News

The Importance of Self-Care

Whether you are an educator teaching virtually or an administrator planning for the weeks ahead, there is one thing that many individuals are struggling with during these times - self care! Working from home for lengthy periods of time can make your job challenging, especially when you are in charge of creating a learning space that is accommodating for so many students.

Everyone knows that making time for yourself is an important task in order to live a healthy life. However, in times like these, it can be difficult to focus on yourself when you are impacting so many others on a day-to-day basis. The one thing that educators need to know is that if we do not create this time for ourselves, then we run the risk of being mentally overwhelmed. This can cause us to work inefficiently, or worse, not get anything done at all!

While educators can not waste valuable time during these precious weeks, it is important to find self-care routines that are not time consuming. The first thing that you must understand before we dive into tactical ideas is that self-care has two main influencers:

Mental: includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being.

Physical: includes diet, level of physical activity, and behaviour.

Taking Care of Yourself Mentally

Mental health goes much deeper than just being able to go through your daily routine. It means being mentally fit to allow yourself to cope with the normal stresses of life, working productively in your work setting, identifying the abilities of yourself and your surroundings, and much more.

While it is important for you to seek professional help if you are experiencing severe mental instability, there are some at-home methods for individuals to try if they are in need of mental relief. For educators, it is difficult not be around your colleagues daily. So, to help cope with this inability during these times, we suggest connecting with other educators that you are typically connected with on a daily basis. This will help satisfy your social well-being as well as reduce stress as you converse with others in a similar position as yourself!

Another tactical method that you could get involved in to better your mental health is by getting involved in your community. While many in-person activities have been cancelled or postponed for the time being, you can still find ways to get involved virtually. People that donate even one hour per week to help and interact with others in their community see their mental stability become much more sustainable.

The final solution we have for educators is to develop coping skills to combat the daily stresses you may encounter. For some, that may be getting up and taking a 5 minute walk around the block. For others, it may mean breaking up your work day and opening a book to escape reality for a period of time. Whatever you find your coping method to be, try incorporating it daily to help relieve the stresses that you may be feeling during this time.

Taking Care of Yourself Physically

In order for your body to function and run efficiently, you need to take care of yourself physically. It is well known that if you take care of yourself physically, it will help boost your mental health. The problem is, most people are unsure exactly what taking care of yourself physically actually means and how to incorporate it during these uncertain times.

Taking care of yourself physically is much more than just exercising. Physical health also involves getting enough sleep at night and eating the right food to fuel your body. In order to do this, we have created two easy to follow tasks to ensure that your physical health is at a stable point:

1. It is well known that adults between the ages of 18 and 64 should get between 7 to 9 hours of sleep every night. To help monitor how much you are sleeping per night, download our sleep schedule pdf to track how much sleep you are getting per night. This will allow you to physically see if you are actually getting enough sleep every night to be the most effective educator that you can be!

2. The importance of getting an adequate amount of physical activity plays a significant part to your overall health. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the average adult should get between 75 and 150 minutes of physical activity per week. The amount of time you need between 75 and 150 minutes depends on how difficult the workout is. If you have a moderate workout plan in place, plan on working out closer to the 150 minutes per week to maintain a healthy lifestyle. If you tend to have more vigorous workouts, you can plan closer to the 75 minutes per week to sustain a healthy lifestyle. 

Need Someone to Talk to?

If you are feeling overwhelmed during these uncertain times, please feel free to schedule a time to talk with us! We are here to help you and want to be a resource as we get through these times together. To schedule a time to talk, click the button below and we will help you with whatever you may need!

Sources:

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/expert-answers/exercise/faq-20057916

https://www.mentalhealth.gov/basics/what-is-mental-health

https://www.sleepfoundation.org/press-release/national-sleep-foundation-recommends-new-sleep-times