Ideas for Self-Care

Being an educator is challenging. You’re performing an important service to students, and that means there’s a constant emotional burden on you. Additionally, as educators, you may very well be experiencing other sources of stress related to school organization, job demands, and work resources; resulting in low performance, ill health and lack of well-being, increased absenteeism, high turnover, and lower student achievement.

When our resources (time, energy, etc.) are heavily used, we have to find time to recharge. As you work with students and share in their triumphs and their difficulties, you’re exposed to a lot of big emotions. And students may share traumatic events in their lives that you absorb. When you hear about someone’s trauma, it can lead to secondary traumatic stress, vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue or burnout, all a direct impact of caring for others with trauma.

How do you know if you’re heading toward burnout? And how can you build resiliency? We have suggestions.

Warning Signs

You may be experiencing secondary (or vicarious) trauma, burnout, or compassion fatigue if you notice several of these persisting over multiple days or weeks:

• Feeling tired, even with rest
• Having trouble sleeping, nightmares
• Struggling to go to work
• Having a hard time expressing your emotions
• Feeling disconnected from other people
• Having trouble concentrating
• Ongoing feelings of sadness
• Having chronic physical ailments
• Excessive blaming
• Feeling defensive
• Struggling to be flexible
• Feeling reluctant to work with a team
• Feeling hopeless/powerless
• Feeling a lack of safety/trust
• Making mistakes at work or decreased work performance
• Questioning your professional competence and effectiveness
• Unhealthy coping skills

It’s OK to have feelings like this! As an educator, you are exposed to an unusual amount of trauma and challenging circumstances.

Building Resiliency

You can improve your ability to handle all the stress that is part of your day by:

• Getting plenty of sleep, eat food that is good for you and drink lots of water.
• Moving your body every day – playing a sport that you love, exercising in a way that you enjoy or walking with a friend.
• Spending time with people that you care about.
• Finding activities that you find comforting or relaxing and adding them to your schedule.
• Asking for help when you need it.
• Making a list of 5 things, people, or places that you are grateful for.
• Taking mindfulness breaks each day – this could be as simple as a few minutes of square breathing or taking a moment to notice what you see, hear, feel, smell and taste.
• Adding laughter into your day by watching funny videos, looking at silly pictures, etc.
• Celebrating the successes for the day, week, and month.
• Participating in professional development to get ideas from others.

You can also build resiliency by leaning into the strengths that come from working with students who have experienced trauma:

• Witnessing others overcome adversity
• Recognizing people’s capacity to heal
• Reaffirming the value of the work you do
• Receiving the gift of hope
• Helping you cope differently with your own adversities

When to Seek Help

If you’re struggling over several weeks with little or no improvement, mental health services may help.

Additional Ideas

Take care of your body:

• Visit your doctor regularly
• Eat healthy
• Make sure you’re getting enough sleep
• Take vacations, even if they’re staycations
• Move your body regularly
• Try a fun “spa” treatment – whether that’s going for a massage or taking a bath at home.

Take care of your mind:

• Consider writing or journaling
• Go on an outing to a museum, show or someplace you’ve wanted to explore
• Create something fun – try painting, sculpting, writing a short story or knitting
• Spend time outside hiking, walking or gardening
• Remember your positive qualities – consider making a list and posting it somewhere you can reflect on it

And care for yourself professionally:

• Avoid working after hours
• Take time to eat lunch when you can
• Seek out other teachers to talk to
• Set boundaries and practice saying no
• Use vacation time to relax and unwind
• Take sick time when you need to
• Read books about interesting topics

Create Your Personal Plan

• How will you stay connected?
• How will you distract?
• How will you increase positive emotion?
• How will you remember the why/meaning?