Ep. 94 - Why Protecting Your Mental Health Matters: Here are 5 Ways I Protect Mine!

You can be strong, capable, and successful and still be running on empty. I’m Keila Aldea, a licensed therapist, and I’m sharing the real-life habits I rely on to protect my mental health so I can show up clearly for my clients and still have energy for my own life. If you’re a busy mom, a caregiver, or someone with a high-stress job, these practices are designed to feel doable, not overwhelming.

We start with the habit that quietly runs the whole system: sleep. I talk about why a consistent sleep schedule becomes a nonnegotiable, how routines help your brain power down, and why many of us have to look at our evenings to figure out what’s stealing rest. From there, we move into caring for the body through daily movement like walking, strength training, stretching, and the kind of nutrition choices that support energy, gut health, and focus without chasing perfection.

Then we get practical about mindfulness and nervous system regulation without making it complicated. I share how single-tasking, mindful eating, and simple pause moments can lower overwhelm and help you feel present again. We also talk about slow mornings, taking your lunch break, protecting weekends, and giving yourself permission to use PTO for appointments or rest when you need it, because disappointing yourself to please everyone else never pays off.

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Transcript

Welcome And Why Healing Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Hello and welcome to the She Can Heal Podcast, a podcast aimed at helping women heal and thrive emotionally, physically, and spiritually. I am your host, Kayla El Dia. I'm a licensed therapist and a self-care advocate that is passionate about helping women take back their power and help them realize they're important, worthy, and deserve the care and attention they give to those they love most in their lives. This show is meant to help inspire you on your healing journey, no matter if you're in the discovery phase and are just realizing that you have unhealed wounds, habits, and mindsets that are keeping you stuck in your life, or you've been on this journey for a while and are looking for inspiration, encouragement, andor new tools to help you continue on your healing journey. My goal is to help you realize that you can heal from all that life has thrown at you and are capable of evolving into your healthiest and happiest version. On this show, I will provide you with resources, tools, and insights to help you heal and thrive emotionally, physically, and spiritually because you deserve all of that. So if you're ready to ditch the guilt and make yourself a priority, then you're in the right place. Because the truth is that you can't pour from an empty cup, even though most of us do this on a regular, and we really need to stop that nonsense. So get ready to be inspired, motivated, and equipped to truly thrive. Hello and welcome back to another episode on the She Can Heal podcast. No matter when you're listening to this episode, I hope that it finds you well, that you are enjoying. I know right now it's summer, so I hope that you're enjoying your summer, or if you are listening to this later in the future, that you are enjoying whatever season you are in. And in today's episode, I'm gonna be sharing five ways that I protect my mental health as a therapist because I think it's important to see how other people prioritize their mental health and their peace, especially those of us who um work in a field that can be highly stressful. So if you are a person that has a highly stressful job or you have a highly stressful um life just because you're

