I'm a Hypocrite

...But at least I'm Self-Aware??

I catch myself all the time, especially lately, giving advice that I should probably be taking myself. As entrepreneurs, we often find ourselves posting and giving advice to other entrepreneurs, but if we were to take a peek behind the IG account, are we all actually following the advice we give? I know I'm not!

We've all been there, right? Whether it's about business or mental health or relationships, we've all been talking to friends or family about something and have that little voice in the back of your head say, "hmmm, maybe you're suggesting this because you needed to hear it too??"

It's hard to take that step back and let yourself reflect on your own life, but sometimes it's needed. For me, it's always been about my mental health. I suggest to EVERYONE in my life that they try therapy because "it's just so good for you and we need mental checkups just like we get physical ones!"

I'm a hypocrite. Up until about a month ago, I never truly appreciated therapy and medication for what they could do for a person. I was in full denial that I needed to put in more work with the way I approached the idea of mental health, but after hearing myself say exactly what I needed to hear to my partner, I realized I had some serious progress to make.

Luckily, now that I'm a little more self-aware, I'm able to work on things a little more and have developed some ways to cut down how big of a hypocrite I'm being (I'm definitely not perfect). One of the biggest ways I slow myself down is by following a schedule every. single. day.

I mean it, every day I wake up at the same time and follow the same morning routine. It's how I've trained my body to help me become a morning person up by 6:30 after a battle with depression that kept me in bed until 12 every day. This may not work for you, I'm a slightly ~special~ case, but finding a routine you can stick to is important, especially during quarantine/working from home.

I start every morning with yoga. It's the first thing I do after getting out of bed because I've begun to love starting my day by getting my blood flowing. I'm no expert so I just throw on a YouTube video (I highly recommend Yoga with Adrienne!) and dive into it. It keeps me from jumping immediately into work too which makes me skip breakfast. Instead, I'm forced to

start my dad by slowing down and easing some of the anxiety I feel about getting work done ASAP.

Every afternoon I also make myself put work away and take a full lunch break. This means the computer goes away and I either watch a movie or just talk to my cat. Again, the goal of this is to force my brain to slow down instead of creating a million more tasks to complete in a too short an amount of time. Time management is something I never quite mastered so I'm learning it now!

Finally, no matter what I did that day, I end it with "something fun" written in my schedule. For me, this means work goes away no matter what I'm doing and I take a full mental break from it. I play the Sims 4 or watch some youtube or hulu, or I take a bath. No matter what though, that time means no work. If I still want to work after that time, I can, but usually I'm ready to wind down for the night at that point.

Now here's the thing, I'm currently writing this after not having washed my hair all week because it's all about ~balance~ and I'm taking baby steps on my mental health journey. Learning to slow down is a tough but important lesson. I'm still proud of the progress I've made over the last month, and it's helping my business too!