Professional Corner

10 Steps to Becoming a Natural Superwoman

1. Tune Into Your Body Clock

The ability to follow and understand your own natural rhythms and patterns over a day, a week, even a lifetime, will help you get the most out of a busy life.

Our natural body clocks are triggered from the hypothalamus in response to light, and are genetically determined.

Below is a rough guide, but remember individual body clocks can vary by up to two hours – which is why some of us are larks and others owls.

• 6-7 AM: Body temperature rises. The ‘go-hormone’ levels rise. Sex hormones are at their highest and your metabolic rate is high, so you could eat a hearty breakfast to set you up for the day.
• 10 – 11 AM: At our most alert. Best time to use logic and learn new skills involving short-term memory.
• 12 – 1 PM: Rock-bottom energy – body temperature and adrenaline dip. We are, it seems, designed for a lunchtime nap to recharge our batteries.
• 3 PM: Body temperature and adrenaline rise again while energy hormone, cortisol, plateaus, so you’re ticking along physically and mentally, but feel relaxed. Best time for memorizing information long-term.
• 5 – 7 PM: Body temperature and adrenaline are at their peak, coordination and stamina are at their best. Ideal time to exercise.
• 9 PM: ‘Go-hormones’ dip and melatonin levels rise. – the hormone that relaxes us into sleep. A bad time to eat a large meal because metabolic rate is low.
• 11 PM: Mini-hibernation – the systems slow down, so we sleep without the need to eat or drink.
• 3 – 5 AM: Body temperature and ‘go-hormones’ slump to lowest level to allow deep sleep. Most one-vehicle road accidents happen at this time.

2. Balance Your Brain

Don’t waste time agonizing over knotty problems. Sometimes left brain rationale (analyzing, brain storming, deducing, using logic) simply doesn’t work.

So instead try going for a long walk, or just watch a movie. It is amazing how, by resting the left brain, the right often pops up with a solution.

If the right brain approach is not appropriate, look to solving the core problem logically. First, look behind the symptoms and analyze the underlying problem: ask who? What? When? Where? And How?

Second, work out what you want or need in relation to the problem – realistically. Third, look at your options: you can negotiate, you can change your mind, you can accept the status quo, or you can get out. Make an action plan and work out a timescale within which to evaluate the new position. Then reward yourself.

3. Laugh

Women who don’t take themselves too seriously are not only more likely to have happy lives, they are more likely to succeed, both at home and in the workplace.

If you make yourself smile, you actually feel like smiling. Research shows that it triggers hormones in the brain which promote feelings of well-being.

4. Cry

A good cry makes you feel better because the chemicals built up during stress are released in tears. Research has shown that heart disease is caused a much by inhibited emotional expression – depression and suppressed anger, for example – as stress.

5. Prioritize

This is the key to releasing more time for yourself. Prune the unessential, so that you get things done how and when you want them done.

It means doing the essential work when your body clock is at its most efficient, and doing the less-essential when you are just ticking over.

Balance time spent with friends and family with time on your own. Privacy is not a luxury, it is a real need. Make sure that you have at least half-an-hour to yourself every day.

6. Feed the Brain

No busy woman can function fully on a strict calorie-controlled diet because when you’re hungry, all you think about is food. There is no room left for being creative, motivated, successful and energetic if you are starving. Self-esteem and effectiveness are weakened, depression and irritability set in, and passivity takes over.

A poor diet raises blood pressure, damaging cognitive function, disrupting memory and concentration. If affects your mood, behavior and the way you think, as well as having a marked effect on immune function.

So rather than crash diets, get into the habit of eating a natural, balanced diet, avoid processed foods and keep the fat content low.

• Foods that are especially good for brain function are shellfish, sardines, herring, dried and sprouted beans, seeds and nuts, apricots, apples, black currants, beets, carrots and celery, oats, brown rice, and molasses.
• Busy women need to ensure that they get enough of all the right nutrients which support the body. The B vitamins are linked to abstract thought and iron levels are associated with good memory and visual-spatial skills.

7. Listen Carefully

It is easy to take loved ones for granted if your energy levels are low. Develop the art of being a good listener – and the even more important art of remembering what you have been told! Be there for those friends or family in need and master the art of putting yourself in their shoes.

8. Learn to Delegate

If you and your partner have full-time jobs, it is ridiculous for the household managements to rest entirely with you. It will wear you to a frazzle, and set a bad example.

How will partners and children learn to cooperate if you do it all? Sons who learn to do their bit will be less likely to avoid their chores later in life. Get tough and train them.

9. Rid Yourself of Toxins

Rid your body of accumulated toxins with a short regime of detoxification. You may have headaches and other symptoms as the body releases its toxins, but once cleansed, you will feel full of energy.

10. Are You Your Own Worst Enemy?

If you see yourself in any of the following, you may be setting yourself up to become a victim of stress. But these are all patterns that you can do something about.

• Do you over analyze? Save your energy and be guided by your intuition, it’s usually a safer bet.
• Do you need to be liked (too much)? Some working women find it difficult to switch from being friendly with colleagues to being strictly professional. Men are better at this: they can argue with a colleague and have a drink with a friend – the same person.
• Do you need to control? Successful women share and delegate. Control freaks severely limit their potential: there is not enough time and energy to do everything well yourself.
• Do you take criticism personally? Do you on the defensive whenever your feel criticized or rejected? Learn to be constructive. Listen to what is said: being positive rather than defensive is the key to unlocking the pattern.

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