As the saying goes, ‘You can’t pour from an empty cup.’ Nowhere is this more true than in the education and health and social care sectors. Juggling multiple roles and responsibilities, coping with unpredictable situations, and having complete responsibility for those in our care, it can sometimes feel impossible to prioritise self-care.
Exhaustion can affect our patience, willpower, self-control and judgement, and we risk becoming overwhelmed and burnt out.
Self-care, then, must be a priority for all of us. We need to look after ourselves, so that we, in turn, can provide the best possible support to the individuals in our care. While ‘self-care’ means different things to different people, this checklist can serve as a handy starting point and can be adapted to meet individual needs.
We are in caring professions because we really do care, but if we worry too much about doing things perfectly, we can end up becoming highly self-critical and judging ourselves.
We can’t be perfect all the time: we could always do things better. While striving to improve is not intrinsically a bad thing, often, ‘good enough’ is all that is needed for many of our daily tasks. We can be someone who is improving incrementally all the time, but also someone who prioritises their own needs and not just those they care for.
As caring, committed professionals, our roles can sometimes feel all-consuming and it can be hard to switch off. However, it isn’t healthy or constructive to think only about work, especially outside of working hours.
Although it can be tricky, we can set boundaries around the time we dedicate to thinking about work, and become more conscious of when these thoughts arise during other times. Developing this self-awareness around our thoughts can help us find a healthier work-life balance.
It can be great to talk about work and share our experiences – good and bad – with others. But sometimes, we can find ourselves talking about nothing but our job, which makes it impossible to switch off.
If in-person meet-ups are hard to arrange, we can keep in touch with friends and family using our phones. A quick call or text message can keep us grounded and help put work into perspective.
There are few things more enjoyable than losing ourselves in the moment and becoming completely absorbed in an activity we enjoy. It might be a particular sport, walking in nature, knitting or craft, or spending time with family members and loved ones.
Taking up a new hobby and filling our spare time with the things we love most adds enrichment and relaxation to our busy lives.
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