Mental and Emotional Well-Being Tips for Freelance Editors

Podcast
Written By Tara Whitaker

Welcome back to our series on self-care! Our last few episodes covered physical/environmental wellness and financial health. In this episode, we’re diving into mental and emotional well-being tips for freelance editors. 

Specifically, I’m talking about how our thoughts and emotions show up in our businesses and how I process my emotions. I’m also going to share some self-care ideas that can benefit your mental and emotional health.

It goes without saying that this can be a loaded topic, so please remember that I’m not a medical or mental health professional in any way. I’m simply sharing what I’ve learned from fourteen years of running my own editing business so that you can take the insights you like and make them work for you.

Review the Transcript

Welcome back to the podcast. This is our third episode in our self-care/wellness series for freelance editors. The first topic we talked about physical and environmental wellness. The second was about financial things, and today's topic is mental and emotional well-being.

So just like with the other episodes, this one has the potential to bring up a whole lot of thoughts and emotions for you. So please remember to take care of yourself while listening. Let's get into it.

Welcome to The Modern Editor Podcast, where we talk about all things editing and what it's like to run an editorial business in today's world. I'm your host, Tara Whitaker. Let's get to it.

Hello everyone. We are going to talk about a very important element of, well, both life and running and editing business, and that is our mental and emotional well-being. This probably goes without saying, but this can be a loaded topic.

So please remember, I'm not a medical or mental health professional in any way. I am simply sharing what I've observed and learned over my going on fourteen years of running my own editing business. Please take care of yourself while listening to this episode, and if it's not something that you feel you can handle at the moment, please turn it off. Don't listen, and you can either come back to it or, you know what, don't listen to it at all because I want you to in the spirit of this, the series title, I want you to take care of yourself first.

So my plan for today is to talk about how our thoughts and emotions show up in our editing businesses, how I process my emotions, and how you can as well. And then I'm gonna share some ideas for self-care, and I'm going to have a ton of additional resources in the show notes for you, because like a broken record, I've said it every time, it's impossible to try to address every single thing.

Everyone is different, but I wanna make sure that I at least attempt to give all of you something that you can read more about or learn more about, or find someone who you resonate with because this is a very important topic and it affects all of us all the time.

Like it doesn't—it's not something we address and it goes away. We have to continue to address it. As always, take what works, tweak it if you can, and leave the rest.

All right, so before we really dive into it, I want to start out by acknowledging the history of the term self-care. I don't like wellness. I don't like well-being. I don't like self-care. I don't like mindset. I don't like any of it. But we're gonna use it because I don't know of any other word right now. But the term self-care is very much rooted in white women bubble bath vibes. That's not what we're going to talk about today.

You can't focus on things when your foundation is shaky. If you can't pay rent or bills, and I've been there, if you're worried about your safety or your family's safety, if you don't have a support system, everything is that much more difficult and hearing, “If you wanna take care of yourself, just take your kids to the gym and have the gym daycare watch them” is so out of touch and not helpful. So I want to acknowledge that when I say self-care, when I'm talking about self-care, what I really mean is taking care of yourself to the best of your ability at the current time.

That's going to look different for everyone and hopefully as a white woman, I am not going to share those icky bubble bath vibes when I talk about some ideas that I have because that's just not, that's not how I wanna roll.

There is no one way to self-care. Saying no is a form of self-care. Setting and holding boundaries is self-care. Self-care, for the love of everything good and holy in this world, is not selfish. Selfish is when you're a butthead and you have no regard for others. Self-care is respecting yourself and knowing that if you don't take care of yourself, we can't rely on anyone else to do that for us.

And we love saying people are selfish because we love to shame and we love to make people feel guilty, and we love to put down people that we're jealous of. Are men ever told they're being selfish? No. Dads? No. This happens a lot with women and parents. So we're not doing that here today. This is not talking about how we should disrespect and disregard everybody else for the sake of our self-care. It's talking about respecting ourselves. Okay?

So thoughts and emotions when it comes to business. I'm an elder millennial. I'm guessing that no matter your age, I would hazard a guess to say that you have heard something along the lines of “You should keep emotions out of business,” right? I'm here to say no because you know who always says to keep emotion out of business? Historically, white men. As code for “We don't want women in our spaces. They don't belong in our businesses, our government, any leadership roles” and all of that.

And I am calling BS to the highest regard. Number one, how many wars and issues have been started by white men and their fragile egos and their hurt feelings?