Why Stress Requires Daily Habits

SPEAKER_00 2:15

a busy mom, like most of us are, you're a busy career person, whatever it is, this could be helpful to you just so that you can understand that when it comes to mental health and protecting our peace, that really it's the little things. It's the little things, the habits that we do every single day consistently, and also the permissions that we give ourselves. So many of us don't give ourselves permission to prioritize ourselves, to take back some of our time just because we are moms and we have so many responsibilities that sometimes, not sometimes, a lot of times, we put ourselves on the back burner. And I know this very clearly because I raised two boys, although they are adults and I am an empty nester. I do know what it's like to raise kids, I know what it's like to be constantly on the go and having so many different responsibilities. And of course, like I always say, our lives look differently, but I wanted to give you a peek into just the way that I take care of myself and the things that I do to really prioritize my mental health here in this phase of my life, and a lot of them are gonna be just normal day-to-day habit that we really have to prioritize. And these are habits that I've learned need to happen because if they don't, then I do find myself more stressed. I do find myself not feeling great. And as a therapist, my job is to show up for the clients that I'm seeing. And if I'm not good and if I am not taking care of myself, then I can't do my job efficiently, and that is not fair to my clients. So most of the time on my day-to-day, it's what I have to remind myself is that being in this profession, I truly have to do my own work because if I'm not okay, if I'm not doing what I need to do in order to be functioning at a good place, then I'm doing a disservice to my clients. This is the same thing that I usually tell my the moms that I work with, right? It's that if we're not taking care of ourselves, if we're not doing even the basic necessities, the basic habits to really feel good, that we then can show up as the mom that our children need, have the energy that we need, have the focus that we need, and also be in a place that we can be present with our kids. Because many times as busy moms, we just aren't present. We don't have the capacity, the energy to really just sit with our kids and be with them in whatever it is that they are experiencing, right? This is where we might get upset and might get irritated, might get frustrated, and might dismiss them because not because we don't care, but because we just don't have the capacity. I am burnt out, I am at a zero right now. I just don't have it in me to give you what you need right now. So this is important for any of us. So again, this is the way that I take care of myself right now, and I'm gonna go into five different areas that I usually focus on when it comes to my self-care and just taking care of me. All right, so we're gonna start with number one, and number one is prioritizing sleep. And with this area, number one is I have always been the type of person that needs sleep. Like I prioritize my sleep because I truly need that sleep. I need to have those seven to eight hours of sleep so that I know that this is what makes me feel the best. If I have less than that, I just don't function well.

Sleep As The Nonnegotiable Base

SPEAKER_00 5:49

And I know everyone's different, but for me, this is something that I have to prioritize. This is something that is a non-negotiable for me. So, what does that look like? For me, it is I have a sleep routine that is consistent, that does not waver at all, unless any circumstances that come up. But my sleep routine is by 10 p.m., I am in the bed and I sleep all the way to 6 a.m. And what that means is that that gives me those eight hours of sleep, and I really don't play with that. Like this is my routine, and this is what works for me, and my body already is used to it. So by 10 p.m., like my body is already tired, sometimes even before 10 p.m. And waking up at 6 a.m. I would say like 6 to 6 30 is like my usual because you know nobody's perfect, and so I try to get myself up, you know, before 6 30 so that I can have enough time for the morning. But having a sleep routine, a consistent sleep like schedule is so important, and for me, it is one of the things that is a non-negotiable, and I try to keep this routine even on the weekends. I might go to sleep just a little later, but I try not to go too off my routine because I don't want my brain and my body to then get used to that, and so I usually on the weekends try to really sleep or close to 10 p.m. unless, like I said, something happens, but I really try to keep that pretty similar. Um, but I do sleep a little more because I do not wake up at 6 a.m. Because, like I said, I love sleep, so I'll usually wake up around between 8 and 9 a.m. And that gives me a good amount of sleep. So I personally need to have my seven to eight hours of sleep. I prioritize that, and it absolutely helps me feel my best. Like I said, if I don't get eight hours or seven hours of sleep, I just notice that I don't like I don't have the same amount of energy, I just don't feel as clear. I'm I'm very grateful that I don't have a problem with sleep because I know that's a big, big issue for a lot of people. Um, sleep is definitely one of the things that comes up, you know, especially when I'm working with clients, I am assessing their habits as one of the things that comes up over and over and over is sleep. So I personally am grateful that I don't have a sleeping problem. But one of the things that I do use is a supplement called magnesium. Magnesium is a supplement that is highly recommended by by a lot of different professionals, and it has so many benefits. But one of the benefits is it really does help you to sleep better, and so I even if I don't have magnesium, I don't have a problem with it, but I use magnesium for a lot of other benefits. But part of that is just to have better sleep, and so sleep is definitely something that I prioritize, it is a non-negotiable and it is just part of me protecting myself, my health, my my mental health, and just the way that I show up for myself and as a therapist, just being have a clear mind and being able to just really be a more present therapist. Okay, so let's move on to number two. And number two is taking care of my body. So, as far as just feeling good as a person, feeling energetic, just feeling good in my body, feeling healthy, feeling strong, taking care of my body is another non-negotiable. So that means that I try to strive to go on daily walks, just move my body in any way that I can. So, daily walks is definitely something that I strive for every day. I try to go for try to get

