Being a business owner is stressful – there are no two ways around it. Your responsibilities are so much greater than when you’re an employee at a company, as you’re literally in charge of the future of your workplace.
This comes with a massive number of benefits of course; being in control means that you can take your business wherever you want, and adapt it to fit your creative vision as you see fit. That pressure can however take a toll on your mental health, which is why we’re going to look at some ways to alleviate that pressure.
Why Is Mental Health Important?
Mental health is often overlooked, considered even less important than physical health. Entrepreneurs have a tendency to overlook both in their chase for success, but it’s not sustainable to ignore either in the long term. To make good business decisions, based on rationality rather than emotion, you need to be mentally stable.
Running a business takes energy, and you need as much of that energy as possible to be spent on the task at hand, not staying up at night worrying about things outside of your control. Whether that’s running a web agency, freelancing, or a bricks and mortar business, you need to take the time to step away.
Exercise
One of the best ways of relieving stress is through regularly exercising. Pick an exercise you enjoy, and try to do it for at least 20 or 30 minutes each day. A side benefit will be that you’ll stay in good physical health, which is of course inextricably connected to your mental health. Exercising will directly lead to a boost in endorphins, your ‘feel good’ neurotransmitters.
Taking a few minutes out of each day to focus on self-betterment, time away from the computer and office, will also have a massively positive impact, and help to put your work-life into perspective.
Work-Personal Life Boundaries
When you’re running your own business, it’s easy for your work life to totally take over your personal life. Especially relevant now, with the rise of technology, you can find yourself checking your emails before you go to sleep, while in the bath, or while eating dinner with your family.
It’s important to set specific hours that you dedicate to work, and keep the rest of your day as you-time. Failure to differentiate between the two elements of your life will massively increase the likelihood of burnout, and will likely make you grow to resent your business.
Spend Time In Nature
An effective and enjoyable way of relaxing when you’re finding the other stresses of life too much to handle is to spend time in nature.
While people have been talking about the benefits for years, scientific studies are now starting to find evidence for the relaxing effects of spending time in green spaces. If you have a nice park nearby, you can integrate time spent there with your daily exercise, with a run or walk through the trees before or after your workday, or even as a nice way to break the day up.