So it is now 1030. So I'm going to hop right on in because I'm all about being a good steward of your time. Um Today we are talking about um how to save yourself in your business.We're talking about self-care for sustainability and I am Britney Sherell, your host. Oh, thank you, Nema says she likes my, my accent, y'all. I can't hide it. So I'm Britney Sherell. I'm a coach, author and speaker and my secret sauce is that I help women launch their great ideas without fear of failure. We often have these great ideas that are not like nagging at us that we should be um doing more in life. A lot of times we have a good job that pays well, but we're just not necessarily passionate about it or we have another idea that we're passionate about. So I help women find fulfillment, overcome imposter syndrome and create meaningful impact in the world through launching their great ideas.

Now, the nitty gritty on workplace burnout because today we're talking about self-care for sustainability. The truth about it all is that employee burnout cost businesses an average of $300 billion a year yearly and miss work and increased healthcare expenses. That's a lot, that is a lot for things, for something that can um, be addressed better. I think a lot of times as high achieving women, we really get caught up in being everything to everybody. And a lot of times we put our health on the back burner, we put self-care on the back burner. We feel like self-care is selfish and it's really not. There's a very distinct difference. The truth is if you really want to be able to pour into other people in a meaningful way and do your job, well, you need to be able to pour from a place of abundance. And the only way to do that is through self-care. You're not, you're doing the people, you love a disservice, you're doing the causes that you love a disservice when you show up less than full. And so self-care makes sure that you're able to always show up fully. Sometimes we over glorify, showing up and we don't put enough emphasis on showing up fully and self-care makes sure that you're able to show up fully. Also know that you're not alone. 31% of employed adults have difficulty managing work and family responsibilities.

And I would not be surprised if, if more recent research that evolves will, will reveal that that number is even higher because we are in a society where the responsibilities and, and the the titles and the t they're just, they're just m massively stacked on top of each other.

We wear so many hats and 53% say work leaves them over tired and overwhelmed. And these are, are things that impact the way you show up in the world. And it also impacts how you're able to show up for your business. Whether you work for yourself or you work for a company. All of the, all of these things work together to help you show up as your higher self burnout and addressing it is so important because your life and your business depends on it. Your company can only do as well as you're able to show up. You can be the most creative person in the world. You can have the best ideas. You can be one of the best leaders they have. But if you're wrestling with burnout and stress constantly, you're not able to give what you have to offer in the best way. You may be given bits and pieces of what you can offer, but you're not fooled. You're operating from a place of, of lack and feeling depleted. And so in order for your business to be sustainable, in order for your value to be sustainably recognized, you have to be able to show up and you have to be able to show up in a way where you're refreshed in a way where you're not um just trying to hold on because life can get so busy until we're just trying to hold on.

We're just trying to make it through the day. We're just trying to get home and leave it all behind. And so if you want to live a sustainable lifestyle, because you know, whether you have, um, responsibilities as a mom or a wife or um, a teacher outside of work or whatever your role is, it requires you to be, well, in order for it to be sustainable because you can go hard as a mom.

You can go um really strongly as a spouse or partner. You can be really passionate about many things in life and you can go hard, you can go really strong for a while. But if you're not practicing self-care, you're going to burn out. And then what happens, then who's going to care for the causes that are important are important to you, then who can do it like you, no one else because you're unique. Your business, it depends on you to be sustainable if you're out of work because you're stressed and it has led to other health care issues and the legacy you're building at work expires as well. So your life and your business depends on you. Practicing self care. That's not selfish at all. So here are common signs of burnout. I'd love to know if any of these resonate with you, like just drop it in um in the comments. Oh, wow. Nema said it took me almost a year to recover from burnout road to recovery was self-care 100%. That is so powerful because burnout really hits you in a place where it really drains you and depletes you. And so it really does take a while to come back from, um, if you allow it, if you, if you don't know how to recognize the signs and kind of address it before it gets too far gone.

