Rhiannon Duke is the founder of Duke The Label, an Australian brand known for their high performing and size inclusive activewear.
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What does self-care mean to you?
Self-care to me is pure alone time and getting to do activities I love. Whether it’s the gym, cleaning the house, baking at home with no one else there, reading a self-development book, or just bingeing Disney with my phone on aeroplane mode. I am always on the go and due to my work and business Duke The Label, someone always needs me for something!
So just being able to have an hour or two to myself to just feel accomplished and not distracted is my way of looking after myself. I’m not a big pampered person, but doing something around the house where I can tick something off that I would never do during the week is probably the best feeling for me.
How do you know when you’re feeling stressed or burnt out?
I tend to get migraines when I’m severely stressed, but if I’m feeling anxious or have a lot on my plate my ears get hot and my neck turns into a red rash. So, symptoms of stress and burnout always seem to reveal themselves physically for me!
Also, a key indicator that I’ve gotten too much on is when I haven’t spoken to my sister in a few days, or my text message inbox has 10+ texts that I need to get back to. That’s when I know I need to find a way to better balance it all. My work is incredibly important, but so is my family and the people I love.
Do you have a regular self-care routine? If so, what does it look like?
Not necessarily in the traditional sense! It’s more so just washing my hair (I’m disgusting, I wash my hair once a week but train HIIT 5 days a week), eeeekkkk. For me, I also consider other things to be a form of self care, such as cooking something from scratch, or cleaning and resetting my home.
By the end of the week my office can become a mess and my home is just all over the place so Sundays I like to reset the house. I usually do this when my partner goes for a drive and I get to put a candle on, reset the kitchen, clean the coffee machine, put some Luke Combs on in the background, wear the oldest trackies and my partner’s t-shirt and just clean. It’s quite therapeutic for me so it definitely falls under the banner of self-care, but maybe doesn’t seem that way to everyone else!
What bumps you off your self-care routine and how do you get back on course?
As mentioned, I don’t really have a self-care routine in the traditional sense, but the only thing that is consistent is my training. I never really drop off on my training. I love it, my gym is such a beautiful community and I genuinely love going because it sets me up for the day. But other than that I don’t really have any sort of specific routine, I just work really hard each day (I love what I do, so that definitely helps) and then I sleep, and then the next day I’m back on it!
Where do you go for inspiration, ideas or tools for self-care?
I follow Leila Hormozi, she preaches not to get locked into a routine and just be super flexible. And so that’s what I do. My partner and I between the two of us have three businesses so it feels like we never stop sometimes.
So our ethos is we work around the clock until we both run out of steam, then we break to have a day off and reset, before getting back into it! We love weekends away, we try to take a weekend away every few months to keep us looking forward to something otherwise it can get a bit heavy. But other than that we genuinely love what we do and are quite aware that we work a lot but I think if you love it, it’s just a lifestyle.
What do you think you need to improve in terms of your self-care practice?
I had a really bad burnout in April this year where I got a cold, then it turned into a chest infection, then developed into a kidney infection and unfortunately I tried to work through the month. I was interstate 3 times whilst sick travelling for work, weddings, work events and it just got a bit much.
Prior to April I worked 12-hour days and didn’t really think it was that bad, I was in bed by 9 pm and awake at 3 am, in the gym by 4 am weekdays. My biggest learning curve is how much sleep I need. I thought I could run on 5-6 hours of sleep every day.
Boy was I wrong! Now I take sleep quite seriously after the lecture I got from my GP. Since sleeping 8 hours every night I have noticed a massive change in my health. But I need to drink more water, that is the one thing I struggle so badly with! Which is funnily the easiest thing most would say I guess!
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