Give Yourself Permission: 5-Mental Break Strategies
by Maria Campbell, Founder of Cooks Who Care
Opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the point of view of Best Served. In furtherance of bringing more voices to the table, we are committed to sharing varied thinking throughout the industry.
Life and work do overlap - but do we always recognize it?
We’ve learned how to take care of guests and how to serve up incredible experiences. In the process, we’ve learned how to ignore our own needs. We have an innate nature to serve others and yet, we often don’t know how to care for ourselves.
We can prevent heading into burnout zones … if we are aware.
We can ease the stress we feel in healthy ways … if we have strategies.
But these are skill sets most in our industry don’t have … yet.
We can learn how to improve our well-being.
It’s easy to learn how to get the pressure cooker started … but harder to learn to know when the food is tender and how to release pressure slowly.
It’s important for you to stay on top of your own routine maintenance and ensure your ‘pressure cooker’ - how you (really) feel - remains in order. To start, try taking mental breaks.
Here are my Top-5 Tips on how to make it easier to take mental breaks:
If you were asked to “Take 5!” you mostly likely would shrug and choose not to take it. Breaks just aren’t part of the routine. The problem is we can’t always use past ways of doing things to inform our future decisions. We’ve seen that it doesn’t work. It’s time for something new. Try these strategies to make giving yourself a break easier:
1- Give yourself permission
What if you told yourself it was OK to Take 5?! You will thank yourself later.
I am still learning to take charge of all aspects of my life, i.e. health, finances, etc. But it started with learning to think differently about myself, to believe I deserve the care I share with others.
2- Try meditation or prayer
All forms of meditation and/or prayer are beneficial. Both require moments dedicated to quiet and focusing our mind to open a dialog with our spirit. They help us gain clear focused intent by stating what we are seeking. It’s the first step to discovering what is truly felt. Opening your awareness, even by taking just 5 - 10 minutes, can lead to increased happiness, lower anxiety, demonstrable peace of mind, and a pathway to greater humility and love. Sometimes I don’t always finish a prayer or meditation, but I always start.
3- Don’t go it alone
Isolation can turn unhealthy, really quickly. If we’ve learned anything over the past year, it’s that we need other people. Find mature friends, who have healthy coping strategies, to help you process challenging emotions or seek someone with expertise who can help break down buried feelings. Seek out support groups like Ben’s Friends, Restaurant After Hours or ChowNow.org to find like minded people who understand your line of work and current conditions.
4- Know how you react … then release in healthy ways
Understand your initial reactions to stress. Do you tend to explode? Yell or get into arguments easily? Deep belly breathing and exercise routines can help blow off steam. Or listen to music that matches your mood. Do you bottle your emotions? I do. Find ways to pop the cap on the bottle of stored emotions. Get a journal. Write it out. Or write poetry. Managing feelings of anger, fear and anxiety is good for your health.
5- Pick a ‘Take 5’ moment to refresh
Start to look up at the sky. Get some fresh air and take a “Fresh Air” break. Eat your food outside. Pack 1 snack to look forward to. Make a playlist or look up a song you haven’t heard in awhile and turn up the voLUME. Listen to a guided meditation. Send a quick message to someone you care about. Or let someone help - not because you just need it, but because you are human. But first … give yourself permission.
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Maria Campbell, CEC, MBA is the Founder of Cooks Who Care, a not for profit dedicated to promoting health and well-being in the food industry. As the “Well-Being Concierge” for the food industry, Cooks Who Care creates solutions that lead to happier and healthier workplaces by connecting members of the food industry with the resources they need to thrive on and off the job.
As an industry innovator, Maria promotes significant, positive change in restaurant/hospitality communities and individuals through advocacy empowered by compassion. A dynamic woman, she’s a chef-by-trade, college educator, event producer, mom and partner/productivity specialist with One Degree Coaching who focuses on training and guided leadership mastery. All motivated by a passion driven through innovation towards real change because she cares.