Move Your Body And Eat Better

SPEAKER_00 9:27

enough steps, eight to nine thousand steps is what I usually go for. And this really helps me just to stay active, just to keep my body feeling good and flexible and not feel so tense and seditary. Seditary is definitely something that does not help us feel good, does not make help our health. So, definitely moving my body and having an exercise routine. So, again, really just lifting weights and just making sure that my body is healthy, that it's strong, that it's mobile. So, being active is an absolute non negotiable for me. But I will say this that I do listen to my body, and what that means is that there's gonna be days where my body is asking for more movement. Maybe it's because I've had a stressful day. For instance, if I have a pretty stressful situation, either I had a pretty heavy session with a client or something's happening, one of the ways that I really take care of myself and make myself feel better is by moving my body. And so that means that that's when I will go for a 10-minute walk, or maybe that's when after work I will go and do a workout in the gym or at home, you know, and that usually makes me feel so much better because it helps my muscles to feel more relaxed, and just moving your body and exercising, exercising does create those feel-good endorphins, and so anytime that I feel stressed or I feel tense, moving my body will always be it. So either that is going for a walk, go ahead and exercising, or even doing some type of a stretching routine to just relieve my body. But honestly, it is the it the important part here is that I listened to my body before. This was not something that I did, and I definitely experienced a lot more ailments, stomach issues, and a lot more anxiety and stress. But now I've been able to really not only include it as a normal daily habit, which is just preventative, right? So I already do this regularly, so I'm already on top of that. But also, if I am feeling stressed or if I'm feeling any type of discomfort in my body, I do give myself that movement so that I can feel better and I don't have to walk around holding on to all that tension and stress because that doesn't make you feel good, and it doesn't, it's not good for your energy either. And sometimes it's just me striving to hit certain goals or using tools, like I have an Apple Watch, and so one of the things that I strive for is meeting three of the rings on my watch, which is calories burned, it is exercise or movement for 30 minutes, and it's there is a standing goal, meaning that every hour I am actually moving my body, even if it's for one or two minutes, and I'm not sitting down, staying sitting for long periods of time, and that's a good indicator for me that I'm doing well. Again, sometimes I don't reach my exercise goal or I don't reach my calorie burn goal. It's very rare because nowadays I'm more intentional about it, but again, maybe those are the days where I'm feeling a little more tired and I just need a little more rest, and that's fine. I don't use it as something to criticize myself. The other thing about taking care of my body is eating healthier foods. So I know that when I eat healthier foods, my body feels better, I have more energy, I just feel good overall. And again, I'm not perfect, I don't, I'm not a clean eater like a hundred percent, but I really strive to try to meet some markers, such as like eating a certain amount of protein, and fiber is a big one for especially women, making making sure that I'm eating enough fiber has really helped me to feel better, especially with my gut health, and try as much as possible to reduce the amount of unhealthy foods that can really make me feel bad. So I know that certain foods will make me feel more tired, lethargic, belly aches, and then you just don't feel good because what happens in your body does affect your mind. And so if I am not feeling good because I ate something that just was not healthy and it just made me feel kind of bloated and inflamed and all of that, I'm gonna feel more tired. I'm not gonna wanna be as active as I am, and also my focus is going to be off as well. I'm not gonna be as calm if I would be if I ate something more healthier. So again, it's just prioritizing, it's making intentional goals about what you want your life to look like. And so for me, moving my body and eating healthier options is just something that truly I've decided to adapt as lifestyle, and it has really helped me just to feel so much better. Like I have more energy, my body just feels better. I'm not as bloated and as discomfort as I used to be when I used to eat a lot of just foods that weren't really good for me. And so for me, this is part of my daily self-care routine. This is part of what I do to help myself to feel good, to remain good, and to show up the best way that I can. Again, we're not perfect. This is not about being perfect, and I will assure you that I am not a perfect person and I do not do things perfectly every day, is going to be different. And there are days where I, for whatever reason, just make poor choices. Maybe I'm not as active as I would like to be, but it's not a consistent thing. Consistently on a daily basis, my intention is always to take care of me, take care of my body, and do the things that make me feel good, and that includes taking care of my body through movement and eating healthier options. Okay, number three is practicing mindfulness, and mindfulness is something that I learned many years ago, and when I first learned about mindfulness, it truly was something that I didn't understand. And especially when you're someone that has been in survival mode for so long and you're constantly on the go, go, go, when someone talks to you about something that challenges that in the beginning, it could be kind of hard of saying, What do you mean I need to slow down? What do you mean I need to just pause? What do you mean I need to focus on this? What do you mean I can't multitask? Right? Because that's just how I function. But when I learned about what this looks like, and I learned about the benefits and how it helps us to feel present and more connected to ourselves and our world, and it really does help you to feel so much calmer, your nervous system's more regulated, you start to really

