What’s the right balance between work and non-work time? The traditional 9-5 has slowly disappeared with the emails and zoom and texting going far beyond traditional business hours. We asked members of our community to share with us how they think about work-life balance.

Cameron Leathers-Clayborne | Silk Dealer & ICU Registered Nurse

I got my first job as soon as I could legally be hired. I was a hostess at a restaurant with a built-in arcade and I was so excited to earn my own money for the first time. A few months in, I found myself overwhelmed with trying to balance completing all of my schoolwork and working pretty crazy hours for a high school student. Typically in food service, schedulers would give you a time to come in but you would only be “cut” for the evening when they felt that you wouldn’t be needed anymore. That resulted in many shifts with really long hours. I remember closing one day and bursting into tears when I got home because I still had homework to complete and I was already exhausted. I ultimately took a leave of absence to focus on school. I experienced this theme a few times and it became a cycle for me, even after becoming a nurse. I would get full-time permanent jobs and eventually become overwhelmed from poorly managing my work-life balance. As an adult, I no longer had the option to take a leave of absence to focus on school or just being an individual with hopes and dreams outside of the workplace. In May 2022, I decided that I wanted to change that. Since then, I’ve worked as a critical care travel nurse and my main focus is to find my own flow. I realized a long time ago how different each season of my life looks and it initially felt like a threat to my livelihood. I felt like I needed to stay on a particular schedule or I was “failing”. Now, I realize how much of a blessing it is that I get to experience and embrace change. I get the opportunity to be versatile and change is nothing to fear, just something to acclimate to. I save while on contract so that I am not always living paycheck to paycheck or working out of necessity. I’m very blessed because I am able to maneuver the world from the standpoint of what I want to do, not what I need to do. I take months off at a time to focus on passion projects, enjoy family, recenter and more. My belief is that most people don’t dream of labor so dream jobs aren’t exactly a reality for most. I do, however, believe that with discipline and clear vision, we have the ability to acquire what we need, invest in our futures, and lead lives that we’re excited about. Read more>>

Jasmine Simone | Licensed Esthetician & Educator

if I were asked this question 5 years ago when I went into business, I’d say Work life balance was easy and I had it all figured out. However, it has changed for me in the last year because I just had another baby. It was a lot easier with my other children because they’re in their teens, but starting over and being a new mom while in entrepreneurship has been quite challenging. I worked up until I was 39 weeks pregnant and came back to work when he was a month old. I didn’t realize how challenging it would be starting over and doing it while I had my own business. As a business owner, you don’t really have the luxury of taking time off of work and still getting paid to cover ongoing expenses. During the 8 weeks I took off for bonding time, I spent a lot of time working on a new plan to rebrand my business. So when I came back I knew what direction I was headed in and what all I needed to do to make sure I spent enough time with my family, myself and pouring into my business. Read more>>

Shay Anuhea | Actor & Choreographer

My acting teacher always says, “if you want to change your art, change your life. If you want to change your life, change your art.” As an artist, I understand that it can be quite difficult to find true moments of physical or mental rest. But I believe that both are intertwined. You life impacts your art, and vise versa. If you’re cutting off one to feed the other, you’re not truly being fed, To say that you need to “stop living” in order to create your art, then that is not true art. Read more>>

Morgan Abenhaim | Multidisciplinary Artist

When I was younger I was less balanced than I am now. I was often very 0 to 100 with my art practice, all or nothing. Art has always been like breathing, it has always been innate to lean into art entirely. Read more>>