A self-care plan can help you enhance your health and well-being, manage your stress, and maintain professionalism as a worker with young people.
Learn to identify activities and practices that support your well-being as a professional and help you to sustain positive self-care in the long term.
This will help you to:
- Understand self-care
- Develop your self-care plan
- Put your self-care plan into action.
Aspects of self-care
- Self-care is a personal matter.
- Everyone’s approach will be different.
- It relates to what you do at work and outside of work to look after your holistic well-being so that you can meet your personal and professional commitments.
- Below are the different aspects of self-care and example strategies that other people have found useful:
- Workplace/Professional
- Physical
- Psychological
- Emotional
- Spiritual
- Relationships
NOTE: The activities and suggestions below are a guide only and it is important to choose activities that are meaningful to yourself and your own goals.
After discovering the different aspects of self-care, complete the self-care plan activity below.
Workplace or professional self-care
This involves activities that help you to work consistently at the professional level expected of you.
For example:
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- Engage in regular supervision or consulting with a more experienced colleague
- Set up a peer-support group
- Be strict with boundaries between clients/students and staff
- Read professional journals
- Attend professional development programs.
Physical self-care
Activities that help you to stay fit and healthy, and with enough energy to get through your work and personal commitments.
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- Develop a regular sleep routine.
- Aim for a healthy diet.
- Take lunch breaks.
- Go for a walk at lunchtime.
- Take your dog for a walk after work.
- Use your sick leave.
- Get some exercise before/after work regularly.
Psychological self-care
Activities that help you to feel clear-headed and able to intellectually engage with the professional challenges that are found in your work and personal life.
For example
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- Keep a reflective journal.
- Seek and engage in external supervision or regularly consult with a more experienced colleague.
- Engage with a non-work hobby.
- Turn off your email and work phone outside of work hours.
- Make time for relaxation.
- Make time to engage with positive friends and family.
Emotional self-care
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- Allowing yourself to safely experience your full range of emotions.
- Develop supportive friendships.
- Write three good things that you did each day.
- Play a sport and have a coffee together after training.
- Go to the movies or do something else you enjoy.
- Keep meeting with your parents’ group or other social group.
- Talk to your friend about how you are coping with work and life demands.
Spiritual self-care
This involves having a sense of perspective beyond the day-to-day of life.
For example
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- Engage in reflective practices like meditation.
- Go on bush walks.
- Go to church/mosque/temple.
- Do yoga.
- Reflect with a close friend for support.
Relationship self-care
This is about maintaining healthy, supportive relationships, and ensuring you have diversity in your relationships so that you are not only connected to work people.
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- Prioritize close relationships in your life e.g. with partners, family, and children.
- Attend the special events of your family and friends.
- Arrive to work and leave on time every day.
- Create your self-care plan.
For each category above, (Workplace/Professional, Physical, Psychological, Emotional, Spiritual, Relationships) select at least one strategy or activity that you can undertake.
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- You might notice areas of overlap between these categories.
- It is important to develop a self-care plan that is holistic and individual to you.
- Use a template in Moodle, find one online, or create your own.
- Fill your self-care plan with activities that you enjoy and that support your well-being.
Some final suggestions
- Keep this in a place where you can see it every day.
- Keeping it visible will help you to think about and commit to the strategies in your plan.
- You can also share it with your supervisor, colleagues’ friends, and family so they can support you in your actions.
- Stick to your plan and practice the activities regularly.
- Just like an athlete doesn’t become fit by merely ‘thinking’ about fitness, as a worker you can’t expect to perform effectively without putting into practice a holistic plan for your well-being.
- Re-assess how you are going at the end of one month and then three months.
- Plans can take over a month to become habits, so check in and be realistic about your self-care plan.
- Reassess again after 6 months to find out how you are going with your new habits.
Words of caution:
- Once you have created a self-care plan it is important to ask yourself, “What might get in the way?”
- What can you do to remove these barriers?
- If you can’t remove them, you might want to adjust your strategies.
- Think honestly about whether any of your strategies are negative and how you can adjust your plan to avoid or minimize their impact.
- It can be challenging if your workplace is not supportive of self-care activities, but you can still do things outside of work to help yourself.
- It is important that your plan resonates for you and that you put it into action starting now.
