How do you take care of yourself in your private practice? Do you take the morning off when you need it?
This week, I share with you how important it is to listen to the signs your body is giving you, and taking time out to practice self-care.
As always I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Transcript
Hi, it's Gail here. Today I want to share with you one of the great things of being in private practice. That is the flexibility that it gives you to take care of yourself. Now this is something I've not been very good at in my career, and working for other people means for me that I learned some bad habits about taking care of myself. I'm a very responsible person, and I always show up on time, and give 150%. That hasn't always been great for my health. |
Now let me tell you about what's been happening for me the last couple of days. Last night, that's my choir night, and I usually go to choir rehearsal, but I came home from work, and I had a shower, and halfway through my shower I just felt like this wave of exhaustion just hit me. I laid down on my bed and I did a little bit of a meditation, and I actually fell asleep. I woke up and I'd missed rehearsal, but it was clear to me that that was what I needed. That going to rehearsal and keeping up supporting the rest of the choir, and that wasn't for me last night. |
Today, what I had scheduled was I've got scheduled some business work and some writing reports and paperwork, and that kind of stuff. I slept in. I was still in bed at 9 O'clock this morning, and when I got up I had a massive headache. It's really clear to me that my body was telling me, "Stop. Slow down, and take a break." So I did. I've had a bit of a pottering kind of morning. I've tried to make breakfast, pretty unsuccessfully. I put the wrong pot on, burnt the food, all the food was stuck to the pan. It was pretty clear watching myself do that I wasn't in a fit state to actually be at my best to serve my clients. So I had made the right decision in taking care of myself this morning. |
Now, I have some clients later on today, and I will do some paperwork, and business work today, but I've got the luxury of being able to listen to my body, and know that today I'm on my own time. It's entirely up to me what I get done. What I do know, is that if I don't listen to my body, I'm probably going to get sick. The headache that I've got, the exhaustion that I'm feeling is a sign that my body is fighting something off. If I don't listen, I'm going to come down with one of the colds or bugs and flu's or whatever that's going around at the moment, which is not going to serve me, my family, or my clients. It's going to take me out for a couple of days, and I'm going to possibly be sick and not be able to see my clients. |
How do you take care of yourself in your private practice? Do you take the morning off when you need it? Do you have a sleep in if you've got the time to do it? Or do you take the kids to school and come home and have a nap to recharge so that you have the energy to serve your clients for the day? I'd really love to know what's working for you, and if this is something that you do in your practice. Leave me a comment. I'd really love to have a discussion around this and find out what's working for you, and share with other people. Others that are still learning about this, and this has taken me a long time to be able to accept that I can't give 150%, 150% of the time. I have to listen to my body, so that I can serve other people and be at my best 100% of the time. Well, 80% of the time anyway. |
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