Deeper Insight: Your Self-Care Resource Links
Throughout March, DRIVEN has been focused on Self-Care, providing you with a useful OfficeHours webinar on pursuing a healthful lifestyle, and various articles exploring this personal asset that even the seemingly well put-together folks in your industry may be secretly lacking. I hope you’ve taken advantage of these offerings and have re-leased your life and career by boosting your health and wellbeing. Additionally, I hope you've released any low self-esteem, as it clearly doesn't serve you. In my recent article Releasing Your Illusions: Why Self-Care Will Lead to The Life You Want, I looked at the genesis of low self-worth, and then offered you some compelling incentives to recognize your own true worth. Check it out if you haven't already.
As with each of DRIVEN’s topics, there are tons of resources for further reading. These include related DRIVEN articles and numerous external resources. Here’s the March roundup of our favorite links related to self-care, most of which will link you to additional resources therein. Explore them, and then reach out to us. We’d love to hear what resonates with you in these areas!
Books:
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield: Most of this book addresses resistance (which will be DRIVEN’s “release” for this coming May). However, the author also addresses self-esteem and confidence in some detail. After all, the book is written for people aspiring to be writers!
The Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress-Free Living by Amit Sood, MD: The stress of unworthiness is exhausting! As you embrace the unselfish act of self-care, consider this book. It not only digs into kindness and compassion, but also gratitude, acceptance, forgiveness, relaxation and reflection. An easy read from a heartfelt perspective.
Eat Well, Move Well, Live Well by Galina and Roland Denzel: The first line of a book tells a lot about what’s to follow. It’s deliberate, it sets the tone, and it can be profound. The Denzels’ first sentence is, “This book is yours, and there is no right or wrong way to use it.” At first, I imagined the lighthearted Roland writing this to be humorous or a bit quirky, but then I recognized that this is the brilliance of the Denzels’ methodology of health coaching. There are different ways to read this book, and there are different dimensions discovered about how to be healthy— ones you’d never considered! Here are a few favorites:
As participants learned during DRIVEN’s March 15th OfficeHours, sitting isn’t the new smoking, it’s STILLNESS that’s the culprit. In the chapter Stand Up For Yourself, you, too can discover how “sitting less will save your life, and how to start now without looking so weird”.
Who has ever heard of “Hanging”? Now that you think about it, kids have a natural hankering to hang. And it’s so good for you! The Denzels’ award hanging as “the missing nutrient for upper body health”. As for the DRIVEN team, we’ll never look at a door jamb in the same way again!
How to position yourself at meals can literally affect how you digest the nutrients you ingest. “How you sit, how you swallow, and even how much attention you pay to nourishing yourself all play a part in how your body deals with your food.”
And then there’s the way the Denzels have laid out the book. At the end of each chapter, they suggest another chapter you may enjoy, reinforcing the fact that a book isn’t necessarily meant to be read from cover to cover. Fun and educational at the same time!
The Denzels’ 5-Day Challenge: Galina Denzel has thoughtfully designed this challenge for DRIVEN Professionals. It’s a 2-minute daily practice over 5 days that will change the rest of your life!
The Bruce Lee Podcast:
Self-Esteem: The maintenance of self-esteem is a continuous task which taxes all of the individual’s power and inner resources. We have to prove our worth and justify our existence anew each day.
Health: It’s not limited to our physical wellbeing. Health encompasses our mind, body and spirit. To experience optimal health, we have to be willing to examine and change the unhealthy parts of ourselves.
Blogs (DRIVEN & Other):
Eating Lunch at Your Desk: It’s an illusion that you’re more productive this way, and there are additional, unforeseen downsides as well.
Goldie’s Workout: It’s no longer a mystery that exercise is crucial to self-care. Here’s my own personal workout to inspire yours.
Choose Your Hard: Colleague and life purpose coach Jennifer Kottler gave us this powerful food-for-thought musing in the early days of DRIVEN. It’s universal, and it’s waiting to be discovered by YOU!
Workhorse or Racehorse?: Colleague and psychotherapist Gerry Sweetman gave us this superb analogy that goes the extra mile toward illustrating that “if our desire is to excel, to operate at our peak, then our self-care requires that we tend to all areas of our being….physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.”
The Art of Scheduling: I wrote this article to remind folks to actively carve out strategic time slots for addressing the projects that will move you toward your career goals. Conserving your mental energy in this manner is an essential component of self-care.
Welcoming White Space: Get the lowdown on why cramming your calendar is counterproductive from networking sage Dorie Clark and time-management expert Laura Vanderkam.
And One From Tiny Buddha on Self-Esteem: It’s the motherload of unique and inspiring articles on boosting your self-esteem, written by today’s wisest young bloggers, coaches and psychologists.