During the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve struggled with tech-life balance. That means I was overusing technology … spending way too much time online looking at my smartphone, tablet, and laptop screens. My eyes, ears, and mind consumed an incredible amount of information and news. It all overwhelmed me. It cost me sleep. It disturbed my normal zen attitude.
In May, I realized I needed to transform my relationship with social media and technology. So I took a summer vacation from social media. When I returned in September, I decided I needed digital wellness support for my own well-being. I also wanted to get more digital wellness training to strengthen the mindful technology work I do through the Thriving Mindfully Academy.
I found support and training in the Digital Wellness Collective‘s Digital Wellness Institute (DWI) Fall 2020 Certificate Training Program. It was exactly what I needed! Today, I completed the program and have become a certified digital wellness educator. Learn more about the program here.
Special thanks to the Nina Hersher, Amy Blankson, Shaunelle Curry, the DWI faculty, DWC team, and my fellow DWI Fall 2020 classmates!
Tonight, head over to Black Doctor’s Facebook Live at 6 p.m. ET for The Doctor Is In conversation on opting into self-care for 2021. I am talking with Dr. Monique Gary and Ricki Fairley of TOUCH The Black Breast Cancer Alliance. Go here to watch tonight’s Black Doctor’s Facebook Live.
Need more help opting into self-care? Sign up for the Thriving Mindfully Academy’s Come Home to Yourself Retreat on December 20th (option #1) or December 27th (option #2).
Birthdays are some of my favorite celebrations. I love mine so much that I celebrate it monthly. I use my monthly birthday to slow down, reflect on, and celebrate my small. medium, and big wins. This year, I used many of my monthly birthdays as a personal retreat due to my emotional struggles with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on my life, career, and business.
During my personal retreats, I looked at my full self in a mirror and came face-to-face with my vulnerabilities, challenges, wins, and losses. As a result, I gained new insights, brainstormed innovative solutions, participated in women’s healing circles, read inspirational books and magazines, and spent more time walking in nature. I also decided to change my pescatarian diet to a vegan diet, get more sleep, seek support from a therapist, join a virtual meditation community, deepen my study and practice of digital wellness, and move my body with more dance, Barre 3, yoga, walking, and bike riding. All of these efforts helped me set intentions and create shifts in how I choose to show up in my life, relationships, and career. They prepared me to walk into my fantabulous 56th year later this month and 2021 with a new mantra and intention: SOAR.
The best thing about a personal retreat is you get to choose how long it will last and what you will focus on. Over the past several years, I have used several formats for my personal retreats. Here are several examples.
A week: one to three hours per day starting on a Sunday and ending on a Saturday)
A three-day weekend: several hours per day beginning on Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday
A full-day: two hours in the morning, two hours in the afternoon, and one hour in the evening
A half-day: two or three hours
What changes occurred in your life and career this year?
Have you embraced or resisted the changes?
Do you need a personal retreat before 2020 ends?
Do you need help getting started on your personal retreat?
Join me for the Thriving Mindfully Academy’s Come Home to Yourself Retreat on December 20th or December 27th from 2-4:30 p.m. ET via Zoom.
The Come Home to Yourself Retreat will be offered twice. You can choose to attend the virtual retreat on December 20th or December 27th.Consider giving the Come Home to Yourself Retreat as a holiday gift to your loved ones, friends, and colleagues. Register here for the December 20th retreat. Go here for the December 27th retreat.
During the virtual retreat, you will:
Practice mindful self-care with deep breathing, meditation, affirmations, and gentle chair yoga
Reflect on and journal about who you have been and the lessons you learned in 2020
Identify who or what’s been getting in your way in 2020
Release and practice forgiveness
Explore who you want to be and how you want to show up in 2021
Set intentions and identify the resources, action steps, and accountability support you need to manifest the person you want to be in 2021
Create a self-celebration plan to appreciate your small, medium, and big wins in 2021
A Zoom video link will be emailed to you once you register for the online retreat.
If you need more support with a personal retreat, join me for the Come Home to Yourself Retreat on December 20th or December 27th at 2-4:30 p.m. via Zoom. Use the links below to purchase tickets. Feel free to get holiday gift tickets for colleagues, family, and friends.
In times of great change, I have often engaged in an internal boxing match where I resist and struggle with accepting my normal life has been altered. That struggle is a boxing match I always lose. Why? Because change is inevitable. It’s always going to happen. In 2016, I gave a talk on how I used mindfulness to embrace change in the midst of career reinvention at the Nonprofit Technology Network’s annual conference in San Jose, California.
During my talk, I shared the four lessons I learned:
Lesson #1: Ask for help.
Lesson #2: Take great care of yourself.
Lesson #3: Be a lifelong learner.
Lesson #4: Be open to possibilities.
This year, I almost forgot these lessons as I struggled to deal with changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, social justice movements, economic instability, fake news, politics, and the national and local elections. I tried to ignore the changes by filling my time with serving others through the Thriving Mindfully Academy. That strategy lasted for about three months until I realized I was burning out in May. So I stepped back from many of my obligations, took a social media summer vacation, and changed the way I practiced self-care. I began giving myself more time and space for do-it yourself (DIY) personal retreats. My DIY personal retreats helped me recharge, reflect, and reconnect with my authentic self.
During my personal retreats, I looked at my full self in a mirror and came face-to-face with my vulnerabilities, challenges, wins, and losses. As a result, I gained new insights, brainstormed innovative solutions, participated in women’s healing circles, read inspirational books and magazines, and spent more time walking in nature. I also decided to change my pescatarian diet to a vegan diet, get more sleep, seek support from a therapist, join a virtual meditation community, deepen my study and practice of digital wellness, and move my body with more dance, Barre 3, yoga, walking, and bike riding. All of these efforts helped me set intentions and create shifts in how I choose to show up in my life, relationships, and career.
More on personal retreats …
The best thing about a personal retreat is you get to choose how long it will last and what you will focus on. Over the past several years, I have used several formats for my personal retreats. Here are several examples.
A week: one to three hours per day starting on a Sunday and ending on a Saturday)
A three-day weekend: several hours per day beginning on Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday
A full-day: two hours in the morning, two hours in the afternoon, and one hour in the evening
A half-day: two or three hours
What changes occurred in your life and career this year?
Have you embraced or resisted the changes?
Do you need a personal retreat before 2020 ends?
Do you need help getting started on your personal retreat?
Join me for the Thriving Mindfully Academy’s Come Home to Yourself Retreat on December 20th or December 27th from 2-4:30 p.m. ET via Zoom.
The Come Home to Yourself Retreat will be offered twice. You can choose to attend the virtual retreat on December 20th or December 27th.Consider giving the Come Home to Yourself Retreat as a holiday gift to your loved ones, friends, and colleagues. Register here for the December 20th retreat. Go here for the December 27th retreat.
During the virtual retreat, you will:
Practice mindful self-care with deep breathing, meditation, affirmations, and gentle chair yoga
Reflect on and journal about who you have been and the lessons you learned in 2020
Identify who or what’s been getting in your way in 2020
Release and practice forgiveness
Explore who you want to be and how you want to show up in 2021
Set intentions and identify the resources, action steps, and accountability support you need to manifest the person you want to be in 2021
Create a self-celebration plan to appreciate your small, medium, and big wins in 2021
A Zoom video link will be emailed to you once you register for the online retreat.
Ananda Leeke 