Vanessa Coppes is a wife, mother, author, and entrepreneur.  She’s written two books, “5 Steps to Fabulous: Choices for Living Beautifully, Inside and Out!” and “Social Media Strategies for Small Businesses: A Guide for Solo-Entrepreneurs!” She’s a lifestyle blogger and former social and digital media strategist for BELLA Magazine.

Vanessa is also the co-founder of ETTWomen and the ETTWomen Foundation, two organizations that support women entrepreneurs and victims of financial, sexual and domestic violence. Her passion is to connect women to one another, in support of each other.

Daily

I am a huge proponent of meditation. So for me, it’s prayer in the morning. If I start out my day with at least 5 minutes of silence, whether it’s sitting still or praying for something that I may be going through or something that may be challenging me at the moment, I find that it allows me to start the day off grounded and with more direction.

On the mornings when I don’t connect with that ritual, I feel it. Things don’t usually go as planned or intended. I make it a point to get up earlier than the rest of my housed hold so that I can take that time for myself every morning. If I do have time left over, I journal because it allows me to put thoughts to paper, which in turn allows some of the things I want to come to fruition. It also grounds me for the day.

 

Weekly

For the past 3 months, I’ve been religiously getting a Wednesday massage for 1 hour. It helps with some of the issues I’m experiencing with my back, and it situates my spirit, my body, and my mind, and, that helps me cope with the rest of the week.

 

Monthly

As a mother and busy entrepreneur, I find that I don’t spend enough time alone. So I try to have alone time twice a month but get least once per month. I take a day, where I’m either in the office by myself or I’ve taken secret trips into NYC and I walk around. I do a lot of sightseeing, watch a movie or treat myself to dinner at a new restaurant.

I don’t wait for other people to dictate my happiness. I take it upon myself to ensure that I am happy. Also, I don’t promote or speak about what I do because it’s very personal, it’s very mine. Sometimes you might see a random photo of NYC, know that that happened while I was wandering around by myself. It’s great and very therapeutic. And I love people watching so it makes it fun.

 

Annually

I’ve definitely incorporated a self-care component within our annual ETTWomen conference. From my experience as a busy mom and entrepreneur, I felt that I needed a weekend with other women to talk about the things that are of interest to all of us. While self-care is great, it’s even greater when you can share the things that are happening to you with other people who can understand and support you.

You can stay connected with Vanessa  on  Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Website