Number two, emotions are powerful. They can lead to more empathy and fairness and equity. And I'm sorry to say, we need a whole lot more of that right now. So in my little corner of the podcast world and the internet world, we're keeping emotions and humanity in business because it's needed. Emotions help us realize things like we should pay people living wages, and they help us understand how soul-bearing it is for clients to share their books with us, and emotions help remind us of that when we're giving feedback, they help us make decisions when something doesn't align with our values.

So no, emotions are gonna stay in business. But yes, we do need to have strategies in place to manage those emotions and nurture them, not just eliminate them. And how I do that and how I coach other editors to do this is through something called the TEARA process, which I adapted from a process that I learned from my coach instructor Jessica Stong. And I go over the full process in episode three, but as a reminder here, TEARA stands for thought, emotion, action, result, anchor thought. And what we do is we pick a thought and we work through each step. We feel it in our body, we visualize it, and we release it or we transform it.

And I never learned how to do this growing up. So it took a lot of getting used to and felt very weird at first. It was awkward, as is a lot of things when we learned them for the first time. But now I love it. I do it constantly. Full disclosure, I have many emotions that I roller-coaster through on a day-to-day basis. So I'm doing this a lot these days.

But without a way to manage and feel our emotions, guess what? They get bottled up, they get stuck, they fester. The body keeps the score, and this leads to all sorts of things, but for business in particular, it can lead to hasty or not well thought out decisions. It can lead to things like taking on clients who aren't a good fit because we just need the money—which happens, don't get me wrong, but it can result in letting clients walk all over us or not being able to set our boundaries.

Or sometimes if we have a lack of confidence, it prevents us from even taking on clients in the first place, because I can say in those fourteen years of editing and my five-plus years of coaching editors, I can tell you that I have never seen someone not start an editing business because they didn't have enough knowledge or skills. It has always been because of emotions and the things that they manifest.

Even procrasti-learning is due to emotions. It's not because we don't know enough, it's because we don't think we're good enough. The self-doubt is loud. So if we let the emotions manage us or rule us, that's when it can get really sticky when we're making business decisions.

And there's I wanna point out too, if you're neurodivergent or if you manage rejection sensitivity dysphoria, those are things that a mental health professional can absolutely help with. If you haven't listened to any of my previous episodes. I'll say it here too. I'm a big advocate of therapists, mental health professionals. I've had one on and off since I was eight. If you find a good one, it is life-changing.

So I know in the US our healthcare system doesn't make it easy to afford or find mental health professionals. But if you're able to find one, it can make a very huge difference. So big advocate of therapy here. Because I'm not a mental health professional, I wanna make sure you have the resources you need from people who are qualified, okay?

So that's how we can manage our emotions in business. Now I wanna talk about what can happen when we don't manage our emotions properly, which I did just talk about a little bit with not making good decisions. But when those accumulate, my old friend comes into play, and that is burnout. I have talked about this on the podcast before, but for those of you who don't know, I have experienced burnout, and I mean full and complete burnout, a couple of times in the past few years. Feel free to listen to those episodes. I give the full behind-the-scenes scoop, but for me, now that I am past it and have been past it for a little while, I've had a lot of time to think about it and process.

I think the root of my burnout episodes was the fact that I never was taught how to be an entrepreneur or a business owner. I was always taught how to be an employee. Now I'm not knocking my parents here because that's what they were, they were all employees. I didn't have any, not that I can think of, any family members who owned their own business. I had some friends whose parents owned their own business, but to be honest, all I knew about that was that people who own their businesses were rich. And I'm saying rich in quotes given where I grew up, and rich was not necessarily what everyone would think of as rich, but to me they were rich.

So it always felt a little out of the realm of possibility for me because I didn't grow up “rich.” My family was “Get good grades, go to college, get a good job, and you're gonna be all set.” And so that's the mentality I had moving through school. Side note, I graduated in 2008 from college during the recession. Womp, womp. So that advice quickly went out the window. But you know, that's what we were taught.

But there is a vast difference between being an employee and a freelancer or a business owner. When you move from one to the other, it's a big shift. I'm gonna focus on from employee to freelancer, but it can certainly go the other way around too. But it's why I dedicate a huge chunk of my Business Builder Framework workbook inside the Freelance Editors Club on mindset from moving from an employee to a freelancer because I was caught totally unaware. And I don't want any other editor to have to experience that if at all possible.

