Self-Care Tips for Women Entrepreneurs

Welcome to pelvis podcast. I'm Dr. Kelly Alhui. I've grown my pelvic health practice, orthopelvic physical therapy, and now I'm helping pelvic health professionals do the same. Each week I give you the knowledge you need to grow your practice. Let's get into today's episode. Today we're gonna be talking about self care for entrepreneurs, especially female entrepreneurs. So many of us females, we have lots of fun hormones that are just moving around in our body at all times. With that being said, I think most females can say that they tend to put other people first before themselves. Am I right on that? If anyone's listening, let me know. Uh, I tend to say that that's true because we either have families or kids or whatever that is, we tend to put other people first. It's just part of human nature for us that, oh well, this person needs us more than we actually need to take care of ourself. And some women are better about taking self care than others. I am one that I have always, always struggled with self care, always. It is something that I will not avoid per se, but I just will think of every other person and problem that I need to do before I put myself first. However, over the last, I would say year, I have figured out that I actually have to put myself first. And you will come to realize that there will be moments and there's going to be times where you actually have to put yourself first. Because if you don't, then things are not going to run the way that you want them to or the way that they can run the most efficiently. So I'm here to give you some tips and tricks on how to do self care as a busy female entrepreneur with a family, without a family, whatever that looks like for you. But I'm here to tell you kind of over the last year of what I've done to change everything up. And I think it's massively important. I would definitely get your hormones checked. You know, if you're thinking about starting a business, just in general, I would say after the age of like 30, you should be getting like the Dutch test. The Dutch test is a comprehensive hormone test that you can take to see just where you stand. And it's very accurate cuz it's only you can only do it on day like 18 through 22 of your cycle. So we really can have a standardized test of like where your hormones are at during that level. So I would definitely say, you know, it's not high, high priority, but I think it's something to, to look at because it will also show your cortisol levels. And what I've learned through my own health journey is cortisol levels are very, very important to monitor because they can cause thyroid issues, they can cause gut dysregulation, they can cause foggy brain, they can cause adrenals to, to be, you know, not working correctly, liver detox, all the things. Right. As we all know. So, uh, because of that you also can do a glucose monitor. You know, the ones you put on the back of your arm. I did this for a month and I thought it was very fascinating. Uh, Nutrisense is who I did it with. Uh, and what I realized was when I got on calls with people, so this is really interesting, when I got on calls with people, my glucose would actually spike. Like I was working out. Cuz sometimes when I talk I get like passionate about it and I start to get my voice really loud and get up and I realized I can't do that as much because it increases my cortisol. I've also learned that, you know, if I was going to do a webinar or some free training or whatever else not to do that at 8 and 9 o' clock at night because guess what that does that spikes your glucose typically or cortisol. And so your cortisol goes up. And when your cortisol goes up, then your estrogen, testosterone, thyroid, like all that goes crazy. And when that's off, well guess what? That makes you feel like, that makes you feel like poop. You don't feel well, your energy starts to go, you start to question yourself because now you can't think clearly and you're like, man, is this for me? It's actually killing my body. And I don't want you guys to be in that boat. I've been in that boat still trying to come out of that boat. Um, I've been in that boat probably for about six years now. And I've really been trying to work through it. And I have to say, you know, I have since I left my job 3 years ago an outpatient orthopedic to now my health, if I had to give it a percentage, has probably increased by 60 to 70% of what it used to be. Which is amazing because I became an entrepreneur, which is, you know, I could be more thankful for that, that I now have been able to improve my health. Becoming an entrepreneur compared to when I work for someone else. I had to be on their schedule, do their thing. I didn't have a Morning routine. I didn't have anything. I just went to work, did my notes at night till 9 o' clock at night. You're doing notes till 9 o' clock at night. What do you think your adrenals and cortisol levels are doing? They're going up and the adrenals are tapped because that's when you should be down. Regulating the nervous system to be able to rest and recover. So just the way the normal, you know, healthcare system is set up does not allow you to be healthy. In my eyes, this is just again, personal experience. It does not allow you to be healthy. You work for eight hours, you go home. I had two to three hours of notes at night to do and then, you know, just be doing notes, shoving food in my mouth and then I would go to bed. Never repeat the same cycle over again. So that's not a way to live. So as females especially, like, how can we, how can we do this better? So number one, I always say, get your hormones checked. Number two, start your own company. I truly believe it will give you the tools to get your health back. I used to believe when I didn't have my own company, ugh, I would never want to be like my boss because she's always so stressed out and it's going to cause me more issues. Yes, I