How to take care of yourself when you have the winter blues

How to take care of yourself when you have the winter blues

Once the holidays pass and deep winter sets in, it's easy to forget that this is traditionally the season to slow down and rest.

Especially because we’re inundated with posts and workshops about setting goals and making plans for the new year.

Extra especially because most modern-day cultures and economies do not shift with the natural seasons. Can you imagine Walmart or Target and the oil industry opting to slow down or close? Ha.

However, nature doesn’t stay at top speed and max growth all year round. And guess what? As human beings, we are nature!

That’s why millions of people in America alone experience winter blues. Or more intensely, "seasonal affective disorder", also known as "seasonal depression.”

As business owners, it can feel extremely difficult to slow down. But it doesn’t have to be.

You have a unique opportunity to create a culture within your life and your business to shift with the seasons.

You became a small business owner to do this exact thing.

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How to “beat” the winter blues

I'm just going to go ahead and say it: I hate the cold.

In the winter, my body hurts, I'm not motivated at all, and I just want to eat a bunch of food and hibernate. My husband basically has to drag me out of the house to get outside because of how much I hate the cold.

If you’re with me or you typically have lower energy and motivation in the winter months, you are not alone. Millions of people experience a sort of winter blues or seasonal depression. There is absolutely nothing wrong with you for wanting and/or needing to slow down in the winter.

In fact, I’d say you’re extremely in tune with yourself and I’m celebrating that about you.

Understanding why the winter blues happens to you

Internal and external factors greatly affect how we manage our time, get things done, and achieve our goals. In order to more holistically manage your time, taking them into account is extremely important. Want some examples?

• Internal factors are our mental health, physical health, energy levels, menstrual cycle (if you have one), and more.

• External factors are like the weather, our physical space, astrology (if you believe in astrology as I do), geographical allocation of resources, policies, and more.

As humans, we can’t ignore them. We have to work with them, including during the winter.

When you think of wintertime, what do you think of?

• Cold weather

• Long and dark days

• Trees, plants, and things that have died off and don't grow for months

• Animals hibernate or migrate to warmer places

• Death and decay

• Slowing down

• Sleeping

Wintertime as an external factor causes a major shift in our bodies where they want to slow down and rest more.

So when winter rolls around and you have a ton on your plate, big goals, packed schedule… your body wants to do the exact opposite. This makes it extremely difficult for you to feel motivated, get focused, and be productive in the same way as other seasons.

Feel the urge to slow down, a lack of motivation, or an increase in negative self-talk in the winter months?

Then you are someone who is impacted by seasonal changes, and it’s extremely important to learn how to work with this external factor.

Shift your mindset around beating the blues

Most articles talk about beating the blues as if you’re in a fight against yourself. That’s not helpful for anyone.

You don’t have to beat the blues. You don’t have to be productive right now. You can rest more, and still be successful.

Shifting your mindset around beating the winter blues looks like:

• Not suppressing the urge to rest and forcing yourself to work at high speed.

• Letting go of the pressure to operate at the same speed you might during other times of the year.

• Taking the best care of yourself through it…which typically means slowing down, a lot.

• Doing what you need to do to come out on the other end prepared and ready for the next season to begin.

Listen to your body

Winter is the best season to practice being more mindful and listening to what your body needs. Your body wants to slow down, wants care, and wants ______. (You fill in the blank: What does your body need right now?) Mine needs a NAP.

This season is also a great time to lower self-expectations, do the bare minimum, reflect on your life or business, watch Netflix without feeling guilty, or just sit in front of a fireplace and chill.

Doing the bare minimum, slowing down, and resting might feel challenging at first. Listen to what your body needs and wants, and let go of the rest of the stuff until there's more sunlight.

Welcome this opportunity to rest and recharge because it doesn’t come very often in our society and our businesses. 

Max out your sunlight time

Keep as many window shades as you can open as much as possible to allow more sunlight into your home.

When you feel brave, bundle up and get outside. I try to as much as possible but as I said, I really hate the cold. But, whenever I actually go outside it really helps me.

Prioritize movement & nourishment

I typically prioritize movement all year round, but I have to even more in the winter because I just want to sit on the couch and do nothing. So, I create a list of all the current ways I love to move my body and schedule them 3-4x a week in my calendar when I’m most energized and motivated.

Then, I incorporate warmth. This looks like going to hot yoga, exercising in front of a heater, or bundling up and getting outside. But I try to move 3-4 times a week, even if it's just like dancing around my house for a couple of minutes.

By the way, there are some awesome gentle & free movement classes on YouTube. Click here for my personal playlist of yoga and mindful movement classes.

