Wellness + Mental Health for Entrepreneurs
I recently presented at the Opportunity Collaboration Conference on a topic near and dear to my heart -- mental health and wellness strategies with a focus on entrepreneurs.
Having started my business at age 22, I have basically lived the last six years as a CEO who is also trying to figure out life, grow up, while being responsible for 20+ people's livelihoods and keeping a business alive... nbd.
It was a few years before I realized that perhaps entrepreneurs and business owners do have a unique sort of pressure and anxiety that they go through -- sleepless nights worrying about cashflow and payroll, anxiety about the future, fear of letting people (team, investors, customers) down, plus of course all sorts of creative brainstorms and great ideas. Whereas some people can come home from work and "turn off" their work brain, for an entrepreneur, often work = life = work, 24/7. A while back, someone asked me about my stress level -- "I'm fine, don't really feel stress, all good", I responded, as my face turned hot and a few tears started to come to my eyes. Yea.... not so good.
Once I realized this, and heard similar thoughts from entrepreneur friends of mind, I dug in to some of my tools from the past few years as well as my yoga teacher training, to offer up a few strategies that I try to rely on to stay (mostly) calm.
Get it out - Get it out of your head! Oftentimes, we can let the problem circulate alone in our minds, getting scarier and scarier down the rabbit hole, alone and afraid until it's impossible to solve. Get it on to paper/ your journal, text a friend or your entrepreneur whatsapp group, or, as a dear friend suggested, get yourself under water and scream your head off. When you journal, try to think about the worst possible outcome. I know that sounds crazy, but once you write it down, maybe it won't seem so scary anymore. Life will always go on. You will be resilient. Alongside acknowledging your greatest fears, write down a few things that you are grateful for. The gratitude will overpower the fear.
Track it - I discovered the free app Pacifica in which you can track your mood throughout the day or week, jot down some notes, and then you can start to see the pattern over a period of time. I use this in times of extra distress, which both helps me "get it out", as well as start to notice trends in the way certain situations make me feel, or ways in which repeated events affect me. #data
Breathe/ sweat - During the most overwhelmed times, I certainly feel like I "don't have time"/ can't even/ BUT as soon as I get my heart rate up/ get outside/ get on my yoga mat, I can immediately feel the stress wash away. If you have to stay where you are, try Alternate Nostril Breathing for a few minutes to re center and get back to yourself.
So, those are just a few of the practices I try to have in my toolkit, but would love to hear from you!! What sorts of things help you navigate the roller-coaster of life?
In my mind I'm going to.... a beach somewhere in Mexico