have health issues, but the reality is my health issues are a lot better now than what they used to be. So I think another thing to bring up is also have conversations. If you have a spouse, have conversations with your spouse and be honest with this. Sometimes this is very hard to have this conversation with your spouse. But what do you need if you are a female entrepreneur? What do you need to feel good about the work that you're doing? What do you need from home life? Like, do you need someone to take out the trash for you? For me, like, I need my husband. I need not want, I need my husband to cook food. That is how I stay alive. I know this may sound crazy to some, okay, but it's how I, I've learned this is how I stay alive. And this is a system that we have created in our household to make things go over smoothly. Because he loves to cook. So thank goodness he loves to cook. I absolutely hate to cook. So if we re both realize that because we had these conversations, and by the way, guys, this took us like two to three years to come to these conclusions before we butting heads about, are you going to cook tonight? Are you going to cook like it was? I don't know why it was so hard, but we just were like, we could not get our grounding. So after years of talking and trying to figure out the best plan solution for us, we have come up with husband cooks. I do my work, and that's just kind of like the deal that we have made type thing, because I love work, he likes cooking. So, you know, it's best of both worlds because we're able to pay our bills and we're also able to eat. So that's a win, win. So I think the biggest question here is ask yourself and your spouse. Have an open conversation with them. What do you truly need to feel support? And that brings me up to number three is who is your support system? Every single one of us needs a support system. Entrepreneurship can be so, so lonely. So because of that, do you have a group like Pelly Biz where you have 20 women that have come together to support each other for one major cause, to improve our lives? That's it. It's not just business training. It's life training. It's psychology. It's, I'm having a hard day. Like, what do I need to do about this? It's, I don't know how to treat this patient, how do I treat this patient type thing. It's all those things. And every single day we talk. Every single, Every single day we talk. So if you're just not feeling that vibe, pelvibiz community, like, we got you, and that's, like, really cool. So who is your support? Also? Is your spouse your support? Is your kids your support if you have kids? Is your dog your support if you have a dog? Like, who is that? And I need you to build out your web or build out your tribe. I think that's super, super, super valuable. We are not having, you know, a great day, and you're like, who can support me? Who can I open up and talk to about how I'm feeling? Because most people, even your spouse, hate to break it to you, but they're not going to understand the journey that you're on. Truly, the only people that understand the journey that you're on is the women that are actually doing the thing and going through the thing and that are true pelvic health entrepreneurs. Those are the ones. Or if you're just a female entrepreneur, like, those literally are the ones. I get it. And it can be hard. And if you don't have that support, then I find people tend to, like, go off, you know, go off and say, you know what? This is just isn't for Me, I can't do this anymore. So support is huge. Great. Number four, I think developing a morning routine. Over the last year for me, when I truly made a change in my health, I had to create a morning routine. Because what I was doing, I was waking up immediately, checking my phone, going on Instagram, going on Facebook, seeing if I had any messages, answering those messages while I was still in bed, okay, before I even peed and all things, okay. And I started to realize an hour would go by, two hours would go by and I'm still in bed. Okay, I need to get out of my bed. Okay, I need to go pee and I need my morning routine to start. So instead, do not put your phone in the bedroom. I found this super helpful. For me, I put it downstairs, literally all the way downstairs. We have three levels. I put it downstairs or tell your husband to like take it or your spouse to take it. And so take your phone away until like a certain time. And so what I decided to do was go downstairs, drink some water. Well, I did go pee first. I would drink some water, I would go sit on my balcony and I would just breathe in some fresh air and I would just inhale and exhale on my balcony. Then after my water was done, and I put some charcoal in that too to help like bind off some all the bad stuff in my gut. And then I would go out for a walk. And then after about some days It'd be a five minute walk, some days it'd be about 30 minute walk. I never put a time limit on it. I just said, I need to create this new habit. So I started to create that new habit. Then I would come back in, I would take some vitamins and then I would eat breakfast. After I ate breakfast, then I said, okay, I gave to myself, I am ready now to answer any problems that come my way. Whether or not it's my building leaking, people leaking, you know, staff issues, whatever it may be, I am then given to myself. So now I have the energy to give to other people. Before this routine happened, I used to give all my energy away to every other person underneath the sun. And I didn't give myself any energy. And I believe that that was a big mistake. And it also led to my health issues. So before you give to anyone, you have to have, have to start developing habit that you give to yourself. Because the more that things grow, the more you're just going to have to be able to tolerate. And if you can't tolerate it because you haven't started building things up to tolerate, then it's not going