*I was asked to write an article about self-care for a business publication in the same month I discovered I’d been dealing with depression for the first time. After delivery, the founding partner of the publication removed chunks of my words without receiving consent in an effort to “cut the dark stuff.”

Owning your own narrative and sharing what it means to be human, in every capacity, matters. Your dark is just as beautiful as your light.

Words written and shared prior to launching Sun & Sol Co., a boutique creative marketing & production agency dedicated to cultivating authenticity and mindfulness in the digital sphere.

Practice yoga, inhale a kale juice, frolic in a flower field, meditate, kick-box, etc etc etc – these are just a handful of over-stated tactics to approach the overall strategy of loving ourselves to achieve one goal: enhancing our human experience. Now, more than ever, we find ourselves working to reduce the stress and anxiety induced by the chaos of the world. We conduct routine “maintenance” to keep ourselves going, acting as if we shouldn’t consider approaching our daily lives in the same way we approach our careers. We throw everything but the kitchen sink at our respective approaches to business – setting crisis communications plans, building upon best practices, analyzing weekly data reports, hosting client meetings. We lose sleep over our jobs which, by the way, is essentially the equivalent of driving drunk en route to the office. My question: why the hell don’t we apply the very same career-elevating practices to our lives outside of the office? Why do we not prioritize taking care of ourselves? Why do we work retroactively to damage control the mess that is our overall well-being? My opinion? We are missing the key strategy that most of us love the least - sitting in states of self-awareness, introspection, and vulnerability.

For work, I’m a Senior Marketing Manager for an amazingly beautiful yoga/movement/wellness platform, Alo Moves. Prior to assuming this role, I worked as a Digital Content & Marketing Strategy Manager across a few different surf/lifestyle brands in Southern California in addition to some freelance work. The biggest chunk of my career has been spent working on documentary feature films at Red Bull Media House. For the past 6 years, I’ve been working a big kid j-o-b in tandem with being an active facilitator of yoga, meditation, and other forms of mindful movement practices. When I look at the overall big picture of what my career path has looked like thus far, a gal attempting to muscle her way up the corporate ladder is what displays on canvas, but not without a little blood, sweat, and tears. Like most people hustling within their careers, I have experienced my fair share of stress. For much of my life, the residual side effects of stress have been fairly normal – a fun teeth-clenching habit, loss of appetite, sub-par sleep, light anxiety, burnout. There have been moments where I’ve felt like someone poured hot coffee all over my brain. Lucky for me, working cross-functionally is my bread and butter, and I have always had the ability to apply learnings from work into what I teach in the yoga studio and vice versa. I believe my unique experiences within both realms contribute to how I optimize my own life, which in turn, helps me perform at my best.

My interest in studying the intersection of yoga and hustle culture sparked an interest in digging deeper into the physical stress-response cycle. The most important thing I learned in this study is that when we endure stress, we’re often left holding onto it if it goes unprocessed. Our bodies store stress in unique places similarly to the way it stores fat or carbs as an energy source. The way in which we process stress (completing the physical stress-response cycle) is typically through what many would call “self-care” tactics. If we take out the perceived woo-woo and look at the science of it all, our business-centric minds can focus on the importance of this process. Now, I can guess what you’re thinking – the phrase “self-care” is a bit worn out. I echo that. I believe we focus more on how to take care of ourselves when we should really be shifting the focus on how to listen to ourselves and cultivate a deeper sense of self-awareness. Hangry? Eat. Exhausted? Sleep. Thirsty? Drink water…or a glass of wine if that’s what’s calling. The answer is as simple as listening to your intuition. If you can’t give yourself what you need because you don’t know what you need, then how will you leverage any proposed tactics to better serve you? If you try to fix your dead battery with a rubber band – I’ll cross my fingers and toes for you.

Having the ability to prescribe yourself what you need prior to breaking down is essential for planning ahead, maintaining, and damage control. However, active self-awareness, introspection, healthy boundary-setting, and self-care tools are not always easily accessible, and thus, can cause some foggy prescriptions. To be quite honest, a good portion of my year has been occupied with these foggy prescriptions. I experienced a multitude of life changes that had me feeling disconnected from myself, so I prescribed the works. I meditated, tried Hal Elrod’s “Miracle Morning,” went on long beach walks, kicked and screamed, journaled excessively, took up watercolor painting, spent a lot of time surfing, practiced yoga daily, received acupuncture, experienced Reiki, went kick-boxing…you get the point. After it all, I found myself scratching my head wondering why nothing could make me feel back to neutral. I didn’t recognize myself. Anyone who knows me would describe me as a ray of sunshine who seemingly has it together, could make friends with a cardboard box, and thrives like a sea lion when jumping into the ocean with a longboard. This year, I was experiencing some heavy panic attacks, didn’t want to engage with my friends, and found myself sleeping well-over the necessary amount each night. Several months ago, after a cluster of painful events, I realized that I am not a board-certified doctor, and that I needed to seek out some help to get myself what I needed to heal and thrive.

The gist? The last thing I want to shout from the rooftops is “DRINK YOUR KALE!” if it’s not calling you. Instead, I want to encourage you to be honest with yourself. Listen to your heart, your intuition, those who love you. Surrender a little, or a lot. Slow dance with your vulnerability to get to know yourself better. If you’re clinging to a life raft, find your Wilson and doggy paddle to land. Stick your middle fingers up to the unfairly-placed dark cloud that currently surrounds depression. You don’t have to suffer alone or in silence with the hardships of living through a pandemic, working a stressful job, everything else. You have the “self-care” tools at your disposal. Google and anyone else can tell you what your options are. It’s up to you to choose which ones you’ll leverage to love your life.

*To those who extended the life raft while I was drowning, thank you for letting me trust fall. I love you to pieces.

Self-Awareness First, Self-Care Second

RACHAEL ADA

Contact me

Sun & Sol Co.