My 5 core wellness strategies for women leaders
Tennis shoes, visor, walk, breathe
REPEAT DAILY
Back in 2019, I saw a picture of myself.
I couldn’t recognize me. My youngest child had just turned one, and I didn’t have a clear identity, because my role of “mother” had taken over so much of who I was at the time. I knew that life has different stages, but deep in this stage I had a moment of pause – shock, really – and I had to ask myself some hard questions.
The last time I had asked myself what I wanted from my life was before I became a mother (four years ago at the time) – and being a mother is what I had wanted! But I had lost track of my story and was trying to juggle too many things without a clear focus. In all the roles I had, I wasn’t able to show up as my best. And that had taken a toll.
I know from my own experience and having talked with many of you leaders – especially leaders who are mothers – that we can find ourselves in survival mode, just trying to get to the end of the day. And what I’ve learned is that you have to take care of yourself first to be the best at work and at home. Which is hard for us as women to feel okay about!
I hope my journey and these 5 strategies for wellness give you inspiration to evaluate and take action for your overall health, work, and leadership. It’s so worth it!
Why health matters to your leadership practice
The people we lead are looking to us for more than leadership at work. They’re looking at how we live our lives and our capacity for taking care of ourselves and the people in our care.
Ask yourself:
Is my health and energy holding me back from being the best leader to my team members?
Is my health and energy holding me back from being able to be present to my family and friends in my off hours at home?
What you need for your leadership practice is a clear and calm mind – when your blood sugar goes up and down, when you’re operating with sleep debt, when you’re internalizing stress, it’s going to come out in your words and presence and attitude.
That said…
5 practical strategies to help you prioritize your wellness as a leader
Managing time and energy as a leader (especially when you’re a mom, too!) can feel impossible and add to our stress levels. I hope my journey helps simplify the process of making the changes you need to be the best leader you can be!
#1 – The conscious pause
Take a look at #2-5 and give yourself a 1-5 rating across each of the four areas. For me, all of them were poor – somewhere between a 1 and 3. Every single one. I listed this as strategy #1 because change starts with awareness and self-assessment… and self-assessment is something you’ll want to make a regular habit of doing.
Questions to ask yourself in this conscious pause:
Who am I?
Am I doing what I want to be doing?
How am I doing at the things I want to be doing?
What changes do I need to make to upgrade my life and leadership?
I actually make a quarterly meeting with myself for this self-evaluation and put it in my calendar as an unbreakable meeting!
#2 – Sleep
My nighttime routine starts at 11am.
Because I go to bed on the earlier side, I limit my caffeine intake to the morning hours, and have roughly 3 cups of coffee a week vs. 1-2/day.
I resist falling asleep on the sofa.
I developed a going-to-bed routine and I stick to that routine. (Something I learned from having kids!) One thing I’ll do is rub some lavender essential oil into the palm of my hands and take three deep breaths with my hands cupped over my nose before I get into bed.
I set a daily M-F alarm for 5:20am and aim to get in bed by 10pm.
I don’t sleep with my phone on my bedside table – and I don’t touch or look at it within 20 minutes of getting into bed.
#3 – Nutrition
I’ve learned to see nutrition as the primary way of maintaining energy throughout the day – food is my energy provider!
I’m intentional about eating carbs, grains, and nuts throughout my day to maintain my energy levels (this has helped reduce my dependency on caffeine).
I prioritize protein – you probably need a lot more protein than you think you do. I try to aim for a minimum of 100g daily.
#4 – Stress management
For me, my belly tells me when I’m stressed out. And my skin starts breaking out. The stress we carry inside us is going to leak out somehow! When I was feeling like a shadow of myself in all the aspects of all the roles I had (wife, mother, leader, friend, daughter…), just the feeling of failing took a huge toll!
Things that helped quickly turn down my stress levels:
A routine
Mindfulness
Morning movement
#5 – Movement
We all know we need movement in our life. For me, this looks like:
Exercise first thing every morning. It helps me feel like I’ve accomplished something early in the day and sets me up for a productive and positive day. This may include a walk, hike, weight training, yoga, pilates or stretching.
Doing activities I enjoy – I have a long history with dance and yoga and try to incorporate movements that bring me joy and that my body craves.
Getting some sunlight throughout the day with short walks and stretch breaks away from my desk.
As women, we can’t push hard every day of the month, so cycle-tuning your workouts can do wonders for reducing your stress. Having a low-stress workout like walking, yoga, or dancing that can be your go-to when you’re lower on energy can help you find movement that refreshes instead of depletes.
Final encouragement:
Start with one thing. It’s taken me 5 years to adapt my practices across all these areas to things that work for me. One thing at a time!
What’s the hardest one for you? What’s your area of greatest stress? Tell me on LinkedIn!
Lead the way,
PS – If you want to keep learning about women’s wellness, I share resources & more in my monthly newsletter. You can subscribe here →
