Over the last couple of weeks I have been stuck in bed with swollen glands, fever and headaches, unable to so much as look as a laptop. What a disaster! As a small business owner, a day off doesn’t really seem like an option! Even as I write this, I do so in greyscale because the colours are a bit too much for my poor head.
I won’t lie to you, I panicked. Feverish thoughts, to-do lists piling up, emails going unanswered, unhappy clients and, the biggie, no money coming in. As I lay in bed, drifting in and out of a fitful sleep, I couldn’t shake these thoughts. And I told myself: “maybe I can get up in half an hour”, “maybe I can make that one call”, “maybe I can write up those few notes, it shouldn’t take long”.
But I know that the best thing to do is to
rest – after all, forcing myself to work will only mean I delay recovery
longer. I need to let my body heal. Because if I don’t do that now, where would
I be next week, the week after? I know I’ve been pushing myself too hard over
the last few months suddenly finding myself unable to get out of bed really hit
home why self-care and having time to rest is so important. How can you help others
bring sunshine into their lives when you are stuck under a raincloud yourself?
So, over the last week or so, I have focused on taking care of myself and doing
the things that will heal my body and soul – things that I should be doing
every day, not just when I am ill. I wanted to share them with you as, no
matter who you are, whether you are a small business owner or just grinding
that 9-5, self-care will make you the most effective at what you are doing
everyday. I’m sure you know them, but it is always good to reinforce!
Sleep
Oh, I can’t stress this enough and it is my worst habit; my sleeping pattern is the first thing to go when I am overworked and overloaded mentally. I get up at weird hours, find it hard to get to sleep in the first place and lie awake running over my to-do list for the next day. The last few days have forced me to listen to my body and sleep until I am rested enough to wake up naturally. Yes, yes, I’ve seen the Youtube videos and read the blogs – getting up at 5am gives you so much time in the day! You can get on with tasks while the rest of the world is asleep! You will be efficient and brilliant! All true… if that 5am wake up time is proceeded with at least 7 hours of good quality sleep beforehand.
I’ve been guilty of forcing myself up so that I can get a start on the day and be that efficient 5am person, but unless I’ve had the necessary sleep beforehand, I am only going to struggle to work at my best level for the rest of the day.
I have developed some techniques to help however, and thought it might be worth sharing these with you. Firstly, I want to give a shout out to Headspace. I use this app in two ways to help me sleep, the first is using their sleepcasts feature to get to sleep. Stick on one of these, my favourite is Midnight Launderette, and just TRY and stay awake. These help get my mind prepared for sleep and I very very rarely hear the end of it.
The second way I use Headspace is when I wake up in the middle of the night, overthinking and worrying. This is when I use one of their sleep meditations to clear my fractious mind and help me tune out the worries that should be saved for the day.
I also love having a nice warm bath before bed, with some lavender and candles. It’s all about setting the mood!
Eat
The last few days I have focused on putting only good things in my body – bowls of vegetable, nutritious daal made with plenty of anti-oxidant boosting ginger, garlic and chillis, berries rich in polyphenol and lower in sugar than other fruit. I have taken vitamins and supplements, particularly magnesium, cod liver oil and probiotics, and vitamin C electrolyte drinks to replenish my overworked body and I’ve been adding bone broth to my meals wherever I can. If you don’t know about bone broth, you should hit up Google! It’s nutrient-dense, full of collagen, keratin, vitamins and minerals and good for your head, bones and body.
I truly believe in the importance of diet to nourish the body; I focus on cutting out sugars, especially refined sugars and carbohydrates, and grains which spike the blood sugar. From my research, I think the best way to stay healthy is to keep inflammation as low as possible and stock up on low inflammatory foods such as avocado, berries, peppers and turmeric. I’ll do another post on my diet – probably a few! I truly believe that diet and what we put into our bodies is one of the most underrated factors of modern-day life.
Work
We all know about the ‘grind’ and I’m all for throwing yourself in and working as hard as you can for your goals HOWEVER be honest with yourself. Are you taking on too much? Are you giving yourself more tasks than is humanely possible?
Recently I’ve been focusing on time blocking; looking at my to-do lists and actually scheduling in the time to do each task each day. It has made me realise that I am often giving myself an impossible amount of tasks each day – an unachievable amount of work, even if I work for 10 hours straight. And this will not be my best work!
Related to this, I’ve also realised the importance of taking time off. The problem with working for yourself means that you don’t necessarily switch off, even when your laptop is turned off. Scheduling time, including your down time, means you can relax knowing that you’ve done all the tasks you were meant to do and that you could possibly do to the best of your ability.
At the end of the day, I think it’s just important to keep things in perspective. Unless you are a brain surgeon (and probably even then), life’s not going to end if you miss an email for 24 hours and your clients or employers aren’t going to fire you if you need a day to yourself.
So go on, schedule a break, find yourself a nice corner to curl up in with a book, or just spend some much needed friends. You will come back refreshed and ready to live your best life!
