Self-Care Strategies

0:01

so self-care is really important uh when

0:04

you work in the nonprofit sector um like

0:07

I have a friend who works in child

0:09

protective services and she's been there

0:10

for 20 years so that's a hard gig to be

0:13

in for that many years and she just has

0:16

a simple act of after her day she

0:18

experiences a lot of uh tough situations

0:21

in people's homes she comes home and she

0:24

takes a warm shower each day before you

0:26

know she goes out greets the family has

0:28

dinner with them and it's like her

0:30

cathartic way to kind of let go so you

0:32

have to

0:33

develop some kind of coping mechanism or

0:36

a way uh for yourself to care for

0:38

yourself giving yourself breaks when you

0:41

need them is really important making

0:44

sure you know you get sleep when you

0:46

need it don't don't let things over burn

0:47

you because if you end up getting too

0:49

tired or too stressed you know even if

0:52

things are busy they're still going to

0:53

be there it's okay get the rest that you

0:56

need for your self-care uh so that way

1:00

you are refreshed and you can come with

1:01

it with a like a really strong

1:03

perspective the next day or the next

1:05

time you're you're there for an

1:07

organization um I also think exercise is

1:10

really key i know when I get really

1:12

stressed if I exercise I feel a little

1:14

bit better in this environment it's as I

1:18

mentioned before can be stressful um it

1:21

can be challenging um it'll try your

1:25

patience um sometimes it won't u but a

1:27

lot of times it will and the some of the

1:30

experiences that you come across can

1:32

ultimately be life-changing for you and

1:35

it's to be um aware of the stresses that

1:40

may be building up in into your own

1:42

experience um and taking appropriate

1:44

steps to manage that um whether it be

1:47

checking in with um the agency that

1:50

you're working with more often than not

1:52

and certainly with our agency we have a

1:53

variety of staff that um understand the

1:56

the the challenges that we are

1:58

frequently coming across and ways in

2:00

which we can help cope um and stay

2:03

maintain a positive attitude along the

2:05

way um and let those experiences inform

2:09

the way that we behave and the way that

2:10

we continue to provide services and

2:12

ultimately not to have it change us for

2:14

in negative ways um as well yeah yeah so

2:18

self-care is really critical and we are

2:20

in an era where self-care we talk a lot

2:24

about we give a lot of lip service to

2:25

self-care but I I don't think that most

2:27

of us are particularly adept at doing

2:29

self-care well and so for me there are

2:31

several facets of self-care that are

2:34

salient to students I would say before

2:36

during and after experiences so when you

2:39

are in an experience a community in a

2:41

community that's not your own there is a

2:43

level of discomfort that you're going to

2:44

experience that's inevitable that's real

2:46

and so how do you own that how do you

2:48

make that explicit and then know when

2:52

the opport those opportunities present

2:53

themselves where you can for example be

2:56

more observant than active or where you

2:59

can step out to to reflect and recharge

3:04

before stepping back in i think that

3:06

those things are really important i

3:08

think the concept of being able to

3:10

practice humility or to apologize that

3:12

that actually can be a really wonderful

3:14

self-care mechanism you know it it can

3:16

be harder initially to understand when

3:18

you did something wrong and particularly

3:19

if that wrong thing impacted somebody

3:21

else it's natural for us to be defensive

3:24

but the more powerful thing is to

3:27

apologize and I think it's actually the

3:28

better thing for self because now I've

3:30

I've I've relieved myself of the guilt

3:32

that I'm experiencing right for doing

3:34

that wrong thing and I'm actually

3:36

probably setting myself up now to have

3:38

more success either correcting what I

3:40

did that was wrong or um you know kind

3:43

of thanking or engaging the folks that

3:45

fixed it so so those things I think all

3:48

really matter on a very basic level the

3:50

work that I do around the culture of

3:52

busy for example so when we talk about

3:55

what it means to be overloaded and that

3:58

we're all trying to strive for this

4:00

perfect kind of concept of life where we

4:02

do everything well all the time that's

4:05

not real and so what happens is that we

4:08

start to make cuts here and there right

4:10

we start to take say like well I'll just

4:12

I can survive on 6 hours of sleep 5

4:14

hours of sleep right i can go do these

4:17

10 different activities and do them all

4:19

very well and the reality is you can't

4:21

or here's another one humans are

4:23

actually very poor multitaskers so if

4:26

you're in a community and you you think

4:27

that you can check email or be on social

4:30

media and actually with somebody in a

4:32

true and engaged way simultaneously you

4:34

probably can't the vast majority of

4:36

people are not equipped to do that right

4:38

the human mind is not equipped to

4:40

multitask so when I think about

4:42

self-care I'm also thinking about the

4:43

very basic level what's the sleep that

4:45

you're getting right how are you taking

4:47

care of your physical emotional

4:49

spiritual selves how are you saying no

4:52

as much as you're saying yes to ensure

4:54

that you have some balance in life um

4:57

what does it mean to truly show up and

4:59

be present with people in order to do

5:01

that well you have to be taking care of

5:03

yourself so when I worked with clients

5:05

one-on-one in in greater to a greater

5:08

extent than I do today I used to say

5:10

that was the hardest part of my day

5:11

because I had to be the most present and

5:14

the most thoughtfully engaged and really

5:17

actively listening to folks that's that

5:20

takes an incredible amount of energy and

5:22

so knowing that when you go into and out

5:24

of community service experiences I think

5:26

is really important