7 Ways to Improve Your Health as a Care Manager

Being a Care Manager is stressful. Everything from the day to day operations to the marketing decisions lies all on your shoulders. It becomes very easy to push aside your own health in order to continue fostering the health of your business. You may find yourself saying things like…

“I’ll skip that walk today..”

“I don’t have time to eat lunch..”

“I’ll skip my 10 minute meditation so I can hop on that call..”

We’ve all done it. We prioritize work as more important than our own health. When you add in a pandemic to the mix, the stress levels rise and you push things that will improve your health to the side even more. 

Numbers don’t lie. From 2020, there was a 1000 percent increase in texts to the Federal Government Mental Health Hotline (Firozi, 2020). Based on polls that were done, nearly half of respondents felt that COVID-19 was impacting their mental health (Achenback, 2020). 

From this data, it’s obvious that everyone needs to focus on their physical and mental health in order to continue to grow their business. 

In this month’s blog post, we are going to focus on the top 7 ways to improve your health as a Care Manager.

1) Remember Your Why

Most Care Managers began their business for a specific reason but as time goes on and stress levels increase, it becomes easy to lose focus of what the original goal was. Take time to reconnect with the reason why you started your business. For some, it could be to have the flexibility of working from home so you can have a better work-life balance. But if you haven’t taken a lunch break in the last six months or done some mid-day yoga like you had planned, you need to go back to the drawing board to reassess things. 

Taking the time to analyze your initial goals vs. what your life and business has turned into, will help you to prioritize what is important and how you should structure your business and time differently.

2) Seek Inspiration From Challenges 

Everyone can agree that 2020-2021 has faced us with uniquely difficult challenges. Most individuals have had to pivot to overcome barriers that were presented to them. Studies show that those who are able to find optimistic outlooks through stressful times, have a higher quality of life, from physical well-being to mental health (Conversano, et al 2010). Finding inspiration during challenging times pushes you to problem solve and become adaptable to change; which fosters your business and decreases your stress level. 

3) Check In On Your Mental Health With Journaling

Journaling has been found to have amazing effects on people. It can help to evoke mindfulness and help you get in touch with your emotions. After a long day, you may have thoughts and emotions bundled up. By writing them down, you’re able to organize your thoughts, release any negative emotions, and you will be able to see a positive impact on your overall mood. 

4) Develop Self-Care Routines

2020 presented many obstacles to performing regular self-care routines. For some, it could mean not being able to go to the gym. For others, it meant not getting their nails done. It’s important to find ways around the obstacles. If your work-out routines have been impacted, find alternatives such as taking a walk while you’re on a conference call or blocking 20 minutes in your day to do a yoga class on YouTube. Find a new schedule and routine that works for you!

5) Eat a Healthy Diet

Having a healthy diet is extremely important as an entrepreneur. It will help to improve your memory, mood and overall drive. The biggest struggle for people is finding the time to cook healthy meals. One way to deal with this is to meal prep and to make big batches and separate it into small containers for the entire week. Another option is to order a meal service that delivers to you. This is a more expensive option but if you’re pressed for time and continue eating unhealthy foods, this could help to solve this problem for you. Check out some healthy meal delivery options below!

Freshly: https://www.freshly.com/

Daily Harvest: https://bit.ly/3q26Q9b

6) Get More Sleep

According to the CDC, more than a third of Americans are not getting enough sleep on a regular basis (CDC, 2020). Getting a lack of sleep impacts your mood, your interactions with others and your cognitive abilities. If you’re having negative interactions and not able to stay on top of things like you should, your business will ultimately suffer. It’s important that you’re getting 7-8 hours per night of sleep so that you can function at your best. 

When you’re short on sleep, your interactions with staff and clients can suffer. It can also be difficult to make smart, level-headed decisions about your company. Shoot for eight hours a night, or as close as you can get. Some days and weeks are busier than others, but avoid falling into a routine in which you’re consistently trying to get by on as little sleep as possible.

7) Set Firm Boundaries

Work-life balance can be challenging for Care Managers. Where do you draw the line? Lines can feel especially blurred when you’re working from home and there is no true office door to close to your day. In order to be the best at your job, it’s important to establish clear boundaries for yourself. This could mean not responding to emails past a certain time every day so that you can focus on your mental health or family. By setting firm boundaries for yourself, you will feel less burnt out and feel more excited about work. 

Let us know in the thread below if you have any tips for improving your health!

Sources: 

Achenback, Joel. (2020). Coronavirus is harming the mental health of tens of millions of people in U.S., new poll finds. Retrieved from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/coronavirus-is-harming-the-mental-health-of-tens-of-millions-of-people-in-us-new-poll-finds/2020/04/02/565e6744-74ee-11ea-85cb-8670579b863d_story.html

The Centers for Disease Control (2020). 1 in 3 adults don’t get enough sleep

Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2016/p0215-enough-sleep.html

Conversano, Ciro; Rotondo, Alessandro; Lensi, Elena; Vista, Olivia; Arpone, Francesca; Reda, Mario. (2010). Optimism and Its Impact on Mental and Physical Well-Being Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2894461/

Windfield-Cunningham, Paige. (2020). The Health 202: Texts to federal government mental health hotline up roughly 1,000 percent. Retrieved from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-health-202/2020/05/04/the-health-202-texts-to-federal-government-mental-health-hotline-up-roughly-1-000-percent/5eaae16c602ff15fb0021568/