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11Nov

How to Feel Less Drained and Exhausted as an SLP

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Gratitude Journal Techniques for SLPs Reduce Stress
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Feel Less Drained PinterestIf you are an SLP, you might feel like the good parts of your day are far and few between, and that they are outweighed heavily by the harder, draining, and “bad” parts of your daily work. It has nothing to do with patients or students (usually), and often has more to do with the stress that comes from the other aspects of your work – more emphasis on direct vs indirect therapy services, ever-changing paperwork and protocols for billing, less and less control over your caseload and schedule, and being “on” for 40 hours a week.

These things can often leave you feeling drained, exhausted (mentally and physically), and sometimes you might even feel anxious about the week ahead or dread going to work the next day. They also often have nothing to do with why you became an SLP in the first place, or the joy and passion you once had for your career.

When you start to feel this way, you are often overloaded with stressors that pile up each day, either because there are so many or because you have no way to manage them properly. This can lead to chronic stress and burn out. Your brain gets stuck in a pattern of being on the lookout for stress and then creating more stress because of it. It keeps you focused on what is not working each day, rather than noticing the things that are working. This is what you need to switch to feel less drained and exhausted as an SLP.

To create a shift in your brains patterns, and start routinely noticing things that are working and going well, you can do practices that create and cultivate more positivity in your day. This doesn’t mean you have to change jobs to one with less demands or overhaul your daily schedule – these things often can’t be changed and would come with a new set of stress if you did. Instead, you practice looking for the positive, and noticing moments that otherwise might go unnoticed, so you shift your attention to what is working for you, putting your energy, time, and thoughts into those things.

One simple way to do this is to create more gratitude through a journaling practice. Gratitude journaling helps you to shift out of the negative stress cycle in your brain and into a place where you are cultivating more positivity.

Gratitude Journaling Benefits:

  • Notice what is working each day
  • Shifts your brain patterns to notice more good moments
  • End/Begin the day on a positive note
  • Gives you a break in the day

Research in the field of Positive Psychology has shown that it takes 3 positive moments to make up for 1 negative interaction, and that if we end a moment or event on a positive note, the entire thing seems more positive. This is how your brain starts to shift and more “good” moments start to happen in your day, reducing your overall feelings of stress. This can be key to helping you feel less drained and exhausted as an SLP.

How to Gratitude Journal:

  • Write down 3 good things from your day
    • They can be small or big
  • Do this at a set times each day
    • Morning to set your intention for the day
    • After work to transition from work to home
    • Evening to end the day on a positive note
  • Aim for 5-7 days a week

Once you get started, you can do this most days each week, either in the morning, end of your work day or right before bed, to help you train your brain to notice what works, not just what doesn’t. When things do feel stressful, you’ll also have a journal full of good things that have happened on a daily bass, to help you shift back into a more positive state. It doesn’t mean you ignore the hard times, but that you are able to rebound from them easier and are less affected by them.

If you are looking for more ways to start a Gratitude Practice, make sure to join the SLP Toolbox, a free resource center for SLPs, where you’ll find printable Gratitude Journal templates, as well as meditation, self-care checklists and other stress-reducing resources designed specifically for SLPs.

You can access them by signing up below (plus you’ll get a free 7-day Stress Less Challenge sent straight to your inbox).


Much Love,

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10Oct

Meditation to Help SLPs Fight the “Sunday Blues”

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Meditation
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SLP Sunday Blues Meditation Pinterest
This meditation is to help you reduce the anxiety and overwhelm that can come from “future-tripping” or the “Sunday Blues”. If you are feeling dread before work each week, often feel your thoughts are racing and spiraling to the future, or feel stuck in the “Sunday Blues” or “Scaries”, this meditation can help you to feel more present in your body and in the moment, so you can take action and reduce stress.

Want more meditations? Make sure to check out the Meditation and Audio library, and subscribe to the monthly newsletter for a free meditation practice straight to your inbox, as well as access to the SLP Toolbox, where you’ll find more meditation audios, journal templates and more.

Much Love,

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17Jan

How To Create A Vision Board

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Goal Setting Reduce Stress Self Care
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Vision Board Pinterest (1)

Each year, I like to set an intention for the year – whether it is something small, like going to the beach more often, or something big, like paying off debt or starting a new training/school. Sometimes it is a simple mantra, like “expand” or “create joy”. This helps me to focus on where I want to go in the year, rather than what let me down or what I need to change from the year before. The intention is to bring in something more positive, so there are more positive shifts happening in my life throughout the year.