When you are a freelancer or business owner or entrepreneur or whatever resonates with you, everything is now on you. Of course, we hopefully have communities and peers and mentors and friends, but in terms of the actual work, usually it's all on us. Unless you're a subcontractor, you know, you have subcontractors you can give the work to, if we take on an editing job, we have to complete that editing job. It's not like a traditional job where a coworker can step in or cover for you when you're sick or you know, on vacation.

We don't get sick time, we don't get vacation time, we don't get paid for that. We have to manage that time ourselves. There's no one to pick up the slack, and that can be terrifying. And we wear all the hats. All the hats. I would hazard a guess that all of us got into our editing businesses because we love to edit.

We are reasonably good at it, which is great. But guess what? We're also now the bookkeeper and the accountant and the marketing director and the social media manager and tech support, which, and you know, you get the picture. We are everything. And especially when we're first starting out, that is extremely overwhelming.

So we’re needing to manage all those emotions. If we don't learn how to manage them, and we put on all the hats and we run our businesses and we let 'em fester and we don't process them, boom, here comes the burnout. And depending on the level of burnout, it can take a long time to get through it. It took way longer for me than I ever expected, and it shows up in lots of different ways, and it's gonna be different for everyone, of course.

I felt kind of depressed. My anxiety went through the roof. Lots of icky emotions that I hadn't really felt or let bubble up too much would come out. The self-doubt was whoa strong. Why am I even doing this? I'm not making any sort of impact. I mean, just all sorts of like, big things, big emotions, that took me a very long time to work through.

And now had I worked through them as they came up, it wouldn't have been such a big deal, but because I let them fester and because I didn't hold boundaries and because I didn't take care of myself, it happened—and it happened more than once. On the plus side of all that, though, now I know intimately how important it is to take care of yourself to the best of your ability.

How important it is to listen to my gut, which I've always had a hard time doing. I have a hard time trusting my decisions and how important it is to manage those emotions as they pop up. Not letting them just marinate and explode, which leads into some ideas I wanna share with you about self-care. These are in absolutely no particular order. Kind of just me thinking of things. 

Some of them you might be like, yeah, I've heard that. I get it. Some of them you might be like, meh, which is fine. There's lots of different people listening, right? So what might resonate for you might not completely resonate for someone else.

And some of these take a lot more practice or take a lot more time. Some of them might be, you know, more like a short-term way to settle in. Some might be longer or practices or more repetitive things. There's lots of different things, so hopefully something either resonates with you or gives you an idea of something that you would like to try.

Number one, community and connection. I know, I know. I have to say it, though. That's my jam. However that looks, whoever that is, if it's online, if it's in person, if it's, you know, through an organization, if you create your own. If it's just one other editor, colleague, it makes a big, big difference. And that is a form of self-care, I will argue, having a community.

Another one, setting boundaries around lots of things, but for me, I put in news and social media intake because that's what I'm working on right now. And chronically online does not equal civically engaged, which is something that I am telling myself repeatedly.

But boundaries can be for anything. It can be boundaries around your time: who has access to you, how you're spoken to, how you're treated, so many things. And I've got a book in the resources called Set Boundaries, Find Peace that we read in book club that is amazing, and I highly recommend.

Find some hobbies or restart some hobbies that you haven't done in a while, and don't monetize them or try to expand them into a business. I'm saying this to myself. Anything that you find joy in. There's also things like meditation, prayer, deep breathing, yoga. I've recently gotten back into yoga, but the lie down and rest kind, not the use my muscles way because I wanted to ease into it. But honestly taking an hour, going to a third space, which is also another form of self-care, finding something outside of our houses if we can, where we have a community is great.

And then the kind of yoga, I—I'm blanking on what it's called. I think it was like restorative yoga. There was a deep stretch yoga. I mean, most of it was on the floor or sitting down, which for me right now is what I need. I'll work up to, you know, where I have to sweat, but right now I'm not interested. And it's been great.

It's been, and I do it on Monday night, which I have to take a few weeks off, but that doesn't matter. But Monday nights, you know, you start Monday, Mondays are always busy for me. You know, you're getting back into the swing of things and then 7:30 to 8:30 at night, I can just end the day on a peaceful, grounding note. And it's amazing. You can do that at home. You know, you can pull up a YouTube video, you can turn off the lights and light a candle and, I mean, there's so many different options, right?

Another way of self-care is taking breaks. We've got another podcast episode on this too, specifically, and I mean short breaks like during the workday and I mean longer periods of time. You don't have to go on vacation. You don't have to spend a million dollars, but you can take time off. We're freelancers. We're in charge. We dictate our schedules to an extent. Of course, we all have different obligations and things. Taking time off is so important. That was another element of my burnout that I did not pay attention to that bit me in the butt.

