Will you be yours? Happy Valentine's Day!

Don’t worry, we aren’t going to get all lovey-dovey on you in this blog. But we do want to propose the idea of thinking outside the box this Valentine’s/Galentine’s weekend that is upon us. No matter your relationship status, did you know that you do in fact have someone in your life that you should show some love to this weekend? You do. It’s you!

Have you looked in the mirror lately? Because, WOW, you are beautiful- inside and out. You owe it to yourself to show yourself some love. Treat yourself to a massage, a box of chocolates, or even a Hallmark movie, because you have made it through 11 months of COVID restrictions, virtual meetings, picking up extra work at home, and even the holiday season in the middle of a global pandemic. You’re one tough cookie, like tougher than the conversation candy hearts from decades ago.

We chose self care for our blog this month because we see your struggles. Over the last year we have noticed that many people in our community are facing an enormous amount of stress due to the pandemic and the ‘new normal.’ Many of our clients and even our staff are mothers. Many of these moms have since added homeschool teacher and playmate to their responsibilities while working from home and continuing their regular household roles such as chef, cleaning person, professional booboo fixer, and leader of the pack. This excessive amount of work and pressure has clearly hit women the hardest. Fortune.com recently released an article that shared some in-depth information regarding employment since the pandemic. Fortune.com shared that US employers cut 140K jobs in December 2020, women accounted for 100% of those losses, losing 156K jobs, while men gained 16K.

We encourage you this weekend to love thyself. In the words of Anne Lamott, “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes...including you.”

Also stay tuned to our social media (@astepaheadmiddletn) because next month we will be highlighting women who have felt the struggle of this new normal and leaned on each other for support.