As founders and makers, do you take care of your mental health?

I found out that having a 1-hour walk every day clears my head and helps me to be more productive.

This is a great topic. I think everything is about balance. I need to sleep well, eat well, meditate and exercise, have fun, play and kiss, and so on. For me doing creative things is also very important. I have found an excellent psychiatrist to meet whenever I want. He has been very helpful in many ways. Nowadays I visit him maybe twice a year. I meet him when I want to understand something or someone in my life, often when I need to understand something from someone else’s perspective. I find this very useful to talk with a professional. One of my challenges I have found with him is that I make decisions fast. As an entrepreneur, I think it is a good thing but in order to collaborate with people, this might be challenging for some. I can quickly think about different scenarios and based on that work make a decision. It doesn’t mean I do decisions without thinking about it a lot, the thinking just happens fast and often I have already experienced something like that in the past, so I can use a bit of my intuition. Many people might consider my behavior rude. This is something that I have found during these sessions with him that I wouldn’t have otherwise. In order to better collaborate (with my fast pace) with other people, I need to slow some things down and often make a “change communications plan” although my decision has already been done. This way I have become much better at collaborating with others. I’m happy that I have found this person to help me. I know that whatever challenges I might face, he is there for me. Oh, I need to also point out that I recommend not to take any pills unless it is a must. I try to live even without any painkillers. Also, business coaches help a lot. :)

I used to work like every day all day while building my startup. But that's not healthy. Now every day I put a stop at 7 pm. I don't work after that time. And I take 1hr walk afterwards or go for a run and that helps a lot clearing my head. Apart from that, I think what's key here is to spend time with people who have nothing to do with the startup world. It's not good to always discuss about startups, that's not healthy either. At the end of the day, if you want to do unique things, you have to live different kind of experiences.

What do you think of 1hour/week with therapist? You can improve assertiveness, relationship with team etc...

I meditate 5 times a day. Very beneficial

Be kind to yourself, always. Don't give yourself a hard time. That's someone else's job - and you're free to ignore them. If you're going to have an internal dialogue, it might as well be a nice one. There are tonnes of meditation apps but my fave is Waking Up on account of it's secular approach and supplementary philosophical content.

Having a great hobby is something I turn to. Motorcycling is my go-to method to relax and keep sane.

Health, whether physical, mental, or emotional should always be the topmost priority. I have been a regular student of a complete fitness regime. My daily regime involves waking up at 5 am, exercises for an hour, meditation/prayer for an hour, and keep doing some small stretches throughout the day. It all changed when my father said "Today, you may be busy and working hard to earn and make wealth, but if you don't take care of your health, one day you will have to pay all the money to the doctor than enjoy it.

I have found programming your schedule on Sunday night gives you some predictability to the week. Personally, with work from home I have adopted mid-day workout schedules which has been quite nice and a good mental break in the day. What is your current schedule?

Unfortunately not really. My mind keeps running in thousands of different directions and the lack of sleep is my daily bread. Not good for the health I know but it's out of my control I'm afraid. Been like this for years.