Today, I Want You To Give Yourself A Break! I Did.

Today I want you to Give Yourself a Break -  I did

Have you ever had a week that was so busy, so exhausting that you start beating yourself up for slacking in other areas? This was a long, busy week for me. It felt as if the entire 5 day work week was one long Monday. Mid Friday, I started to feel overwhelm. How am I possibly going to get all of these things done? I had already finished an early morning workout and although it felt great, my entire body was crying out. I was so tired at one point, I had to put my head down and close my eyes for 10 minutes. After that, I felt strangely refreshed and had a pep talk with myself. Although my week was long and exhausting, my team and I made some incredible strides. We accomplished a great deal and I was proud of that. On the other hand, I had a to do list a mile long, and I felt like it was so important to do the things on the list, but by 8pm, my body was aching. So thought to myself, what should I do?

I could plow thru and get ‘er done, but if I did that, what would be the reward? Would I feel significantly better the next day? No, not really…I’d run myself so ragged that I wouldn’t have energy for the next day.

I decided to give myself a break. Instead of washing all of the dishes, cleaning the house, doing laundry, or going out for a drink with my friends, I listened to my body. It’s funny a few weeks ago, I was meditating. The meditation was focused on loving my body. I always thought of the concept around loving my body, as not judging my physical characteristics, and not obsessing over the scale. As I was meditating, I realized that loving my body was so much more than that. It wasn’t just reducing the negative self talk about my flab, but it was about loving myself in a holistic manner. I learned that I needed to show compassion toward myself; my physical self, spiritual self, and emotional self. I realized, I had work to do.

I’ve always been driven and have always been a leader. Throughout the past several years, as a student of mindset balance, I realized that I did need balance. For a while, that meant scheduling time for prayer, scheduling time for meditation, scheduling time for meal prep and my workouts. I still do all of those things, but what’s even more important is that when I love my body, I hear my body, and I listen to it. When I’m sitting to long at my desk trying to be everything to everyone, I have to pause, and ask myself, what am I sacrificing? I come first. When I’m feeling disconnected, at that moment, I know that there is something out of alignment. My shoulders and my neck start to tighten and ache, and then I reflect back to my intention. My intention is to focus on holistic health; to enjoy a healthy spirit life, a healthy body, and a healthy mind.

If you’re showing signs of overwhelm, how then can you show up for people and also live out your intention? If you want to master leadership in your professional life and in your personal life, you have to keep my focus on your intentions. To truly love ourselves is to listen to our bodies, trust our intuition, and practice self care. Then, and only then, can we show up authentically for others -full of grace and presence. If you are curious about how coaching can help you master leadership, let's connect!