As spiritual entrepreneurs, we need to make sure we take care of ourselves on many different levels. Whether it’s looking after our physical body, our mental wellbeing or our spiritual health, we need to make sure everything gets some love and attention.
When it comes to looking after my own wellbeing, there are 6 different areas I like to make time for. It may sound like a lot and you may think ‘Cat, I do not have time to maintain 6 areas of wellbeing!’, but I’m here to show you how you can ensure all parts of yourself are being well cared for in a time-efficient and intentional way.
>
“A person being “too busy” is a myth. People make time for the things that are really important to them.”
Area 1: Physical
It’s one of the most well-known areas and for many, one of the easiest to let slip into nothingness. I won’t lie, cardio workouts make me want to instantly lie down and nap, but I know I feel better and I can do more when I look after my cardio fitness… I hate it.
I also make sure to do one exercise class a week that is fun, for me it’s aerial hoop, for some it may be pole or if you’re stuck at home, there are a plethora of online exercise videos to choose from. Physical health isn’t just about looking good or keeping your body in good condition, it can have a knock-on effect with all the other areas we’re going to be looking at in this post. Physical exercise can boost your endorphins helping to lift your mood, it can also force you to breathe more deeply, helping you feel calmer and get more oxygen into your bloodstream, making you feel more awake and motivated.
Area 2: Mental
Something that we are all very aware of at the moment and rightly so. Our mental health can be one of the trickiest things to take care of. I always liken it to trying to keep a mound of sand in your hands whilst juggling, at least that’s what it feels like for me.
The key to taking care of your mental wellbeing is to take breaks. Force your mind to stop, relax, unplug from the information filth cauldron that is the internet. A lot of the issues we see today are because we are constantly pushing information into our brains at a rapid rate, so do something where you have to focus on just one thing, like reading, sewing, gardening or even watching your favourite show.
Area 3: Emotional
Our emotional wellbeing can often get lumped in with our mental wellbeing and that makes a lot of sense as the two are closely connected, but they are not exclusive. Your emotional wellbeing often requires some dedicated time and attention, as it has its roots in your subconscious.
Your emotions control how you feel, your mental wellbeing controls how you think but how you feel can influence your thoughts, this is where it gets tricky to separate the two. However, when taking time to take care of your emotional wellbeing, we need to delve into that subconscious and the way we do that is through mindfulness meditation, journaling, gratitude lists and shadow work (facing and working through the darkest parts of ourselves).
Blog Recommendation: How to start fighting against self-limiting beliefs
>
“You only get one life, make it a balanced one”
Area 4: Spiritual
Your spiritual self-care should aim to create a connection between you and the universe in which we live. It’s all about recognising what we don’t know and may never know and coming to terms with that. It’s about exploring our faith, our philosophical beliefs and how we feel about the world and the people in it.
Not only should we focus on forming a relationship with the universe, but we should also be focusing inwards in order to uncover and tap into our own personal power. As energetic beings, we are capable of so much more than our conscious mind allows us to believe, so taking time out for some spiritual self-care can help to build confidence, create a much healthier relationship with self and even open your eyes to new perspectives.
Area 5: Creative
Creativity, whether you think you’re a creative person or not, is essential to being able to process and express difficult emotions. This is why so many artists, poets, playwrights and actors have deep dark troubles. Granted back in the day some of the great artists had various diseases that made them crazy, but they still managed to use creativity to unleash some of their deepest emotions so you have no excuse.
Even something as simple as doodling in your notepad can help you get that creativity moving along nicely. Creative self-care can be the key to unlocking difficult emotional memories, self-limiting beliefs or even fears we never knew we had. Freewriting is great if you’re not good with a pencil or a paintbrush, or even just creating visual mood boards can help, Canva is a great tool for this and you can just save the images you love and drag and drop!
Blog Recommendation: How to stop believing you’re too busy for self-care
Area 6: Intellectual
Finally, we have our intellectual self-care. Now, the trap we don’t want to fall into is overloading ourselves with information, which can be easy when we fall down a YouTube rabbit hole or go on a Google rampage. In order to take care of our intellectual health, all we have to do is challenge ourselves in an intellectual way. This can be grabbing a puzzle book to fill out in your break times, taking a short online course in something you’ve always been fascinated with or researching about a specific subject you want to know more about.
Taking care of your intellectual wellbeing can help you to discover new perspectives on the world, yourself, your career, your wants and desires, how you treat others and so much more. Plus, keeping our minds focused in this way links back to that mental self-care from earlier.
How to combine them all together
You may have noticed a few commonalities as we went through each area, but here are a few things you can do, as a busy spiritual entrepreneur, to give each area care and attention without having to take hours out of your day.
-
Freewriting – The idea behind freewriting is that you just write down everything you have in your head without censorship. This helps with your mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing all at once. You could even do this in the form of a short story, adding in that creative element.
-
Dancing – Whether it’s a Tik Tok dance or a professional dance class, dancing can help you be creative using your body and help to get your heart pumping. This can take care of your physical, mental, emotional and creative wellbeing.
-
Reading non-fiction – Picking up a history book, a book on an academic subject or a self-help book can be a great way to not only take care of your intellectual wellbeing, but it also tackles your mental wellbeing. Depending on the subject it can even address your emotional, spiritual and creative wellbeing. If you grab yourself an audiobook, you could listen to it while running or in the gym, adding in some physical self-care.
-
Sex/Masturbation – Yep we went there. Sex or some one-on-one time with yourself can be a great way to not only reduce stress and tension in your body, but it can also help you learn more about your own preferences, likes and dislikes. Plus you open up that Sacral chakra, which is the seat of your creativity and emotional wellbeing.
Scheduling in specific self-care time is something all business owners should do, after all, your business relies on you in order to succeed and it can’t do that if you’re burned out. To give the most to our projects, we have to to give an equal amount of energy to ourselves in order to balance the scales. How do you make sure to stay balanced when busy?
