Hello, dear listeners. Welcome back. To my Wellness to Success podcast, my name is Dr. Martine Canal and I am a self care strategist. I have been a nurse for over 27 years. This is my expert opinion. It is a no way, shape or form any medical advice. So if you feel the need to get medical help, please reach out to your medical professional. Now. This episode, I'm going to talk about the magic of self care and the power of like minded communities. Now, you know that self care is any activity that you do deliberately to take care of your mental, emotional, physical health. As well, as well as social health, it is not just about face mask or spa days, though they can be part of it. You know, it's all about taking care of you, but it's also about self awareness. Understanding what refuels you versus what depletes you or drains you. And I mentioned social health. And how do you make sure that you take care of your social health? Cause remember, we are social creatures. We surround ourselves with, with people, like minded people, actually, who can influence our thoughts, action, and even our emotions. By being around people that think like us, that share our values, that share our beliefs, we can... Share among ourselves those values and those interests that can validate our feelings, provide support, and even create a sense of belonging. Now, I just came back from the National Speakers Association. My God, what an event. It was amazing. It's the support, knowledge that I got over there, and the sense of community empowered, you know, it empowered my determination, my focus, my commitment for being a better speaker. We were like minded people. The accountability that I, that was set there, it just elevated. The bar for me to reach new height, you know, in my professional life as well as in my personal life when I was there, you know, they were giving awards and it was amazing that my coach, Dr. De La Toro received the hall of fame award for public speaking. It was just an amazing moment to see him go on stage and get his award. But what was more amazing that his coach also got an award, the highest award for the National Speakers Association. And his name is Dr. Willie Jolly. And at one point, Les Brown also got on stage. And there were three generations of public speakers who got awards. But what was interesting about it is what Les Brown mentored Dr. Willie Jolly. And Dr. Willie Jolly mentored Dr. De La Toro. So, the power of mentoring guys is not to be neglected because by being mentored, by being in the community of like-minded people, it will help you to develop it will help you to elevate. It will help you to have that determination to reach the next level. Give you the focus. Also give you the patience and the control, the courage. It's gonna make sure that you do the hard work necessary. To reach your next goal, the commitment, the discipline in order to set your bar high so that you can end up one day, I don't know, getting an award. So it was very moving. The whole audience was up on their feet when they saw that they, all of those three individual, which completely, they've been working for over 20 years. This is not something that happened overnights, folks working on your community, working on your social health, finding. What we call your family finding the people that believe in you finding the people that will keep you Get you know help you to get up when you fall down because remember you don't fail You just get up back on your feet and retry again because it's an opportunity for for growth Right. So again, we are social creatures. So finding your people, I should say, is very important. Now also you have to make sure that you set boundaries. Okay, people who may be able to take a lot from you, but the benefit of being with like minded people in the community will, you know, will be emotional support, even sometimes physical support. What are you, what if you're doing some kind of physical activity? It can boost your self confidence. Sometimes just by looking at someone, let's say you're on stage speaking and then you get very anxious, nervous. And just by the, by looking at that person that believes in you, that know that you can reach your goal, that know that you can do that talk, that speech with the blink of an eye will give you that confidence that you need to proceed. And then being in the like minded community will provide an avenue for For growth, for shared growth growth. So being at the NSA, I did learn a lot of new strategies, new knowledge. I learned about AI and that, that field, believe it or not, it's just growing. I networked with a lot of people. I met a lot of new people. I was able to share strategies that I was employing in my business and compare and see what works, what doesn't work. It allows us to share research, to share knowledge, to share anything that will help us to keep growing. It gives us an open mind. Because sometimes when you focus on a certain way of doing business, or doing strategies a certain way, it impedes us from growing. So, I felt that there was a lot of nurturing in that community, a lot of sharing of the same values. So that, believe it or not, not only enriched my life personally and as well professionally. So, it is important to know that taking care of your social health is part of self care. Let's say you spend the whole week working. And if you're someone like me, you do work a lot of hours every day. And sometimes, At the end of the day, because you have to do like other tasks, like exercising or meditating or preparing healthy meals. You don't have time really to just connect with people, but being mindful and setting the proper time and environment to be able to connect to, let's say your accountability partner, is an important part of self care because let's say once a week or twice a week, you're able to dedicate that time in order to share ideas, to Reassess what happened in during the week to stick to see if you're staying on track of your goals of your Your planned and all of that. So I want to finish by saying that being part of the community like minded people is a very important part of Taking care of your social health Again, we are social creatures. We need support. We need a loving ear. Sometimes it's just to re ask if you had a bad day. You need to talk about maybe solutions. Maybe the person will give you solutions on how to take care of your challenges. So reach out to that person find your community find your tribe because at the end of the day It's all about you elevating to the next level and by getting the support by getting the helping hand by getting the the accountability and feeling that you are worth being part of the community will help you to elevate to the next level. So remember, it's all about living a productive, passionate, and joyful life. Thank you for listening to my podcast today. And hopefully, actually, I wanted to invite you guys. I have my Self care empowerment circle, Facebook group. If you go to Facebook and you watch from Martine canal, you can join my self care empowerment circle so that we could all support each other. And, and I give tips and strategies that someone may need that day in order to reach the next level. So reach out. In my, to my Facebook group, get the support that you need, because again, it's all about you living your best life. Thank you for listening. And until next time, please put yourself first and take care of yourself.