Balance: The Entrepreneur’s Key to Wellness

istock_000003796974xsmall.jpgBalance. The illusion is that it is a static state. Nothing could be further from reality. Try this: stand on one foot, lifting the other from the floor a few inches. Stand like this for 1 full minute. Simply notice what is happening in the ankle of the foot you are standing on. No doubt, you can feel small, almost undetectable movements going on in your ankle. Your body is course-correcting — shifting subtly so you remain upright. This is how your body naturally achieves balance. It’s those tiny shifts that do the job. So my question for you to consider today is this: where do you need to make small shifts in your business and life to bring about even higher levels of wellness?

Once upon a time, my own business and life were so greatly out of balance that small shifts did not do the trick. A car accident and health challenge were the wake-up calls to do some major course-correction. But there were clues way before that. I just wasn’t listening. Now, I look for clues every day. You can, too. But first, define wellness for yourself. No doubt some clues to balance will be right there.

Does wellness for you include time outdoors everyday? Does it include a healthy financial bottom-line in the business? Does it include a weekly lunch meeting out of the home office? Does wellness for you include 6, 7, 8 or 9 hours sleep each night? And how do you judge whether you are in balance?

In the stand-on-one-foot example , balance was determined by this criteria: were you able to stand on one foot for 1 minute? How will you determine if your entrepreneurial life is in balance? How will you define wellness? I encourage you to do more than think about this.

Take some time out, eyes closed, and begin to imagine the experience of balance. Get a strong sense of how balances feels in your body by actually shifting yourself into your perception of a balanced state — perhaps a state where you are relaxed, yet quite alert. Notice your breath. Notice your posture. Notice your heartbeat and yet at the same time, notice the air temperature. Just notice. Take a few deep breaths and spend some time writing about balance. But write about the feeling, rather than what you would be doing if your business and life were in balance.

I emphasize the feeling of balance because it can be home base for you. A place where you return regularly. At any point in time, you may be course correcting back to this place of balance. In this way, you will come to appreciate subtle shifts — to your nutrition, to your activity level, to your busy-ness factor — as the powerful tools they are. Subtle shifts on a continued basis keep us in balance.

I described my own return to balance in a recent interview with Monica Flores, owner of SistersInBiz.com In the interview, I mentioned that role models, mentors, and a coach all play vital roles in helping me live a balanced entrepreneurial life. Find the role models, mentors and coaches that will help you do the same. They can help give you perspective, advice, input, and feedback to help you make those subtle shifts that will keep you returning to your “home base” of balance.

What helps you live a balanced entrepreneurial life? Let us know.

Taming Stress from the Inside Out

tyg_new_book_shadow1.jpgOne of the greatest wellness tools I’ve ever discovered and used came in the form of a small book with a huge message: Taming Your Gremlin®. My love of the book lead me to study for a year with the book’s author, and master Gremlin Tamer, Rick Carson. To this day, Rick’s Gremlin-Taming® wisdom helps me bring about wellness in my daily and entrepreneurial life. His on-going coaching is a vital part of my business life and personal wellness program.

If I’m deep into a complaint of a stressful situation, one of the skills Rick reminds me to use is the powerful technique of “Simply Noticing.” In order for me to see that I am the one causing my own stress (because then I can choose whether to continue or not), Rick has me actively look at how I stress myself.

This activity is much more than a mental exercise — my whole body/mind/spirit gets involved. I jump in and answer a series of inquires to help me do so. I’ve now learned to do this for myself. When I use Rick’s technique, I take a thorough inventory of exactly how I’m stressing myself. (It is, after all, my unique way of creating stress for myself — so who better than me to explore my own self-stressing techniques?)

As if I were teaching someone how I “do” stress, I answer:

  • What thoughts am I harping on? (Am I making myself look at all the worst-case scenarios? Regretting something? Worrying?)
  • What am I physically doing with my shoulders? (And my neck? Head? Eyes? Arms? Legs? Am I tensing? Staring? Squinting? Wrinkling my brow?)
  • What’s the quality of my breathing? (Am I breathing? Is my breath shallow, rapid?)
  • What else am I doing? (Screaming? Crying? Pouting? Grinding my teeth?
  • How else am I making myself miserable?

Then a remarkable thing happens – I begin to see my role in my own stress. Sometimes, I even burst out laughing. Inevitably, I catch myself putting myself in my own “stress” zone and making myself feel awful – which reminds me once again that, I have choice. Which leads me to remember that, as Rick says, “Feeling Good is primarily an inside job.”

How do you stress yourself? Give us lessons in how you personally go about it! Read Rick’s book, apply some of the Gremlin-Taming wisdom in your own life and keep us posted!

