Today, we're exploring the priorities you can set yourself to improve your own well-being. |
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Private Practice Coach and Certified Practising Speech Pathologist
by gailbennell
Today, we're exploring the priorities you can set yourself to improve your own well-being. |
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by gailbennell
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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by gailbennell
If you offer home visits to your clients, this video is all about harnessing technology to reduce the stress involved with navigating your way around to see your clients.
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Hi, it's Gail Bennell here. I'm here again in my car, and I've got another time saving tip for mobile practitioners, or anyone that goes out and sees clients in their own home any of the time or has meetings anywhere.
Now I used to be one of those people that was really proud of the fact that I could never get my way around, I could look at the map once and I used an actual paper refidex. I'm from Brisbane, I call them refidexes. And you know I could never get my way around and find myself, you know wherever I needed to go.
And I was really proud of my map reading skills and the fact that I wasn't reliant on technologies that started to come out. Now, I've moved a couple of cities, a couple of times, and while I'm back in Canberra where I feel really comfortable and I know my way around mostly, when it comes to client visits, I always put on the GPS navigation on my phone so that I don't have any stress getting to my client's place.
It tells me exactly where to go, it tells where there's traffic, it tells me what time I'm going to arrive, which is really great if you're running late, and you go, "Oh how late am I going to be? "Oh that's three minutes late, I think that's okay." I can rest easy, I know exactly what's going on. If I need to call and say I'm going to be late, I can tell them exactly what time to expect me.
This has really changed my stress levels as a mobile practitioner and it just means that there's one less thing for me to think about, how I'm going to get there. Now if it's a client that I work with very regularly and I do know my way there without even thinking about it, then I leave it off. But even yesterday I went to visit a client, I've been there half a dozen times, and I just couldn't find the street, and I just drove past it, and I drove around in a circle, and I came out back on the main road, and thought I should just put my GPS on. And then I don't have to worry about it, I am ready to go in and work with my client, not feeling stressed about how to get there.
What kind of stress saving tools do you use when you're out and about visiting clients in their homes or in the community? I'd love to find out, because reducing stress in a private practice and reducing the decisions we need to make for the little things that don't actually add to your business is really important.
So I'd love for you to share in the comments so we can have a bit of a discussion and share what's working, and what's not with everyone else. We can learn from each other, so we can all build some thriving private practices that are really lovely to work in, and not so stressful.
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by gailbennell
Mobile Practitioners, this one is for you! If you see the vast majority of your clients out and about and you have to pay for parking, this week's video will help you reduce the stress and time involved with visiting your clients. |
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Hi, it's Gail Bennell here. Today, I'm sharing with you a quick time-saving, stress-saving private practice tip for mobile practitioners. Now I see the vast majority of my clients when I'm out and about, and that's usually at their house, but sometimes, it might be in the city or somewhere else where I have to pay for parking.
Now I could be a cheapskate and try and find the cheapest parking and walk for miles, but I generally don't have time for that, and doing that would make me more stressful and give me a lot more decisions to make throughout my day. I could just pay for the parking with coins in my purse and car, but I have a very bad habit of not having any coins anywhere at all.
My husband fills up my car with coins for parking 'cause he hates it that I have no coins. Some machines do take credit cards, which is really great, but I found a really super app that works on a lot of the parking meters around here that lets me use the app, I enter the code, and as I'm walking away, I just press Finish, and it charges my credit card and I don't have to think about it again. Now I don't even have to put, these are for the machines that you often have to put a ticket in your car, you don't even have to put a ticket in your car. So you don't have to go back to your car.
For me, this is the ultimate time-saving, stress-saving habit that I've got myself into. I know that I can always pay for my parking, and as a little hint, I always put a little bit extra in. If I am not quite sure how long things are going to be, I put an extra half hour on just in case so that I can rest easy while I'm in my meeting to know that I'm not going to get a very expensive ticket.
I only have to pay an extra dollar or two just to cover fees, which is a complete peace of mind. I don't have to get back to the car and have that feeling of, "I'm such an idiot. "I've got a parking ticket," and have to pay that. It's been an absolute life-saver for me. It's really made a difference to the way that I work and the stress that I have as a mobile practitioner.
What are some of the ways that you save time and stress while you are out and about on your mobile home visits? I'd love to find out. Share with us, so as a community, we can all learn together how to provide a really sustainable, thriving private practice that means less stress for you and better service for your clients and more time with your family.
As always I'd love to hear your thoughts. Leave me a comment and share your thoughts with our community.
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by gailbennell
This week, we visit the important topic of looking after your mental health. Running your own private practice can take a toll on your body and mind, so in this video, I talk about the small things you can do to switch off from work to rest and recharge. |
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Hi, it's Gail here. Today I'd like to talk to you about what I'm doing to take care of my mental health and give myself a little bit of a break at the moment. Now it's September so spring has sprung, and it's planting time. Now one of the things that really helps me get into a really meditative state and forget about everything, all my worries, is gardening.
Now, if you look behind me, you can see a little bit of my garden. Now I set this up yesterday. It took me about an hour and a half all up to dig it up and lay out some plants. And today, today is Monday, I've taken just half an hour out of my day to come and potter around and plant out a few of the seedlings that I've got that I didn't get the chance to put in yesterday.
Now by doing that, that has taken me just 30 minutes out of my day, and it's given me the time to completely switch off from work. You got to focus when you're gardening, and just to let the random thoughts go through your head but it really lets me switch off. And that means that I can come back to my work and be really refreshed.
Now for me taking that time is really important particularly when you work for yourself, and you're on your own quite a bit. To be able to take that time out where in a typical workplace, you might get those natural kind of breaks in your day through other things that are going on in the workplace. I've got to create them here for myself.
And the great news is I get to create the ones that really support me and really uplift me and fulfill me and let me be at my absolute best on my own terms. So here's my little garden. We've got a few little problems. We have possums that feed on the plum trees in my backyard. And last year they pretty much ate absolutely everything in my garden right down to the ground. It's taken a bit of thinking and planning so it's a little project that I've got to try and plant some things that are a little bit possum-proof, and to put some netting on it to hopefully keep those crazy little critters who are going to be exploring it away.
So I've put down, I've planted leek seedlings, a little leek garden bed, and hidden amongst it some thyme and oregano. And I'm going to put some rocket which I hope they won't like, and some chives and garlic chives. And I've picked lots of onion products because last year that was the only thing they didn't touch was the shallots.
So that's my way of unwinding throughout my day and on my weekends. I love to know and it's really good for you, it's good for your muscles, it's good for your brain, it's good for just thinking about something different to the challenges in my workplace, in my business, and all the things that are in my head.
I'd really love to know what you do throughout your day to help yourself switch off and so you can get refocused, and what things you do on the weekend that allow you to do that as well, because when we work for ourselves and in business, work can be 24/7, seven days a week. So we have to work really hard to make time just to switch off. Let me know what do you do to switch off. Share it with the community so other people can be inspired to create practices within their own workday that help to fulfill them.
As always I'd love to hear your thoughts. Leave me a comment and share your thoughts with our community.
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