Self-Support: Lifelong Learning of You
Updated: Nov 30, 2020
We hope today’s post finds you well and enjoying the changing season. Life has been pretty hectic lately and navigating hurdles seems to be par for the course these days, so we thought we would bring in a focus on wellness today. While new challenges bring multiple opportunities to learn and grow, being lifelong learners should also apply to learning about our own selves as well and exploring what we need to feel whole and balanced. Self-care Sunday is great, and it has it’s place as a nice weekly reminder to do something healthy for ourselves, but weekly is not enough; we need to work out ways to include ongoing self-care that helps us feel our best.
When we find ourselves merely tolerating our days, we have likely gone a bit too far without a serious personal check-in and we might even have convinced ourselves that daily self-care isn’t all that important. A change in angle to prioritize learning about ourselves, not just what we need to understand to participate in the next meeting or engage in the next responsibility, might help us start getting more out of our days. Self-care comes in many forms, but we are going to hone in on the foundation—learning you so you can do you, confidently and with balance.
Have you ever surveyed you? We get surveyed, right? Certainly, by others, all the time! We are surveyed by students, patients, other professionals; we are surveyed by all sorts of people for various reasons and hopeful gains, but what about surveying ourselves. Our performance in the classroom, at the hospital, in the clinic, in the lab... yes, all of that gets reviewed and analyzed and weighed. But when was the last time we took an honest look at our lives, and ourselves professionally and personally, and made some keen observations to aid in producing our best possible for ourselves. We can really turn what we have into enough by reworking and reimaging what is there and using what we have differently. Self-care looks different for us all, so it’s about knowing ourselves and learning from ourselves what we need to thrive.
We believe that the best place to start is with exploring yourself and then making your own self-care plan. Use these prompts to begin examining you:
Do you look forward to beginning your days?
When do you feel most accomplished?
In moments of self-doubt, how do you support yourself back up?
Which personal trait do you feel most proud of?
How are you moving your body each day?
Does your home feel the way you would like it to?
What do you enjoy most in your free time?
How supported do you feel to contribute to the decisions that affect you?
Do you feel that you generally function in accordance with your core values and beliefs?
Does your work inspire you?
How does your body feel lately?
Do you feel rested upon waking? Midday? Late in the day?
Do you feel a sense of belonging in your life? In your work? In your relationships?
What is your favorite thing about your workspace?
Do you enjoy working with your team?
Overall, how would you describe the quality of your output?
It can be grueling to brainstorm new ideas or get creative with a spent mind, and it can be nearly impossible to enjoy our work within that space as well. Our hope is that these questions help you to take a closer look at where you are right now and begin to formulate a plan that feels right. That supercharge might free up some space that you didn’t have before, not space that simply wasn’t noticed, but space that actually didn’t exist because you were too taxed. It’s that email that took way too long to draft or that snack that came after pushing through five more tasks at a crawl pace because all you were thinking about was getting a bite to eat. Walk away from the email. Put down the tasks. Get the snack. Take a walk. Breathe some fresh air. Close your eyes. Regroup and recenter. Once we find this space, nothing looks the same. As always, take with you what you need and what speaks to you, and then leave the rest. Sending you our best today and always.
Recommended blog reading:
Nursing Education Amid Covid19: Establishing an Organized YOU
Prepared Nurse Educators Support Student Learning
Getting Organized: Looking at the Year Behind and the Year Ahead in Nursing Education