And so, um, Sunday Night blues, that's when, you know, typically most businesses run Monday through Friday. Sunday night blues is that night before it's time for you to go back to work. So usually Sunday night, when, you know, you gotta go to work on Monday, those are Sunday night blues. When you start getting, you start experiencing anxiety and restlessness just thinking about the fact that it's time for you to go back to work. I know exactly how that, how that feels. I, um, went through that as, um, I have a background in being a special education teacher and I used to have that feeling. I would have the Sunday Night blues where, you know, don't get me wrong. Like I said before, my job was good and many of you probably can resonate with that. You have a good job. It's not that your job is a bad job. It just comes with a lot of responsibilities that over time will wear on you if you do not prioritize self care and so on Sunday nights I would get really anxious just thinking about the fact that I would have to go to work and all these responsibilities and tasks were waiting for me.

Um Yeah. Lucy. Lucy said yes, I didn't know that was a feeling other people felt yes. 100%. There are so many other people um, who struggle with that because it's not, again, it's not that you don't have a good job. It's just that it, it's wearing on you because you have to prioritize self-care. And sometimes we get so caught up in doing the work because the work doesn't seem necessarily hard in the moment. But over time, that is constantly, that is constantly pulling from you and you have to be pouring in. You know, it doesn't matter how good a cup of Kool Aid is. If you keep drinking it and you don't refill the cup, you're gonna run out. It's not that the drink was bad or that the glass itself was something was wrong with it. You just gotta get a refill. And so understanding that's not selfish is necessary for sustainability and giving yourself that grace to accept that. Um And then, you know, feeling depleted afterward, feeling frustrated and unfulfilled, feeling overwhelmed for an extended amount of time. Um And then even resentment towards your job. And I think that's something a lot of people um experience and just don't speak on or maybe they don't know how to articulate it, but you start to actually resent your job.

You start to have all of these negative thoughts about your job and how it's not even really worth it. And the truth is you're just burn out. And if you practice self-care, it's very possible that you actually do love your job. You just, you've just worked yourself to a point of exhaustion, um, or there were not clear enough boundaries set to protect your self-care at work or protect your wellness. Um And so those are different things to keep in mind as well. So here are five practical ways to work in self-care. Um Because a lot of times we tell ourselves we're too busy, you're not really too busy. We make time for what's really important to us. Oh Sarah said, I felt like I was running in circles, not performing my best, not getting clear feedback or knowing how to ask for it and not having results to show for all of my effort. That is I, I so appreciate your transparency with that because you explain that to a t you know, you do, you feel like you're run running in circles and not um performing at your best cause you're not, you're pouring from a place of depletion. So it, it's true, you know, and so you have to know how to communicate that value unapologetically to whomever needs to know I need a self-care day to restore myself, you know, because companies would much rather you take a day proactively for self-care than having to take much more extended time off reactively to health issues that arise due to being burn out.

Um And sometimes that requires some, some tough conversations, you know, with communicating the value of you being able to show up fully and how you're saving money. Honestly, you're helping the bottom line by making sure you're per you're, you're performing from a space of wellness.

Um And so again, like you said, not getting clear feedback or knowing how to ask for it and not having results to show for all of my effort. And the truth is when you get to a point of burnout, sometimes we switch to busy mode and it's not necessarily productive. Um And so, like we just get in that zone of doing, doing, doing and it's not necessarily productive because we're not, well, we're not fully, we're not whole. And so also, like I said before, setting boundaries is super important, letting people know on your team as well, what boundaries you need or what things do you need in place to help you in work? Do you need to schedule in um certain times for breaks? Do you need to um even as a team incorporate certain certain things that you do as a team and encourage each other to make sure they implement throughout the day. Um And absolutely, um Nicole said, 1 may still love the job but need more self care. That is so true. It doesn't matter how passionate you are about your job, passion, passion takes energy, think about that. Passion takes energy. I mean, it does. So it, it's not so much about whether you like your job or whether your job is good for you or not.

