Ready to learn how to take care of yourself first? I have been taking some extra time for self care recently. It’s incredible to me that I have this belief: That if others need me, it is more important for me to tend to them, that to tend to myself. I realize that’s a crazy thought and if you said it to me, I would be like, “WHAT?! NOOO”.
But, it’s true, I find myself, sometimes, putting others needs above my own, then feeling drained, resentful, irritated, and in the worst case, shooting myself in my own foot/ sabotaging myself to put others needs ahead of mine.
What Happens If You Don’t Take Care of Yourself First …
If I spend my time focused on someone else and not myself, my business crashes. Pretty scary thought, and it’s happened 2 times in the last 7 years.
Momentum is a real thing. Click To Tweet
I don’t have a 9-5 job. I don’t get 2 weeks vacation and 2 weeks sick time, insurance and a profit sharing 401K.
I have chosen the life of an entrepreneur.
If you have never owned your own business, you have no idea what this means.
There are pros and cons.
The pros of being a woman entrepreneur are:
- I make my own schedule.
- I charge a fair price for my services according to the marketplace and get to keep ALL of the money (instead of working for someone else where I got half or less than half).
- I can work as many hours as I want and make whatever I need.
The cons of being a woman entrepreneur are:
- My clients off hours are my on hours. So, I get to make decisions like, skip a soccer game, or skip making the car payment (seeing a client who cannot come at another time during the week).
- I don’t get paid for time off or sick time.
- I get to save 2 weeks EXTRA when I want to take a 2 week vacation so I can keep paying my bills when I am out of town.
- Some clients want a session NOW or never. Do I skip doing what I need, or do I do what they need?
- more cons: I’m always working. There is no such thing as time off. I am selling my own service, and I still get paid hourly. That means, all the marketing, networking, enrollment calls, follow up calls, paperwork, billing, bookkeeping, taxes, insurance and 401K planning etc I do not get paid for. But, I am always doing it, sometimes late into the night.
There are many more pros and cons… (like client’s whose breakthroughs take them out of chronic pain they’ve had for YEARS or clients who cancel last minute and don’t understand that they’ve taken time in my schedule) but those are a quick few to throw out there…
But the point isn’t just about working for myself and how to balance that.
I Love What I Do
I LOVE what I do SO MUCH that all those cons I usually just overlook for the PLEASURE of the JOY of working with people.
But how do you balance all of it?
ALL OF IT
How do I balance making sure my kids have MORE than their basic needs met. Not just survival mentality, but thriving and hungry for life?- How do I balance a healthy lifestyle, where I meditate an hour or 2 a day, exercise an hour a day, eat homemade, organic, whole food cooked meals (sometimes 2-3 different meals for 2-4 different people with different food preferences 2 -3 times a day)?
- How do I take quality time to eye gaze with my partner, go for long walks, talk for a few hours about the day, my soul, his soul, his day, our dreams, and then make love for a few hours?
- How do I write the music and the books and the workshops and the online programs that I want to write?
I have been trying to schedule all of this and stick to the schedule. It really helps when I do. I get so many amazing things done and I feel so good about myself. I don’t go to bed at night feeling like I am not doing enough.
l can acknowledge myself for my thriving business, my thriving relationship, my thriving children, my healthy lifestyle and body. Click To Tweet
But it is challenging.
And the stress of it all can wear me thin. Especially when people start ragging on me and telling me I’m not doing it right. That pushes me over the edge.
Or when I tell me I’m not doing it right… and then they say it out loud 🤣😂🤣😒🤨
How Do I Take Care of Myself First: Meditation, Eating Right, Massages, Support
As I dive deeper into this daily meditation journey I have been on for the last 2 weeks, and stick to eating right for my blood type which I have been doing for the last 4 weeks, going to the chiropractor and massage therapist once a week for the last month, and having a life coach once a week for the last 2 months… I start to feel MUCH BETTER about everything else going on.