Mindfulness Without The Woo

SPEAKER_00 16:17

understand why this is something that we all should be practicing. And the truth is that, especially busy moms, busy women, we're always constantly on the go, go, go. And if no one tells you to slow down, if nobody pauses you and says, Hey, why don't you take it easy? Why don't you slow it down? Why don't you just focus on eating your lunch or why don't you just eat and leave that for later? It's not something that you normally do. Again, when someone brings this up to you, you challenge it because it's not something that you're used to doing. And because we're taught that in order for you to be successful, in order for you to do everything you need to do, you constantly have to be busy. And the truth is that that is very, very wrong. The truth is that we function our best when we are taking care of our needs, and mindfulness really is just giving yourself those little moments to really focus on what's really happening versus being so distracted with everything around you. And mindfulness really just means that you're paying attention to the present moment, you're giving your full attention to what you're doing in this moment, and so some of the ways that I do this, I've learned to eat mindfully. So I've learned that when it's time to eat, I just eat most of the time, right? Again, I'm not perfect, but when it's time to eat, I'm just gonna eat. I'm going to just focus on eating my lunch, eating my breakfast without having all these types of distractions. For example, I do not eat while I drive, right? I usually just have my lunch or my breakfast quietly, and I'm just focusing that. This can also include mindful pausing, meaning, again, sometimes you just need to take that pause to just notice how am I feeling, how am I doing, and what's happening. You know, so again, mindfulness just really means like do one thing at a time. And yes, it's going to be different because this is not what we're used to, but also it actually helps us so much more because number one, you're not feeling overwhelmed because you're trying to do too many things at once. You're giving yourself the space to just focus on what it is that you're doing. For example, if you are eating and multitasking, you're not paying attention to what your food really tastes like, you're not really paying attention to the texture, you're not really enjoying this part of your day. You're just eating to eat while you are doing other things. Maybe you are working, maybe you are driving, maybe you are, you know, talking or doing whatever it is, and before you know it, you are your food is gone and you don't even remember eating it or you don't remember what it tasted like. And that's just something that we shouldn't have to do, right? And again, mindful eating could just be 10-15 minutes of you mindfully just eating your food, and also it's really good for your digestive system, it's good for so many reasons. So if you are eating fast while you're doing something that's not gonna feel good in your gut, is actually gonna cause you to have some type of digestive digestive pain or discomfort versus just taking it easy, taking it slow, taking slow bites, taking just taking it, slowing it down, can be so much better, not only for your mind, but for your body as well. And mindful pausing or just being present, like doing things one at a time. So, for instance, if you are doing something like maybe you are cleaning your car, or maybe you are listen reading a book or like listening to an audiobook, it's really just focusing on that, focusing on just that activity that you're doing. And again, this is not saying that I do this all the time, but it is being mindful of sometimes it could be something like I'm feeling really rushed today, or I'm feeling kind of a little bit stressed. So I'm gonna intentionally I'm gonna slow it down. So that means that if I am writing an email, I'm just gonna focus on writing an email. I'm not gonna allow myself to get distracted to then listen, you know, do something else, which happens a lot. It is mindfully saying, it is mindfully saying, I'm just gonna be doing this, I'm just going to be writing this email, or I'm just gonna focus on this phone call because you know how we are. Our brain just wants to do all the things, and this can actually make you feel so much calmer, it can make you feel more focused, and you just feel good overall. So it's something that I definitely have started to incorporate into my life for the last couple of years, and it has really been really helpful to give myself permission that it's okay to slow down, that it's okay just to focus on this, and that other thing I will get to afterwards. That other thing I will get to it, but right now this needs my full attention, and that could be myself. That means I'm going for this walk and I'm not gonna answer those phone calls because I'm just focusing on me right now, or it could be a task that you're doing, like writing an email, or even like reading a book, anything like that, because the brain is not used to just doing one thing, so it wants you to do all these different things, and our job is to help to train it that it's okay just to do one thing, and you're gonna feel so much better. All right, so moving on, another thing that I do to really help me just feel calm and just take care of my peace and my mental health is I have slow mornings, and what that means is that I don't jump out of bed and just get into doing all the things like going and taking a shower and prepping my lunch and doing all that. I like to give myself some time in the morning just for me, and so that means that instead of jump getting up and jumping into all the to dos, I have learned that I need to take care of me before I start getting into anything, and that every day looks different, but most of the What that means is that I'll get up and I will do things that are helpful for me. So that might mean I get up and maybe I'll drink a cup of water. I'll sit down and I'll do my little journaling, my little habit tracking. I might read something, I might do some breath work. Any of those kinds of things