Another thing that I prioritize all year round, but especially so in the winter is eating healthy and taking vitamins. In the winter when we’re feeling less likely to move our bodies and eat healthily, even just taking vitamin D and C helps me feel like I’m doing everything I can to stay healthy and well.

How might you prioritize taking care of your body in the winter?

Make loving decisions for you & your business

What I mean by this is making decisions that are grounded in self-love. If taking a trip to a warmer climate (COVID permitting) would be loving, do it. If taking a nap would be loving, do it. If it feels like you’re forcing yourself to move and eat healthily, don’t do it.

If taking a bunch of stuff off your to-do list is loving, do it. If saying no to another client is loving, great. If you don’t feel like marketing right now, that’s cool.

Use this season to be more loving towards yourself in the decisions you make.

Additional external support

In the winter, I seek out more support than in other seasons of the year.

I am a huge advocate of getting support whether it be from a therapist, coach, friend, or something else. Especially if you’re winter blues is intense.

Why? Because sharing with someone else the shoulds I feel to do more in the winter helps me release them.

Consider investing in some accountability or external support around this time to make sure that you take really good care of yourself, in the winter specifically.

How will you “beat the blues?”

Recognizing you have the winter blues and taking care of yourself throughout the winter is how you can beat the blues, successfully manage your business, and be prepared and ready spring.

What specifically will you do to beat the blues? Comment below on what you are going to do differently this year.

Want support with shifting with the seasons so you can successfully run your business and take really good care of yourself? I can help! Click here to book a free consult call.

Why taking time off is so hard and how to do it without feeling guilty

Why taking time off is so hard and how to do it without feeling guilty

Resting and taking time off is not exactly glamorous or sexy. But… Do you know what is?

Feeling energized, motivated, and joyful on a regular basis. And being successful without having to work all the time.

If that's what you're into or looking for, taking time off and rest is non-negotiable. So why is it so challenging to put everything aside and make time for you?

By the end of this blog, you will understand why it's so hard for you to take time away from your business and what to do about it.

Why is taking time off so hard (even when you plan for it)?

Puppies.

Confused? Let me explain.

If you’ve ever had a puppy, you know how much work they are. It makes me tired just thinking about getting one.

Your whole life revolves around your precious new pup. You have to continuously take care of it and train it so it doesn’t go to the bathroom inside. It wakes you up all hours of the night. When you go to work, you have to put your puppy in a crate so it doesn’t chew your entire living room apart.

Guess what happens when you are done with work?

Your puppy is so excited to see you! But you can’t just flop on the couch and relax… your puppy NEEDS to use the bathroom and run around to get all its energy out.

Now, imagine that your mind is that puppy. 

You’ve been working, doing, and going for your entire life keeping your thoughts and feelings in that metaphorical crate. When you take time off, you’re confronted with all of it.

Resting is not a piece of cake

Hustle culture, societal and familial norms, self and other people’s expectations, and basically everything that we’ve been taught since the first grade is to get things done.

Our entire economy is based on labor and output, with one goal in mind: non-stop growth.

Our minds are wired to constantly think about all the things we have to do.

That's why so many people say they feel lazy or behind when they pause, take time off, and rest. And that’s why it feels so much easier to continue to work and stay busy until you basically HAVE to rest (equivalent to burnout).

Now you might have some more clarity around why it’s so difficult to rest. However, logically even when you know something, it can still be incredibly difficult to do

Especially when you are an entrepreneur and you feel like your business will fall apart when you take time away from it. If you feel like this, there are many different things you can do to let go of that misunderstanding. Click here to find out how I can help you create a healthy foundation for you to take time away from your business.

If resting is hard for you and you want to learn more about how our societal norms, capitalism, racism, and the patriarchy impact your ability to rest, follow the nap ministry. They have taught me so much!

What’s possible when you take time for you?

When you pause, take time for yourself, and rest you get to sit with yourself.

You get to notice and feel your feelings. 

You get to examine, reflect, acknowledge, and celebrate yourself. 

You get to notice what’s going well, and what needs to change.

It might feel like a lot. Just like a real puppy, when it first gets out your thoughts and feelings may feel overwhelming. But by continuing to work and delaying time off, you keep your metaphorical puppy in its crate dying to get out. 

That’s why I recommend having someone to support you through this journey.

Curious about what’s waiting on the other side of the initial puppy wild energy?

When you take more time off, you’ll be able to…

• Be present for the things that deeply matter to you (your loved ones, your health, etc.)

• Regularly feel refreshed, energized, and creative (not only to be more productive later).