There is SO MUCH to be said for getting out of the sympathetic dominance (or chronic fight or flight):
Always feeling like something needs to GET DONE or HAPPEN or the whole house of cards is going to get blown over.
Meditation and taking charge of my health has helped me to realize that no matter WHAT is going on in my life… my sanity is really all that matters.
If I am taking care of myself, and then I choose to take care of YOU (my spouse, my kids, my clients, etc) then I actually FEEL GOOD about doing it, instead of feeling resentment.
I can feel it in my bones …
But if I take care of YOU first, and tell myself I will get to myself later … I can feel it in my BONES. Literally. In my bones. That I have put myself on the back burner …
and then we wonder why we feel like no one loves us…
when we don’t honor and love ourselves…
Can anyone out there relate? Please comment below or reach out to me.
I know I’m not alone in this. We just don’t usually talk about it on social media.
I’m actually organizing a local, monthly workshop to learn and schedule your daily life, your bucket list, your purpose, everything that affects your happiness. You have to know what the most important thing is or you throw crap in your schedule. That’s why we’ll look at your priorities. Discovering what my priorities are and scheduling accordingly brought me so much peace and balance. I want this for you! If you’re interested in attending, let me know, and stay tuned …
In our western culture, it has been ingrained in women to be self sacrificing. To break out of this cycle you have to do something new. Are you willing to change your mindset to make yourself and your family happy?
If you are out of town and you want support with this, sign up for a breakthrough session by clicking the button below.
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READ MORE FROM ME
Over the years, I have been a serial learner and practitioner, taking in information about psychology, religion, spirituality, science, medicine, quantum physics, relationships, parenting, and overall, general happiness and work-life balance. I’ve been fascinated in what it takes to and have created my life of pure joy, happiness, balance and peace. It is my mission to spread what I have learned and practiced to you in ways that are simple, easy to understand AND implement. I have served people in achieving realignment in their bodies, relationships and purpose for over 20 years. If you liked this article, and you want to read more, please visit one of the links below:
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Heather Hundhausen, a mind/body/spirit healer and facilitator, works with heart centered individuals who are ready to release their physical and emotional pain and reconnect their minds with their bodies so they can start living a life of passion and purpose. She assists people in making decisions in their lives by following their heart, mind, intuition and soul, from a place of being whole and in integrity.
With over fifteen years as a licensed massage therapist, Heather understands the connection between how someone's emotions can show up as physical pain. Using a variety of massage techniques, including neuromuscular therapy and structural realignment, she now does her ground breaking work by helping her clients to reach back through the pain and remember who they are to create wholeness and fullness.
During her years practicing traditional massage therapy, and while an intern working on her Masters Degree in Mental Health Counseling, she realized that people responded strongly when addressing their feelings and not just their thoughts. Working with this knowledge, she began to create an experiential environment for her clients, having them focus less on what they were thinking and more on what they were feeling. She discovered that when people began to release their emotions, they also released their physical pain. Heather is now passionate about helping people do just this so they hear their inner voice and then act upon their intuition so they create a new physical, mental and emotional life for themselves.
Heather’s authenticity, integrity, honor, commitment to her clients, and ability to create trust ensures that client's have a safe space to experience the exploration and release of their pain. Her clients say she is skilled at spiritual and emotional healing and is a great partner to have on the journey to contentment. As one particular client stated, “She opened my heart so the grief could emerge and then joy was able to fill that space.”
Heather is a popular speaker and workshop leader and facilitator, with one of her most popular workshops, “Connect on Purpose: Interpreting Your Body's Signals for Greater Wisdom and Empowerment” helping guide people to live their purpose, which Heather describes as “being able to take your talents and gifts and put them into action.” She is currently authoring a book and developing additional workshops, including a meditation group.
A licensed massage therapist, specializing in Thai Massage, Neuromuscular Therapy and Myo-skeletal Alignment Technique, she has a Masters Degree in Mental Health Counseling, is certified in Redirecting Children’s Behavior as a facilitator and coach.