Slow Mornings That Calm Your Day

SPEAKER_00 22:18

are really helpful. And again, everything is different, everyone's different, everyone has different practices, but these are the practices that helps me. And this is something that I learned to do many years ago when we kind of just were home a lot. And I learned that I had no morning rituals. Like I did exactly what I said in the beginning. I used to get up late because I never was on time. And I used to be rushing in the morning. I used to rush to take a shower. I used to rush, throw whatever I can for lunch, and I used to rush out the door to get to work. And a lot of times I would be late. And so I realized that I don't have any morning routines or rituals. And because I had more time, I was able to establish those rituals. I was able to wake up and instead of rushing into everything, I was able to sit down and have my cup of coffee. I started journaling. I even started doing meditation and just different things like that. And it made me feel so much better that when I started to work out of the home, I had to train myself to wake up earlier so that I can still give myself that time because it became part of my routine. So when I was working from home, it was easier because I didn't have to run and travel time and all of that. But then when I started working outside of the home, and that included a 30-minute commute, I knew that I did not want to get up and just get ready for work because these practices I relied on now. Now they were part of my routine, and I needed that time in the morning to put down my thoughts, to have some presence before I go ahead and did that. And so I learned that in order to do that, I had to get up maybe 30 minutes earlier. So instead of getting up at 7 a.m. for my normal day when I worked from home, I had to wake up at least by 6 30. So that way I had those 30 minutes just for me. And I felt more calmer in my body and I didn't feel stressed. So when I was ready to get ready for work, I've already filled up my cup. I've already done something just for me. And that is something that continues on to this day. So I wake up again around 6 a.m. I give myself like 30 minutes to journal, to do something just for me, to drink my water, to drink my coffee nice and quietly before I go ahead and take a shower and get ready for the day. And this is another non-negotiable for me. It is something that I make sure that I do unless something happens where I can't do it. And I notice that when that happens, it doesn't make me feel good. So for instance, like maybe on a weekend, we have to get up early because we're gonna go do something that we need to be there earlier for. And I don't wake up early enough to do my little just time for me in the morning. It doesn't make me feel good. And so it's something that I prioritize, and it is absolutely something that helps me to feel good, to feel connected to myself, and just giving yourself that time in the morning, it just makes you feel like I'm prioritizing me before anything else. I'm gonna start with just taking care of me before I go ahead and take care of other people or go and do a job there where I'm working with other people. This is just something that you can do for yourself. It's like a message that you send yourself like, Yes, I am important and I'm gonna prioritize myself because if I don't, then I'm not gonna feel good and then my day doesn't work out as well as I would like. All right, so we're moving on to the last one, and the last one is kind of similar to what I was just talking about, making time for me. But this one means I am prioritizing what's important to me, and it is just the self-care part of this. Caring for the self is absolutely important, and what that means is, and this is what it looks like for me making time for me means that I prioritize important appointments. Where, for example, if I have a physical, if I have a dental appointment, it had if I don't feel good, right? That I take care of that no matter what. So that means that I use my PTO time, I use my sick time to attend appointments again to take a day where I'm not feeling my best. Because what's the point of me trying to show up for people when I am like at a 10%? Doesn't make sense, right? How can I help you if I'm not helping myself? And so I say this because I