• Heal any underlying feelings of unworthiness, scarcity, and insufficiency.

• Start feeling more fulfilled, alive, and successful.

• Shift your mindset around time so every day doesn’t feel like a stressful high-speed race.

• Find what being content and at peace looks like to you.

• Start believing in things like divine timing and increase your patience.

• Begin to feel more confident in yourself and how you spend your time.

• Increase your self-trust, self-discipline, and self-love.

The list goes on and on. 

However, I always say when you regularly rest and take time for yourself, you begin truly living.

If you want any or all of those things, learning how to take more time off and be with yourself is your answer.

How do you take guilt-free time off?

There are some tangible solutions and non-tangible solutions. And the solutions you need are completely unique to you, your business, and your life.

How you might create more time off and rest without feeling guilty could look like:

• Identifying that you have a desire to make more time for yourself.

• If you often say or feel, “I never have enough time,” healing a time scarcity mindset.

• Setting and keeping firmer boundaries around your time off.

• Aligning your schedule and working hours.

• Adopting a mindfulness practice to handle the thoughts and feelings that come up when you rest.

• If you can’t rest because you need to work to pay the bills, figure out how much money you actually need to create a plan and schedule to reach that number.

• Learning how to be more compassionate with yourself because you can’t heal guilt with more guilt. 

• Planning your time more realistically (no more overcommitting and over-scheduling).

Ask yourself, “What might be my next step so I can rest and reap the benefits of guilt-free time off?”

As a holistic time coach, discovering how to reach your goals and take more guilt-free time off is one of the ways I help the business owners I work with. 

If you’re ready to go from "I never have enough time" to at peace and fulfilled with what gets done in your 24 hours, including rest and time off… schedule a free no-pressure consult call now.

Why toxic productivity is actually getting in the way of your success

Why toxic productivity is actually getting in the way of your success

Today's post is a bit vulnerable and scary because as a time management coach I'm sharing with you my biggest time management mistake.

I’m sharing it with you because hopefully, you resonate with me. By the end of this post, you will also know how it is costing you so much time + energy in your life and business.

So when lockdown started I got at least 10 emails from a bunch of different companies offering free art classes, finance classes, knitting classes, and all these different things that I could do.

Now that I “had the time” guess what I did? I signed up for all of them.

Deep down I felt that I needed to make the most of this time now that we were stuck inside of our homes.

If you felt this way too, comment below just to tell me “Yes, I feel you Becca.” Tell me I'm not alone in this!

This is a super small example of a bigger picture issue that we have as humans in our society today. On a normal basis, pre-pandemic pre-COVID, we are bombarded with productivity hacks, tips, tricks, and tools to make every moment productive as possible. If you google productivity, you will get around 500 million results.

When we are students in school, as children, we are rewarded for getting the most done, the quickest possible, the best output. We're impressed by people who can pull all-nighters. In our industry, entrepreneurs boast about working 80 hours a week and never sleeping or having time for themselves.

Rarely do we celebrate people who have a healthy work balance, who get a good night's sleep, who take care of themselves and have tons of time off to rest and to do whatever they want. 

So when the pandemic hit globally, in the United States, many of us didn't have our commutes to our nine to fives anymore. We didn't have plans to go out with friends or spend time with family that didn’t live with us. We had “nothing else to do”, so we could finally get to all of the house projects, courses, books, starting the business, and growing exponentially.

—> A statistic that just backs up what I'm saying is Home Depot increase its revenue by 20% from February 2020 to January 2021. They made 132 billion dollars in revenue. 

At the same time, companies and many people felt like our focus, energy, and output would be the exact same or somehow even better during a really traumatic, huge shift in everyday life. So many people lost loved ones, got sick, and lost jobs. Yet we continue to expect ourselves to be productive at the expense of our humanness. 

Since lockdown began, it became clear to so many people that toxic productivity is our biggest time management mistake as a society. And it was mine too, even being someone who knew how important resting and taking time off is. Even as a time management coach, I was still pressuring myself to be productive at the expense of the things that I thought I valued and cared about. 

The mistake of toxic productivity

Why is toxic productivity a mistake?

A business owner I have worked with recently asked me why is it such a mistake or why is it a bad thing that I want to be productive and work. My answer was, “there is nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with wanting to grow the thing that you are passionate about, the business, the life that you are trying to create. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be productive, it's when it becomes toxic.”

When it becomes toxic, you only care about productivity, making every single moment productive and have an output or result you are chasing after something that is not really ever going to happen.