Similar to setting a goal, it helps me to make better decisions and gives me something to lean back on. With my intention in mind during decision making, I can make sure I ask myself “Is this moving me towards my intention for the year, or taking me further from it?”.  This strategy can work for new continuing education, certification or degrees; a new job or setting; or perhaps even a change in your lifestyle outside of work.

As January moves ahead, it is a good time to reflect on the goals and intentions you may have set for the year. You can start to see if you have been able to make shifts towards that intention you’ve set, or if that goal isn’t quite what you intended it to be. You can also see if your goals are already pushed back into the far corners of your mind as you make space for all of the “must-do’s” that are part of everyday life.

This happens really easily, and is one of the reasons why most of us either forget our intentions or just give up on them after a month or so. If you are feeling like your goals are already slipping away from you, or you are looking for a way to be more aware of them each day, you can try making them visual.

One way that I like to do this is to create a vision board. A vision board is a visual means of having your goals on display, around you, to see every day. These goals come as pictures, images, quotes, trinkets or anything that is meaningful to you. Having these items on display helps you to remember your intention, connect to it more often and feel as if you are really working towards it each day. It also helps give you more input to use when you ask yourself “Is this bringing me closer to my intention?”.

In the past, my vision boards have represented where I wanted my yoga practice and teaching to lead me, what I wanted to learn, how I wanted to develop my coaching practice and even what I wanted to do with our house once we moved. My boards usually focus on my career and personal goals or hobbies, as these are the areas I need the most clarity in, but they can really represent anything that you wish to work on.

Here are some examples of my boards in the past:

2012 Visions2013 Vision Board

A vision board is very simple to make and can be made for very little expense. It can be a fun project to do as part of your self-care on evening, or could even be a family night activity or part of a date night. If you run a business, this could be part of your business strategy sessions and planning for the year ahead.

How to create a vision board:

  • Grab some magazine or newspapers or flyers
  • Print out images or quotes that are meaningful to you
  • Find photos, pictures or even cards around your home
  • Paste or thumbtack them into your board
  • Place your board somewhere you see every day. If it is focused on your career, place it in your office. If it is focused on personal development, place it somewhere you work or attend to often. If it is relationship focused, or perhaps you made a board with your partner or family, hang it in your room or family space.
  • Each year, look back at your board and swap out things that aren’t meaningful or you have moved beyond with things for the new year.

That really is all there is to it. Once you create your board you are ready for it to work its “magic” and help you reach your intentions throughout the year.

Have you ever created a vision board before? If so, leave your tips in the comments below or in the FB group. If you want even more useful tools to help combat stress and burn out, make sure to sign up below for the SLP Toolbox.


You can also check out more on goal setting here. If you’d like to dive deeper in setting your goals and decreasing your overall stress, I’d love to work with you this year. You can email me any questions you might have to jessi@jessiandricks.com or schedule a phone/skype chat here. 

Much Love,

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28Nov

4 Ways for SLPs to Increase Your Energy at Work

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Burn Out Well-Being
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SLP Work Energy Pinterest (1)

Have you ever had one of those days where you didn’t do anything physically, or even mentally, exhausting, but you feel completely drained and exhausted by the end of the day. These are the days that can easily make you feel like you are in the wrong job, aren’t good enough or are completely out of balance. I had one of these days recently, and just felt so exhausted by the end of the day. My caseload had been pretty easy, I had plenty of sleep the night before and I didn’t do any extra work that day. By the end of the day, though, I was too exhausted to make dinner, go for a walk or really be of much company to anyone.

It kind of sucked.

I often find that the days I sit at my computer, typing, for hours at a time are the most exhausting ones. The days where I am up and moving, or in and out of my office, are the days when I feel energized and ready to do more after work. Sometimes, it can also be a really tough caseload or overbooking my students. But other times, it has nothing to do with the work itself.

You might find that it’s not the work you are doing, but the way you are experiencing your work day that is taking a toll on you, physically and mentally. Your posture, the meals you are or aren’t eating, and what you are drinking might all be things that can zap or give you energy. If you often feel exhausted at the end of the day, try these 4 tips for more energy.

