Practical Self-care Routines

Most people assume mental health leaders have it all figured out. Truth is-we struggle too. Over the years, I’ve built real, sustainable mental wellness habits that actually help. Waking up at 5 AM to meditate? Not one of them. Here’s what I actually do: ✅ Schedule 20-minute breaks between meetings ✅ Keep a mood tracker on my phone ✅ Use Boom daily for quick check-ins ✅ Set firm boundaries—no work emails after 7 PM ✅ Practice breathing exercises during stressful moments ✅ Maintain a simple gratitude list These aren’t Instagram-perfect self-care routines. They’re small, manageable actions that keep me grounded. That’s exactly why I created @Boom because students need practical tools, not unrealistic expectations. For those late-night anxiety spirals. For the stress between classes. For when everything feels overwhelming. Mental health isn’t about grand gestures—it’s about small, consistent actions. Start there. That’s what actually works. P.S. How do you take care of your mental health? Drop your real, everyday habits below. #MentalHealthMatters #MindfulLiving #SelfCareRoutine #CollegeLife #BoomApp #SmallStepsBigImpact

I’ve slept in the emergency room, airports, and a toddler bed. Good sleep isn’t about being relaxed. It’s about having a system that works when your week doesn’t. If you’re working late, crossing time zones, or parenting through the night, you won’t get perfect sleep. But you can still recover. Here’s how I do it when things are falling apart: What Actually Works 1. Kill the light early. Overhead lights off by 9 PM. Screens dimmed. Blue light hits melatonin harder than most people think. [Gooley et al., 2011] 2. No late snacks. Eating late spikes glucose and reduces deep sleep. I stop three hours before bed. [Afaghi et al., 2007] 3. Same shutdown routine, every night. Mine starts with 15 minutes on the acupuncture mat. Then magnesium, a short book chapter, and one breathing cycle in bed. Nothing fancy. Just signals to my nervous system. 4. Don’t spiral if sleep gets interrupted. I don’t track “perfect nights.” I track sleep opportunity. Five calm hours are better than eight anxious ones. [Carskadon & Dement, 2011] 5. Outside walk first thing. No sunglasses. Early light in the eyes resets melatonin. It’s not about steps. It’s about your clock. [Khalsa et al., 2003] This is what works when life doesn’t. No pills. No perfect setups. Just structure and rhythm. If you’re navigating high-pressure weeks, this routine will hold. I wrote more about it in a recent edition of The Upward ARC. Let me know if you can't find it, and I'll share the link in the comments. #UpwardARC

Put on your own oxygen mask first. This is the rule for every caregiver. Here’s what I know about lasting care: 1. Connection starts within - You cannot pour from an empty cup - Your energy sets the tone for every patient - Self-care is not selfish, it is survival 2. Technology is your ally - Workflow tools clear the clutter - Digital planners bring order to chaos - Mindfulness and sleep apps protect your mind - Wearables remind you to pause and breathe 3. Use tools for yourself first - Test new apps on your own routine - Track your own stress, not just your patients’ - Let tech free up your time, not fill it with more tasks 4. Protect your balance - Block time for breaks, not just meetings - Set boundaries with alerts and reminders - Use digital check-ins to spot burnout early 5. Lead by example - Share your self-care wins with your team - Normalize using tech for your own wellbeing - Build a culture where care for self comes first This is not just about gadgets. It is about bringing more humanity into every moment of care. When you care for yourself, you show up better for others. That is the real power of connected care.

I just had a call with a millionaire founder. He shared with me how he'd trade every single penny to not be staring at that hospital ceiling after a recent heart attack scare. He told me he spent 20 years chasing the graph going up. Revenue. Headcount. Market share. But he ignored the graph going down. His health. It’s the "Awakening" no one wants to have. We treat our bodies like high-interest credit cards. ↳ We swipe for energy we don’t have. ↳ We swipe for late nights to hit deadlines. ↳ We swipe for missed meals and skipped sleep. We think we’re buying success. But we’re just racking up "biological debt." And unlike the bank, physiology doesn't accept a payment plan when the bailiffs finally come knocking. It forces you into bankruptcy. Total shutdown. The "Instagram Shred" isn't the goal. Consistency is. A study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine analysed over 60,000 adults. The findings were clear: it wasn't the "weekend warriors" thrashing themselves occasionally who lived longer. It was the people who maintained moderate, consistent activity over decades who reduced their mortality risk by 30%. Intensity impresses strangers on the internet. Consistency ensures you’re around to walk your daughter down the aisle. You don't need a brutal 5am regime. You need sustainable systems. Walking Drinking water Prioritising sleep 💡Thrive365 Tip: The "Bookend" Method If your calendar is a warzone, stop trying to find an hour. Find 15 minutes. ↳ Morning Bookend: 15-minute walk outside before looking at your phone. ↳ Evening Bookend: 15-minute walk to decompress before entering "family mode." That’s 30 minutes of steady-state movement daily. It resets cortisol and builds the habit without breaking the schedule. Don't wait for the hospital bed to be your wake-up call. The boring route is the one that saves your life.