It's just literally, you're human and your body needs maintenance. Um I remember one of my former professors, she said, self-care is just, you have to think about it like a computer. When you have so many tabs that are open on your computer, it slows you down. And I thought that was the perfect analogy because as high achieving women, we tend to have a bunch of tabs open, even in our minds, even in the task that we have to accomplish each day, we have all of these tabs that are open and it slows us down no matter how busy we try to be to feel like we're still on top of our game.

It slows us down honestly. And people around us can tell they may not always speak on it, but we definitely can feel the difference. But a lot of times we just don't give ourselves the grace for self-care. We think, you know, I'm a go-getter, I'm supposed to be able to just keep going and keep going and keep going. No, you're not a machine, you're human. And so we've, we've got to take time to close those tabs so we can hit reset so we can speed our system back up. So here are five practical ways to work in self-care, creating a gratitude list and this is so important. Um Megan said I have like 50 tabs open right now. I am listen, I am so guilty of tabs on a computer and in my mind just having a million of them open. So I have to be intentional about practicing what I preach as well. Um And so number one, the first practical way you can work in self care is creating a gratitude list. This is something you can do right at work at your desk or, you know, even if you're having um if you're doing your work remotely, it doesn't, it doesn't matter, you can stop for a moment to create a gratitude list.

And the importance behind this is whatever you focus on magnifies. So if you're sitting at work and you get to a point where you're like, you know, and honestly, I feel like this is something you should build into your schedule where you just pause to map out a gratitude list because um what you focus on grows. And so if you're sitting there focusing on the negative sides of how you're feeling and and the negative thoughts that you're having that is what's going to grow and eventually it's going to go from thought to manifesting physically. And so you want to make sure that you are focusing on the good stuff because there's always good around you. So number one is taking setting aside time in your work day to create a gratitude list. Um And then another great way to work in self care is to create a go to affirmation. So either create one or find a go to affirmation. And so you want to find an affirmation that's going to speak directly to the pain you feel when you feel burned, burned out. You know, for some of us, it may be anxiety, we feel for some of us, it may be resentment, we feel, you know.

So first it's different things for different people, but you need to go to affirmation that you can a short one that you can memorize so that when those thoughts enter your mind, you can instantly combat it with an affirmation that speak that, that resent you. Um And so for instance, like if you, if you experience anxiety, when you think about um when you're experiencing burnout, uh a really, I wanted to share a really good affirmation that I found um that was shared by um a blogger named The Sheet Like and her affirmation says I allow peaceful and healing white light to flow through my body right now.

Just saying that creates a calmness. It gives you this image of this crystal crystal clear light that's cleansing and um energizing and peaceful. So you wanna have a go to affirmation so that you can combat those negative thoughts. Um when they enter your mind and negative feelings.

Um The third practical way to work in self care is to have a restroom reset, whether you're working in the office or at home. There is no shame in taking an extended restroom break. There were times where I would be so I would get to that point at work where I'd be like I need a break and sometimes work is so busy. You cannot walk away unless it's a a restroom break. And so you have to be OK with leveraging that. Even um when work gets super busy, don't be afraid to take an extra five minutes in the restroom cause really who's gonna come looking for you? So that's a practical way to working in self care. Even if you're working at home and the kids and everything is going crazy. Lock yourself in the bathroom for like five minutes. Have a restroom reset. Another great way to work in um self-care is Color me Calm. Find an adult coloring book that you can keep on your desk or close to your workspace and build in five minutes or 10 minute breaks throughout your day so that you can just color, find you some markers, find you some books, some coloring books that really speak to you and you know that also resets your mind so that you can tap back into the creative side of your brain.

Um and then body breaks building in times to, I would even do that as a teacher with my students build in time to just stretch so that your blood can circulate and flow. So those are five practical ways to work in self-care regardless of how busy things are. And I wanna leave you with this quote. Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you and that's from Ann Lamont. So remember unplug self-care is not selfish. It's necessary for sustainability. I have enjoyed spending this time with you. I'd love to connect with any of you. Um And I hope this has helped you and I hope you learn to do this, do these things unapologetically knowing that your self-care is necessary. And I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your day.