Five tips to support your mental and emotional health
Hello, hello. It is Penny. And I'm here to talk today about mental and emotional health m. And mental and emotional health as a business leader, as an entrepreneur. But this very much applies to everyone. Whether it's your children, your partner, your employees, when it comes to our mental and emotional health, because we're all very good at doing, we're all very good at getting caught up in action taking, many times we don't recognize that our mind and our body is calling out to us until we really feel it. So for example, probably like many other entrepreneurs, there are times when I'm here in the office. I get head down, I get into flow, and hours and hours can go by and I don't recognize that all that time has gone by until I have a headache. And that headache is because I am so hungry because I haven't eaten in six or eight hours. That state, being hungry, which can quite easily become hangry, that impacts our ability to handle stress and things that are going on in our business, in our life mentally and emotionally, because we have taxed our brain to the point from a metabolic standpoint, that it is difficult for us to deal with a stressor or a situation. So now I am much more mindful and I do my best to pay better attention. [00:03:01] Now you may say, well, yeah, but you know, I fast. Well, if you're on a fasting schedule, that's fine. Your body becomes acclimated to that. But say for instance, you're someone who grabs a quick breakfast. Maybe you're having a breakfast of oatmeal and fruit, which even though it has fiber, there's a lot of, carbs in that. Your body, the way your metabolism works, your blood sugar crashes much more quickly, and it gives you peaks and valleys and it affects your energy, your mental focus. You can have brain fog, nevermind the irritability, and, not able to handle the stressors day to day, but when we are experiencing stress in our business, and I'm even talking about the normalized stress. Daily stress, stress day in and day out, high pressure over commitment, overwhelm, that is not normal. But we normalize it. That's the culture of business. That paradigm is shifting. It's changing, but we shouldn't be in that state every day. We don't have the opportunity to process our emotions. We don't have the opportunity to allow our bodies to rest. When our bodies don't rest, it shortens our mental and emotional bandwidth. I think you can see where I'm going here. [00:04:30] Now. one of the things that can create stress, worry, fear in the business is our inner voice. Because there's some part of us that's telling us that we have to push that hard. There's some part of us telling us that we have to go one more minute, one more hour, one more day, before we give ourselves some time off. It's our inner voice that says, oh, we have to go the extra mile for this client and I have to do it right now. Now that's not to say that customer service client care is not important. It's actually very important, but I've been there. I know. And I know what some of you are doing when it's not urgent. You're making it urgent in your mind. And you're causing yourself to have to do more and more. Your inner voice is talking you into believing that only you can do a certain task well enough. That if you don't do it, it'll take longer if someone else does it. And you're not able to let go of control in the business, it's your inner voice. That's telling you that you have to be super cautious and super afraid of what other people may think. [00:05:56] When we can step into this place, where one, we realize that control is an illusion and two, we can accept ourselves for doing our very best and accept that we're smart enough to know when we need to go out and gather more knowledge, then we can let go of all of that. Now I'm not talking about perfectionism. Perfectionism is, that is just like a total and complete waste of mental, emotional, and physical energy. I'm not talking about the, oh, well, once I, reach this next milestone, it'll be good enough. Or when I reach the next milestone, it'll be good enough. No, I'm talking about; you get into a situation. You're like, oh, you know what? I have a knowledge gap here. Let me fill the knowledge gap. And then I will, I will be ready. That voice in your head is telling you it's not good enough, people aren't gonna like it. What if they don't like the new direction that your company is taking, maybe you bring in a new partner in the company or you sell an equity share, whatever that looks like. It's important to be aware, and wise, about what you're doing. But when you are allowing your mind to run your emotions, then it becomes detrimental. And when I say, when you allow your mind to run your emotions, yes. All of our emotions come from our mind. But what I'm saying is when you let your thinking run your emotions, that's when we get into the weeds of mental and emotional health, because unnecessary fear and worry is caused by our thoughts. [00:07:50] I had a coach, once, who called it future surfing, living in the future. Right? Most of the things that we get caught up in our head about in the future, most of the things never come true. We are just spinning our wheels and burning our mental, emotional energy. So if you're finding yourself, getting into worry, getting into fear, getting into doubt, I want you to recognize that is a function of your thoughts and your thinking. It's not the same as anticipation, if you're like, well, I have to anticipate what might be coming, well, yes. I mean, you can anticipate next steps, but fear around those next steps, worry