Being a highly sensitive person (HSP) means that entrepreneurship is both a great way to live a freedom lifestyle, and a breeding ground for daily anxiety episodes.
Running a business requires you to manage and process huge amounts of information, make quick decisions, interact with many people, and so many more tasks that can easily lead to overstimulation.
Once I decided to start my own business (because I wanted to be free to live life on my own terms) I knew I needed to find practical ways of managing my predisposition to anxiety.
As a psychotherapist, I had quite a bit of practice with self care. But entrepreneurship required a lot more adjustments to my daily routine than I was used to.
Know that as an HSP all your goals are within your reach if you take care of yourself. Avoid hustling by leading with intention.
The hacks I’m about to share with you have been a life saver for me. They’ve allowed me to start and grow a six figure business while avoiding letting feelings of anxiety take over and derail my efforts.
#1 Reconnect With Your Dreams Often Throughout The Day
Social media is full of images of what success and happiness “should” look like. That triggers you to compare your life with what others are posting. Before you know it, your feeling anxious and boom there goes your day.
Create a vision board and carry an image in your phone to quickly reconnect when you need to be reminded of what you really want.
#2 Use Music For Quick Meditation Breaks
Processing all the information that comes across our day can easily trigger overstimulation and before you know it you’re overwhelmed. Being proactive in your self care is key to avoid this.
Download short meditation tunes into your phone. Make it a habit to pause in between meetings or projects. Sit in a comfortable place, plug in your headphones, close your eyes and hit play. In a little as five minutes you can feel refreshed and ready to take on the world!
#3 Gratitude Journal
You carefully schedule your day. You work really hard to make things happen as planned. And the the unexpected shows up. Clients cancel, negotiations fall through, the car breaks down, the kid’s school is calling, and you start believing that you’re living the worst day of your life.
Keeping a record of all the wonderful things you experience is so important to keep your mood up. You can carry a small notebook or even use your mobile phone. When you’re starting to feel frustrated all you have to do is read a couple of entries and voila, you feel great again.
#4 Daily Exercise
It is well known that lack of exercise increases your health risks. But exercise will help you reduce stress, boost happy chemicals, improve self-confidence, tap into creativity, boost brainpower, and relieve anxiety.
Take your pick of fifteen, thirty, or even fifty minutes. You can dance, jog, play tennis, or hit the treadmill. The truth is that any amount of activity you do will dramatically shift your mood in a way that allows you to avoid anxiety.
#5 Regular Massages
The ups and downs you experience during the day leads to the accumulation of tension in your muscles. Your day ends with neck, shoulder, and/or lower back pain. The pain will make it very difficult for you to focus on what you have to get done. Before you know it, you’re falling behind.
Tense muscles lead to rigidity and success requires you to be flexible.
A massage helps you release the tension allowing you to show up relaxed and ready to flow every day.
I know sometimes you will be tempted to to skip your self care because you feel rushed by others. Don’t allow yourself to be dragged into the “hustle” way of conducting business.
Set your own pace. Do things in a way that feels good and nourishes you instead of deplete and stress you.