Something I've gotten into in the past, like six months, is watching a fire or—what is it—like ambiance videos. So I don't have a fireplace. I wish for a fireplace so much, like a real one. I don't have one. Can't have one in my house. So, I bought a TV console that has a fake fireplace in it, which apparently is tacky in terms of decor, but I don't care because it has brought me so much joy since we've had it.

It's fake. You know, the fire is light, it's not flames, but I'll just sit there and watch it. I've been sitting there crocheting and watching it, and it has been so soothing and calming, like, I can't even tell you. But before I got that console, I just brought up a fake fire on YouTube. Or there was one, I feel like it was ACOTAR, which meh, but it was a castle book library, nighttime fireplace thing, and you could hear ASMR, you could hear the fire crackling and it just set the mood. So I'd turn off the lights or I lower the lights in the living room, I'd turn that on. I would have a book lamp or book light to read my book while I listened to it and had it on. 

It's just, it's a vibe. And it makes me so happy and it's relatively easy, right? You can pull up YouTube on your computer or any sort of website that has those kind of videos. But set the mood in your room, in your bedroom, in the little corner of the house or apartment you have. It doesn't have to be extravagant. Again, just whatever makes you feel good. Kind of along the same lines as you can look at a body of water, fake or real. I love looking at a pond or a lake or a river or a waterfall or any of that, but it is February in the Midwest. Those are not options for me right now. So I settle with what's on my computer and that's okay. Or you know what? I also use the Calm app and listen to water. Love it.

Next thing is to make something, anything. I mean, I know that's very broad, but it's meant to. Make a collage. Do you do woodwork? My daughter's school's making those, what are they? Pine car derby. Pine derby, something like that.

Make a car, I don't know, sharpen a pencil. Like, just make something: color paint, build something with LEGO, erector sets, Lincoln Logs, anything. Just make something. 

Mutual aid. I mentioned this before in the financial episode, but ask for help. It's okay to ask for help if you have a community. It makes it easier, but let's shed these old giver and taker labels. Let's all participate in mutual aid and community and connection and helping one another out because that's what we need, and it's okay to take if we're gonna use that label. And it's okay to give. Either one is fine.

This one's kind of interesting. Try not to compare yourself to others, especially those at different stages in the journey. This comes up a lot for me when I'm coaching editors, especially with social media. When they're first starting out, they'll see all of these editors who seem like they have it together, who are rocking it out on social media. There's a lot of assumptions being made on how many clients people have based on their Instagram profiles.

Unless you are looking at someone as inspiration and not in a jealous way, or in a way that makes you feel bad about yourself, we don't wanna participate in that. You are on your own individual journey. You're not too late, you're not behind. It's not a race. You're on your own path. 

And if you are, say you're on social media, and that's difficult for you to see, that's where a boundary will come into place. And self-care. Maybe you're not following editors on social media, or maybe you're taking a break or, you know, whatever the case may be.

The next thing is to celebrate everything. I don't care how big or small it is. Use the fancy glass on a Tuesday to drink water, like, use the fancy china if you have some of that, or place settings or napkins. Or wear the fancy outfit that you only wear like, to a wedding or something. Wear it while you're working. Who cares? Like, don't wait for something to happen in order to do something or use something. Just use it because why not?

Like who says we can only use things for fancy things? Oh, I love a fancy glass just to drink my water out of during the day, during the workday. Why not? We're adults. We're in charge. We need to find joy wherever we can. And if it's in a fancy glass, so be it.

Another one is to pet an animal. If you don't have one, you can visit a shelter or a friend or a dog park. Please ask beforehand. If you're allergic, pet a stuffed animal. This is why we have therapy dogs and emotional support animals. Like, there's a true connection between humans and animals and, you know, unless there's a real fear or something of course that would prohibit you from doing that. I think a dog can be so therapeutic.

When my daughter had surgery, oh my gosh, it'd be six years ago now, they brought in a golden retriever when she was done, or maybe it was before, I don't remember, but I needed that more than she did, I think. Like, it was so cute and so nice and it can make a big difference.

Doing more tactile or analog things. I know this might sound weird with self-care, but this is one of those things where like, little things add up. So I have candles at my desk. I light them most every day. They're non-smelly. But I have a lighter, like a clicky lighter, right, that you charge with a USB, which is weird. I've started using matches, you know, I love striking a match and actually lighting it and feeling the heat of the match and the smell of the sulfur after.

