Self-Care for Health Professionals

{Guest post by Dr. Ajiri Baro, MD & Wellness Coach}

So, you’re a busy Health Professional, and you’ve got clients back to back. You spend all your time helping others live happier and healthy lives. They look to you for guidance, sometimes answers, or just to help them uncover the answers within.

You’re great at your job, your clients love you, and your schedule is fully booked for months ahead! All sounds great, right?

(And on many levels, I hope this does sound like you, or that you’re on your way to manifesting this!)

It’s great that you’re very busy helping other people re-prioritize their lives, get healthier, practice self-care and self-love. It’s very rewarding work, that’s why we do it!

You’re doing all this for others, but are you taking care of yourself? Have you had any ME-time lately? It’s all good and well-giving advice, but are you taking your own advice?

Hey, Health Pro…what’s YOUR self-care routine?

Good coaching is the kind of thing that takes deep listening. Deep listening requires maximum levels of concentration and focus, so you need to be at the top of your game.

Think about athletes – they push themselves to their maximum potential, but then they build in recovery time into their schedules.

As a doctor, I spend a lot of my time giving medical advice, telling patients to try to eat better, improve their sleep patterns, and take rest days.

All these things are great – but I know that I have to practice what I preach. Because guess what? If I don’t, I will end up burnt out, stressed, tired, and miserable.

There’s a real danger for Health Pros too, as we can spend so much time helping our clients, that we forget to apply those practices to ourselves.

Everyone knows that your well-being affects performance and productivity.

The old saying of “you can’t pour from an empty cup” is so apt here.

So if you’re a Health Pro and are guilty of some self-neglect too, carry on reading.

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Dis-connect to Re-connect

“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes… including you.”

~ ANNE LAMOTT, Author

I know it’s easier said than done, but you need to block out time in your schedule for some rest, recuperation and self-care.

I’m not just talking about the quick breathing exercises that you might do between clients, I am talking about some real downtime.

Take an hour a week to switch off completely. It’s not really that much if you put it into context, and if you put your mind to it, you’ll find the time.

Turn off your phone, ignore emails and phone calls, and just relax. You can do whatever you like with this time!

• Take yourself to your favorite restaurant and have a meal for one
• Run yourself a warm relaxing bath
• Treat yourself at the spa to a facial or massage – or even just spend time getting your hair or nails done.
• Read a chapter from a book – one with pages!
• You can even just catch up with Netflix

Whatever you choose to do is fine – as long as it is protected and uninterrupted time for YOU!

Practicing self-care, developing self-awareness, and looking after yourself are not things that you can charge an hourly rate for, so it’s easy to put them on the bottom of the list where they keep getting trumped for paid work!

But what you must realize is that incorporating self-care into your life can be the difference between simply working as a coach, and actually being a happy and effective one.

Keep your spirits up

“Live life as if everything is rigged in your favor.”

~ RUMI, Poet & Scholar

From time to time, as business owners and coaches, things can sometimes get overwhelming. It can certainly get you down and you may start to doubt yourself, and your capabilities.

A few years ago, I started a “thanks” box. It was just a small box filled with cards and thank you notes I had received from patients and clients. Whenever I am feeling down or demotivated, and despondent about work – I go into this box and pull out all the lovely cards and messages, and I get an instant uplift.

You can easily create a thanks/positive feedback folder – get all your lovely emails from clients telling you how great you are, or take screenshots of positive comments and feedback from social media. Collect them all in one place, and you’ve got your very own “thanks” box.

You might not see it as useful right now, but when you’re feeling down and out, this can really help.

The art of delegation

“You can’t be all things to everyone.”

~ ANON

Now, remember when I said that you can’t pour from an empty cup? This is what I mean. The days of doing everything yourself are well and truly over.

People often say that they built their businesses all by themselves from scratch and did absolutely everything themselves. That’s great, but there is no harm in having a little help.

As a Health Coach, probably running both an online & offline business, you wear a lot of hats. You’re also a part-time marketer, part-time web developer, part-time writer, part-time accountant, part-time salesperson, and part-time social media guru. Am I right?

All those “part-times” quickly add up, and you soon become a full-time everything to everyone, doing everything except what you actually love doing. When you stretch yourself too thin, your business will start to suffer.

You’re not going to get any medals for spending hours and hours trying to code or build your website when you have no idea how to do that.

Yes, you can learn, but that takes time and time is money. Something that may take you 4 weeks to do, would take a professional website builder 4 hours! Where’s the logic in that?

Don’t be afraid to delegate or outsource.

In the long run, you are conserving your time and energy and can direct it towards more fruitful activities like discovery calls and attracting new clients.

Value your time = value yourself

“We are only busy with the things we say yes to.”

~ DR. LIBBY WEAVER, Nutritional Biochemist

Knowing your worth and charging appropriately will mean that you are less likely to be chronically busy and overworked.

I know many coaches who feel guilty about charging clients “too much” and want to help clients work within their budget. I have spoken to a lot of coaches who started out not charging adequately for their time – there’s a lot you need to consider.

It’s not just the hour you’ve spent with the client – you need to think about the other expenses too.

You have to have some recovery time after a session, sometimes you can get an element of transference, and you may feel emotionally drained.

You have to take time to recharge your emotional bandwidth. But, ensure that you’re charging enough to cover your time, as well as your physical and emotional expenses.

Meditation

“The greatest weapon we have against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”

~ WILLIAM JAMES, Philosopher

Meditation and mindfulness help us to live in the moment and be present in all that we do.

Mindfulness strengthens relationships, lowers anxiety, and improves focus, productivity, and creativity, and it’s one of the easiest self-care strategies to incorporate into your daily life.

Whether you meditate first thing in the morning or last thing at night, make time for 5 minutes each day and you will feel the benefits. It’s a great way to refresh and re-energize between clients too – thus allowing a fresh, positive, and clear-minded for your next client.

I hope you have found these self-care tips for Health Professionals helpful! xo Dr. Aj

Dr. Ajiri Baro is a London, UK-based General Practitioner (MD), well-being coach and writer.

She’s incredibly passionate about empowering women to adopt a balanced, healthful and beautiful lifestyle.