Appointments Lunch Breaks And Boundaries

SPEAKER_00 26:41

know that this is an area where a lot of women struggle. A lot of women professionally and people that I see for therapy and all of that, like we just have a really hard time of prioritizing ourselves and putting ourselves first. Like, I can't take this day off because I have to help this person that day. Maybe it's a client that you have to see, or maybe you don't want to put a let your boss down, or you don't want to disappoint someone. And so you disappoint yourself. Does that make sense? Absolutely not. So I've learned myself, like, I'm not doing that. I'm not gonna disappoint myself or someone else, especially if it doesn't make sense to do so. So, yes, I attend appointments, I will take my PTO days, I will reschedule people that I have to see, I will do what I have to do because that's important to me. Another one I do is I take my lunch breaks. Yes, that's another non-negotiable for me. And I say this again because how many times do I talk to women who do not take their lunch breaks? They say they don't have time to take their lunch breaks because they have too much work, or it's frowned upon at their job to take their lunch break, or they schedule work meetings during their lunch break. You know, so there's all these things that we do, and something as simple as just taking your lunch break is just that. So I prioritize my lunch break. I make sure that I take I'm grateful that I get a whole hour at my job and I take advantage of that. That's when I go for my walks, that's where I'll sit, depending on the weather. That's where I'll sit at the park and I'll eat my lunch there. That's where I'll listen to my audiobooks. Sometimes that's when I might go to TJ Maxx and just browse just to like again distract your mind from your work day. So lunch breaks are a non-negotiable, and I think everyone should be taking them because it is exactly that. It is giving your mind and your body a break from being on the go, go, go at your job. So giving yourself those intentional breaks that we really need is important. Giving myself so weekends is another one. I intentionally do not schedule anything that has to do with work on the weekends. I try to, even if I have to jam my Monday through Friday with different work-related things like client sessions and just other things, I try not to do that on the weekends unless there's no other way and I have to do it. But I try to give myself the weekends just for me, meaning I do the things that make me feel good. I have slow days, I do things that I enjoy, I do all those types of things on the weekends and I leave most of my work Monday through Friday, which again just helps me because now I can start the weekend and I'm like, this is just for me. I'm done with work, I don't have to think about it. And the other part is I give myself a break whenever I need it. My husband calls me the break queen. And yes, I have gotten really good at saying my body just needs 10 minutes to just sit and just be because I've been on the go, go, go, go, go. Sometimes that means right after work, where I that transition going from work to home. I personally need a little bit of that transition period so that I'm not jumping into cooking dinner and doing all the things. Um, so that might just be after work. I'll go for a walk with my my dog, or I might just sit down and have a snack, or I might just sit down, drink some water, um, change out of my clothes, and just kind of take a minute. And again, that doesn't mean I'm lazy, it doesn't mean that I don't I'm not motivated to do whatever. It just means that that's what I need for my body in order to feel good. I know everyone's different, these different things, and so again, this is just mine. This is what I do. I need to take those intentional pauses, I need to take those mindful breaks throughout my day so that I'm not pushing myself over my limit. And again, I can feel good, I'm not stressing myself out. Again, this is part of me just being more intentional and checking in with myself. Again, if I'm feeling tense, if I'm feeling stressed, if I'm feeling tired, I pause and I ask myself, what do I need right now? And then I go ahead and I give it to myself. So those are the five ways that I take care of myself. I prioritize sleep, I take care of my body, I practice mindfulness, I have slow mornings, and I make time just for me. This is what keeps me feeling good, showing up as my best self in all that I do, especially working as a therapist. It's just me knowing that I'm important and I need to charge my battery if I want to really help others. I would encourage you to do the same. I would encourage you to do an inventory, assess yourself, and say to yourself, what do I do to take care of myself? And if you are noticing that this is an area of weakness or an area that needs to improve on, I would just suggest like really focusing on those fundamental habits like sleep, eating, you know, really focusing on how do I show up day to day, because that's gonna be really important.

