 Building a successful business requires hard work, dedication, and determination. It can be messy at times; exhausting, and stressful with long hours and annoying frustrations. But being a businesswoman is also deeply fulfilling, and brings a sense of inner joy, bold enthusiasm, and well earned accomplishment. Many women struggle with building a successful business while balancing family and social life. They often neglect to care for themselves in order to pour life, love, and energy into their businesses, and care for their families. All this give and no take many times results in disappointment, feelings of failure, and burn-out. There are many more women who give up their careers or business aspirations, than there are those who become successful. So what is the secret to successfully and effectively saving yourself while balancing business life with family life? The nourishing art of self-care.  Self-care is a vital daily practice for ALL women. It is especially necessary for busy, always on the go businesswomen. For these women it is crucial that they practice and truly embody self-care in mind, body, and spirit. We cannot give in any capacity if our wells are empty, but far too many women wait until the well has run dry to try to make it rain. Maintaining a healthy nourished well is easier, more productive, and more beneficial than trying to repair and fill a cracked dry empty well. Do you see why consistent daily maintenance through nourishing and fulfilling self-care is so important? I had the honor and pleasure of collaborating with three beautifully inspiring businesswomen and coaching colleagues on why the nourishing art of self-care is such a vital aspect of becoming a successful business woman. These are wonderful women whom I highly respect and deeply value. They each bring their beautiful and eloquent expertise to their respective fields, and truly embrace, own, and embody the essence of what it means to be a self-fulfilled women. Let’s dig in to what these inspiring influential women had to say.  Tiffiny Brittain, a COPE Certified Health Coach, offers some inspiring insight on the importance of practicing self-care in regard to optimal health and wellness through proper nutrition, healthy movement, and making healthy daily living choices. I love her grounded gentle style and relatable approach to health coaching. She truly embodies her message of health, hope, and freedom, giving her clients and coaching team the tools, support, and encouragement to facilitate life-changing transformation in mind, body, and finances. She offers some encouraging insight into how self-care is a vital aspect of her daily life and in her coaching practice. During our interview below, Tiffiny shares her candid expertise. Self-care is taking care of one’s self physically, which then facilitates change emotionally and mentally. In your opinion, why is diet and proper nutrition a vital aspect of daily self-care? Tiffiny: “Our bodies aren't made to run on caffeine only! Proper nutrition is very important to keep your metabolism going. Many diseases are a result of improper nutrition. How you fuel your body determines your physical health. When you eat like crap, you feel like crap. Our bodies are designed to eat every 2.5-3 hours to keep our metabolisms functioning at the proper rate. When our metabolisms function at the proper rate this allows our bodies to maintain a healthy weight and keep energy levels high. That way you can eliminate mid-day crashes and fatigue. Fueling your body through proper nutrition is an essential aspect of daily self-care.” What words of inspiration can you offer business women on the importance of making time to take care of their health in mind, body, and spirit? Tiffiny: “Lead from the future, act in the now! Set goals that you want to work towards. Live as if they have already come to pass. Take the necessary steps to achieve those goals. Kick your fears in the face. Every business woman has fears about failing, not being able to adequately help people etc. I stood in my own way. To overcome that, I had to change my mindset on how I viewed obstacles that were in my way. Find something that motivates you to overcome your obstacles.” In your opinion, how does practicing self-care physically influence and encourage emotional and mental self-love? Tiffiny: “Your emotional and mental health is greatly influenced by your physical health. When you’re not happy physically, such as being overweight, experiencing a lack of energy, aches and pains, or possibly a medical issue, you become mentally and emotionally drained. These emotional and mental issues are often expressed as experiencing a lack of clarity or mental focus, no self-confidence, depression, or emotional exhaustion.Physical health encourages self-confidence. Your mental and emotional clarity begin to increase. You begin stepping out of your comfort zones, and doing things you never thought possible, or things you doubted yourself on. Being able to have the physical energy and emotional clarity to get up and enjoy life, and spend time with family doing the things you love is complete freedom.” Do you feel that by practicing daily self-care, you are also better able to serve your coaching clients? If so, in what ways do your clients benefit from you being a self-fulfilled women and coach? Tiffiny: “Practicing self-care has given me physical and mental freedom to pour into others because I myself am fulfilled. This trickles into how I run my business and also in my interactions with my clients and my coaching team. Accountability is key. When you hold yourself accountable in all aspects, and lead in your own health and life, others will follow with great success. When my coaching clients see me engaging in proper nutrition, physical activity, and self-care, they are then influenced to do the same. That in turn allows them to lead by example to others who are looking to them for inspiration and encouragement.” As a businesswoman, what are the top three daily practices in your self-care routine? Tiffiny:
