This is an archived blog from when I ran Conscious Public Relations Inc. from 2008-2018. Excuse the potential outdated-ness!
You know it’s busy when I can count the weekdays I’m too busy to blog, and in the moments between navigating the storm, there are some clear moments of…ahhhh.
I’m in EAT! Vancouver prep mode, the biggest client event of my year coming up May 24-26. Besides the floods of e-mails to deal with I still have other client work to handle, business development to continue, and fleeting moments where I have to contact this person about that thing.
The cool part of it being THIS part of the year (Spring, which is a crazy busy time in PR usually) is that I try to savour both the busy parts and the moments of rest, because it’s in those moments of clarity where, recently, I’ve realized that I’ve had the key to sanity all along. So here are my 6 self-work tips for the week… since I don’t know how long it will be before I can resurface back to my normal blogging routine!
1. Work the body as well as the mind. Let’s face it, between work, to-dos, and our own negative mental chatter, we need our bodies to hold all of that energy. I find that even on days when I haven’t gotten much sleep the previous night, going for a good run is better than a cup of coffee on a busy day. Don’t underestimate the importance of good exercise.
2. Give your face a massage. I learned this tip from some angels I know at YES Plus Vancouver, which teaches courses to youth on de-stressing and living a balanced lifestyle. Using both of your hands and rubbing in a circular motion, massage the top, back, and sides of your head, forehead, eyebrows, around the eyes, temples, cheekbones, jaws, nose bridge, and upper lip for about 10 seconds each. I find this does wonders when I am staring into oblivion at my computer screen and my face feels pretty frozen.
3. Savour the crazy. As mentioned above, it’s not always going to be like this. Remember back to the times when you wondered “why am I so bored?” or “I wish it was busier” and savour the ride in the now.
4. Wednesday is the new Friday. I’m beginning to appreciate hump day; it’s much more sane than Mondays, and the world is still alive unlike on Fridays when it seems like you’re working harder than everyone else. Plus, it gives you incentive to keep going – and savour the crazy again – while you make plans for the weekend. There’s no rest for the wicked, but let’s face it, we all have wicked in us and this is the reason we don’t go on vacations for a living.
5. Don’t give a shit. Let me clarify: Give a big shit about your clients or customers, but not too much about yourself and how you look or appear. I did my second interview for Joytv for EAT! Vancouver yesterday, and I was much less stressed than the first time around. It was over and done in about 1 1/2 minutes, and I wondered to myself why I was so nervous about it last year. Of course, I am one year wiser. My hair may not look perfect, but again, it’s not about me, it’s about whether my client came out looking good in the end. So don’t give a shit about you – because the world doesn’t just revolve around you or me.
6. You CAN fill that gap. This one is a bit hard to explain. You know how, even on days when things seem pretty damn near perfect, and then you hear your own voice go, “but it would be perfect if…”? Well, shut that voice up, go back to a moment when you had no worries in the world at that time (for me it’s poolside at Waikiki Beach) and feel that. Just sit and feel that again. Now go back to what you were doing. Do you still feel that gap? Maybe, but it gets better with exercise. Trust me. Have a name for that moment you go back to, and practice that every time the gap feeling comes back. It helps with not being paranoid about stupid shit that doesn’t matter in the big picture.
I call these my current keys to sanity, because they’re what’s working for me now. It will change.