We believe this fallacy of productivity, that we'll finally get everything on our to-do list done one day. So we're always doing more, more, more, and more to try and get to that one day where we can rest, take time off, and make time for ourselves. 

Productivity becomes toxic when all you do is try and get to that one day. That's what creates a hamster wheel because it never happens. Your to-do list will never end and when you believe you'll finally get to that one day, the things that you do get done never feel like enough.

All of that creates a lot of self-confidence issues, it causes unhealthy self-care habits, you start to put your worth into your productivity and the output that you create.

That has a lot of detrimental impacts on your business and your life.  

In my personal experience, I was in the hospital with an intestine infection, never really having major health issues before. I developed a severe intestine infection and was in the hospital trying to meet a deadline! I had my computer with me in the hospital trying to work on an essay. At the time I was in college as an engineering student. I didn't really care about English at all (sorry to my teacher) and yet, I was unconsciously choosing to be productive over resting and caring about myself.

That's how bad it can get. Obviously, that is a pretty severe "rock bottom” in terms of burnout and productivity. It doesn't have to be severe at all it can just be you unable to sit on the couch and enjoy an evening with your family or even with yourself.

How to know if your productivity is toxic?

• You have trouble sitting still and resting.

• You continue to work when you know that you're tired, achy, and not in the mood to work.

• You feel like being bored is a bad thing.

• There's this just constant need for self-improvement, just more, more and more which leads to a lot of impacts on our mental and physical health like depression, anxiety, and strained relationships.

• Choosing work over yourself and which leads to a lot of self-mistrust.

That's my experience and that is the experience of many of the clients that I work with. 

How to reverse the impacts of toxic productivity

If you relate to any of the things that I just mentioned, I want to share with you two super simple things that I had to do and that I help the folks do in my coaching program. There are so many things that you can do to start reversing the impacts of toxic productivity and hustle culture. 

1.The first thing that you can do is reframing what productive means to you.

A lot of times we think that just resting, relaxing, and spending time with family isn't productive and I would love to cut that out, it is 100% productive. Anything that is of value or importance to you is productive. Being alive, being a human, it's not just about work, it is not just creating results and output. Anything that means something to you is productive and I will say this over and over and over and over and over again. 

Once you figure out what is of value or what is important to you then just remind yourself every time that you spend time on those things, you're being productive! 

2. The second tip that I want to share with you is, the best lifestyle is a healthy lifestyle.

There are so many statistics and studies coming out around how being healthy is the best thing you can do for work, productivity, your business, for yourself, for your family.

When you are falling into the biggest time management mistake, aka toxic productivity, you put work over health, work over self. Putting your health number one is the most basic thing that you can do to step off the hamster wheel.

At the end of the day, we need to rest, we need to train ourselves to put ourselves first. 

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The next question that you are going to ask me is how, how do I reframe what's productive? How do I put myself first? How do I create a healthier work-life balance?

There is no one solution. I can't give you in this short post what the how is. The how comes from inside of you, it is unique to you.

This is beautiful because that means it's going to work, you just have to figure out what is inside of you and how to make that happen. So if you want to step off of the toxic productivity hamster wheel, if you want to be mentally and physically healthier and happier. If you want to be more compassionate with yourself. And if you want to feel like there is all of the time in the world for everything that you need to get done… the answers are inside of you. And I can support you in unearthing your answers in my 1:1 coaching program.

I know how hard it is to peel yourself away from your laptop, from work, from the business that you're building. I know how hard it is when you know how toxic a productivity mindset can be and yet still fall victim to it and not be able to rest, take time off and put yourself first. So if that's you, you are in good company here. Trust me when I say that I am here to help you break up with toxic productivity and step off that hamster wheel so you can start resting and start living life in the way that you want to. 

If you resonated with my biggest time management mistake, let me know in the comments below.

Ready to heal time scarcity and live into your values? Click here to get free + supportive resources!

4 Personalized steps to get back on track when your day gets derailed

4 Personalized steps to get back on track when your day gets derailed

Don’t you think that life seems to have completely different plans than us some days? 

You just want to know how to get back on track when the day seems to just get away from you, that's why you clicked on this blog post and I got you!

At the end of this post, you are going to have a super short and quick plan for what to do when your day gets completely thrown off.

Ok so, the kids are sick, you get stuck down a social media rabbit hole for an hour or two, you forgot about a meeting, your dog needs to go to the vet, maybe you just had a bad night of sleep last night and you're in a crappy mood today?

Let's be real, COVID has derailed over an entire year of our lives too!

It never feels good when you make plans and yet you can't do it because of some of the things I just mentioned. It feels like you only get an hour of real work in a day. Ugh.

