An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Regularly move your body and eat fresh fruits and vegetables daily. Taking the time to look after, and be in, your body will support you to get out of all the head thoughts, which is a support for physical and mental health.
As a part of my series about the “5 Things Anyone Can Do To Optimize Their Mental Wellness”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tara Jackson.
Tara is an embodied business mentor, holistic health and wellness coach, author, illustrator and the founder of Empathpreneurs®, a business service for empath entrepreneurs.
Her work involves guiding sensitive and empathic entrepreneurs to create businesses they love on their terms, by healing and releasing any blocks, and aligning with their creative power.
She is the author of four books ‘Embodied — A self-care guide’, ‘Embodied Business’, ‘Embodied Creation’ and ‘Embodied Wealth’, plus the creator of the ‘Embodied Wisdom’ oracle deck.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
I first began working in and with businesses over 20 years ago, working my way up in PR and marketing with global corporations and brands in the travel and tourism industry. I then started working in business operations, HR and new business development as I wanted to learn behind the scenes of how businesses worked knowing that I wanted my own business someday.
I have also been a virtual assistant and events manager, worked in food events and catering.
In all that time, I found myself hustling a lot, pushing, ignoring my body and I started to get burnt out, had a number of health issues — mind and body. So, I re-trained as a holistic health coach, which was my first business. As this evolved I was still doing a number of jobs in marketing and business admin, and wanted to bring it all together (along with the health and wellbeing as it’s essential to business), as I found I enjoyed doing all the various parts, and felt there must be a way to combine it all.
Then one day I had the magical idea to create something which leans on all my varied experience, and brings a holistic approach to supporting others with their businesses.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
The most interesting thing that has happened in my career so far was feeling that I should totally let go of my first business as a health coach, even though I had just written my first book all about self-care and linking to my work then. It seemed so counterintuitive, but it was such a strong feeling that I honoured it and did let it go.
I then spent a few months in that space in between, wondering what was next. Then suddenly one day, the idea for my current business came in a flash, linking all the different parts of a business to the chakras, and still including wellbeing (along with a holistic approach to business).
Can you share a story with us about the most humorous mistake you made when you were first starting? What lesson or take-away did you learn from that?
There have definitely been a few mistakes, but I think one of the funniest (in hindsight) was in my early days in my new business as a business guide. I was sharing a free online session to invite people into a paid programme, and I had music playing for part of it as my work includes visualisations guiding people into their wisdom. Needless to say when I started to share more about the programme, after the visualisation was over, and make the offer, the music was still playing lightly in the background. Even though I had stopped sharing sound it still drowned out everything I was saying and nobody could hear a word I said. I couldn’t even see people typing in the chat to say they couldn’t hear me, as I had a slide covering it. So, I went through my first selling experience with nobody hearing a word I said. It was totally mortifying at the time and I was so embarrassed and annoyed at myself.
It taught me a lot about my own inner resistance to selling, and there was a part of me that didn’t want anyone to hear what I was saying. I’ve since done a lot of work here and had support. I also learned to double check all my tech beforehand, and make sure things are working, or how they work!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
There are many people who have supported me in my business and I have had (and continue to have) some wonderful mentors and peers throughout. In all honesty, the person who has supported me throughout is my dad! He has read every single one of my email newsletters, he has believed in me and encouraged me to keep going even when there’s been seemingly nobody else. He’s the first person to have read the first draft of all my books and oracle card deck. He has just been there for me. Having that one person has made the biggest difference overall. Just having a little bit of feedback is invaluable and knowing that there is one person out there who believes in you, even if it is your dad, has kept me going.
What advice would you suggest to your colleagues in your industry to thrive and avoid burnout?
Listen to your body and its guidance. Pay attention to how you feel and do what you can to support yourself (or get help) to feel good. Our bodies are always talking to us, letting us know what’s going on inside and how they are. We are taught to ignore them and push against them, so we often don’t even recognise or receive their messages until it’s too late and we are burnt out or have other health issues.
You can start by looking after your body — physically and mentally, by eating well, moving regularly, getting into nature and incorporating practices which support your mental health such as journaling, meditation, sharing with others etc. As you do this you form a strong foundation from within and you are then also able to tell more easily when something is off or doesn’t feel good, and can change it or get support sooner.
What advice would you give to other leaders about how to create a fantastic work culture?
Listen to the people who work with and for you. Ask them how they feel and do what you can to support their needs (in ways that are realistic but also compassionate) in a working environment e.g. honouring the need for rest. Real human connection which includes care and empathy is what we are all after. If we feel seen and heard, we feel like we belong, which creates a much more inviting and supportive work culture.
Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. Mental health is often looked at in binary terms; those who are healthy and those who have mental illness. The truth, however, is that mental wellness is a huge spectrum. Even those who are “mentally healthy” can still improve their mental wellness. From your experience or research, what are five steps that each of us can take to improve or optimize our mental wellness. Can you please share a story or example for each.