and doubt as to whether or not they will be good enough if they will be in place one time, those types of things, you have the capacity and the ability to project timelines, you have the capacity and the ability to develop a plan B. If you're getting caught up in a situation where you're thinking, well, I said I was gonna have this out by, I don't know, let's say the 21st of the month, and now there's been some snafu and it takes me till the 23rd. What are people gonna think? Well, you know what? People are gonna think all manner and range of things. [00:09:12] If you realize that you can't make a deadline, just own up to it and say, hey, I was expecting to have this to you by this date, whatever the reason is like I underestimated or something unexpected came up, it is taking longer. I will notify you as soon as it's available. I expect it to be before and then give another projected date. This happened to me just the other day. I led a full day workshop. The videos needed to be edited. And I chose to edit the videos myself, because number one, I was the only person that knew where the timestamps were that the video needed to be cut. And if I had to watch the whole damn thing to find the timestamps, then I may as well clip it, process it and export it because that only takes 10 extra minutes. And something came up on my schedule that was unavoidable, and it delayed my ability to get it out there. And I just sent an email and said, Hey, this is what's happening. Is it possible that someone was unhappy with that? Absolutely. But it's better than not saying anything and hoping people don't notice. And because of the delay, there is a bonus that I'm giving on the back end of that. There is a way to stay in integrity around these things. [00:10:39] So when it comes to your mental and emotional health, the most important thing you can do is get present with yourself. Even when you're busy, head down, be present with yourself, you can be in flow and be aware of your own internal state. At the same time, it takes practice if you've never done it before. But you can do it. You can be mindful when you're in flow and make sure that your body is being taken care of. You can be present and be mindful when you're in a project with a deadline. And if you're just going all in, you can be mindful and present and make sure that your needs are being taken care of. If you get completely lost in the weeds, set an alarm, as a reminder to eat lunch. Set a timer, you can get a habit tracker to remind you to drink water, to be healthy. And you may say, well, what does that have to do with mental and emotional health nourishing? Our body has a lot to do with our mental and emotional health, listening to our body exercising, getting outside. I feel like I've slipped for a moment back into. Healthcare mode, but that's totally not the intention of what I'm doing here, but I know that mental and emotional health has become the buzzword. [00:12:04] If you listen to your body, if you nourish shit well, if you drink water, if you get outside, if you exercise, that goes a long way toward your mental and emotional health and oh, and for God's sake, don't forget to have some fun, right? Throw some fun in there too. Just for good measure. But be present with your mind, be present with where your attention is. As you're making decisions, be aware of what is driving you to make the decisions that you're making. And if it is your inner voice, getting into fear, worry, and doubt, then that is something that can be shifted. That can be neutralized. You can’t turn the voice off, like a switch. That voice comes from the ego, but you can neutralize the emotion behind it. It's the emotion that impacts our mental and emotional health. Those are the things that I work with people on all the time. [00:13:00] I want to invite you, if you are a highly successful professional, if you find that taming, this inter voice is something that's going to allow you to let go of the fear and the doubt so that you can move forward with clarity and focus, creating that impact, creating the legacy, having the lifestyle that you desire. If, you recognize that taming, that inner voice is a huge part of that, then I would love to have you in my Facebook group. Yes. I know. Social media, whatever. I would love to have you in my Facebook group, because I'm going in and doing weekly live trainings in the Facebook group. I've only recently done that, but I am supporting other entrepreneurs who are ready to have that mental and emotional health. They're ready to let go of that fear. They're ready to overcome the self doubt. Because it's those things that keep us from feeling fulfilled in what we do. It's that inner. That we feel like we're 95% to this great and wonderful life, but then every, so often something crops up and here we go again and it's like, Ugh, is it ever gonna end? Well, that's what I help you with. So anyway, I would love to see you in the Facebook group. I'm gonna put the link to the group in the show notes, it's called On The Path. The name will be changing soon to what I don't know yet. I will be inspired and you will be the first to know when I do, but the link is in the show notes. I want you to go join the Facebook group. I'll give you access to a powerful hypnosis that will allow you to amplify your confidence. And I would just love to see you there. Would love to love up on you, share some amazing resources with you, so you can go out there and just do the damn thing. Do the thing that you're here to do until next week, bye now. Find your way over to the Facebook Group! We would love to have you there.