Member Article

How to Feel Great Freelancing

The Secret Steps to Gain a Successful Less-Stressed Life.

Mental Health awareness has brought a network of freelancers together to share their life-stories with each other. And with more and more people leaving full-time permanent employment to seek solace being their own boss, the focus is fully on mind, body and soul.

Emily Brinnand, 29, from Manchester works as a freelance producer and is a member of We Are The Allies – a creative network of freelancers. Emma is also a trained life coach. Having turned her back on full-time permanent work two years ago, Emily is a big believer in prioritising mental health over work and shares her advice: “Change your perspective. Rather than seeing a problem, enjoy finding the solution. Enjoy looking out for yourself. To get to this stage takes self-belief, confidence and dedication,” she says.

Figures from IPSE (The Independent Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed) reveal that more than a fifth of full-time working professionals have switched to self-employment so as to gain better work conditions and a healthier work/life balance with 69% of those claiming to feel ‘less-stressed’ since making such a move.

The North’s first freelance creative network, “We Are The Allies’ is delighted by new research highlighting the mental and physical benefits of working as a freelancer.

We Are The Allies Director, Pavan Riyat-Ward, says: “It does not surprise us that such statistics came to light. Over the past six months alone, we’ve noticed that more of our creatives are telling us that they’re feeling the health benefits of working for themselves as freelancers as opposed to when they were in full-time employment. “Many of our team actually seem to be reaping the benefits both mentally and physically which can come with working as a freelancer.”

Award-winning We Are The Allies was set-up in April this year and is now taking the Advertising and Marketing industry by storm. With 200 highly talented creatives on the books so far - across a broad spectrum of creative disciplines, this is one of the largest virtual creative departments in the North.

Top Tips to Make Your Career Work for You. • Work out exactly what makes you feel good • Write down 3 things you’re grateful for everyday • Write down 3 positive intentions for each day • Live with intention both in your work and life • Surround yourself with good people and good energy • Take that break you think you don’t deserve or have time for • Develop some sort of mindfulness practice • Put the effort into creating a work-life harmony • Stop striving for the unrealistic work-life balance • See your life as an ongoing cycle full of lessons and chances to keep trying • If you need support, ask for it • Listen to yourself • Look after yourself • Believe in yourself

Emily adds: “Instead of striving for the unrealistic work-life balance, strive for that work-life harmony, where you see everything in your life as a cycle, that’s interlinked, where each part enables the other to thrive, to make you feel good, fulfilled and happier.”

Ends

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Leigh Purves .