A key Thriving Schools priority is teacher and staff well-being. The physical, mental, and emotional health of school employees are integral to promoting a healthy and successful school community. While more and more schools are implementing employer programs, sometimes employees are still responsible for taking the lead. We encourage school districts and other leaders looking to enhance well-being efforts to visit the Thriving Schools website for no-cost resources to help get you started.
Self-Care. How frequently are people in human service fields encouraged to focus on self-care? Reminders from human resources professionals, leadership, and others seem to be on the rise but often in vague or high-level generalities and typically in a broad message stream or meeting.
Often, the responsibility to find the time, energy, and funds to determine and embrace healthy self-care habits lands almost exclusively on the shoulders of employees. Hearing repeated calls for self-care and advice on avoiding burnout can feel like another task on the to-do list.
While I hope our growing societal acknowledgement and awareness around burnout prevention will evolve into systemic actions within all workspaces to become a default benefit, these changes take time and evolution. Until that transpires, here’s some helpful advice on acknowledging and embracing your own self-care.
When asked about self-care practices, responses tend to include meeting or working towards societal health standards; for example, routine exercise, 8-10 hours of sleep, suggested daily water intake, 4-5 servings of fruit and vegetables, and meditation. There seems to be a deep-seeded belief that if we follow these health norms, we won’t face burnout, fatigue, or Sunday night exhaustion. Practicing a healthy lifestyle is an important factor toward achieving wellness; however, it is not a one-size-fits-all, solution. Balance, grace, flexibility, and progress over perfection are important keys to unlocking successful and individualized self-care.
For example, person A, is detail oriented and highly organized, making sure they consistently exercise, drink copious amounts of water, sleep well, and are generally committed to this version of self-care but doesn’t feel wholistic benefits. They are frustrated that they check all the boxes yet still feel tired, unhappy, and irritable. For this individual, meaningful self-care might be taking steps to create space for time alone, to read, to garden, play video games – whatever lifts and recharges the mind and heart.
Conversely, person B, is keenly self-aware, goes with the flow, is flexible, and committed to creating time for their hobbies, downtime to veg, and scroll on their phone. Person B’s attention to preferred activities is often at the cost of intentionally moving their body, getting full sleep, and healthy eating. They are also frustrated with feeling tired, low energy, and annoyed despite their commitment to creating space for their mental/emotional self. For this person, limiting their hobby time to eat healthier meals, take a walk, or follow a yoga video might provide their body with fuel and activation that improves how they physically feel.
And for good measure, let’s look at person C, who feels busy, stays busy, might be more scattered, acknowledges self-care would probably be helpful but gets stuck in a shame and defeat cycle of shoulda, coulda, wouldas, leading to an overall lack of action and benefit. This person might get great satisfaction starting with a small reward or small care goal and extending themselves a little grace.
These are just examples of generalized paths individuals might take. Real life examples might be more nuanced and complex. We have massive variations in our personalities, work practices, preferences, and daily schedules. that influence and drive our approach to self-care.
In school settings, we tend to experience high levels of fatigue and stress. Trying to embrace a preset and fixed notion of lifestyle changes can feel cumbersome and even counterproductive to the goals of self-care. I have found that the most successful and fulfilling forms of self-care are those that are tailored to the individual and their circumstances. Discovering what energizes or hits the reset button for us and skipping the guilt trip if we don’t do it perfectly every time is imperative.
By providing grace to ourselves and acknowledging that we can only do so much while being intentional with the time and energy available, you will set an attainable foundation for self-care. Identifying small and rewarding practices, will build upon each other, like deposits into the bank. Identify those aspects most neglected and start there. Allow guilty pleasures, like the cupcake, the sappy song on repeat, the reality TV show. Set boundaries; protect your peace and carefully choose your circle. And yes, pay attention to physical health, stay active, rest, and listen to what food your body needs.
Self-care is a journey, every day is a new chance to give yourself some attention, and always remember, progress over perfection.