Weird? Yes. Something you wouldn't really think of when you think of self-care. Yes. But also like, it's this little spark of joy to start my morning and you know what? I need all I can get. So yes, using matches as a form of self-care in my world.

Like I mentioned before, I've been crocheting again 'cause I'm using my hands and if I'm using my hands, I can't touch my phone. And that's been a big thing for me, which is why I also said make something. If you're using your hands to make something, you're not using your hands for other things that you maybe don't wanna be doing.

Another funny one, this actually came up when I was working with community fridge people yesterday, and she had just gone snorkeling in Puerto Rico, and then I was like, you know that like swimming, snorkeling, scuba diving, things that require your full attention are really great to do. Now, it doesn't have to be water-based. Those were just the ideas that came up, but something that doesn't allow you to multitask, which we are all to a point guilty of. We try to do twenty-eight things at once, but finding things that require that soul focus, we need to relearn how to do that.

Again, I'm in the Midwest in February. I could go swimming inside somewhere. Scuba diving and snorkeling, not really an option, but you might live somewhere where that is and that might be something you're interested in.

And last but not least, reading books that make you feel good or challenge you or that you learn from. And I put this in here because maybe because I need to release some of my own guilt, and maybe you do too. Obviously I'm a reader. I've always been a reader, always will be. Reading has always been a huge form of escapism for me. So when I read, usually it cannot resemble real life in any way, shape, or form.

So right now I can't read or watch Handmaid's Tale. I can't read 1984. Like, should I? I don't know who's telling me I should. I know what it is, but I just, I can't handle it mentally right now. So what do I read? I read Murder, She Wrote, I read crime, which yes is kind of real life, but I can't read anything right now that would deal with things like fascism or authoritarianism or taking away our rights.

Like, I can't. I have to read when things are like they are right now for me. I have to read for joy. There will be a time when I will have the headspace to read for learning and challenging my thoughts and my beliefs, and learning right now is just not the time for me. So I guess that relates back to taking care of yourself. Do what feels good for you in the moment to take care of you and your brain. And there will be a time when that changes, hopefully, right?

So there we have it. Those are the ways that our thoughts and our emotions and our mental health can play a very large part in our editing businesses. Like I've said before, in other episodes, take some time, let it marinate.

I might have said some things that have brought up things for you maybe that you were or weren't expecting. Take care of yourself. With that, this is meant to continue the discussion that I've, you know, started many episodes ago on the podcast. We're gonna keep discussing it. It's not a one and done kind of thing.

I wanna keep talking about it both widely, like here on the podcast, and I encourage you to do it within your own communities, because I firmly believe that emotions don't and shouldn't be stripped out of businesses. If we wanna lead values-based businesses, we're gonna keep continuing the conversation on taking care of ourselves. Keep an eye out for new episodes

And until next time, keep learning, keep growing, and remember that self-care is what you and you alone need it to be.

Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode. If you enjoy The Modern Editor Podcast, I would be so grateful if you left a review over on Apple Podcasts or wherever you consume podcasts. And don't forget, you can head to TaraWhitaker.com to connect with me and stay in touch. We'll chat again soon.

There’s No One Way to “Self-Care”

Before we get to the tips, I want to acknowledge the weird history behind the term “self-care.” The term is very much rooted in white-woman-bubble-bath vibes, which is not how I roll. I don’t even like the term “self-care,” but we’re using it because I don’t know of a better alternative. 

However, when I say “self-care,” I’m talking about taking care of yourself to the best of your ability at the current time. No unrealistic expectations or easy fixes. 

Self-care can look different for everyone. Sometimes saying no or holding fast to your boundaries is a form of self-care. It’s not about lavish treatments or hoping all your problems dissolve in a bubble bath. 

One thing that self-care isn’t is selfish. Self-care is simply taking care of yourself. If you don’t do it, who else will? 

Thoughts and Emotions When it Comes to Your Business

Like me, you’ve probably been told you should keep your emotions out of your business, right? I’m here to push back on that thought.  

This line of thinking has been used primarily by white men to keep women out of business because women were viewed as “too emotional.” In my opinion, it’s a load of BS. How many wars have been started by men because of their fragile egos?

Not to mention the fact that emotions are powerful tools. They can lead to more empathy, fairness, and equity (three things we need a whole lot more of right now). 

