This week I am going to talk about how important it is to look after yourself, it's so easy to worry about everybody else, but at the end of the day you really should be doing something for you, to get away from your work life and to focus on you! |
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Hey guys it’s Gail here. I want to share with you something that’s been on my mind lately, and that is, taking care of yourself. It’s a really, really critical thing for us to learn as health care professionals, but also as business owners, the environment right now with the NDIS and some of the planning decisions around AIC and assisted technology that we’re seeing, and some of the changes that are going on are incredibly frustrating. They’re certainly not what I would call the best practise, nor in the best interest of the client, or even in the best interest or even in the best interest of the scheme. Because there is a lot of money being spent on reports and assessments that aren’t being taken any further.
That’s you know, what’s really frustrating me at the moment, but it reminds me that, as health care professionals we also need to learn how to take care of ourselves so that we can weather the challenging times.
Even more critically is, as business owners, taking care of yourself is an essential tool. Because as business owners there is no 5 o'clock go home, switch off from work. If you’re a small business owner, at 5 o'clock if you go home, when you go home you’re still thinking about business, you’re still worrying about your client, and you’re still thinking about all of the things that you have to do in your business because if you’re like me you’re office is here in your home anyway.
The division is really, really, really challenging. As health professionals we are not taught how to take care of ourselves, in fact, we are taught not to listen to ourselves, not to take care of ourselves, to ignore our own needs, and to everything that we can to ensure that the client, the business, the department, the government gets as much out of us as possible.
As health care professionals we are, you are probably already a high achiever when you came to your degree. To get into a health profession you generally need to have a really, really good score or really great life experience to show that you can put up with the demands of a challenging, gruelling degree, and then as a, as a student we go on placements, and you know so many placements means that you end up working really long hours.
You might still be trying to hold down a regular job while working “full-time” on a placement, while maintaining a student job so that you can keep on paying your rent, you might ah, and on top of that you’ve got all the additional pressures of the placement, you’ve got, to , you’re staying up late so that you can complete your file notes, and do your session plans, and learn all the things that you need to do, which means that there is no time for yourself, and then we go into work as health professionals, as new grads, trying to do all of the things, often with little support in really busy departments, and trying to fit all of the things in that an experienced professional would be able to do without the knowledge or the skills to be able to do that.
We get taught, and in particular if we work in medical settings, in hospitals, that taking your lunch break is not essential if you have a client that needs you, going home on time is not essential. We learn how not to take care of ourselves, and this is really damaging as a profession. Now, as an employee you at least get to go home and switch off, but when your in business and it’s on 24/7 all the time, then this is just something that you don’t get to do, unless you are very deliberate about how you organise yourself and how you organise your own needs so that you can take care of yourself. When I’m saying taking care of yourself I’m not talking about having the odd massage, you know trying to eat well, getting a manicure or a pedicure every now and then, I am talking about learning how to truly listen to what your body needs, what your mind needs, so that you can be at your best and know what to do when your not at your best to bring yourself back up, so that you’re not having big dips and plunging into feeling like you're overwhelmed and can’t do it all. That’s something that I want to talk about next time as well - overwhelm. So I just want to encourage you on this video to notice what it is that you need right now, how you’re feeling, if you’re feeling overwhelmed what is it that you need to take care of yourself in the now.
Do you need some time off? Could you take a couple of hours off now or a little bit later, could you schedule that? For today or tomorrow. Do you need some time out? Do you just need some more sleep, do you need to prioritise taking care of your body, getting some exercise , eating well, drinking enough water, things that I struggle with. But you know, what is it that you need to feel whole, and to be able to bring your best self to work so that you can do your best work serving your clients.
Leave me a comment down below I’d really love to hear the things that fill up your well, that make you feel like you have the resources to serve and do the work that you do - really important work - so that you’re feeling just filled up and connected. You could be chatting with friends, having a really good debrief with a fellow clinician, it could be…… oh there’s so many things, but I want to hear about what works for you, and perhaps hearing from other people you might learn some new things that you might be able to try out, to see how they work for you. Looking forward to hearing from you, and learning from you.
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