Self Care
Routine, timed, and scheduled regulatory activities - Think of some things you do when you’re really stressed out. Implement small, regularly scheduled bursts of this activity throughout the day. Whether you want to do it or not, do the activity. You will find that this will not only increase your productivity, but decrease anxiety and build resilience for stress management.
If you think about it, we do this all the time in schools, with our students, when we do brain breaks, recess, class changes. These timed, regular activities help us build the stress response system in the brain, very similar to how repetitive, regular, timed workouts help with muscle strength. For example, one of my go to stress relievers are puzzles, whether it is word puzzles, brain puzzles or a jigsaw puzzle. So my implementation strategy is that once every hour while awake, I will work on a jigsaw puzzle for 4 minutes.
Staff Wellness information/Resources COVID-19:
Self-Care Action Plan Video (a fun, 4 min video with resources)
45 Simple Self-Care Practices for a Healthy Mind, Body and Soul
Why Self Care is So Important (article)