No One Will Schedule Self-Care, but You!

A great definition for self-care are things that no one can do for you, but you.

We are rapidly nearing the end of the school year and work will bring enough of its own challenges.  This time lends itself to focus on self-care for many reasons but most importantly, it may help balance the tremendous workload the end of the school year brings.  

Furthermore there is a sense of finality at the end of the year where teachers may find it easier to schedule those moments of self-care because there is not anything left to plan for (except a wonderful summer vacation!).  My tendency is to work until I crash and hope the crash is the day after the last day of school. With self-care being a focus now, perhaps the risk will be minimized a bit…and it will be more smooth sailing!

Here are some ideas for self-care that could be scheduled into the next few weeks…

SLEEP WITH NO ALARM

EMBRACE A DAY WITH NO SET SCHEDULE

PAMPER YOURSELF

GIVE YOURSELF A HARD-EARNED REWARD

As an added bonus, creating a daily self-care moment or activity could be a great way to find little pockets of time to make the month more enjoyable.  This could be a simple gesture like deliberately taking time to breathe between classes or walking past a flower and taking time to notice it, but it could also be going to a yoga class or taking a walk after work.  

So this month is to come up with your own self care rewards, reminders or moments. Take five minutes…right now if you can…and brainstorm a list of all the small things you would do for yourself if you had the time.  Don’t censor yourself; the sky’s the limit!

Choose some of those things and schedule them this month.  When can you sleep with no alarm? When can you go get your nails done?  When can you go to a yoga class? When can you take that personal day you’ve been hoarding all year long?  

Can you schedule one of those things each week?

Are there mini self care moments that you can remember to do each day?

If you want to continue the conversation, join us at the We are Teaching Well group and share your self-care ideas so that we can begin to support one another on this journey.  It’s not always easy to include these things in the fabric of our lives but by making it a challenge…just for this month, maybe we can all start to see how simple (and necessary) a little self care can be