Speaker 1 – Between raising children and managing households and pursuing careers. Women have a lot on their plates these days, and the stress could be affecting their health. Dr. Erica Steele from holistic family practice in Virginia Beach is here with some tips for creating balance in our busy lives. Hey, doctors, Hey, how are you? I’m well, I feel like I get a treatment every time a counseling session. I really everybody does. By the way, going on. So you know, all of the stuff that I have going on here. Yeah, ching. Um, firstly, how do we create balance in our life?
Speaker 2 – Yeah. Well, we’ve talked about this, I think many times before, I think number one is not being so hard on ourselves. Okay. I think we as women, especially we have this tendency to strive for perfection. And it just doesn’t exist. I have in my office, I have this picture that hangs from a quote from Salvador Dali that says, Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it. Oh, great.
Speaker 1 – I just fit, be forgiving.
Speaker 2 – credibly forgiving of yourself and accepting of yourself, okay. It’s just not realistic to be able to do all things and be all things to all people. And I think we as women, because we’re so compassionate, empathetic understanding. And we have that capacity to raise children, that we extend that throughout throughout all of our relationships and all of our tasks that we have to accomplish in our lives.
Speaker 1 – Yeah, you hear some of the Wiser moms telling you, you know, like, act like you’re on an aeroplane put the mask on yourself first. And then on your children? Are you fine? Yes, are doing that though.
Speaker 2 – I think they’re crashing and burning, you know, they’re coming into my office, and they’re stressed out, their hormones are a mess, they’re eating unhealthy, they’re exhausted, they’re trying to keep up with everything. And they unfortunately develop, you know, debilitating health care conditions as a result of all of the internalized pressure and stress.
Speaker 1 – Okay, so what do we need to do to solve this problem, we know that it’s a problem, we know that it can help, it can hurt our immune system and make us unhealthy. So what do we do?
Speaker 2 -So what I always recommend people to do is the first hour of the day is just for them. Okay? So that may mean you have to go to bed a little later. That may mean you have to get wake up a little bit earlier. Right. But that first hour is dedicated to and it may not even be an hour as well, like, but the first you know, once you open your eyes, breathwork you know, just deep breathing, you know, deep meditative breathing for 10 rounds. Right? Okay? Meditation, you know, meditation has been showing to really improve a lot of mental focus, balance, health, overall stress levels, reduction. And then from there, you know, do the normal, take a shower, personal hygiene, all of that kind of stuff before you even set the day? I had a lot of cases before that. They’d be like, Well, I have little kids. Oh, my gosh, I think we don’t realize that we can actually teach our children like how to live and how to take care of themselves. Yeah, so we created a little snack drawer for them. So like, if they get up early in the morning, they know they go to little snack drawer, they go and they eat that up, they sit at the table, they do their thing right now, obviously, you want to make sure else’s
Speaker 1 – child Right, exactly.
Speaker 2 – Like it, you know, I’m not saying like, you know, just leave them but you know, you don’t have to jump up, be there. You know, like, it’s okay, we can start the day because if you start the day like that, then the tone sets for the day, meaning that you’re not going to be rushed and hurried into every single instance circumstance situation, you’re going to be more mindful and more attentive. And
Speaker 1 – what role do you think societal norms play in women working themselves to death? I mean, you know, making themselves sick, because they’re not willing to take time for themselves. Yes,
Speaker 2 – I think we just are always comparing ourselves to culture, you know, we see this celebrity or this mom, or the team guys. Hello, exactly. Or then we’re looking at Facebook and Instagram. And we’re like, you know, envious. I had a case, unfortunately, this last week, and they’re like, you know, this other family bought this big, $5,000 5000 square foot house. And this is, and they’re upset, because they don’t have that. And I’m like, well, first, you have to clean that thing. My mind goes practical, always. However, it’s like, you know, being grateful for who you are, what you have. And what you’ve created for yourself is so important. You know, we we have and we do exactly what we have. And we can do and we can’t do any more. Right? And that going back to that perfection and need to perform and do and drive and our culture society, just as Americans, we are very much in the Go, go, go go go. Unlike other countries, let’s say in Europe, where you know, they have a lot of downtime and relaxation, and they’re walking everywhere. And it’s a little bit more steadfast. Well, you
Speaker 1 – know, I have more questions. And so you know, where do people go if they have more questions, and I understand you’re doing a Facebook Live as well? Yes,
Speaker 2 – we are. So we have two options for consultation with our office for all those moms that are super, super exhausted and tired. We have a wellness exam, as well as a comprehensive initial consultation just mentioned Coast live, and we’ll get you set up. All right. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. I’ll ask her questions during the show. So that’s how you can get in touch with Dr exactly and we have our Facebook Live coming up on the 20th to 30
Speaker 1 – Great thank you Dr Steele sure
What do you think?