I keep my emotions and humanity IN my business, not out of it. Here’s how they can help:

  • We realize we should pay people a living wage

  • As book editors, we recognize an author is baring their soul when they share their book with us

  • Emotions help us make decisions when something doesn’t align with our values 

Instead of eliminating emotions from our businesses, we need strategies to help us manage and nurture them. I do this by using something called the TEARA Process, which I adapted from my coach Jessica Stong. I went over the TEARA Process in depth in episode three, but here’s a quick recap.

TEARA stands for:

  • Thought

  • Emotion

  • Action

  • Result

  • Anchor Thought

To go through the process, you choose a thought and work through each step. You feel it in your body, visualize it, and then release it or transform it. Going through the TEARA Process prevents emotions from festering. It can also help us avoid making emotionally driven decisions in our businesses that aren’t in our best interest.

What Happens When You Don’t Manage Your Emotions

When we don’t manage how we use our emotions in our businesses, we can easily fall into burnout. I know this from firsthand experience as I’ve gone through multiple complete burnout seasons over the last few years. 

Now that I’m on the other side of burnout, I’ve been able to reflect on how I got there in the first place. I believe the root of my burnout is the fact that I was never taught how to be an entrepreneur or business owner; I was only taught to be an employee. 

There’s a huge difference between being an employee and a freelancer or business owner, and moving from one to the other is a major shift. As business owners, we wear all the hats and have limited support. We’re not only editors, but we’re also bookkeepers, accountants, marketing directors, social media managers, tech support, etc. 

It’s easy to get overwhelmed, which can cause your emotions to run wild and land you in a complete burnout phase. For me, burnout led to depression, and my anxiety went through the roof. 

It took me a long time to come out the other side and finally set boundaries to protect my mental and emotional well-being. Thankfully, I’ve learned from my experiences, and so can you. 

Mental and Emotional Self-Care Ideas For Business Owners

These ideas are in no particular order, and you may have heard of some of them before. Take what works for you and implement it in your own time. Keep in mind that some of them are things that take practice before you start noticing a major difference in how you feel. 

Community and Connection

Whether it’s in-person or online, a large community or simply one other editor, connecting with others is a form of self-care.

Setting Boundaries

You can set boundaries around your time, news and social media intake, how people talk to you, and so many other things. 

Find or Restart a Hobby

You don’t have to monetize everything you enjoy doing. Some things can simply be hobbies that bring you joy.

Do Something Outside Your House

I’ve recently gotten back into yoga classes, and I love having an activity I do outside of my house. Find something that brings you joy and makes you feel good that you can commit to for an hour each week. 

Take Breaks

You don’t have to go on an extended vacation and spend tons of money to take time off. Give yourself short breaks. As a freelancer, you get to dictate your schedule. A break could simply be giving yourself Monday mornings off for some extra reading time.

Create a Cozy Vibe

I’ve really gotten into sitting in front of my fake fireplace and crocheting or reading. It’s lovely to have a corner of my home that’s all about rest and coziness. You can get some ambient music or nature sounds going to make it even more peaceful.

Make Something

Making something with your own two hands is a great way to decompress after being at the computer all day. It can be as complex as woodworking or as simple as coloring a picture. The point is to give yourself time to tap into your creativity.

Mutual Aid

It’s okay to ask for help when you need it. There’s no shame in reaching out to your community for help; that’s what it’s there for.

Celebrate Everything

Don’t wait for something big to happen to celebrate. Celebrate every win, big or small. I don’t care if that means drinking water out of a fancy glass on a Tuesday night; get into the habit of celebrating yourself. 

Pet an Animal

If you don’t have your own, hang out with a friend who does, or go to a local dog park and make some new furry friends. 

Light a Match

I keep candles on my desk I light every morning, and I recently switched from using a lighter to striking a match. Something about the action feels like self-care to me.

Do Something That Requires Your Full Attention

I love crocheting because my hands are occupied so I can’t look at my phone. Anything that requires your full attention, like crocheting or swimming, is a great form of self-care because you can’t distract yourself with other noise.

Read a Book

As editors, it’s easy to forget to read for fun. But I want to encourage you to pick up a book that you enjoy or that challenges you. 

Important Sections:

  • (2:30) The History of the Term “Self-Care”

  • (5:11) Thoughts and Emotions When it Comes to Your Business

  • (10:20) What Happens When You Don’t Manage Your Emotions

  • (16:08) Mental and Emotional Self-Care Ideas For Business Owners

Resources Mentioned:

Work with Me:

Tara Whitaker
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Social and Intellectual Wellness For Freelance Editors
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Cultivating Financial Well-Being for Freelance Editors