5 easy moves to fill your cup

Before you enjoy this read, enjoy a cup of tea with it.

Go.

Make yourself a cup of your favourite brew right now.

Go on, off you go. I’ll wait.

As I get further into the years as a small business owner, I have realised more and more the importance of filling my cup.

Embrace for Impact with Claire Dalton Owning your own business can become all-consuming, and it was in these first years learned that lesson the hard way. My ambition to service my clients is so HUGE that I have easily neglected other aspects of my life, including my relationships and health. It’s not all bad…I still have beautiful friendships and wonderful children for whom I can be there for much more than I could when working for someone else.

I still do what I can to stay healthy, but there are some non-negotiables that I did, well, negotiate on.

Winding down at night takes more time than it should, and I get to bed far too late some nights.

As a result, I wake tired.

How can I wake up, get the kids off to school, get myself ready for my day, sit at my desk to start working, and feel tired? I’ve only been up for a couple of hours!

Each night I pretty much collapsed after dinner. I’ve finished work, ran the kids around to their after-school sports and activities, cooked dinner, and tidied up.

Cue collapse.

Couch.

Netflix.

Chatter with the kids.

Tim Tams and tea.

Chocolate and chips.

Nibbling away.

Sometimes wine.

Sipping away.

Releasing the stress of the day just gone. Now I’ve collapsed, and I’m wired as well!

Tip number 1 – GO TO BED…EARLY

9 pm, turn the TV off. Plug your phone into the charger in another room, not your bedroom, and off you go. Have a night-time routine that you can undertake as many nights as possible in a 7-day week. If you can do it at the weekend too, do it.

Aim for sleep no later than 10 pm. Take the hour from 9-10 pm; let’s call it the Un-Power Hour. Phone off, TV off, a glass of water, journal – write down your worries or tasks for tomorrow, so they are out of your mind and safely unforgotten.

Take a hot salt bath or just a shower; raising your body temperature before bed helps to induce sleep and reduce tension[1].

Tip number 2 – STOP EATING CRAP

After dinner, make a cup of tea – peppermint is good for settling your tummy. And cut up an apple, thinly sliced. Satisfy your sweet tooth with natural sugars found in fruit. Nibble on the apple, and sip at your tea with purpose and mindfulness.

Stop yourself mindlessly cracking open a bottle of wine or demolishing the chocolate by brushing your teeth.

Eating for the day is now done. The last thing you need before bed is a sugar hit and spiking blood sugar.

Tip number 3 – MEDITATE

If I were to get off the couch at 9 pm, where I haven’t spent that long now that I go to bed early, stopped eating about an hour before that and ‘unplugged’ from technology, I am looking pretty good here.

But it’s still not that long ago that I was doing the run around with the kids and working away in my business.

I can still feel quite wound up by my work, my analysis of the day and the day to come still competing in my head. So, a 10-minute meditation will do the trick.

A mindfulness practice such as meditation will bring you right into the present moment, slow your breathing/heart rate and set you up for excellent conditions for sleep. You can find some tremendous night-time meditations on Insight Timer and Headspace.

Claire Dalton - Morning Meditation Morning meditations are lovely too. Visualising how you would like to see your day go or manifesting accomplishment and productivity can set you up for success.

Meditation is a fantastic way to control any anxiety you might be feeling about your work, your clients, and your business. A study found that employees who used a mindfulness meditation app for eight weeks experienced improved feelings of well-being and decreased distress and job strain[2]. Imagine how it could help you, a business owner.

Tip number 4 – COMPLETELY DISCONNECT from your work AT LEAST one day a week, if not two

If you are to fill your cup, you must disconnect from work. It’s hard to do if your office is in your house. At the end of your week, shut down your computer, don’t just send it to sleep. Close it completely, close your notebook, and put the pens in the draw. And clean your desk. A quick spray and wipe, throw away rubbish and make it pretty again. Ready and reset for next week.

The one or two days of your weekend must be considered a sacred time to connect with yourself, connect with loved ones, sleep, rest your mind, get some sun, get some fresh air, laugh, reflect and find joy.

I am sure work will still be there when you return on Monday.

Tip number 5 – SLOW DOWN

This is the thing I find the hardest to do yet the absolute most important.

My whole life, I have struggled to slow down. When I was ten years old, I had a fall in the playground at school. I cut my leg wide open, and my Grade 4 teacher carried me to the doctor’s surgery down the road to get 25 stitches in my leg. A parent at the school stood behind me, stroking my head, calming my tears and saying to me, “Claire, you need to slow down and smell the roses”. I’ve never forgotten what she said.

So used to running right past the roses, I have often failed to be present and aware of my surroundings.

Slow down, smell the roses, look up at the sky and breathe in deeply and purposefully. Keep achieving, being efficient and productive and ticking things off but slow down.

Slow down, smell the roses and drink tea!

Tea is the solver of all problems.

The drinking of tea saves me and soothes me on the daily.

Different types of tea can:

boost your immune system,
improve sleep,
reduce stress,
soothe an upset tummy,
reduce bad cholesterol,
improve blood pressure, and much more[3].

And the ritual of tea drinking simply makes me happy. It’s where unwinding happens, a reset or a wonderful conversation happens.

Now, if you look back at my tips and tricks for filling your cup, I’ve probably only just touched the surface of what you could do. So why not start with these minor tweaks to your daily routine, especially your night-time routine? You can thank me later over a cuppa. ????

Claire Dalton

Embrace for Impact

www.embraceforimpact.com.au

Inspiration, encouragement, tips and advice to live your life in harmony and leave your ‘shoulds’ at the door…