The Importance of Self-Care As An Entrepreneur

This is a sponsored post for SheSpeaks/Pantene. All opinions are true and my own.

You guys the struggle has been real lately! Between being 8 months pregnant, having an active, rambuctious toddler, and a husband with a crazy work schedule its been so hard to keep up with things for myself lately. On top of all of those things, my Etsy shop has been bussssyyyy and creating content here on Bliss & Faith daily has taken up a considerable amount of time, where I realize I’d been putting myself on the back burner.

Usually, every week I have a “maintenance day” and a “relaxation day”. My “maintenance day” typical consists of washing my hair, shaving, and doing a body scrub. Its the time I spend on myself to get myself super clean and smooth so to say. I can’t say that its a favorite of my weekly hygiene routine, but like  most maintenance its necessary. Being 8 months pregnant and trying to shave your legs, which you can barely see or reach in the shower is pretty difficult. Plus, the hot steam from the shower makes the hair washing and scrub process not as fun, because I end up having to step out and get a blast of air to cool off, because if you didn’t know, you tend to run hotter than usual while pregnant. Nonetheless, I always feel great after I complete all of my maintenance, and my body even better.

Essential, Well-Needed Care

My “relaxation day” is something that is relativity new, but so essential! I can’t tell you how much I love my relaxation days, because basically its my bubble bath day. I absolutely love bubble baths and find myself dropping by Lush every now and then to get bath bombs and other body care goodies. I try to have this when my son naps, so that I’m able to completely relax and enjoy my warm bath and just rest. Its nothing nicer than laying my pregnant body in the water and letting weightless take hold. I could spend all day in the water if I could, and I will admit that there have been times when I’ve fallen asleep for a few minutes, because I laid my head on the wall behind me and drifted off. That sleep is seriously the nicest sleep sometimes!

If you haven’t ever taken a day or time out of your day to find something to do to rest your body and mind you need to, I highly recommend it! Your working probably all day, everyday on your business most likely, like me, between managing your kids and household and it can be so hard to pull away to focus on yourself for a couple of hours. However, when you do so, you will save your sanity. I can speak from personal experience, as I went through quite a time after I had my son being a little too involved in him and not taking the proper time for myself. I was sad, distracted, and it really affected the dynamic between my husband and I.

I was so busy trying to run my business and make it successful, that I didn’t take time for myself. When I didn’t take that time for myself, I paid for it tremendously, mentally, physically, and worst emotionally. It took a big (and bad) thing to happen to make me realize the importance of self-care, not only as a wife and mom, but as a business owner, more specifically an entrepreneur. You’re probably wondering what that bad thing was, and I’ll tell you, it was the failure of my first business. While I still have the Etsy shop open, there are components of the business that I shut down, because they either weren’t successful or interfered with my ability to be a stable-minded wife and mom. In addition to that, there are still plenty of residual effects that I’m still dealing with on the personal side that affect my life to this day.

Taking a Load Off

Now, I’m super intentional about taking a load off, because I never want to go through another business or emotional failure that turns my life upside down. Passion can only take you so far when it comes to success, and when your life is out of balance, it several affects your ability to perform and produce at your maximum capacity. Its one reason why, I made sure that this past week I took time for myself. On Sunday, I treated myself to a relaxation day, bubble bath and all. It was wonderful! Then, on Monday I shut the MacBook down and stepped away from filling orders to have a maintenance day. One of the things that made my maintenance more enjoyable that usual was that I used a few new products that I’d been anxious to use and had been waiting for the right time since I purchased them. If you didn’t already know, I’m a product junkie, so I get super giddy about trying new things. I get the most excited about hair products and makeup, because, seriously, what girl doesn’t!

[Tweet “Be intentional about taking a load off. Make yourself a priority.”]

I used my new Pantene Pro-V Moisture Renewal Hydrating Shampoo and Conditioner that I got at Walmart, and it smelled absolutely delightful. I hadn’t used Pantene products since college, and had seriously been sleeping on them the past few years. You can find the entire Pantene product line at your local Walmart or on Walmart.com, and see which products will be best for your hair type. They literally have a product for every type of hair texture and to fit multiple haircare needs. To be completely honest, I was more than pleasantly surprised with how clean and soft (thanks to the awesome conditioner!) my hair felt after using them. I have very curly hair, and with using the conditioner I didn’t even have to detangle. Can we say jackpot! That was an extra 20 minutes off my normal haircare routine, and I’m all about saving time. I was able to spend that time blow-drying, trimming my ends, and styling my hair. Crucial Sidenote: the Pantene Daily Moisture Renewal erases the damage of 100 blow dries, so if you use a lot of heat, this is the product line of you!

I would have never thought that doing something as simple as changing my shampoo and conditioner would save me so much time and make my maintenance day a much more pleasurable experience than usual. I had also gotten myself few new mascaras, a face scrub and a new body cream that I could use to moisturize my growing belly. The combination of being able to fully pamper myself had not only my body feeling great, but also my mind. By the way if you’re wondering, yes, the Pantene Pro-V Moisture Renewal Hydrating Conditioner is my new favorite conditioner and I’ll be using it for a long time coming.

Small Things Count

Its the small things that count so much sometimes. Those little things we do for ourselves or that other people do for us, that helps us to keep a balance. My entire “maintenance day” took about 2 hours in total, but it was one of the best two hours I’ve spent of myself lately. Everything about it was easy, because I took my time and focused on me. When all was said and done, I was able to jump back into filling orders and my other entrepreneurial tasks for the day and really feel productive. I got more done that day in both of my businesses than I had gotten done in a long time.

[Tweet “The little things we do for ourselves or that other people do for us helps us to keep a balance.”]

Businesses don’t build themselves, we do, but building a business on a low fuel tank is never good. Self-care is essential, because you can’t effectively run a business or take care of anyone if you’re not first doing so for yourself first. So whether its a new shampoo and conditioner, a bath bomb from Lush, or even a new body cream or mascara, get something nice for yourself and use it.

[Tweet “Businesses don’t build themselves, we do, but building a business on a low fuel tank is never good. “]

How do you make self-care a priority? – What are some of the things you do to take time out for yourself on a regular basis?

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