The weekend is over and it’s time for a new start to a new week. Last week I talked about making time to do things that matter to us. Did you make time to accomplish the things you wanted to get done or did you push them aside for another week? No judgement, the pile on my counter top is still staring at me needing to be sorted through..opps. However, I did make time to get many other things checked off my list.
Whether you made time to accomplish your “to-do’s” or just didn’t quite finish everything, it’s important to stop and appreciate yourself for all that you did or did not do. Today I’m here to introduce Shruti Sekhri, Founder of Rooted Self Expression Center, to share how to stay connected to yourself when busy or stressed and how to appreciate yourself from the inside out.
Meet Shruti
1. Tell us a little about yourself and how Rooted Center came about
Even though I’m a perfection-seeking businesswoman (CPA, Financial Executive, Business Strategy Consultant, Entrepreneur), I took the risk to venture into acting and fell in love with it. A few months after falling for acting, I had an awful performance and my perfection demons started roaring! I beat myself up and couldn’t sleep all night. Fortunately, acting had led me to many self-discoveries and a deeper understanding of what I wanted in life. So even while I was distraught from the results, I knew that I didn’t want to turn a source of joy into a form of self-torture (something that I am well practiced at doing).
I immediately signed up for a week long ‘Living Centered’ program in Nashville to drive a lasting change for myself. This program deeply affected me. It was full of experiential activities that helped me see myself. After I returned, I began researching and attending as many different avenues for self-care and self-discovery as I could. Every self-help book, every retreat, every workshop, had a double meaning to me: what it held for me and what it could be for other people. Even though I became fully connected to my pursuit, I still had no idea how to put all of this new information into creating something meaningful. Until, one morning when I was very frustrated, I got attached to the idea of blasting techno music. This experience was a trigger that all of the sudden started putting the pieces together for me. I realized that whenever I undertook creative experiences in a judgment and expectation free environment, I became free and more aware of who I was. It immediately made me think of how creative work can do this for others too. The more I thought about it, the more Rooted began to take shape.
2. How do you best relieve stress
In acute stress situations, the first thing that I tend to do is stop what I’m doing and take a deep breath. Then, I’ll immediately start journaling on any piece of paper close to me to find out what is creating my stress. A lot of times, just the knowledge of what it is and how I’m feeling about it releases the stress for me. Other times this comes from taking action based on the knowledge that I gained, and again, simply knowing what I have to do really lessens the burden.
On an ongoing basis, I make sure that I’m putting time aside for my own reflection every day. For me, awareness and acceptance of whatever is happening and how I feel about it has been the most successful strategy for relieving stress.
3. How do you put time aside for yourself when you are overwhelmed or busy
I have learned that when I put time aside for myself, I actually have more time available for other tasks because my self-time is my fuel. Still, it is hard to be motivated to do anything when I’m feeling overwhelmed. I certainly don’t want to add to my overwhelm by having more to do, so I start small. For example, I ask myself to do a single pose of yoga every morning and if it leads to more, then I go along with it; or I tell myself that I will journal for only 5 minutes and let it take me where I need it to go. The thing is that many times, letting myself go with what I need invariably leads to signing up for more self-care because that is actually what I really need. I just have to convince myself that I’m listening to myself and not doing something out of obligation.
Dash of Sparkle
Today is the day to appreciate yourself for all that you do. Whether you got up and went to the gym this morning (you go girl!) or finished a big project at work that seemed never ending. No matter how big or small your accomplishments are it’s important to stop, take a deep breath and appreciate yourself for all that you do!