Reclaiming My Power

1. Self-Care

I define self-care as taking the time out of my days to do things for me that aren't mindless. Self-care is intentional preservation of the body and mind. I decided to take care of myself more in the smallest ways, like buying my favorite aromatherapy candle and lighting it when I feel overwhelmed. The larger end of the self-care spectrum for me would be to define speak my true feelings about a situation happening in my life. One example of this is I find myself speaking up for myself more at work when I feel wronged or when I get less than stellar feedback from supervisors.

2. Empowerment

This relates to self-care too because it deals with empowering others, which can lead to empowerment and value within yourself. One example is that I realized that I am normally the person who takes over others problems and tries to solve them myself. Making this a steady habit, I realized I sometimes felt depleted and a little bit of resentment for others not being readily available to save my day when I needed it. A simple change of empowering those who come to me with an issue has helped me take a step out of the situation and let them solve it for themselves. This has helped me still prove my value in friendships or relationships without the extra stress of solving a problem that isn't my own.

3. Saying No

There is nothing wrong with saying no. It took a long time to learn this because usually it came with tons of guilt or FOMO (fear of missing out). I had to examine why I was always saying yes to everything and it usually involved making another person happy or just going along with the flow. Saying no has allowed me to be more open and invigorated for the things that I actually want to do and say yes to. In the past, saying yes (not all the time) has led to depletion and I would just be fulfilling someone else's agenda but now I make a point to balance it all.

4. Creating and Maintaining Boundaries

My experience with boundaries so far has been non-existent. I realized I had no boundaries in relationships, friendships or with family. While having no boundaries isn't always a bad thing all the time, it's great to have an idea of the concept of boundaries and the ease of emotional stress. Boundaries have helped me again, empower others to work through an issue they are faced with or just listen instead of jumping in and telling a friend how she really should leave her boyfriend after their fifth argument this month.

5. Going to Sleep at the Same Time Every Night

Gone are my work days where I have the mid-afternoon crash, truly thought this was inevitable. I downloaded the Sleep Cycle iPhone app to regulate my sleeping and wake me up at an optimal time to not interrupt my sleep/wake pattern. A regular sleeping pattern has helped me to be energized all throughout the day naturally (with the help of one grande Starbucks blonde roast of course) and not crash into my keyboard. The pattern has been ingrained into me to where most nights I don't need the app, my body naturally starts to relax around the same time.

6. Scheduling Social Media Check-Ins

Doing this has helped my productivity percent skyrocket. Before I tried this out I would mindlessly scroll my social media feeds for probably way too long thus decreasing my productivity at work, while running errands or even in my relationship. I set aside times generally during lunch or while I walk my dog or before taking a shower to scour my social media. This has helped me limit what I consume and find pertinent information from my feeds instead of lingering for too long and slipping to where it can be come detrimental.

7. Stopped Multi-Tasking

Major productivity booster #2! Multi-tasking is what I like to call a silent productivity killer. In a 2016, a Health.com article on multi-tasking said there were several downsides presented to multi-tasking that included low creativity level, high stress rate while multi-tasking and short-term memory loss. I have experienced all of these side effects of multi-tasking and it was reason enough to switch to only performing one task at a time. Every level of my day requires a different energy from me and when I used to mix them all together, my brain started to get foggy and lessen my ability to be fully present.

8. Being Fully Present

Mindfulness is a term that I have been hearing and digesting a lot lately. Being mindful from my experience so far is simply being more present of surroundings and aware of emotions that may or may not arise. Being present has helped me to stop multi-tasking and be grateful for all the moments in which I'm fully engaged. I consciously try to no longer send a text while having a conversation, or wash dishes while I'm cooking rice or send an email while trying to schedule a conference call at work. I take things one feeling, one conversation and one moment at a time.