Self-care is the way to fill the pool of energy you can draw on, when you need it.
In Part 1, we considered three awesome ways to cultivate self-care: moving your body with fun exercise, eating lavishly well, and getting all the support you want. Today, we’ll look at even more ways!
In the first 5 or so years of my business, I rode the rollercoaster: market, market, market, then work, work, work, then back to market, market, market. My marketing sure was effective: it brought in lots of work!
Then I found myself with so much work to do, I didn’t take time to market. Eventually the work would complete, and I’d be left with a gap.
So I would market, market, market again.
One thing I learned from this rollercoaster is that the years when I had bigger gaps between work, though it was scary at the time, were my best revenue years!
Weird, huh? I was surprised too, until I realized that the gaps gave me an opportunity to rest, to take some time for self-care. That gave me so much more energy!
I took that learning, and created systems for my business, which evened out the marketing and brought work in a more regular stream. I also built in time to rest and rejuvenate, one of the aspects of energy-building self-care I’ll talk more about in a minute.
Creating and maintaining practices of self-care encourages your energy to build. It’s like a reservoir of clean clear water, there when you want it.
Practices that you intentionally cultivate, practices of self-care, practices that support you and your energy level, are incredibly useful. They give you an edge, and let you ride the waves of unexpected events with ease.
Having a great practice even saves you energy!
You don’t have to think about it – you just do it. You’ve already done the groundwork beforehand, getting clear on what you want, deciding on what practice you want to create. So you don’t spend energy deciding every moment what is your next move.
Let’s look at four more self-supporting practices to build your energy pool even further:
4. Practice gratitude. Talking about support brings me to the practice of gratitude as self-care. Having a gratitude practice is not a new thing: from Cicero to Buddha, philosophers and spiritual teachers have been advocating a sense of gratitude, the celebration of what you have. The benefits are legion: you feel physically, mentally, and emotionally better; you have more energy; you get more and better sleep; you’re more likely to reach your goals; in your relationships, you’re more likely to help others and you feel more connected.
The cool thing about gratitude is that you don’t have to deny or ignore real issues, things that bother you – being in a gratitude place ramps up your positive feelings more than it decreases your negative ones, so you’re living in a higher energy place all around.
What gratitude practice could you put into place today? Suggestions: start a gratitude journal, list what you’re grateful for before you go to sleep each night, do a round of gratitude at the dinner table, let people know that you are grateful for them and why, blog about it.
5. Rest and rejuvenate. Sometimes, what you need most is a nap! Have you ever felt that way? Taking care of yourself, your body, mind, soul, with rest and relaxation is supremely energy-building. It gives you a chance to recover from a big expenditure of energy, and lets that pool of energy just fill, without you having to do anything!
Resting doesn’t have to be sitting on a beach sipping an umbrella drink. It can be simple, like sitting outside with a cool drink on a warm day, just looking around at the flowers and bees, and feeling the wind. Watching a mindless fun movie, staring out at the ocean, getting lots of sleep, having a massage, doing exactly what you want to do can all be rejuvenating.
What regular practices of rest can you build into your life and business? In addition to the suggestions I just mentioned, you can start to look at rest and rejuvenation as essential, primary, and schedule those first. A long weekend a month, quarterly mini-vacations, working according the schedule that suits you best and gives you rest time each day are all valuable.
6. Nurture your confidence. Yep, nurturing your self-confidence is a practice of self-care. Confidence is essential to you as an entrepreneur. Avoid the rollercoaster of self-doubt. You can spend a lot of energy if you let yourself drop down in confidence, and then have to build, build, build yourself back up. Far better to keep a steady flow of confidence going in your life and business.
Self-confidence is often built in the smallest ways: writing down positive client feedback or things people say to you so you can read them when you need them, being vigilant about what you are thinking so you can replace negative thinking with positive.
Another great way to build self-confidence is to keep your promises to yourself, whatever they are. Start with keeping promises to yourself around self-care!
What practice of building or maintaining your confidence can you choose to do every day?
7. Have fun! Do whatever makes you happy – hike, go to a movie, skip, swim, connect with friends. An evening of fun can go a long way to restore your energy. Fun provides a welcome release. So set time aside for fun, no matter what else you have planned.
Build fun into your day, every day. One practice I have is to ask myself first thing each morning, what can I do today that would be fun, or how can I build fun into something I’m already doing? Making that question conscious is enough to keep my eyes open for fun opportunities and ideas!
What could you do today that would be fun, or how can you make what you’re already doing more fun? Get that charge of energy that fun brings you in this practice of self-care.
How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice.
You may not want to get to Carnegie Hall, but having self-care practices in place will get you wherever you want to go, in your business and in your life.
Get some practice in, every day! And see your energy pool fill to the brim with awesome self-care.
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How do you practice gratitude, rest and rejuvenate, keep up your confidence, have fun?
Tell us one practice that works for you.
Leave a comment below!