Challenge #10 – Taking Care of Yourself is Taking Care of Your Community

As the holiday season approaches, many of us are starting to feel the stress building, and the family responsibilities piling up. Our businesses are in recovery mode, and we are working hard to balance the ongoing experience of living through a pandemic, raising children, running a business, and finding time for clients, family, and friends.

What would happen if you just said no?

We are surrounded by pressure to work harder, faster, longer hours, with bigger and better results – but that isn’t ‘normal’ or ‘healthy’ for any of us. We shouldn’t be expected to operate at the pace of our technology, or to always be available.

It’s up to us to reinforce or set new boundaries, and to model self care for our families, our staff, our teams, and our communities.

Indigenous teachings remind us that there are seasons and cycles in nature for a reason. There is a time for growth and there is a time for slowing down, conserving energy, and resting. The slowness and stillness are just as important as the birthing and blooming.

Without one, the other would not be possible.

For the month of November, we challenge you to say no. 

We invite you to prioritize yourself, your physical and your mental health.

This seems like a simple challenge, but for many of us, the idea of caregiving and community care is what drives our passion for coworking. We built our businesses to empower mutual aid, as safe places for those who feel they don’t belong elsewhere, and we are committed to holding space for our members and serving the community. We give and give and give, and feel rewarded by seeing the community thrive.

This is where we need to reframe our thoughts and actions, and begin to model self-care as well as the caregiving we do.

For you to carry on the good work you do, you must be healthy.

You are serving no one, if you are burnt out, depleted, and exhausted.

Just as we understand the importance of putting on your oxygen mask first before helping others, we must also practice caring for ourselves first.

Taking care of yourself is taking care of your business.

Taking care of yourself is taking care of your family.

Taking care of yourself is taking care of your community.

If you only have a few minutes to dedicate to this practice, our facilitator Laura Shook Guzman has provided us with a guided meditation as part of the video that’s  attached to this challenge. We encourage you to listen, and try it out for yourself.

We also hope you will USE THIS LIST as a resource to help you make some changes in your life and in your work to prioritize self-care this month, and we look forward to hearing what your experience was like during the IDEA conversation at the end of the month!

Articles and resources that were mentioned in this month’s video:

The Gentle Art of Saying No for a Less Stressful Life

The Nap Ministry / @thenapministry

Stronger Together: When Self-Care becomes Community Care