Tiffiny Brittain on Facebook Tiffiny Brittain in Instagram  Self-care and spirituality often walk hand in hand. Incorporating your spirituality into your daily self-care practice can be enlightening, and deeply insightful in offering guidance and wisdom for daily life. Spiritual Business Coach and Mentor Leah Steele offers us a personal perspective on self-care, spirituality, and being a bold asset to those we serve through self-care and self-fulfillment. I absolutely love Leah’s fiery independence and direct approach to her coaching practice. She brazenly models for her clients the benefits of self-care to live in boldness, confidence, and expectation that we deserve to be successful and abundant. Leah shows us that incorporating our spirituality into our self-care practice opens the path to enlightenment, and offers a deeper connection to Source, which flows into every aspect of our lives, including our businesses. Leah has many eye-opening and cosmically motivating teachings, courses, and classes on wealth alchemy and money conditioning to help clients change their money story and manifest the life of their dreams. Leah offers her wisdom during our interview below. In your opinion, why is spirituality an integral aspect of daily self-care? Can you offer any tips or recommendations for busy entrepreneurial women on how to incorporate spirituality into their daily self-care routine? Leah: “Taking care of my soul and staying soul-aligned is my number one priority. If I’m not taking care of myself first, then I’m not able to show up fully in any of the other areas of my life. I schedule it into my calendar, just like I do a client session or a content call. Spirituality and soul alignment are a big part of my self-care routine. Daily journaling and meditation are non-negotiables for me. Even if I can only get 15-20 minutes, it happens! Most days I have an hour of journaling scheduled and I do an hour to 1 ½ hours of meditation 3-4 times a week. I take time every day to reset and connect to my soul. My soul is my direct connection to source, it’s important to nurture that so that my channel remains open and I’m able to get all of the divine downloads that are coming to me. Find the thing that makes you feel the most connected to Source and make sure you are doing those things several times a week, if not daily. It might be journaling and meditating like me, or it might be walking in nature. Even 10 minutes a day makes a huge difference. Make the time for yourself and you will see that quickly everything in life runs smoother and you have more energy for the million things you are managing!” In your opinion, in what ways can practicing consistent daily self-care in mind, body, and spirit benefit one as a businesswoman? Leah: “As a businesswoman you need to be sharp. Your intuition needs to be on point. Caring for yourself body mind and spirit enhances your work in every way. You will have more clarity and self-assuredness. You will make better decisions and have much better foresight.” Do you feel that by practicing daily self-care, you are also better able to serve your clients? If so, in what ways do your clients benefit from you being a self-fulfilled woman and mentor? Leah: “I only serve clients when my cup is full. They deserve me at my best. They pay me for my ability to see into the places they can’t. To tell it to them like it is and call them on their bullshit (can I say this...lol!). When I am walking the walk and not just talking the talk we have a more authentic connection. I only ask my clients to do work I have done and am willing to do myself.” Some women build businesses later in life. What are your thoughts on the beautiful process of coming into one’s own at any age, and how is self-care an important part of that process? Leah: “I’m 42 and I’m LOVING IT! My business has taken off in the past 2 years and I have the confidence to keep rising. I know myself, I’m sure of myself, and know my purpose on this planet. That all comes from an unwavering connection to my higher-self and Source, and THAT comes from practicing self-care.” What are your top three self-care practices you recommend to your coaching clients, and why? Leah:
