My health journey started in 2017 After I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in law, and decided against the continuation of my studies for a master’s degree. I remember receiving my diploma in tears because of the relief I felt. I was so exhausted that I decided to take a gap year to work & travel. Till this day I think this was the best decision I ever made because it was completely based on my intuition and wellbeing. I knew in my heart that I didn’t want to become a lawyer. I just wanted to think like one.
Looking back I’ve always known that I would become an entrepreneur. Even during law school I started projects and did self studies on how to write project plans or set up a foundation. That is how dedicated I felt towards the mission that was to become Orisun Studio. Imagine a full time law student, with a part time job, who was still seeking more. That is how strong my entrepreneurial spirit was.
Career & Wellness
After my studies I started working at Humanity House, a museum focused on humanizing the refugee experience. Here I got introduced to the cultural sector and I saw how the two worlds of human rights and creativity could work together to change the world.
After a few years working at different organizations and alongside setting up Orisun Studio projects I decided to register as a part time freelancer (April 2019) to explore more opportunities. I also decided to join the gym that year because I wanted to create healthier patterns with the help of a personal trainer. He taught me the importance of consistency. “The goal is to be healthy consistently, not only because you want to achieve a certain body goal” is what he said. I learned to “schedule my wellbeing” first and plan all my meetings around it instead of the other way around. In this way I didn’t try to squeeze my lunch or gym in my day; it is already part of the plan. This was a major shift for an ambitious working lady like me.
In that same year I also got to know my spiritual/life coach. I honestly believe she is my soulmate and knew that if I wanted to grow into a leader for a community, one day I would have to take care of myself first. She taught me that everything is created twice. First it's a thought, then it becomes a form. “Spirituality is the science of energy. Spirituality is the energy behind things that are created.” So basically, your mindset is crucial to how you design your life and becomes a direct reflection of how you execute everything in your life.
Financial wellness
Then the pandemic came, and I realized that the amount of projects I did versus my income were not balanced at all, especially at my current job. The pandemic has been a blessing in disguise for me because it gave me space for some serious reflection. I decided to quit my job and work full time as a freelancer. Even though this was a risky decision it turned out to be a very good choice. I had a lot more freedom and was working closely with my accountant to increase my income. He and my coach also helped me realize how connected my finances are to my mindset. Coming from an immigrant household working hard did not always mean your life became easier. When your parents gave everything up to give you a better life you need to realize that they had a very different starting position and sometimes this rubs off on you as well. You could see from close what it was like to grow up with limited means. In my case I started off only seeing the downsides to money, because that was the only perspective I had seen while growing up. The lack of it, the different treatment and exploitation. The trick, however, is to imagine the unlimited possibilities. It took me years to unlearn the old mindset and realized only recently that financial wellness was part of my wellbeing.
Balanced leadership
Then there was another realisation. When you work as a freelancer you will start to realize that you aren’t really as free as you think. See, there is a difference between a freelancer and an entrepreneur. As a freelancer I was still working within the rules of the spaces I worked for. There was a lot more freedom to move now but as an entrepreneur you create the full structure yourself and are not dependent on other organizations financially too. I realized this at the beginning of this year when I attended a seminar from Cre8tive Revolution. The founder is now my business coach, by the way. It became very clear for me which role I fulfilled within the workspace. I was never going to fit in the current workspaces, and it made sense why I never did. More importantly, I had a very strong sense that many things could be done differently. This Is why I started building my own brand.I had 5 years of experience in different workspaces but I feel like this year I have really started working as an entrepreneur.
I believe an entrepreneur is someone with vision who creates a full business structure and generates their own income with it. After working at different organizations I knew that I wanted my structure to be progressive and healthy. So, I started researching more about this topic.
Body first, business second
My personal trainer, business coach and spiritual coach gave me a good foundation but during my research I also came across many more organizations and people who helped me build a healthy structure as an entrepreneur. One of those people was Kate Northrup. She gave me a different look at the concept of time and energy by looking at it from our body’s perspective in her book “Do less”. She explained that “time is cyclical, there is no end. Instead of seeing your day in only 24 hours. You are not losing time, you are gaining time. This will help us to relax.”
In her book she further explained that everything within and around us is Cyclical, mirroring Mother Nature. If you look at the seasons of the year, spring, summer, autumn and winter, you can detect similarities with the human body.Women have a natural monthly hormonal cycle and this same cyclical model exists when we look at the Moon. Men on the other hand have a 24-hour cycle. Their testosterone level is the highest in the morning, continues in the afternoon and is at its lowest in the night. In other words, men are in sync with our current standard workday. However, In this linear model we focus on starting and launching projects while we also need to be focussing on completing and resting.
This is what a cyclical model looks like if we implement it within our projects and businesses:
The key takeaway message here is that rest is productive. When there is no time to pause, it means that overtime we burnout. Otherwise ideas are getting shallow to improve our work and wellbeing. In my own experience this is also the most creative phase.
The people and organizations mentioned in this article have really helped me build a healthy structure a.k.a. The Blueprint as an entrepreneur and in the upcoming months I will be helping other entrepreneurs and freelancers to achieve this goal too. I will be focussing on three pillars: Wellness & Career, Financial Wellness and Balanced Leadership.
Book recommendations:
Do Less book + planner, Period Power, Rest is resistance