a 6-part series on the dimensions of wholeness …
to activate you in your life + leadership

When the pandemic hit just one year ago, I was one of “those people” excited for mixing up the schedule a bit.

I thought that meetings in my pajamas were awesome, that clocking in more hours without ever leaving the house was going to make me unstoppable, and that Zoom meetings were fun, so fun that I’d host a weekly girls’ wine night for the first 10 weeks of quarantine.

But about 2-3 months into it all, it was no longer fun. My brain just felt … cloudy. I found myself unable to focus any time I was in an online meeting. My home life and my work life didn’t feel separated enough, so my time with my spouse wasn’t restful. And my brain felt like it was on-the-clock 24/7.

Soon, I realized that the increase of screens was impacting my mental wholeness, which was INTERCONNECTED with other areas of my life. I felt more sluggish, I felt incompatible with online worship, and I wasn’t giving my all to my relationship with my spouse.

My lack of mental wholeness was messing with every other dimension of my wholeness.

Your mental wholeness is expressed through creativity, focus, curiosity, solution-based mindset, mental preparation, and time management.

I decided to make 3 simple shifts to move my overall trajectory through creating new rhythms for mental wholeness:

FOCUS ON ONE THING AT A TIME

It’s easy – and tempting – to multi-task. It feels natural, especially if working from home, to do work while the TV is on, or check your email while your kids are talking, or watch TV while also playing Candy Crush on your phone. It’s easy to get swept up in multi-tasking. But this multitasking takes a toll on your brain, and you may struggle to know when you actually need to be fully present in a moment.

So simply: do one thing at a time. If you’re watching TV and a kid walks in to talk, mute the TV. If someone walks into your office, close your laptop. Put down your phone when someone speaks to you. Turn off the excess noise and focus on just one thing at a time.

TURN OFF OR LIMIT DEVICES

Screens fry every bit of our brain cells.* I’m convinced. (*not real science)

Taking breaks and coming up for air to be with family & friends in real life does wonders for our mental wholeness. It may start with setting limits on apps on your phone, or no work after a certain time, or limiting the amount of TV you watch. Whatever you decide, give your eyes and your brain a break.

TAKE A BRAIN BREAK

You might find it fun to binge podcasts and books and absorb knowledge like water, but it becomes all-too-easy to idolize knowledge and forget about real life and what it requires. Take a step away from the mental gym and do something that gives you joy and stretches you relationally or creatively. Go for a walk, try out a new recipe, have a dance party, paint or knit, play a board game, do something that is creative and fun to give your tired brain a break.

What can you do in the next 24-hours to increase your mental wholeness? Be specific. Write it down. Tell a friend. Then, DO IT, sister.

Interested in joining a coaching group with a sisterhood of other women?

New groups are forming this year to help you take your life and leadership to a whole new level as you deliberately pursue wholeness in every dimension.