  1. Swap coffee for water, or at the least, tea.
    • Caffeine can be just what you need at certain times of the day. It provides a little invigoration, helps wake you up, and studies even show it helps to give you more mental clarity and focus. But overdoing caffeine can do the exact opposite. You might find your energy plummets, you feel jittery and nervous, and you suddenly feel scatter-brained.The best thing to do is to drink more water, whether or not you cut back on coffee. This will help you to stay hydrated and flush out any symptoms you might accidentally have from over-caffeinating. Try swapping out coffee for some caffeine-free or low-caffeine drinks instead. Tea is also a great option, hot or cold, if you need a little boost or flavor, without the huge crash from coffee. Go for a cup of coffee in the morning and a chai or green tea latte in the afternoons.
  2. Find some down time. 
    • Work can be all about productivity. If you aren’t helping clients and making money for the facility (or yourself), it might not seem like time well spent. Unfortunately, this type of go-go-go attitude can lead you to burn out, quickly. If you don’t have time to recharge at work, you won’t be able to keep up the pace, stay focused and get done what needs to get done, as efficiently.Have you ever had a day with no breaks and a million things to do, only to find yourself staring blankly at your computer screen, not focusing during your sessions and feeling completely disorganized with your paperwork? Instead of rushing around and doing a million things at once, take 5 minutes to grab a cup of tea, stretch, go for a walk, etc. You’ll be a little more clear headed, have more energy flowing through your body and be more ready to tackle the tasks at hand.
  3. Get up and move during the day. 
    • Sitting at a desk, in one spot during the day can really start to wear on you. NPR recently released an article showcasing just how many hours we sit during a day, and how it can affect your overall health more and more as you age. It’s not just your risk of heart disease, diabetes or weight gain, but also your body actually starting to age and tighten into a “sitting” stance. In yoga, sitting is done during meditation, with a tall spine, so energy and breath can travel through the body as you sit, and your digestive system is uncompromised and able to do its job. This is rarely the way we sit during the day at work. We tend to slump, slouch and cave in a bit. If you find it hard to sit with good posture, or find yourself sitting all day, you might notice your energy levels slump, you breath is more shallow and you feel sluggish and tired.To help combat this, take 5 minutes after every few sessions to get up and move. Walk to grab more water or tea or a bathroom break, do some push-ups and squats at your work station with your desk and chair or even just get up and stretch. You’ll release tension, lengthen your spine and breath deeper, so you start to feel more energized, focused and ready for the next patient or student to walk through your door.
  4. Eat Something.
    • When you are busy and stressed, one of the easiest things to forget is to take a break and eat. When I was working in the schools, I would often have just a few moments to grab my lunch, or eat a snack during my morning and afternoon. I was constantly hungry and has a stomach ache every day.  I also felt exhausted and foggy-headed on a regular basis. Most teachers and health care workers I know ate even less than that. Many would wait until the end of work to eat, or just drink coffee all day and have a really big dinner at night. Coincidentally, these were some of the people who were either super stressed or in really poor health.
    • Without nourishment from food, your body and brain are not able to maintain the energy and focus needed to get you through your work day. You r body needs the carbs and protein to maintain the proper energy levels throughout the day. Your brain needs healthy fats (like those in nuts) to function properly. All of these help to combat the feelings of mental fatigue and physical exhaustion we experience throughout the day. Not eating during the day, or not getting enough calories, can also send your metabolism into “starvation mode”. This means your body thinks you are trying to fast for the long winter, so it slows down and hold on to everything it can. It can cause you to gain weight or have a difficult time maintaining your weight, even though you feel like you never eat.  Make sure you have scheduled breaks for meals and snacks, even just a few minutes, so you are able to make a proper meal or snack to fuel you through your day. Have fresh fruits, nuts and whole grains nearby, so you’ll have something even on the shortest of breaks.

If you are feeling drained by the end of the day, give these a try. See which one might be affecting you the most and try to make a small change each day to increase your energy level. Leave a comment and share what works for you. You can help keep track of your energy levels with the “Daily Check-in” journal page found in the SLP Toolbox (subscribe below).

If you are still feeling exhausted and want to dig deeper into it, make sure to check out these webinars (certification hours and CEUs!) to reduce your stress, and increase your energy.

3 Common SLP Stressors and How to Manage Them  on Xceptional ED (1.5 CMH Hours)

Managing Common SLP Stressors before Burn Out Occurs on Northern Speech Services (2.5 ASHA CEU hours .025 units)

3 Biggest Stressors for SLPs and What to do About Them on SpeechPathology.com (1.5 ASHA CEU hours .15 units

The more awake and alive you feel at the end of a work day, the better you will feel after work and looking ahead to the next day.

