Beyond Work/Life Balance
Consciously cultivating time for you &
5 simple things you can do anywhere to increase productivity and decrease stress.
The internet is jam-packed with self-care tips and advice about achieving work/life balance for professionals. We know as women, mothers, and business owners to achieve the elusive ‘balance’ we must:
· Eat Well
· Exercise
· Practice Mindfulness
· Love Ourselves Deeply
· Sleep Soundly
We also know as women, mothers, and business owners that the above list is rarely achievable every day. A good work/life balance used to look like leaving the office on time for dinner with friends or waking early to go to the gym before work. Now, our lives are a little different. In the current covid19 restriction climate – with many of us working from home and homeschooling our children, finding space for ourselves feels impossible.
As female mortgage brokers, we know there is more to buying a home than just sourcing the right finance. We listen, we understand our client’s needs, and pay attention to detail. We empathise with our clients and work hard to ensure their futures are in good hands.
Women build rapport quickly with other women and are more likely to empathise with clients – we know as brokers that part of our job is to listen and understand the needs of people outside of financial gains.
We work tirelessly to accomplish the tasks on our work lists during the little working hours we have, and outside of this? We respond to emails while cooking dinner, make changes to documents while bathing children, and make client calls while the kids have their ‘limited amount’ of daily screen-time. With all of this on our plates, how are we supposed to find work/life balance? How do we eat well, exercise, practice mindfulness, love ourselves deeply, and get enough sleep when there’s so much to do? Maybe we need to rethink it, perhaps, to succeed, we need to flip our priorities around.
Start with self-care THEN do all the rest.
What if there is no balance, what if life’s a dance and our first mission is to figure out the moves?
When we prioritise ourselves – our children, families, and businesses thrive. Tiny moments of self-care can add up to a large amount of regrounding. Kate Northrup, author of Do Less: A Revolutionary Approach to Time and Energy Management for Busy Moms, says, ‘this way of being makes self-care part of our rhythm as opposed to a reward.’
Doing just one of these five simple steps to self-care a day will increase self-compassion, decrease stress, and enable you to thrive purposefully.
1)Journal Writing
Julia Cameron, the author of The Artists Way, says that by writing three pages of stream of consciousness thoughts first thing in the morning, you’ll gain clarity and comfort, prioritise your ideas and synchronize the day at hand. She famously calls this practice ‘the bedrock tool of creative recovery.’ Get up ten minutes earlier so you can write your morning pages.
2)Do Less Housework
Right now, Victorian’s are under stage three Covid19 restrictions, meaning they cannot have visitors in their homes, it’s the perfect time to do less housework. Even if you’re not from Victoria, permit yourself to do less, outsource some of the work, if possible, then you have more time to do the other things on this list.
3)Box Breathing
We carry our breath at all times; knowing how to use it properly can improve your state of mind. Box Breathing is a technique where you sit up straight then, take slow, deep breaths while counting to four while you breathe in, hold for four, breathe out for four, hold for four. Box breathing is a grounding technique used by yogis, meditation teachers, and recommended by psychologists, and by using this mindfulness method, we are bringing ourselves back to the present moment.
4)Meditate
Your mind is your most valuable asset and should be cared for as much as other parts of your body. If you meditate for just ten minutes a day, you will develop the ability to be present and more able to understand how you think and feel. Download a great meditation app such as Insight Timer, Headspace, or Smiling Mind – they all contain guided meditations from beginner to advanced and are a great place to start to develop your practice.
5)Create a Mantra
It might sound a bit woo-woo, but having a positive saying you repeat inside your head helps to create self-worth and is a self-care practice that is easy to follow and can be done anywhere at any time. Something like ‘I am worthy of this’ or ‘everyone benefits when I look after myself’ brings you back to the centre and changes the negative voice inside your head to a positive one. It’s hard not to smile when you do this. Why don’t you have a go at one or all of these and let us know what happens when you do.
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