabotage, procrastination, overwhelm or stress so that you can be exuding positivity and self love, manifesting the life you desire, then email Liz at liz@insightfulminds.co.uk
