Self-Care? Now more than ever … 7 Leaders in Business Share Insight

The Autumn season calls attention to pause and reflect on our wellbeing, seeing that both Nat’l Self Care Awareness Month and Mental Heath Day are focal points in September and October. Awareness is certainly the beginning, but implementation is when transformation takes place. But sometimes it’s the launch off the starting block that’s the most difficult part.

How is “self-care” defined?

In simplistic terms, it’s the act of attending to one’s physical, mental, and emotional health. As a business owner, individual self-care is critical as my energy, or lack-there-of, and stability affects not only my own person but also our company as a whole. This is a responsibility I carry, which can’t be overlooked. For many years now, a self-care practice is something I have stayed very conscious about. However, none of us are immune to stress, burnout, worry, life-overload … and the role they play in burdening the body. Stressors have certainly taken a toll on my person, yet there is so much to learn from our experiences and how positive shifts, whether great or small, can affect the body and mind.

Prior to COVID our team here at T-Concepts began a weekly practice of coming together to meditate. I feel everyone would attest to how we enjoyed the level of calm, collectiveness, and peace it brought to our weekly routines. For some people on our team, this was the first time they had ever practiced meditation. When our office closed as we took shelter in place back in March, all aspects of life seemed out of balance, hectic, disoriented.

Our Chief Spiritual Officer, Luchi Esteves, immediately stepped in and encouraged us to stay the course, to lean in deeper, and not allow our group practice to falter – especially during the chaos. Luchi’s guidance on the power of mindfulness, her energy work, and holding us accountable for our own safe-care practice outside the office, has aided our team thru the storm. Evolving our practiced to a platform like ZOOM became the life-line to each other and our collective well-being. And to quote Jim West, our Digital Media Director, “our practice has been a God send.”

Hard. Intense. Emotionally and physically exhausting. That is how Corey David (Founder + CEO of Days to Happy) would describe running a business during typical times. But with coronavirus? Everything, I mean everything, is amplified. How are you taking care of “you” these days?  Are there practices or helpful, new routines you wish to implement and put into place? The happiness, health, and contentment we seek and deserve now and in the future, won’t make itself.

Here’s something to jumpstart that launch off the starting block, as FORBES magazine shares insight on the importance of caring for one’s self thru the eyes and minds of 7 business leaders.