I find with health it often comes back to basics and really establishing a strong foundation from which to grow and add to. When you have this solid, healthy grounding in place, you are able to do and be more, and when things aren’t great it’s often less overwhelming to ‘come back’ from. This takes prioritising your wellbeing and supporting yourself with small regular things that add up. These can fit into your lifestyle and needs. I would personally do the following:
- Regularly move your body and eat fresh fruits and vegetables daily. Taking the time to look after, and be in, your body will support you to get out of all the head thoughts, which is a support for physical and mental health
- Regularly de-cluttering the mind can support mental wellness, as thoughts, especially negative ones, tend to spiral and make things appear much worse. This can be done by journaling and getting everything out, or talking to someone you trust.
- Getting into nature as often as you can is a huge support for mental wellness. Again it takes us out of the spiral of our own inner chatter, and connects us to the natural environment which is also grounding and calming on the nervous system.
- Nervous system support is also super helpful for mental (and overall) health. So many people live in stressful situations often with many demands that their nervous systems are on high alert. So doing what you can to support your nervous system will be a huge help. A couple of things that can help here are doing yoga postures with stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system and meditating. Rest is also included here, as it is so important for regenerating and resetting. A way to rest is to reduce the amount of stimulus in your life — coming in and going out. Slow down, say ‘no’ more, put more boundaries in place if needed, and allow yourself to just ‘be’ when you are able to.
- Finding and having an outlet for your creativity is a huge support for mental wellbeing as it allows you to connect to something beyond the day-to-day. I truly believe that everyone is creative, it is an innate part of our being and expression as humans. We have been taught that creativity needs to look or be a certain way, which is why so many people believe they aren’t creative. But actually creativity is an expression through you, and can take any form that appeals, e.g. drawing, painting, cooking, writing, pottery, dancing, acting, gardening, singing, colouring, moving, sewing, etc. There is no limit and it’s about letting yourself do it in a way that feels good to you, and is just for you (which can change later if you want).
How about teens and pre teens. Are there any specific new ideas you would suggest for teens and pre teens to optimize their mental wellness?
I would invite them (with support and guidance if needed) to look at what they are consuming when it comes to information. Social media is of course a huge trigger for mental health issues, so I would recommend curating their social feeds as much as possible to include things that are positive, motivating, feel good, inspiring and supportive of good mental health. Even though it might not seem like it, small things which are negative can build up and add to the overall picture of mental wellbeing being. It’s so easy to spiral and be impacted by what we are consuming, and with the information overload out there it is so important to be mindful of this.
The other thing that can help here is to reinforce positive self-beliefs and thoughts regularly (with support from parents/teachers/family members etc), so that there is a healthy positive foundation being put in place. This will help when/if the negative beliefs, comparing to others, and other things come up which affect mental wellbeing.
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story?
Wild Power: Discover the Magic of Your Menstrual Cycle and Awaken the Feminine Path to Power by Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer.
This book totally confirmed what I had been feeling intuitively in my body and how the working world (in particular) needs to catch up and honour the varying monthly needs of people with a menstrual cycle. Reading this book gave me some added permission to really trust my body and its needs in accordance with the menstrual cycle and how it feels each week. When I do this I am able to be much more productive in my life and business, and able to work with my body not against it.
This is not to say those who don’t have a menstrual cycle aren’t included. They absolutely are, even if we have different hormones, we are all still human and NOT machines. We all need to pay more attention to the needs of our bodies and do what we can to work with them and not against them, which will have positive effects all around.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Connect to your body every single day. Our bodies are so wise and always on our side, guiding us and letting us know what’s going on. If we spend more time in and with them, learning to trust them and listen to their messages, we truly can feel amazing and be all we are capable of.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?
My favourite quote at the moment is ‘Slow down to do more’, as this has changed my life and my business. Rather than forcing, pushing ahead and taking action because that is what we have been taught, slowing down and doing less (even though seemingly counterintuitive) is actually more productive.
When I slow down I am more in tune with my intuition and know when something is right for me, or if it’s not, so I don’t do things that I often end up resenting, which used to happen in the past, as I was almost on autopilot saying yes to everything.
As someone with a menstrual cycle my body also needs to honour the seasons of rest in addition to action. If I push against this I end up burning out and feeling so out of balance. Whereas if I honour the times of rest, I am actually able to do, be and give more in the times when I am being called to take action.
This way has supported me in letting go of my first business, and then slowing down entirely to create the space for what my current business is today (as I shared above), which I don’t feel I would have been able to do if I had been pushing and trying to do things to be busy, productive and fill the space and my time.
What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?
https://www.instagram.com/empathpreneurs/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/empathpreneurscommunity
https://twitter.com/tara_jackson
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
Tara Jackson of Empathpreneurs: 5 Things Anyone Can Do To Optimize Their Mental Wellness was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.