Connect with Leah Steele online: www.theleahsteele.com www.facebook.com/theleahsteele  Businesswomen in the creative fields often have a unique set of struggles. Creative women are many times viewed as overly sensitive, emotional, and overthinkers. Creative women tend to view the world differently and feel things very deeply. In a world that has become harsh, cold, and insensitive, I am incredibly grateful for and blessed by the deeply feeling, peacefully gentle, and beautiful creative women in my life. Creativity as a form of nourishing self-love is often overlooked and undervalued. Author, composer, and artist Marlaina Donato encourages us to look to creative expression as a deeply nourishing form of self-care. Marlaina’s eloquent writings, enchantingly beautiful music, and delicate artwork reminds us that we are all creative beings with a connection to something that sets our soul on fire. She offers blissful and compelling insight into how creative expression can deepen our connection to self and to the inner chambers of our heart and soul, unlocking buried emotions and releasing them into the ether. During our interview below, Marlaina gently ushers me through her creative heart and woodland soul to reveal how self-care has shaped her into the Divinely guided woman she is today. Expressing one’s creativity is an often overlooked, but deeply fulfilling self-love practice. What are your thoughts on how expressing creativity can be a soul nourishing form of self-love? Marlaina: “I truly believe that our creative selves are the most authentic part of us, the part that is untamed by societal dogmas and is linked to the wilderness within. Nourishing this true self nourishes all other aspects of our lives because when we are creating, we are in a state of total honesty--bringing emotions from the shadows of denial, using our vision that is beyond time (the past or the future), and most of all, trusting ourselves. Creativity fosters self-trust, which I believe, is one of the most important things we as women can learn. As a business woman, how has practicing self-care been beneficial to you in withstanding the stress of building and maintaining your career? Marlaina: “For me, self-care goes well beyond what I do for myself physically. Emotional and energetic self-care has changed my life, and it’s taken me most of my life to arrive at that point. For me, the biggest stress of putting my work into the world - whether it’s been in book form or an album of music, a magazine article or a painting- has been anchoring my offerings in the old definition of success. Most people define success as having financial ease, a name associated with one’s work, and power of influence. Because of chronic illness, there were countless days and years when I was forced to take inventory while lying in bed, and on one of those days, I had a gentle epiphany that changed my life and mental health. I learned how to re-define success, something that took pressure off my psyche and my body. As I began to heal after decades, I started to really enjoy my life and creating in the moment with no thought of ambitions or goals, and ironically, that was when everything opened up for me.” What are your thoughts on the beautiful process of coming into one’s own at any age, and how is self-care an important part of facilitating that process? Marlaina: “I love this question because I believe that most of us--no matter where we are in life--are winging it up until our 40s or even beyond. I think we are so caught up in the idea that we have it together, trying to have it together, or making everyone believe that we have it together that we are too distracted to be our full selves. So, beginning a venture in midlife can be deeply fulfilling because that is when the opinions of others take a backseat to our passions that have been quietly waiting in the wings. It is also a time when we can admit to ourselves that we have needs and desires that no one else can fulfill but us--and we have a right to put ourselves on the priority list. This alone is self-care in action! And from that, anything is possible.” Many talented business woman struggle to build successful careers, and experience disappointment, burnout, and lack of self-confidence. Do you have any words of encouragement or inspiration on how self-care and self-love can benefit struggling business women who feel like giving up? Marlaina: “Self-love is key--and by self-love, I do not mean self-importance over others, but self-love that nourishes us in the most humble yet empowering way. With self-love, we can handle disappointment without bashing ourselves and it helps us realize that our “failure” is often times not anything we did wrong or not well enough, but timing. With self-love, we can recognize physical and mental signals that tell us when we need to rest. We give up when we are exhausted on any level, and sometimes, a good nap or a week of doing nothing can change everything. With self-love, our confidence is independent of validation or even profit. It remains steadfast, no matter what the climate happens to be.” Reflect for a moment on your younger self. What three things do you wish you had known then about practicing self-love that could have assisted you on the road to becoming the woman you are now? Marlaina:
Had I known these three essential things, I know for certainty that I would have had better health and spent fewer years in the prison of self-hatred.” Connect with Marlaina Donato online: www.AutumnEmbersMusic.com A deeply heartfelt thank you to Tiffiny Brittain, Leah Steele, and Marlaina Donato for your time and inspiring contributions to this project. Thank you for talking with me about the benefits of intricately weaving self-care into our daily lives in mind, body, and spirit. It has been a pleasure and honor to have this time with you. Thank you for pouring peace, love, inspiration, motivation, and encouragement into your service to others. I wish you all much continued success and the brightest of blessings.
