Sometimes, I think it’s important to take a pause and reflect on the challenges we are facing in terms of wellness. We’ve talked about our wellness journeys before but, as you can imagine, our journeys are continuous. We share great research on our site and in our podcast but, sometimes, feeling like you aren’t alone is also important. Today, I want to share a little about my current wellness challenges and how I am trying to address them.
Physical Wellness
Most of you probably know Katina had a horrible accident where she broke bones in both feet/ankles. I can’t even begin to understand what she’s gone through. I am also recovering from two procedures to help heal old injuries in my ankle and shoulder. This process has really made me grateful for my general physical health and has me in awe of Katina’s positivity throughout her ordeal!
I only have a 6 week recovery period (with only a few weeks without PT) but it has been taking a toll on me. I can’t claim to be the most religious exerciser but I do a lot more than I have been after the procedures. Weight training is generally my go-to and I haven’t been able to do that. While I could take walks with my brace as long as there’s no pain, I felt unmotivated. I’m not proud but being unable to do what I wanted to do made me wallow in my misery. It made me understand how easy it is to fall into some really bad habits. I’ve also noticed a change in my mood. I’ve been sleepier and not as motivated in many areas of my life.
Luckily, I start physical therapy soon and will be able to be more active. This was a rude reminder that keeping up with a workout regimen is important for my sanity. We’ve know exercise can be hugely beneficial for mental health in addition to your physical health. I don’t think I realized it before but I need movement more than expected. Cheers to being able to get back to it soon so I can overcome this challenge to my wellness!
Failing to Practice What You Preach
We’ve talked about the challenge of being an entrepreneur and maintaining your wellness before. Being an entrepreneur can be really hard and very time consuming. This is particularly true if your entrepreneurship presents itself in a side hustle! I feel like I’ve done a pretty good job of balancing work and Workr Beeing. But I’ve noticed that the past few weeks have been more challenging. I partially blame this on my inactivity making me feel more tired. And I do honestly think that’s a part of it. Once I make time again to move in a healthy way for my recovery, I think my energy levels will improve and I’ll be a fabulous side hustler again! However, that’s not the whole story…
I got a super rude wake up call from Microsoft MyAnalytics that I am being a bad example of living the research. I found out that when I receive an email after-hours, I read almost all of them within 30 minutes! 30 minutes! We have talked about how important it is to disconnect from work to avoid burnout and how disconnecting from work helps you sleep better. I always considered myself someone that has ‘off’ hours. I don’t respond to a majority of emails that come in the evening. And I thought that was good enough. But this data on my behavior really had me reflect on what I was doing. Just because I wasn’t responding didn’t mean I was disconnecting. I am still reading everything thus keeping work front of mind.
Honestly, this was such a huge eye opener and made me think that maybe my sleepiness was from my lack of exercise or maybe some of it was coming from the beginnings of burnout. I’m so grateful for cool new tools like Microsoft’s MyAnalytics that can give us insight into our behaviors. It’s so easy to fall into bad habits and not realize how bad they are until it’s too late.
Overcoming My Wellness Challenges
You heard it here first! I am taking steps to address these new challenges that have popped up over the past few weeks. First, I am going to take my physical therapy very seriously, ask all the right questions, and ease myself back into a good workout regimen.
Second, I am going to create stricter hours for myself. I am going to create boundaries. I will have to maintain some flexibility, of course. However, when my official 8 hours of work are done for my full-time work, I will step away. I know there will be exceptions when I have to work later but, generally, I will make a clear end-of-the-day instead of randomly going back to tasks (and emails!) throughout the evening. It can be hard to make those boundaries with remote work! I will also make a strict end time for all work. Workr Beeing work obviously gets done later in the day. And I think it’s typical and expected that entrepreneurs might work longer hours than is ideal. However, as long as I truly disconnect at some point and get some time to recharge, I can get my wellness back on track!
If you have any tips from your experience to help get me back on track, please let me know! Or if you are facing any wellness challenges of your own, let us know. We are happy to help guide you in the right direction. Finally, we plan to do the 5-Day Reset in August to help us both hit the reset button on our wellness. Watch us on social media and join in!
