As a business owner, co-founder, mother, wife, home-schooler and owner of dogs with boundless energy, I wear a lot of hats and spin a lot of plates - often all at the same time. And yet, I know I’m not the only one. At Rebrandr, we meet women who have founded incredible businesses all the time, from all different walks of life, who also have full and chaotic and beautiful lives to hold together too. And we all do it differently.
For a long time, there’s been a focus in the wellness - and business - world on optimisation, achievement above all else, and a masculine energy that many of us thought we ‘needed’ to grasp in order to be successful. It turns out, that wasn’t the way to do it. I’ve been there; I’ve gone right to the edge of bio-hacking, tracking, optimising and striving for ‘health’ and it didn’t make me healthier. I thought focusing on optimisation would maximise my efficiency, productivity and wellbeing, but personally, I’ve been a lot healthier since I’ve softened, returned to nature and truly tuned into my body.
The more I’ve dropped into stillness, rhythm, ritual, natural light, and not adhering to obsessive diets, the more I’ve found a way of living, being and eating that truly works for me. I’ve relaxed into reintroducing sourdough after a period of avoiding grains and gluten, and to be honest - I feel better than I have done in a long time. There’s an aspect of stress your nervous system holds on to when you’re trying to micro-manage everything, including your diet, and I’ve found that the more I pretty much eat like an Italian grandmother - fresh local food, sourdough and homemade ice cream (which is in fact a superfood), butter, olive oil, eggs in all forms - the more aligned and restored my body feels, which then provides the fuel for me to fully show up and thrive in my business.
So, with the experience I have as a wearer-of-many hats, trier-of-many wellness trends and diets, I thought I’d share what I’ve actually come to learn. I don’t have the answers and I’m still a work-in-progress, but I share this in the hopes it provides a little guidance for anyone who also finds themselves immersed in the world of running your own business, working for yourself, and spinning many plates at once.
Morning
I prioritise morning sunlight, as it’s such an incredibly powerful way to support the body’s circadian rhythms (your sleep-wake cycle). Not only that, but the specific lightwaves present in morning sunlight support hormone production, metabolism, energy, mood, blood sugar balance, and reduction of inflammation. Years ago, if I woke early, I might have jumped straight into work - now, I realise how important a few short morning moments are for my nervous system.
If I can, I step outside with bare feet to ground myself, sip warm lemon water to support digestion and elimination, and take a few deep breaths. It’s a few minutes but it changes EVERYTHING. This is also the time of day I prioritise movement if I have the opportunity. Sometimes yoga or pilates but often it's a dog walk in the woods. Sometimes it’s accompanied by the kids, other times I’ll be alone with my thoughts, which I’ll often record as voice notes for work later that day. There’s just something about movement and nature that seems to help my brain process thoughts and allows ideas to flow like nothing else does.
When we arrive home, I make breakfast together with the kids and we’ll chat about what the day might hold for each of us. We’ll whip up scrambled eggs on sourdough with a side of seasonal fruit, warming porridge in colder months, or Greek yoghurt bowls topped with seeds and local raw honey. I’ll sip bone broth whilst we cook - it’s one of my favourite drinks to support deep hydration, blood sugar balance and is so grounding. I supplement with omega 3 fish oil, vitamin C and Beef Organs to provide nutrient density, which I feel have all been instrumental in helping me with chronic migraines.
Midday
My days are so varied; sometimes we’ll have a full day out on a shoot, other times I’ll be deep in editing mode, and often I’m rushing between meetings. After many years of experience running a business and understanding how my own mind works as a neurodivergent person, I’ve learned to place what I call buffers between tasks to help manage my energy, focus and emotions. I find it hard to jump from call to call so I will build in at least 15 minutes between calls where I can do some box-breathing, get outside for some natural sunlight, or put some music on loud and dancing like crazy for 5 minutes. This is what I’ve learned helps my brain recalibrate, and it turns out that as well as circadian rhythms, the human body also runs on ultradian rhythms, which cycle in a way that means we can most often focus for around 90 minutes, before needing to take a break for 20-30 minutes to allow the brain and nervous system to rest, re-set and re-focus. Makes sense!
I perform best when I make time to cook a proper balanced lunch from scratch too, but as you’ll probably be all too aware for yourself, not every day allows enough time. For times like this, there is one word: leftovers! I always overcook at dinner time and if I have leftovers on hand, I’ll throw together a plate centred around a decent amount of protein and some seasonal greens. I’ve found that despite it being such a trendy over-hyped topic in the wellness world, getting enough protein really does help me feel good and function best. I’ll also make sure to stay properly hydrated with electrolytes, as I’m super sensitive to dehydration.
Late Afternoon
Just as I’ve found movement important for energising myself in the mornings when it’s possible, the afternoons are a time I try to take even just a few moments to help my nervous system wind down “after work”. I learned the hard way that compartmentalising life into ‘work’, ‘home’, ‘mother’ or ‘wife’ simply added to my stress, and when I let go of the rigid separation of all the different areas of my life and allowed it to be one big beautiful blur, things started to flow so much better. These few moments of calm don’t look curated or fancy; they might simply be a long slow breath, or a cup of tea in the garden.
Evening
Whilst I prioritise sunlight in the morning, I prioritise darkness in the evening to support sleep, calmness and an atmosphere that helps those cortisol levels drop. When you work from home, the temptation to keep working away into the evening is definitely there, and there are still evenings when I’ll have a deadline to work to, and the work simply needs to keep happening.
When there isn’t a deadline looming, some of the things I practise putting in place to wind down and support a slower, calmer evening are: logging off of my laptop, and putting it away. Leaving my phone in a different room, or just sitting outside with the kids before we cook dinner, talking through the day and sharing what came up. We often end up in fits of giggles, all my kids have a very good sense of humour and nothing beats a really good laugh as some soul medicine at the end of a day of juggling.
We use lamps and low lighting in the evenings, and I wear blue light blocking classes a couple of hours before bed, as the blue light emitted from bulbs and screens can disrupt sleep hormones. A few nights a week, I’ll have an Epsom Salts bath to relax both my muscles and my mind and support sleep, and use a magnesium body butter. These are small moments that have become deeply nurturing, healing habits.
I am an avid reader - in fact I devour books - and have been loving Julia Childs’ My Life In France and If Women Rose Rooted by Sharon Blackie. Reading fiction books helps my mind switch from doing, planning and being in work-mode, to truly resting and reconnecting with imagination and wonder.
Whilst every day looks a little different, these are the things I've found make a big difference when I prioritise them. Life doesn't always look like this, and the habits I've put in place have often come from learning what not to do (basically not listening to all the wellness trends), and rediscovering what truly nourishes me. ...Turning away from the 'shoulds' and tuning into what actually feels good has, little by little, changed everything. I’m still learning as I go… and maybe you are too?