Us, Interrupted: How Entrepreneur Meena Harris Is Balancing Purpose & Self-Care

Here, we spoke to Harris about life during the COVID-19 outbreak and how she's learning to manage self-care with finding purpose.

I've never been very good at "self-care," and truthfully, I'm still working on it. Still, my work through Phenomenal is what fuels me and gives me a sense of purpose and hope.

Exercise was a big one and not getting enough sleep. I started cooking more but not as much as I would have liked.

It's all a blur now, and I don't really remember. Through Twitter I was following what was happening in China, but before we knew it was actually a pandemic, my first reaction certainly wasn't as fearful as it is now. I have serious respiratory issues because of asthma, and immunocompromised friends and family, so I was initially very worried what that would mean.

Because of my asthma, I've been self-quarantining for a while, since around the end of February. I've been doing the basics of washing my hands frequently and not touching my face, but I've also taken other precautions like handling delivery packages with gloves and spraying everything down with alcohol, or washing surfaces of food products with soap and water.

It's definitely affected me emotionally and mentally, but it changes day to day. The first week, for example, I had this big burst of energy when we were helping to fundraise for the National Domestic Workers Alliance emergency relief fund. But on other days I have felt totally unmotivated and don't really want to interact with people. I broke down yesterday for the first time after seeing back-to-back death announcements on Twitter. It's all really scary and sad. I also experience guilt in feeling sad about my personal circumstances, knowing that I am better off than so many. I have a children's book coming out in June, and a lot of the preorders and events got canceled, which really sucked. But it can be challenging to recognize and honor your own feelings and make space for yourself when so many people are impacted in much more extreme ways. It involves reconciling all of these complex feelings during this difficult time.  

Keeping structure and taking care of myself. It's hard to really think about that when all of this chaos is happening.

The big one for me is finding purpose and impact from home, no matter how small, whether that's contributing to a rent relief fund or doing something kind that brings a smile to a neighbor's face. If you have access to technology, use it to connect with others—whether it's a happy hour with friends using Zoom, or FaceTime with your parents. I also think it's important to talk to our children about what's happening, how it affects your family and others, and encouraging things like showing gratitude for medical workers and hourly workers who are risking their lives on the front lines. Lastly, be kind to yourself. I've seen people joking on Twitter about how Shakespeare wrote King Lear while in quarantine for the plague, but please don't pressure yourself into writing a novel or producing some masterpiece. If you need to sit on the couch and stare out the window, or binge Netflix, that's fine. Give yourself that space.

We have a lot of love, connectivity, laughter, and joy in our family, and, thankfully, we've still been able to maintain that, even while we're all in different cities. There are other things that I've always aspired to do that I'm now doing and will hopefully carry forward, such as cooking a lot more. Cleaning my closet, though, not so much. Most of all, I'm growing a lot in trying to find peace in accepting the things I cannot control and letting go a little bit.  

In moments of crisis and fear, people can turn inward, but we're seeing incredible acts of humanity right now. Let that give you hope and be a reminder that all of us have a role to play. If you're inspired to do something, go do it.

Seeing extraordinary acts of kindness. It gives me hope in humanity that, in this time of crisis, people are stepping up to make a difference.