SAN ANTONIO – Editor’s note: This is the first story of a new season of ‘New You’, a revamped Health and Wellness segment focused on sharing unique initiatives around the city that might inspire you to become you best version of yourself.
When Lisa Holloway was growing up, she says words like “self-care” and “mental health” weren’t things she was exposed to. Instead, she was taught to work and work hard.
As a claims analyst supervisor, Lisa said she spent most of her profession putting in overtime -- working on holidays, weekends and after hours.
“I worked so hard that I neglected my health and wound up in the hospital. I kept putting off things because ‘I have to go to work.’ I wanted to be the good employee and didn’t notice the signs and symptoms of a serious health condition,” she explained.
For Lisa, all signs were pointing to stress -- even her dentist and her Facebook friends knew the answer.
“I used to clench my jaw when I was stressed and I saw my dentist and she said, “Are you stressed? Do you notice when you do this?” she said. “Stress management is something you have to really work on so that it doesn’t start to affect you mentally, physically, emotionally, and even socially and spiritually.”
In early 2019, Lisa took action by researching ways to manage her stress. Then in October of that year, she felt called to share her newfound skills with her co-workers and peers. For about five months, Mindful Peace Self-Care Institute was seeing clients in person. But when the pandemic hit, so much changed for Lisa and her business. She was forced to go virtual but in return ended up reaching a much wider audience with clients in places like North Carolina and the Bahamas. But as Lisa herself struggled working from home, she picked up meditation.
“Once I learned about meditation, it’s like my mind just exploded,” she said. “I really need to do this with my clients because it actually was one of the tools that I use myself for stress.”
Lisa uses guided, mindful and imagery meditation to help her clients decompress and has an in-depth questionnaire to help determine which method is best for each.
She was also eager to share some simple tips everyone can start to implement in their lives in order to establish a good work/life balance:
- Establish boundaries -- especially if you are working from home. She urges everyone to turn off your phones and computers and shut your office door when you are off the clock. Be sure everyone knows when you can and cannot be reached.
- Take your paid time off -- “There is nothing wrong with taking a break, a mental health day just to reset yourself, do something fun.” She says that can be as simple as getting a massage or taking a walk.
- Delegate-- You don’t have to do everything yourself. Lisa says you shouldn’t be afraid to let others handle certain tasks -- especially if that’s part of their job.
For more tips and details on Lisa’s services, visit Mindful Peace Self Care Institute.
WATCH BELOW: Talli Dolge, KSAT mental health contributor, gives more tips on managing work and home:
The clip above was part of our ‘New You’ virtual townhall, a conversation with health and wellness experts on all things fitness, nutrition, mental health and body image. Missed it live? No problem. Watch the full video here.