Teigan Draig
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 Listen Lovely, we need to have a little chat. I hear it every day, and I was even guilty of it at times. "Hey girl, you got this!" "Hey girl, how's it going?" "Hey girl, let's plan a lunch date." Hey girl..." GIRL?! Ok, stop. I am not a girl, or his girl, or your girl. I am not a child. I am a grown woman; a Queen who runs her castle by her damn self. I know my worth, and I'm confident in what I bring to the table. I think women need to stop being girls. Women need to step into their power and be Queens. What does it mean to be a QUEEN? To be a Queen means: ~ To know your worth and that you have value. ~ To walk with poise, eloquence, and self-respect. ~ To be kind, just, and pure of heart; treating all you meet with fairness and grace. ~ To love and care for yourself. A Queen know she cannot pour from an empty cup. ~ To leave people in better condition than how you found them. ~ To know how to love unconditionally and without exceptions, but also knowing when to set firm boundaries. ~ To fiercely protect the ones you love and to stand for those who have no voice. ~ To be true to yourself and live from the soul. ~ To rise from the ashes of failure, disappointment, and pain with humility, determination, and strength. ~ To know that the seat of your fire (personal power) resides in the true soul. ~ To step with confidence in all you do knowing that you have the skills, abilities, and wisdom to achieve your dreams. Now my lovely, you are not a girl. Straighten your crown and run your castle like the QUEEN you are. Follow Me On Social Media  You see, I wasn't always a fire breathing dragon who lived in balance fully aware of her true self. In my younger years and into adulthood, I didn't know who I was. I placed my identity in other people. I craved validation and placed far too much weight on the opinions of others. My ego (the face I showed the world) could be cold and heartless, but warm and loving. I lacked any kind of self-worth, self-confidence, or purpose. I felt like a reed swept up in the wind, blowing here and there, but never settling in one position or another. I was a hott mess inside, because I did not understand that the true seat of my fire, the resting place of my personal power, resided in the depths of my soul. For most of my life I tried to fit inside a box that the religion I was raised in constructed around me. I longed to be FREE, but FEAR held me there. If I stepped out of line, I was going straight to HELL. I left that religion and became a wanderlust studying and dabbling in other faiths and belief systems. I saw that many of them aligned in various ways. They all had different "terms" they used to refer to the same thing. I began carving my own path, an eclectic mix of paganism and what I call "Universal Spirituality". I am an Omnist, if you will, one who sees the good in all faiths and choosing not to align myself with any one belief system or religion. I incorporate aspects of many different religions into my path. If someone were to ask me what my faith is, I would simply say: Draconic Grey Witch. What exactly is a Draconic Grey Witch? That is discussion for another time. It was on my current path that I was able to find my fire and really step into my personal power. I realized that my TRUE identity lies within myself. I found the FREEDOM to be who I AM. So, who am I? I am beautiful, magickal, creative, trustworthy, honest, kind hearted, and honorable. I am a QUEEN and I run my castle with grace, love, integrity, peace, and harmony. I take no shit, and those who would seek to harm me, or those I love, in any fashion are met with eyes of fire and breath of flame. I am kind and gentle, and full of peace, love, and light, but do not trifle with me or those I love, for I am also the most viscous and relentless creature you have ever known. And yes, I realize that is a little scary, but that is okay. I will walk in both the whitest light and blackest night, for I know what it is to be balanced. Even nature itself is a balance of light and dark, black and white, Yin and Yang. And oh what a beautiful thing it is. Please feel free to introduce yourselves in the comments and share a little...or a lot about yourself. I'd love to get to know you too.  Follow Me On Social Media |
AuthorTeigan Draig : Seeker of light, dragon tamer, woodland wanderer, butterfly queen, crystal collector, and matron to her young prince. Archives
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