5 Ways to Practice Self Care

November 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

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Guest post by Andrea Costantine, andreacostantine.com

It is important to give ourselves the space and permission to take a break, step back, and unwind. Here are five easy ways that you can practice self-care starting today.

1. Turn off email, phones, and other devices. I have realized more and more how these things are such a distraction and all too often create extra chaos and stress in our day to day lives. Limit phone calls and email time and systematize where possible. Leave the black(crack)berry at home, stop playing on the iPhone, and get present.

2. Take a brisk 20 minute walk. Walking has been my solution to many problems; I find that even a short walk can really change my perspective on a situation. Be sure to try new walking paths for an even greater perspective change.

3. Say “no” to what doesn’t serve you. If you are like me, you are a people-pleaser and it’s hard to say no, but when we over-commit to other people, obligations, projects, or clients that don’t serve us we can become resentful. Make a habit of taking a day or two to think things over to assess if the commitment is right for you.

4. Give Yourself a Break. I am not talking about a break from work, what I am talking about is a break from beating yourself up. Pushing yourself through deadlines, working extra hours, and burning yourself out serves no one. Go easy on yourself, if you aren’t nice to yourself who will be? You’ll never have everything done, and perfect doesn’t exist.

5. Passion, Hobbies, Nature. What do you love but don’t allow yourself to indulge in? Whatever “it” is – go do that. For me, I rarely allow enough time to get into the mountains for some hiking, even worse; I skip out on painting and being creative which I love. Spend some time working on your hobby and your passions (outside of work) and find that you’ll be easily rejuvenated.

For women, this is even more important, as we go through life feeling the need to take care of everyone else, it is critical that we take care of ourselves first .

Andrea Costantine is the ConsciousPreneur Connection Specialist, providing powerful resources to help entrepreneurs easily and effortlessly grow their business. Visit http://www.andreacostantine.com for your free ConsciousPreneur Kit.

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Breaking Free From Email Prison

October 20, 2009 By admin 4 Comments

Guest post by Andrea Costantine, andreacostantine.com
Anger

Every time I get the chance to go away and take a break I realize how trapped I am in “email prison.” The constant obsessive need to check my email repeatedly due to worrying that I am missing something, but what exactly I am not sure.

When I ask myself “why do I need to check email constantly?” and keep hitting that “send and receive” button, I don’t get an answer – I now believe because there isn’t one. There isn’t a need to check email incessantly, it’s only a belief that we develop over time.

I usually blame my constant email checking OCD habit on my ten years of mortgage processing work, where everything was needed right now or yesterday and that prompt and immediate attention to everything was just expected it was necessary. Not checking emails and responding to the fires could mean that someone wouldn’t close on their house tomorrow. Which may not seem like too big of a deal, but trust me, the mortgage business is a high-stress, fast-paced environment (despite contrary belief). Things are constantly happening and a last minute fire could mean delays in closing.

Okay, enough about that, I was just trying to blame something for my email prison that I’ve been working on breaking free from. You see this need to check email has really hurt my productivity level because as entrepreneurs we need to be working on the right things every day. But using email as a way of telling us what to work on, and being in reaction mode to everything comes in, instead of action mode to what is really important could be the death sentence to our business.

Regardless, if you find yourself like me where you are having those days where all you really did (if you get honest with yourself) was check email and react all day long. Nothing got done on that top priority to do list, and you felt flustered and literally all over the place, then it’s time to make some changes.

Here’s some things I’ve been doing to break free from “email prison” and some others you can try too:

1. Set designated times to check email. Morning, Afternoon, Evening and then stick with them.

2. Create an autoresponder to let people know that you only check emails periodically so they don’t expect an immediate response

3. Unsubscribe from any junk mail that you don’t want to read

4. Set up “Rules & Alerts” in your outlook so certain emails will go directly into the right folder

5. Turn off audible alerts for new emails

6. Turn off automatic send and receive checks

7. Close out your email when working on projects

Andrea Costantine is the ConsciousPreneur Connection Specialist, providing powerful resources to help entrepreneurs easily and effortlessly grow their business. Visit http://www.andreacostantine.com for your FREE ConsciousPreneur Kit.

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