Self-care is about accepting and appreciating who you are. It’s all about prioritizing your health and happiness. It’s about taking care of yourself and being proactive about defining a healthy and emotionally profitable relationship with self.
It’s crucial for everyone at work, and we can’t thrive until we’re happy. It’s necessarily significant for leaders since they’re in the management of most people in the office. And how can leaders realistically take care of others if they aren’t taking care of themselves? When you’re a CEO – you are the mind behind the business, you are the mastermind and decision-maker. You are the business’ greatest asset. Being the most valuable asset means you need to be protected and taken care of.
Here’s a closer look at five different ways that CEOs can begin their self-care journey.
1. Journaling
Journaling is not to be taken lightly. It is highly recommended by mental health professionals as a form of self-therapy. Journaling is a potent medium to capture your voice as a CEO. So many times we get caught up in downloading content and listening to the voices of other CEOs that we forget to listen to our own. Journaling provides us the opportunity to hone in on our gift and explore our creative voice.
Journalling calls for a lot of reflecting and remembering. But keep in mind that those are very different things, and you shouldn’t mix them together. Doing so can cause you to forget some details like how you felt, what you thought of others’ actions, what someone said, and how you felt about yourself.
When writing about a negative event or situation, make sure not to dwell for long on the situation. Keep in mind that you’re on a lifelong journey. Have a positive mentality and try to figure out why something happened and how to prevent it in the future. Don’t get caught up in the situation.
2. Exercise
When you’re distracted, fitness, exercise and our hobbies, easily sinks to the bottom of your to-do list, which is actually when you need it the most. Make it a top priority and an integral part of your life.
Make it a ritual to do something every day, like running or dancing even though it’s just for two minutes. Do that every day until it becomes a habit.
Exercise is important to self care, not just to our physical well-being but to our mental health as well. Exercise is a safe, natural, and effective anti-anxiety therapy. It relieves stress, increases physical and emotional vitality, and promotes well-being through the production of endorphins.
If you’ve not exercised for a while then take things slow. Do not get over-enthusiastic and work out for an hour and lift heavy weights from the start. Make sure you enjoy the form of exercise that you choose, it can be running, dancing, going to the gym, aerobics, te bo, playing a sport, or martial arts. Just do it.
3. Meditation
Some people cringe at the thought of meditating. But meditation is a surefire way to reduce stress, control anxiety, and promote emotional health. For those who don’t know where to begin or need guided meditation, there is an abundance of mobile apps that offer numerous mediation aids and guides.
Having meditation as part of your daily ritual may also reduce age-related memory loss, develop self-awareness, help lengthen attention span and focus, and could potentially even help fight addictions. Being a CEO means you always have several things on your plate, you have people to either manage or serve, and you have responsibilities that often weigh on your thoughts. All these and a lot more may cause undue stress and burnout. Meditation even for a few minutes in the morning and then if you have the time, a few minutes again at night, will be of immense help to your mental health and overall wellbeing.
4. Rest and sleep.
This is obvious. Humans need sleep. CEO’s, however incredible they are in their zones, are still humans. The mere practice of getting enough sleep and rest each day is a huge part of self care. Some people misinterpret the fatigue, stress, and lack of sleep due to work as being highly productive and even glamorize it. Sacrificing your health and overall disposition like that is definitely not glamorous, not productive, and not a good example to your team. Unless there are unavoidable circumstances and it is necessary that you only sleep a few hours, then skipping sleep is completely unacceptable when talking about self care. When you lack sleep, your mood is affected, your over feeling is uncomfortable, you steadily find it increasingly hard to focus, and decisions are affected.
5. Leisure time.
This is the favorite self care tip of many. Do something you love that is not too strenuous. The activity could be physical but preferably not too vigorous that it becomes stressful instead of helping relax and rejuvenate you. A hobby like knitting or gardening, a trip to a museum if you’re a history or art buff, a family picnic, bowling, eating out with friends, or movie night with the kids. Any activity or pursuit that makes you happy, that engages you but not causing stress or anxiety. I won’t elaborate any more on this because this would differ for each person.
As a last note, one important bonus tip is to integrate your self-care regimen and practices into your schedule. Do not make the mistake of not putting them in your schedule just because you know you’ll remember to do them regardless, and because they’re not business-related, so you assume you don’t need to include them in your scheduling. Your self-care is just as critical as your business dealings, if not more so, because if you burn out or become physically sick as a result of the stress and fatigue, your business will suffer as well.
