In honor of social work month, I wanted to share with you a post on “5 Ways to Practice Self-Care”.
This post is geared toward social workers but maybe you found this post and decided to read for yourself.
If you aren’t a social worker but you know one, you’ve probably heard them mention self-care a couple of times over the course of a conservation.
As a social worker myself, I know how much we believe in self-care but I also know just how hard it can be.
If you’re a social worker with the weight of the world on your shoulders, or you’re an individual who experiences stressful moments in life,
read on to find 5 Ways to Practice Self-Care.
1. Express Yourself:
Everyone needs a friend or confidant that they can share their true feelings with.
If you don’t have a friend or family member you can trust, enlist the help of a counselor (even counselors need counseling sometimes, preaching to myself here).
If you can’t get to a counselor (sometimes finances or long wait lists can be an issue), then start a journal.
Write down your thoughts, your feelings on paper so that you can keep from holding everything in and then exploding in the future.
2. Leave Work at Work
Ok, this one is one of the hardest for me.
Because I have anxiety, I tend to continue to think about my clients even after I am home.
I dwell on things I should have said, things I should have done, what I could do to help them more.
The best advice I can give is as soon as you leave work, turn on your favorite song.
If you have to continue to think about work, continue to think about it until you come to a certain road, a certain sign, a halfway point to your house.
At that point, put work down and don’t pick it up again until the next morning.
If you are a service worker, be sure to check out my self-care plan for service workers.
3. Know Your Limitations
You are a human being before you’re a social worker and you can only do so much to help someone.
Do what you can to help, and if possible refer them out to someone else to do what you can’t.
If you can’t refer them to someone, do the best that you can for that person and take their name before God who can always help any time, day or night, in any situation.
4. Get Involved in a Support Group or Organization
Connection with others is vital to our emotional well-being.
I know that as social workers, we deal with individuals all day every day (we are in the people business) but working with people is not the same as connecting with individuals who can support us.
Meet coworkers for dinner, attend a church service, go to an art or cooking class so you can connect with others and learn a new hobby at the same time.
Make sure you surround yourself with individuals who can uplift and inspire you.
5. Commit to a Self-Care Routine
Ok, so when I started this post I’d initially planned for it to be “10 Ways to Practice Self-Care” but I’ve had a rough couple of days so I made the executive decision to make it the “5 Ways to Practice Self-Care” so I could focus on taking care of myself this evening.
You are the most important person in your life.
If you don’t take care of yourself, how will you be able to take care of everyone else?
Commit to devoting 30 minutes of your time to cater to yourself in the evenings.
You may have to wait until everyone is in bed to practice self-care and that is ok.
Making self-care a priority may mean cutting a blog post in half *grin*.
It may mean leaving some stuff you felt you had to get done (like laundry) unfinished until the next day.
Make the time to practice self-care even if you have to make a few sacrifices here and there.
You are worth the time and the effort it takes to focus on yourself.
You’ve got to take care of yourself so you can stay around long enough to take care of others.
Check the PDF below and comment with some of your favorite ways to practice self-care and relieve stress.
These are great tips. For years, I struggled to leave work at work. It makes a difference. Thanks for sharing.
I still struggle with it at times but as with anything else, practice makes perfect. Thanks for taking the time to read and respond to my post. God bless!
Very insightful! I love the idea of making self care a routine.
I’m so glad you like the idea. If you decide to make one, feel free to share with others here in the comment section. We can all learn from each other 🙂
These are some very useful tips. Self-care is such an important part of living a well-balanced life that we should do our best to incorporate it into daily living. I like how you included knowing ones limitations as a form of self-care. Many of us try to juggle more than we are able to and over time that can lead to things such as burnout, stress and even serious health problems. It’s ok to say no to things in order to maintain a healthy life-work balance.
I agree that saying no is important. There are kind ways to say no, and if you need to say know you can always refer them to someone else so you know their needs are being met and like you said, you’re avoiding burnout, stress, or serious health problems.