to happen for you. You are going to give up. You're going to give up. So you have to start now. It doesn't matter where you're at on the entrepreneur journey, you have to start now. Just develop one habit and that just may be going downstairs and drinking water or that may just be taking a five minute walk in the morning, but it's gotta be something in the morning to set the tone for the rest of the day. So even if you're not a worker outer in the morning, just do something in the morning like drinking hot tea or you know, sitting and doing some breath work, like whatever that may be, do that and repetitively do that to prove to yourself, hey, I'm going to build my mental capacity up so that no matter what comes my way, I am able to handle it. And that's what you're doing. You're creating a new habit to then be able to have better self care, to then lower the cortisol levels so that you can think clearer, function better and have the energy you need to move forward for your family and your work and anyone else that needs your attention. The other thing I do, and the last thing I'll say here is number five, I develop a to do list. I'm a list person. I don't know if you guys are or not, but I'm a list person. So I have come up with two to three categories depending on your situation. So if you do not have kids, I've come up with a personal category and a business category. If you do have kids, I've come up with a personal kids category and a business category. Okay, so there's three categories if you have kids, two categories if you don't. In those categories, every single day I laminated this thing, I just bought a laminar on Amazon and I laminate it every single day. I write down before Ben what is on my mind. Oh yeah, I gotta send this email tomorrow. Okay, I gotta call this person. Oh yeah, I forgot this order's coming in. I gotta check on that. Okay. And so I write all that stuff down on my laminated sheet so that when I get up in the morning I'm focused and I know exactly what I need to be doing that day. So I'm not wasting my time going, let me develop a plan today. Cause remember, I don't see patients. So if I'm not seeing patients, it's on me to be able to moderate my schedule to where I'm doing higher level activities. No One else is telling me what to do. It's just myself. I'm keeping myself accountable. So with that, I developed a personal and a business category. So in my personal, it has things like drink your water, poop, take vitamins, walk, do some meditation, eat breakfast. Before I used to not even eat, so now I'm actually eating, which is amazing. So I'm just super happy about that. Um, and then for business it's like, okay, what, what questions on Boxer do I need to answer? What emails do I need to send? What people my staff do I need to chat with? What if I'm looking for a pt, how do I find a pt? We need to do an IG post, I need to do a podcast, like so those are all my. That's all my to do list. Because if that sits in your head, the more that that sits in your head, it's going to actually create more anxiety for you and more anxiety is going to increase your cortisol levels. So to negate some of that anxiety is you just take it from your head and put it down on a piece of paper. I promise you, your anxiety out of an 8 out of 10 is going to go down to like a 5 out of 10 or maybe even less because now it's all here and you don't have to keep remembering it. And then the next day all you're going to do is pick three things off each list. So my personal list, I'm picking three things to do. My kid list, I'm thinking three things to do. In my business list, I'm thinking three things. That's it. Those are the only things that I can do those three things now. Great. If I get through those three things, what else on the list? If I feel that I need to, you know, do more than I can do more, but if I hit at least three, that's going to really build my confidence and I'm going to feel pretty good about myself. Okay, so just think about that. When it comes to, I know I'm getting kind of off on a tangent here, but when it comes to self care, you don't have to do everything on the list. You don't have to do everything on the list. Just pick three things. And when you feel accomplished, you're going to feel like, yes, I can do anything. Throw any challenge at me and watch me, I can do this. And, and that's just going to overall be better for yourself and you're going to feel better about yourself. So hopefully you guys got some little pearls here that you can take away with just some insight of a lot of things that I've done over the last year that has completely changed my health, changed up my diet, supplements, morning routine, put my phone down more, actually made space for my family. It wasn't just about the hustle. Like there's just so many different things that you have to change as a person. You literally have to become a different person to be able to integrate a lot more self care. And maybe you just start with one thing. You don't start with all the things I said. Remember this took me a whole year to get to the point where I'm at. So maybe you just say I just want to drink a full glass of water in the morning. That's it. And that's a massive win for you. That's a massive self care win. Or I just want to sit silently before the kids get up for five minutes and just take some deep breaths. That's a massive win. So I want you guys walking away from this podcast today saying, you know what, what is one self care thing that I can add in consistently? That's the key word. Consistently do. That's not going to throw me over the edge. That's not going to stress me out. What is one thing that you can take away from this and consistently do that? And let's go. I consider myself a business and life coach. Are you ready to live the life of your dreams as an entrepreneur? If so, let's ch chat, see the episode notes below and go ahead and book a call. See you all next week.