Whether it’s working from home and managing multiple fronts over the last year or working in physical spaces at the office and managing all other caregiving responsibilities, women often find themselves overburdened. How then do you care for yourself and your health?

Nipa Asharam, a certified health, wellness and life coach and founder of Eat.Breathe.Smile, a health-based holistic healing venture, shares her thoughts on the importance of keeping yourself physically healthy, especially if you are a working woman.

NA: The difference between men and women in terms of taking care of their health is their mindset. While we cannot generalize it, in my personal experience, I see men are able to focus and prioritize health-related goals more clearly once they have decided to take care of their health. With women, a lot of conditioning (emotional and mental) takes over even after they have made a decision to take care of their health, and health just slips down the priority order.

NA: Self-care with women has been a challenge for years and a holistic approach is missing. Due to this inexplicable guilt of putting themselves first, they often block their own journey of being healthy. A holistic approach is when you see a perfect blend of emotional-mental-physical well-being and for that, a mindset shift is highly necessary. This shift is about knowing that if I don’t take care of myself, I can’t give my best at work or for my family.

Most women will do some basic stuff for self-care and make peace with it, but real self-care needs reflection. You need to ask questions like “what is my best version?” and “what is it that would entail me to be physically, emotionally and mentally happy?” I think they fear asking these questions because it would mean making changes in their life that bring about emotions of guilt and shame. So, you see it is deep-rooted conditioning here that we are talking about.

NA: Physical health—your gut health and your hormones—are essential for longevity and freedom from diseases. If we compromise this aspect, then we see it affect many areas of our life and this could lead to chronic diseases. Physical health isn't just looking a certain way in the mirror—it is also about what is going on inside us. For instance, someone might be thin but have the worst gut health.

Keeping oneself fit physically will most definitely help in mental health because it is directly connected. When we are physically fit, we will automatically have a routine, a certain set of habits and also mobility that keep us mentally grounded when things aren't going well. It also helps to keep cortisol levels low when we are having a bad day and helps us to be able to stay focused while problem solving. Many of us don’t realize that good physical health helps us in this area too.