Personally speaking, in my life when my day gets derailed or my schedule gets derailed it's because I just don't feel like doing something. I wanted to bring that up because sometimes it's not external, maybe it's internal and oftentimes I blame myself. I can get into those shame and blame cycles of “oh it's my fault that my schedule got thrown off, I could have if I had more self-discipline or actually followed through”. 

Like I talked about in the procrastination blog post (if you haven't read it, check it out!) it's okay to let things marinate, sit, enjoy the creative process, and give things more time. Sometimes the longer you wait to do something some beautiful ideas might come from that time. 

How to get back on track

 Let's get right to the solution, how to get back on track, and then I want to share with you how to prevent it in the future so things don't go haywire as often as they are right now. 

1. When you notice that your day has been derailed, pause.

Awareness is the first piece, you have to notice that everything got thrown off or something happened that doesn't go according to plan. Honor it, honor this, it sucks big time when you create plans and they don't happen according to the plan that you want. 

2. After you pause, ask yourself what do I need to do right here at this moment to get it back on track?

Instead of ruminating and sitting in the why is this happening to me and why can't I control everything, start just by asking yourself, “what I can do right here in this present moment? What can I do to get it back feeling good, feeling easeful, or accomplishing what I need to accomplish?”

Oftentimes for me, it's yoga, breathing, taking time to journal, talk to a friend, whatever I need to just like get back in my body. 

3. Ask yourself, can you do what you need?

Can you actually do that yoga class, can you breathe, can you call a friend, can you take a nap. If so…

4. Do it!

If you can’t, go back and ask yourself “okay, so what can I do? How do I get my day back on track, what do I need to feel better?”

How do you prevent your day from being derailed?

So that is what you need to do when your day is derailed but how do you prevent your schedule, plans, and your day from being derailed in the future?

Something that my clients and I often talk about is that whenever your day or plans get derailed it is because of high expectations and this illusion of control over your time, the day, or your schedule. It's the high stakes and the pressure that we put on ourselves to be perfect. 

As much as we love being in control we have to realize that, at some point, we're just not. So shifting your mindset to being more human, being more flexible, being more compassionate is going to take you to have more success.

Every single time that you create a plan add extra space for things to move around. Or simply knowing that your plans 99% most likely will shift and that is what it is. That is what being human is about.

So tangibly this is why I love digital calendars because when you put your to-do list in your calendar you can move your tasks around and still have a visual that it IS possible to still get everything done. 

Also, you can create extra space in between tasks, client calls, meetings, etc. That's the beautiful part about your digital calendar too. When you create more space you allow yourself to live, you allow more compassion, ease, and space. And that is so beautiful. 

No matter if you are trying to figure out how to get back on track and taking care of yourself at this moment reading this post or you are attempting to be more proactive in your scheduling. Or in your time management to allow derails to affect you less and less. You are adding more compassion to your day and to your life so that needs to be celebrated. That is going to help you so so much in your business, your life, your relationships, your health and you'll be more productive (that’s like the understatement here). 

I help people be more productive but at the end of the day, it's more about compassion, just being human, and living our lives. That is possible when you are flexible and intuitive with your time. If you enjoyed this post leave a comment below sharing what your biggest takeaway from this post was and what you are going to do to make a shift in your life, whether it's on the mindset side or, the tool side.

Want to feel confident, in control, and at peace with your time? Click here to get free + supportive resources!

The five minute mindfulness meditation for when you feel like quitting

The 5 minute mindfulness meditation for when you feel like quitting

I've 100% had moments that I wanted to quit my business!

I wanted to just run away, throw in the towel, and just, not have to deal with it anymore…

It was just too complicated and too much. If you have been in that situation or if you're in that situation right now, at this moment, I want you to know that it is 100% normal to have this experience when you are starting your business!

I made this 5-minute meditation for you so you can come back to who you are deep down. You can release any of the things that are weighing you down. You can come back to why you started your business in the first place so you can be re-motivated, reinvigorated, reignited in your passions and your drive to change the world + to do amazing things with your business. 

If when you feel like quitting or it's just too much for you, come back to this 5-minute meditation, come back to this exercise. Just take a few minutes to go inwards, to breathe, be with yourself. That is the most beautiful thing that you can do to take care of yourself. 

For whatever reason, if you feel like quitting your business and you need support. Someone to help you go inwards and figure out what's going on and how to be more intentional with your time so you don't feel so overwhelmed and like it's just too much to handle I’m here to support you. 

Want to feel confident, in control, and at peace with your time? Click here to get free + supportive resources!