I Learned The Hard Way That Caring For Others Starts With Caring For Yourself

Your calendar is full, you’re the one everyone counts on, and you’re still telling yourself you’ll “get to” your health later. That bargain feels normal until it doesn’t. I sit down with Melanie Saiedy, founder of Alevance LLC and a veteran leadership and organizational development consultant, to talk about the hard-earned lesson behind her “if only”: prioritizing everyone else’s needs while putting her own self-care last.We dig into how overgiving gets rewarded, especially in healthcare leadership and high-performance cultures, and how easy it is to tie self-worth to the job title. Melanie shares the wake-up calls that changed her trajectory, including profound loss and a serious accident that forced her to slow down when she least wanted to. From there, we unpack what real recovery looks like in daily life: mindful food choices, paper books when screens were not an option, gardening and creativity as regulation, and the kind of quiet routines that rebuild resilience.We also go deeper on boundaries and identity: why she limits social media to protect her energy, how values-based choices can be an act of self-care, and what she brings to executive coaching that helps leaders grow without shame. If you’ve ever talked yourself out of a bold move with a single sentence, you’ll love her “no self-diminishment” practice and the way she reframes discomfort as a sign of learning.If this resonates, subscribe, share the episode with a friend who needs it, and leave a review so more listeners can find these conversations. What is one self-care boundary you’re ready to protect this week?Connect with Melanie below:Email: [email protected]:http://linkedin.com/in/melanie-saiedy Ready to break through your own “If Only”?Let’s create your next powerful step together. Visit BrendaMcGregor.com to connect.