Digestive Wellness For Body And Business – Part 3 of 3

The Digestion Metaphor for Entrepreneurs Revisited
The last two posts have focused on the following wellness affirmation and have provided tips for applying it to your entrepreneurial body and business:

“My intake, assimilation and elimination are in Divine Order.”

So…moving right along with this three-part article, let’s turn our attention to the third part of the metaphor – the process of “moving right along” (a.k.a. elimination) and the roll it plays in our bodies and our businesses.

trash-can.jpgSpotlight on Elimination
for Body Wellness

Regular exercise, meditation, relaxation, and healthy diets that include lots of fiber and water all help our bodies eliminate what is no longer needed. This process of elimination is no more and no less important in our digestive health than intake or assimilation. And just like the other pieces of the equation, it is critical to our wellbeing.

Dr. Andrew Weil wrote a fabulous article on the subject, with tips, actions, and supplements to help keep your body “moving right along.” Check it out here:

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/ART00677/digestive-health

Try This:

Fill a clear glass pitcher with at least eight 8-oz glasses of fresh water. Add lemon or cucumber slices. Notice the simple beauty and make a mental note that this water will aid in your digestive wellness. Stop throughout your day and with gratitude, drink to your health.

Spotlight on Elimination for Business Wellness
As it does with our bodies, the process of elimination in our businesses needs to be a regular activity. We can sometimes forget that in order to make room for new ideas, new things, new relationships, and new clients, we may have to let go of some of our old things, relationships and clients. Taking time to prune and eliminate weeds that have grown in our businesses is just as important as planting new seeds.

A daily or weekly practice of eliminating junk mail, old email that has stacked up in that in-box, and magazine stacks may already be a part of your regular routine. Do you do the same with outdated ideas, processes, methods, or systems? Do you review them and toss those that no longer serve you?

Try This:
Taking time to identify what can be eliminated is an invaluable activity. Slow down enough this week to do so. Over a tall, cool glass of that water you poured for yourself, take note of your:

Things
– what has served me well but is no longer useful here?
– what nine items from my office can I toss out this week? (this is a feng shui practice and great to do routinely)
– what can I give away?

Procedures
– how do I deal with proposals, phone calls, marketing, invoices, accounting? Are my methods and procedures serving me? Does any method or procedure need to be tossed out and a new one developed?

Relationships
– what needs to be eliminated when it comes to my relationships with vendors, clients, or staff?
– what do I need to stop doing I these relationships? (there is always a “stop doing” on the other side of a “start doing” – what is it? Stop procrastinating? Stop pretending? Stop tolerating?)

I think entrepreneurs can get so busy deciding what we need to start doing, we can forget about the process of elimination. Yet just like the other components of the Digestion metaphor, elimination plays a critical role in entrepreneurial wellness:

“My intake, assimilation and elimination are in Divine Order.”

May your body and business be in Divine Order.

DIGESTIVE WELLNESS FOR BODY AND BUSINESS – PART 1 OF 3

woman-outstrtchd-arms.jpgWhat does digestion have to do with running a small business? Plenty! In the next three posts, I’ll explain how your individual wellness and the wellness of your entrepreneurial venture are linked more closely than you may realize. Today, I’ll share the metaphor and tips for working with the first of the metaphor’s three components.

The Digestion Metaphor
During nutrition school, I overheard a colleague discuss her protocol for clients dealing with digestive challenges. In addition to dietary changes and supplements, she recommended her clients use this affirmation to help keep their focus on a healthy digestive tract:

“My intake, assimilation and elimination are in Divine Order.”

I recently got to thinking how much this affirmation applies not just to our physiological digestion but, as entrepreneurs, to our businesses.

Just think about that affirmation for a minute: “My intake, assimilation and elimination are in Divine Order.” What a grand intention for a small business owner to hold! What a difference it could make in our business lives if we kept our “intake”, “assimilation” and “elimination” in Divine Order!

Application to Business
Breaking the affirmation down into bite-sized pieces will help make it useful. Take a look at the three components individually:

Intake: in the world of physiological digestion, intake refers literally to what we take into our bodies. As a business metaphor, it refers to all the things we take in as small business owners: new clients, email, snail mail, ideas, information from the internet and this blog☺, handwritten messages, marketing material from others, invoices, books, phone calls, text messages, new supplies, new equipment, audio and DVD material, and customer feedback (positive and/or negative).

Assimilation: in the world of physiology, assimilation refers to how our bodies break down food and liquid into the components it will use for fuel. As a business metaphor, it also refers to our ability to extract the business fuel from what is before us and put it to good use. Assimilation requires our attention. Our time. It requires sorting, extracting useful information, and making small or large shifts based on new information. This can be a challenge when we try to take it all in – to take in all the email, all the new blog posts we see, all the phone calls, all the new communication that comes our way. Assimilating means making sense of information and ideas, putting them to good use, and getting the most from each thing we attend to – (i.e. assimilating the new tax laws that my CPA just told me about.)