Do A Self-Care Inventory

SPEAKER_00 31:46

If you're the type of person that notices that they don't get enough sleep, that might be an area for you to really think about. For example, I go to sleep at 12 and I have to be up by six. Now you're having six hours of sleep, and you notice that this is something that really affects your energy during the day. This might be something you might want to work on and you might want to think about what's a good or a better sleep schedule and what do I need to change in order to make that happen? Because if I'm going to sleep at 12 a.m., what is happening in my evening? What am I using that time for that I'm not allowing myself to go to sleep earlier? And for a lot of moms, that means this is when I do a lot of the cleaning and the prep work. And again, I'm not telling you not to do that. I'm just telling you if it's not working for you, meaning you're not getting enough sleep, which then affects how much energy affects how you feel, then maybe we need to just shift that around a little bit. And I want you to like look at all the different areas of your life and see what are some things that you can implement, what are some things that maybe you need to revisit them, right? Maybe you say to yourself, you know what, this is a reminder that I used to have a morning routine. I used to wake up and journal, and I used to do some yoga. And you know what? I haven't done that in a long time, and I remember that was really helpful. It made me feel so good, and I felt so much more relaxed. And maybe I need to revisit that and go back to that. And that might just mean I have to look at my morning routine. That was something that I did because I was able to wake up 30 minutes earlier, so maybe I need to revisit that. Maybe I need to wake up 30 minutes earlier so that way I can do that yoga in the morning, or maybe it is something that you like to do in the evenings to really just help you distress from the day. So maybe that means after work, I can go ahead and take a walk by myself for like 30 minutes just to unwind, listen to a favorite audiobook, and that could be something that I do again to transition from home. So now I have the energy and I can do all the things I need to do with my family. So again, this is just a reminder that again, we all have different lives, but it's really what you do with the time that you have that makes a difference. So, yes, we're all busy, yes, you have a lot of priorities, but also you're important too. And if you're not filling your cup, if you're not doing the things that energizes you and makes you feel good and ready to tackle everything that you have, then that might just mean something that needs to change. We need to really learn how to take care of ourselves. We really learn, learn how to prioritize ourselves in any way that you can. And I'm not saying that you have to do all the things, I'm saying look at your life, look at your schedules, and what tweaks can you make so that you can feel a little better in your day. So I will leave you there and I would suggest that if you have a friend, send this episode to her, help her understand that taking care of ourselves does not have to be these big monumental things, but also this could be the inspiration to help her understand that hey, wait a minute. Like that reminds me of these things that I used to do, or that reminds me that she's right. Like, I can give myself this extra few minutes in the morning, or I can give myself that little extra boost, or I should prioritize my sleep, or whatever it is. So, thank you so much for listening, and I will talk to you next week. Take care. Thank you so much for joining this conversation today. I hope this episode was helpful to you on your healing journey. Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode packed with valuable tips and insights designed to empower you. If you found value in this episode, I'd be so grateful if you left me a review wherever you're listening from and share your thoughts and feedback. This really helps me to reach more women just like you. Thanks for listening.