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 suppor

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:

•  
  • 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.

•  
  • 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

•  
  • 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

•  
  • 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

•  
  • 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.

•  
  • 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.

•  
  • 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.