Tracy O’Meara Smith is a Holistic Therapist with a unique difference who believes in the healing power of flowers and the innate wisdom of the body using Bowen Therapy to awaken this.
She shares with us her self care tips for female entrepreneurs.
There are a plethora of self care tips – exercise, yoga, pilates, art classes, dancing classes, reading, gardening, hanging with friends or simply a night on the couch with Netflix. Whatever you choose to do to regroup and replenish they must do some or all of these things.
- They must nourish you.
- They must give you the space to recharge and breathe.
- They must take you away from your every day or change routine in some way.
- Light you up. Turn you on is even better.
- Anything you don’t have to give any emotional or mental energy to.
- Anything that brings you into the present moment. Anything that can move the body.
- Anything you find awakens your creative energy and allows the body, mind and soul to relax and re-centre itself.
Self care isn’t so much about what you’re doing, it’s also about how it makes you feel. It’s not something that should be endured or forced. Whatever you choose it must be right for you and make you feel good about yourself and be rejuvenating.
There’s so much talk of self care and self care practise. I think this is because we’re beginning to understand we cannot be or operate at our best if we’re not looking after ourselves. Self care is prevention to any imbalance on all levels. Body, Mind and soul. It’s the cure for most things and this is why I think it’s so important.
The drive to succeed can be very strong in some of us.
Ambition can drive us to a sense of physical and emotional crisis and burn out if we don’t stop to take breathers from work or every day stress. Even as a new Mum sleep deprivation can lead to burn out too. Pushing through pain or crisis is unadvisable.
Avoiding self care practise or refusing to connect can be detrimental. Many find that crisis is the only thing that will slow them down. A cycle that I’m sure you’ve met from time to time. This can be avoided. It takes more time to recover from a health crisis than it takes to prevent one. It’s so important to take care of ourselves so we can avoid these crash and burn cycles. Especially so, in a care giving role and when you’re juggling more than your own well being.
It all starts with simple self care practise.
Adrenal Fatigue, anxiety, depression, are all linked to poor self care management. If we have the capacity to avoid one or all of these just by simple self care practise we should do it. This will free up a lot of health care and management resources that can be channelled in other areas. I honestly believe that there is a shift where we are taking more responsibility for our health and feeling empowered through proper health care choices. It starts with a simple choice you make within and only you can do it.
What I do for self care.
I don’t have one specific thing at the moment. I’ve broadened my horizons lately and made sure that I do one of the things I love at least once every day.
I love spending time in nature. A good work out session. Early nights. I meditate. I digital detox. I’ll have a beautiful salt and flower essence bath at least once a week, and/or a Bowen Therapy or energy session. I love hanging out with friends. Even a simple thing such as staring into space listening to the crickets in my garden can sustain me. I love to read and I love to write.
All of these things are what I love doing most because they don’t ask anything from me. I don’t have to think, give or feel I can just be and receive. I think this is key for any self care practise, it needs to fuel you and light you up not something to dread or to endure.
Resistance
Many of us know that we need to up level our self care practise. Breaking through the inertia or the resistance surrounding this is possibly one of the hardest energies to move up against. We always put off that exercise or the diet or the new health plan to another day. Making excuses.
Resistance is a little bit of bugger when it comes to changing behaviour and creating new neural pathways needed to carry the new version of ourselves. We all have this. Just know the greater the resistance the more reason to do what you know you need to be doing for yourself. Just start with a one-day goal. Then move the bench mark to two. Sometimes it’s best to start small and hold onto the feelings of change and the benefits in this way.
Use the feeling of how you feel to motivate you forward.
We Are Emersyn uses an inclusive definition “female” and “women” and we welcome trans people, women, genderqueer women, and non-binary people who identify, have identified, or have been identified as female, women, or non-binary.