Permission Granted: Self-Care Strategies for a Healthy Business with Katie McDonald (EP.77)

In today’s society, we often put so much value on busyness that it forces us to neglect ourselves. We find ourselves trying to earn our places in the world through doing, and the more we do the more is expected of us. Our guest today, Katie McDonald, understands this too well. After early success as a high-performance corporate executive, followed by the intense responsibilities of motherhood, chronic self-neglect led her to the depths of overwhelm, depression, and illness. This is what led her on a journey to become a self-care strategist and inspired her to establish b.nourished, a holistic coaching program for executives. By viewing self-care as a key to success rather than an obstacle, Katie has curated proven practices through decades of self-study, speaking, and concierge coaching engagements. Katie and b.nourished are a testament to how, with intentionality and mindfulness, peace-of-mind and productivity can actually go hand in hand. In this show, Katie explains why self-care is a smart, effective business strategy, and it doesn’t have to come at the cost of productivity. She speaks about how slowing down is a powerful tool for getting things done and why self-neglect is actually selfish in a world that needs us at our best. Tuning in you’ll hear what “revenge bedtime procrastination” is and why we do it, the difference between being self-involved and self-evolved, and why the first assignment Katie gives her clients is to sit in silence and have a cup of tea.

 

Key Points From This Episode:

• Clare’s personal revelation of the importance of self-care through her own auto-immune disease. [00:01:10]
• Katie describes her own experience from being a high-powered executive to coaching executives to help them integrate well-being with productivity. [00:03:53]
• Thoughts on what is wrong with our culture that we overvalue busyness and neglect ourselves. [00:05:53]
• How and why people are terrified of having nothing to do and being alone in their own thoughts. [00:06:40]
• Why the first assignment Katie gives her clients is to sit in silence and have a cup of tea. [00:08:08]
• Katie explains that we need to repair the relationships we have with ourselves. [00:09:46]
• Why people are good at saying yes, and bad at saying no, and until the basics are in place, the answer to everything else should be no. [00:10:36]
• The importance of asking ourselves “What do I need?” and staying quiet long enough to hear the answer. [00:12:40]
• How Katie works with clients to figure out what they need and comes up with a plan, as motivation is not enough. [00:16:24]
• What “revenge bedtime procrastination” is and why we do it. [00:21:54]
• The importance of checking in with your future self, or “paying yourself forward”. [00:22:51]
• The implications of context and adjusting one’s self-care routine for the specific season or situation. [00:28:04]
• The importance of knowing what you want or who you want to be so your life is intentional and not just reactive. [00:30:01]
• The difference between being self-involved and self-evolved: self-awareness is not just a birthright, it’s also a responsibility. [00:32:17]
• Your duty to stop being a doormat and set other people free to do the same. [00:35:07]

  

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

b.nourished — https://bnourished.com/

b.nourished on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/bnourished/

b.nourished on Twitter — https://twitter.com/bnourished

b.nourished on Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/bnourished

b.nourished on Instagram —https://www.instagram.com/_bnourished/

b.nourished on Pinterest — https://www.pinterest.com/lotuslight/bnourished/

NAPO — http://napo.net/join

NAPO Podcast — https://napopodcast.com