Much Love,

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15Sep

How to Start an SLP Gratitude Journal

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Gratitude Journal Techniques for SLPs Reduce Stress
Comments Off on How to Start an SLP Gratitude Journal

SLP Gratitude Journal Pinterest

At the end of the summer, I decided I wanted to start a regular meditation practice. I was feeling stress and anxiety creep in from moving, work and life in general. I hopped on YouTube and found a 21-day meditation practice, guided by Oprah and Deepak Chopra. I had done one of these before, so I knew it would be a good blend of meditation and life lessons. As I sat on my meditation cushion, listening to Oprah explain the purpose of the practice that day, she started talking about finding hope through gratitude. She mentioned how this was a turning point for her and that she had been keeping a gratitude journal for more than 20 years.

I realized that a lot of what I had been feeling, the stress and overwhelm, had to do with not recognizing the positive things that were happening each day. I would look around and see the things at my house that needed to be fixed: floors that weren’t finished, rooms that needed to be painted, boxes that needed to be unpacked, and the day-to-day chores that were piling up. I would look at my yard and see grass that needed to be mowed, clippings to mow and trees to trim, not to mention spiderwebs to knock down. My nightstand was full of books I needed to finish. Yoga mats were rolled up in their corner instead off being used. regularly. I wasn’t seeing the beauty and of my house. I wasn’t seeing the wonder of having trees surrounding me and trails to walk. The yoga mats were there for when I was ready to hop on them and the books were waiting for me to crack them open anytime. My brain was stuck in the cycle of waking up and seeing the stress, living each day with the negatives of the stress and not being able to make a change to break the cycle. I needed something to help me get unstuck. I decided that maybe having a moment to write down a positive to even just think of something positive from my day, or week, would help me get out of this funk.

As an SLP, and most likely a stressed out one, I know you can relate to this sinking feeling. At times it seems like nothing in your work setting is how it should be, you can’t help your clients due to lack of budget, training or support, and you feel absolutely overworked and underappreciated.

According to Positive Psychology, it takes 3 positive experiences to make up for a negative one. That means that our brains are wired to remember the things that aren’t great, instead of the things that are. When you look back on your day, if this balance is off, and you have more negatives than the 3:1 ratio, your brain will register it as a negative day. This also relates to your basic survival needs. When we were hunters and gatherers, we always had to be looking for the worst in things, and expecting it, as a means of survival. We had to look out for danger around every corner. Now we do not, but our brains are still ready for that threat at any time.

Your brain is also wired to define experiences as positive or negative based on which note they end. If you end on a low note, your are bound to remember the day as being negative. Think about one of those days when everything has gone great, but you have a fight with your spouse right before bed, you probably categorized that day as being  a “bad” or stressful one. Conversely, if you end on a high note, you are bound to remember it as being a positive day. Think about one of these days that started rough, but turned itself around with a few really fun and special moments that made you smile by the end of the day.

Having a gratitude journal can help to not only end on a high note, but also recall more of the positive things from your day, no matter how big or small they might be.

A gratitude journal is nothing more than a place for you to record your thoughts on a day or week, or even month. It is a place for you to reflect on all the good that has happened, and to look back over time at all of the good things that have occurred in your life. Many people, like Oprah, find that having years of gratitude journals to look back at help them to feel uplifted when they are feeling down, as well as look back over the years with fondness.

How to Write a Gratitude Journal:

  • Take 5 minutes out of your day, preferably at the end of the day, to start your journal. Try to do this right before you go to bed once a day, week or few times a month. At the end of the day, you’ll be able to reflect back on all that has happened. It will also help you to empty out your thoughts and end your day on a final note, which might help you sleep better.
  • List 5 things that you consider positive from the day. It doesn’t matter how big or small, as long as it was something positive. It could be a promotion at work or a new job, being recognized for your hard work, having a co-worked to vent with, baby smiles, a fun client, green-lights on your commute or simply a stranger smiling and saying hello.
  • Expand on each item. What emotion did you feel or do you feel when you think back on that instance in your day? What was it about that moment that made you feel so positive?
  • Optional: Try to find a way to continue it tomorrow. Reflect on how you can have that feeling on a regular basis. Maybe you make time for your friends, pay it forward with a kind smile or even recognize someone else for their hard work.

If you’d like even more, sign up for the newsletter to get access to the “Daily Reflections” guide full of daily prompts and meditations perfect for journaling. You can sign up below and you’ll receive access to the “SLP Toolbox” as well.

Where do you feel you are lacking gratitude in your life? Is it home life, work a bit of both? Leave it in the comments below with your intentions for starting a gratitude journal. If you’ve ever written one, leave a comment or comment on someone else’s post to let them know how it went for you.

Much Love,

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