Elimination: in both the physiological and business worlds, this means getting rid of what no longer serves us after we have taken all that has been useful. Perhaps you clipped an article from a journal. Now you toss the journal. Maybe you implemented a new marketing technique and joined a networking group. It served you well last year. This year, it’s no longer the right vehicle. You stop your membership. As a business owner, you can eliminate: antiquated systems, books and materials, equipment, clients, staff members, procedures, and even attitudes that no longer move your business forward.

As entrepreneurs, we took a big bite out of life when we set up our own businesses. We need to be sure to manage that bite well. We need to be sure that the intake, assimilation and elimination of our businesses are in Divine Order. We need to be sure our bodies are in that same Divine Order. Over the next three days, I’ll give you some tips for all three components involved in both body and business wellness. It all starts with intake.

Intake – Focus on Your Business
Today, spend some time thinking about all you take in as an entrepreneur. By taking in, I mean all the things you fold into your business life each day. This can be an overwhelming task, so go slow. Chances are, many things are coming in to your business at high volume and a fast pace. Simply notice your intake. Take time out to list or just notice the things you take in each day. Glance at all you take in – a message on a scrap of paper, a business card, or your email in-box. Breathe. Glance at something else you take in – papers in your in-box, notes by your phone, or books on your book shelf. Breathe. And notice something else. This simple act of noticing is a practice in mindfulness for your business.

Now, it wouldn’t surprise me if you told me that your physiological intake (eating) matches the pace of your business intake. If that is a hurry-up-and-eat pace, perhaps it’s also time to take a respite on the physiological front.

Intake – Focus on Your Body
Sometime during the next 24 hours, make time for this juicy dining experience. The experience will be most effective if you can eat alone…preferably in a peaceful setting.

Place the meal in front of you and take a few deep breaths before you pick up your utensils. Take a moment to simply notice the colors of the food on your plate. Take another moment to breathe in the aroma.

Now pick up your fork and arrange your first bite. Take that bite of food into your mouth and immediately place your fork back down on the table. Chew your bite of food completely. Notice the textures and flavors. Savor the bite. When you have swallowed, then go ahead and lift your fork to arrange another bite. As you did before, take in that bite and place the fork back on the table while you chew and savor. Continue in this manner until you are full and satisfied. Take a final moment to just allow the experience to settle in to your bones.

Eating this way is a practice in mindfulness. It can remind us of the many flavors and textures that surround us each day that we let go unnoticed. Intake is the first component of the affirmation for digestive wellness of business and body.

“My intake, assimilation and elimination are in Divine Order.”

“52 Ways for Entrepreneurs to Thrive” – The List Begins…

people-jumping-sunset.jpgI love to say, ”thriving” when someone asks me how my business is going. The notion that things are flourishing, blooming, and prosperous fills me with delight. Likewise, I like to use the same word to describe my health and wellness. “Thriving” seems to capture that top-of-the-world feeling I strive for each day. So when I read the post on Angeles Arrien’s website this past spring, 50 Ways to Thrive and Survive in the Next Ten Years, you bet it caught my attention.

I chose a few items from the list and implemented them that week. I gave something away, talked to a neighbor, and explored a new walking trail. Doing so truly added to my feelings of wellness and “thriving.”

I’d like to co-create a similar list for entrepreneurs in the WellnessCoach.com community. I’d love you to join me in building the list. Tell me the ways that you increase your sense of wellness and help yourself thrive as an entrepreneur.

Let’s shoot for 52 ways to thrive – that could cover a year’s worth of weekly focal points. I’ll start:

52 Ways for Entrepreneurs to Thrive (The list begins…)

• Put plants in your office, water them often
• Pack your lunch at night; Take it to a nearby park the next day
• Set a kitchen timer to remind you to stand and stretch each hour
• Go barefoot in your office
• Ask for help 3 times this week
• Start a blog
• Visit a toy store at lunch; find something that makes you smile
• Hold a board of directors meeting on a conference line with a few colleagues. Ask them to brainstorm with you on a topic that’s been baffling you
• Expand your community – post to a blog at least once this week
• Write a haiku on your lunch hour
• Take a lunch hour
• Put cucumber slices into a pitcher of water; drink throughout the day
• Give a business book away to someone who might need it
• Breathe. Breathe deeply. Just breathe.
• Revisit your corporate mission and vision; rewrite so it makes you smile and tugs at your heart strings

What will you add to this list?