Self-care isn't bubble baths and face masks. That's self-soothing. Real self-care is protection. Many get this completely wrong. (I know I did for years, and regret not understanding this better) We think self-care means: ↳ Taking a weekend off ↳ Getting a massage ↳ Buying something nice ↳ Posting about wellness But we're still: ↳ Saying yes when we mean no ↳ Checking emails at 11 PM ↳ Taking on everyone else's emergencies ↳ Avoiding difficult conversations that need to happen The result? You're exhausted by Tuesday. Your weekends become recovery time, not rest time. You snap at people you care about. You feel guilty for being tired all the time. That isn't self-care. That is damage control. You're putting band-aids on a broken system. Real self-care is preventative: Setting boundaries before you're exhausted (yes, even in demanding roles). ↳ "I don't take calls after 7 PM unless it's urgent." ↳ "That's not my area of responsibility." ↳ "I need 24 hours to review this properly." Protecting your energy like it's currency. ↳ Saying no to meetings without clear agendas ↳ Limiting time with people (even group chats) that drain you ↳ Choosing work that aligns with your goals Creating systems that work for you, not against you. ↳ Scheduling downtime like you schedule meetings ↳ Building buffers into your calendar ↳ Automating routine tasks that drain mental energy The part that is really tough: Real self-care requires disappointing people. It means saying no when yes feels easier. It means protecting your time when others want to claim it. It means choosing your wellbeing over their convenience. Stop treating yourself after the damage is done. Start protecting yourself, and those around you, before it happens ♻️ Share this with someone who needs to hear it 👉 Follow Maryann (MJ) for more on career growth and mindset 📷 Image credit: @vexking (IG)

The hottest thing in your office might not be the coffee machine. It might be a woman in perimenopause trying to survive a meeting. And the solution isn't always another workplace policy. Sometimes it's a fan that works. Permission to leave a room for five minutes. Or skipping that 3 PM coffee. Because women experiencing PMS, perimenopause, or menopause can't always wait for a boardroom decision to feel better. They need support today. When I founded NourishDoc, I realized something important: Women struggling with hot flashes, brain fog, anxiety, poor sleep, stress, and weight gain aren't asking for another 40-page wellness document. They're asking: "How do I get through my workday without feeling exhausted, distracted, and overwhelmed?" The answer is often smaller than we think. A micro-ritual. A simple habit that takes less than two minutes but can change the course of an entire day. Here is a sneakpeek at few small steps in practice that I learned after interviewing 3000+ experts… ✨ Swap the afternoon coffee for a cooling cardamom infusion to help reduce cortisol spikes and hot flash triggers. ✨ Pair healthy fats and protein with your afternoon snack to help stabilize blood sugar and prevent energy crashes. ✨ Spend 60 seconds using acupressure techniques rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine to help calm stress and support hormonal balance. ✨ Take a 2-minute guided nervous system reset between Zoom calls instead of pushing through exhaustion. For years, many of these approaches were dismissed as "alternative." So was meditation. So was workplace mindfulness. Today, they're backed by clinical research and widely adopted by employers around the world. The same scientific conversation is happening right now around Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, naturopathy, and functional medicine. Women deserve more than awareness. They deserve practical tools they can use right now. At NourishDoc, we're bringing together ancient wisdom and modern science to help women reclaim their energy, focus, confidence, and well-being—one small ritual at a time. Because sometimes the smallest habit creates the biggest shift. What's one daily ritual that helps you feel better when work gets stressful? 👇 I'd love to hear it in the comments. #WorkplaceWellbeing #MenopauseAtWork #WomenInLeadership #FunctionalMedicine #Ayurveda #NourishDoc #MenopauseAtWork #Perimenopause #Women'sHealth #WorkplaceWellbeing #HolisticHealth #HormoneHealth #FunctionalMedicine #Ayurveda #TraditionalChineseMedicine #Naturopathy #WomenInLeadership #WomenAtWork #FutureOfWork #CorporateWellness #FounderLife 

A lesson I wish I'd learned earlier 👇 Take a break before your body takes one for you. For most of my career, I treated my body like it was secondary to my business. I was running on late nights, poor recovery, and adrenaline. At some point, the standard of my work started to slip. My thinking got slower, and my decision-making skills got worse. I was optimizing everything in my business except the thing running it. Me. I'd abused my body for years.  I was performing at surface-level while running on empty underneath. So I had to sit down and get honest with myself. These are the 10 habits that changed everything: 1️⃣ Cold Plunge Protocol: 35-55°F for 2-4 minutes. Do this 3 to 5x per week. Why it matters: It exercises the same mental muscle you use to make hard calls. 2️⃣ Sauna Protocol: 160°F for 15-20 minutes. 3 to 4x per week.  Why it matters: It forces you to be still before your body forces recovery. 3️⃣ Red Light Therapy Protocol: 10-20 minutes, as an evening wind-down. Why it matters: It lowers your inflammation and helps you sleep better. 4️⃣ Intentional Reading Protocol: 10 pages minimum, morning and evening. Fiction or non-fiction.  Why it matters: The best founders I know are always learning. 5️⃣ Gluten-Free with an 80/20 Rule Protocol: Eat clean 80% of the time, and save the other 20% for social events. Why it matters: Trying to eat perfectly 100% of the time isn't sustainable. 6️⃣ Daily Walks with No Agenda Protocol: 1 walk per day (without your phone). Why it matters: Some of my best decisions happen when I give myself a break. 7️⃣ Protecting the First Hour Protocol: Don't check your emails or socials for 1 hour after waking up. Why it matters: How you start your day determines whether your day is productive or reactive. 8️⃣ Conscious Boundaries Around Alcohol Protocol: A conscious choice made knowing what it costs the next day. Why it matters: You're protecting your future self. 9️⃣ A Consistent Supplement Stack Protocol: Taken daily for energy, focus, and recovery. Why it matters: You're asking your body to perform at a high level every day. 🔟 Social Recovery Protocol: Schedule in time with people who restore your energy.  Why it matters: The people you spend time with influence your performance. None of this is groundbreaking. But most founders know what works and still don't do it. Pick 1 and do it for 2 weeks. Then tell me nothing changed. What is one daily habit that's had the biggest impact on how you perform? For more on building a business without destroying your health, Subscribe to my weekly newsletter, Four Rooms: https://lnkd.in/gUtCUYti ♻️ Repost for a founder who needs to hear this. And follow me, Amber Spears, for more on performance and sustainable scale.