Life happens. And in the daily hustle and bustle of balancing your personal and professional lives, self care can easily be sacrificed — or neglected altogether. We often get so involved in our personal challenges while maintaining our professional obligations that the basics of taking care of ourselves frequently get overlooked.
Believe it or not, overlooking self care can impact the overall outcome of your personal and professional efforts. Meaning, everything you do in the absence of self care is often diluted in comparison to your ability to make smart decisions and achieve your goals when you’re at your best.
Self care especially becomes a challenge when you work from home, are a sex worker and often offer 24/7 access to your customers and fans. Being constantly in your work environment leaves little to no room for much needed disconnect. Disconnecting is an especially difficult achievement when you have constant demands for your time and attention coming from all directions.
There are many self care tips online, but the ones we offer in this blog will focus directly on people working in the home-based adult business.
What is self care?
Self care is — quite simply — the act of taking care of yourself. It can consist of everything from your daily routine and hygiene regiment to special breaks and meditation to allow yourself time to release and breath.
As busy adults, it is easy to skip a meal or indulge in unhealthy practices while rushing through our day. With reminders to take care of yourself, you are more equipped and prepared to handle challenges, dilemmas and every other aspect of your life.
How does self care affect me?
The failure to care for ourselves can lead to stress, frustration, failure to take care of important tasks, exhaustion or even lead to being uninspired and lack of motivation to create or work at all. These negative outcomes can lead to losing customers and an overall decrease in your income. This can then adversely impact your life, introducing challenges to pay important bills, care for family members or maintain your home.
What can I do to give myself the care I need?
Self care doesn’t have to be a “big deal.” Though they’re nice, you don’t need a spa day or an elaborate vacation to enact self care. In fact, there are many small steps you can take that will help you engage in better self care.
The first step though? Assessing what you are doing and not doing in your daily life that either negatively or positively impacts your best self. Figuring out what best works for you is key to your successful self care progress.
Here are fourteen “daily life” suggestions for better self care, compiled with the “work from home” lifestyle in mind:
1. Get proper sleep.
It’s amazing how not getting enough sleep — or even sleeping too much — can negatively affect you. The lack of sleep is detrimental to your motor skills and physical health. Oversleeping has been linked to a host of medical problems, including diabetes, heart disease and increased risk of death.
Consult with a doctor about any sleep issues you may be experiencing, though there are some ideas for gently lulling yourself to sleep. Try blackout curtains, sleep sounds, a humidifier, relaxing scents, melatonin and other non-pharmaceutical sleep aids.
2. Better eating habits.
You don’t have to turn your diet upside down, but removing or limiting a couple of bad things
from your diet can make a huge difference. Impacts can include having more energy, experiencing better moods and an improvement in overall health.
3. Drink water.
Eliminating or at least limiting sodas and coffee, as well as high sugar drinks, is a big part of better self care. While drinking more water, add lemons and cucumber and other natural elements for taste as well as for cleansing your digestive system.
4. Take breaks.
Take breaks throughout your day. Whether you go outside for five minutes and breathe the fresh air or lay your head on a pillow for a few minutes, stop what you are doing and take a break.
Walk around, grab something to drink or a snack and give yourself a few minutes to recharge.
5. Disconnect from the internet and social media.
The internet and social media can be toxic. Take a break from it. Whether for a few hours, a day or even longer, it is okay to remove yourself from social media to give yourself a much needed breather from an overwhelming environment you can’t control. What you can control is what you allow in your space. Being online, especially on social media, opens up the possibilities of being sucked into negativity.
6. Give yourself “off hours.”
Turn your phone off at a certain time and refuse contact (unless it’s an emergency) during your “off” hours. These are hours where you are not to answer or read emails, be on social media, text, chat or interact with your fans/customers.
It’s amazing how much better you can feel by just shutting down at a certain time and taking that time for yourself.
7. Say no.
Seriously: just say no. Being a “yes” person is exhausting when you are constantly trying to do a million things at a time. Sometimes you just have to say no. You don’t need to spread yourself thin constantly trying to please everyone around you or be the hero in every situation.
8. Feeling riled up? Put yourself in a “time out.”
You don’t have to go into a literal time out, but putting distance between yourself and a bothersome stimulus, especially when you find yourself angry or highly emotional, can be a great way to recharge with positive energy rather than engage with negativity.
This is often easier said than done, but that negative energy is going to be detrimental to your overall health and business.
9. Go outside.
Get some fresh air by going outside. Enjoy the weather and nature. The fresh air will help you release any negativity and break up the monotony of the day.
10. Meditate.
Meditation allows you to take a moment to release negative energy, inviting in positive vibes only. You are focusing on yourself and mental health by meditating.
Meditation doesn’t have to be complicated or take a long while either. You can find guided meditations to listen to and hold your focus that are just a few minutes long. You can even just sit quietly by yourself, with your energy focused internally rather than externally. Mediation is multi-faceted.
11. Pamper yourself.
Pampering is what we most often associate with self care, and for good reason — pampering is fantastic! Get a pedicure or a massage or get your hair done. You will be amazed at how a few hours of pampering can make you feel refreshed and recharged.
12. Organize your space.
Organize your home office, papers, kitchen or other areas of your home. Whether it’s a messy home office, cam space, kitchen, bedroom or any area of your home, it can be quite difficult to function when you aren’t organized.
Purging old clothes and any other sort of clutter and getting your space organized will help you effectively work without feeling overwhelmed or having anxiety by not knowing where certain items are.
13. Express yourself.
Let your feelings go, and share your insight on matters you have experience and knowledge about. Or, simply release pent up aggressions and share your thoughts. You can do this via a blog or v-log or a tried-and-true diary.
Sometimes you just need to get things off your chest or release thoughts that plague your brain.
14. Make a schedule.
Schedule your day and give yourself time management goals. By doing this, you will be more organized. Knowing what you should be doing helps keep you from feeling like your life is chaotic.
Now obviously, everyone is different and unique. What may work for another may not work for you. These tips and advice are offered in an effort to create small but highly impactful changes, giving yourself more of the “you” time you need and deserve.
It is our hope that you are better able to manage daily life and professional challenges with this very useful information!
—
Kari “Platinum Puzzy” Anthony is an events trailblazer in the adult industry community. She created and organized BBWFANFEST, the first BBW niche trade and awards show recognizing plus size performers, and BBWCAMHOUSE — the first live 24-hour voyeur house filled with curvy adult stars, cam performers, dancers and more. Email her at platinumpuzzy@ynotcam.com.
Background header image via Pixabay from Pexels.
[…] Self-Care for the ‘Work From Home’ Lifestyle […]