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26Feb

Meditation to Reduce SLP Stress and Burn Out

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Burn Out Meditation Reduce Stress Self Care
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Meditation to Reduce SLP Stress and Burn Out Pinterest

Feeling stressed and exhausted from your SLP work? Burn out could be to blame.

Burn out can be very sneaky and might hit you before you realize it. One of the best things to do when you are burnt out, or suspect it is creeping in, is to take a break and use mindfulness activities, such as breathing and meditation, to shift your brains focus and calm the stress responses in your body.

Try this meditation, focusing on a 3-part breath, to help you reduce your SLP stress and burn out, by building more balance and calm from the inside out.

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 meditation audios, journal templates, self-care planners and more – including the “Be Balanced Today” downloadable daily planner sheet.

Much Love,

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22Feb

4 Sneaky Signs of SLP Burn Out

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Burn Out Reduce Stress
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Sneaky Signs SLP Burn Out PinterestAs an SLP, you are probably no stranger to stress at work. In fact, you might just come to think of it as part of the job, something that you have been working through and with since graduate school. Stress is definitely a part of life, and a necessity at times, but Chronic, lasting stress on a daily basis is not something we need, and is not something we know how to manage or reduce.

Instead, stress can keep progressing and turn into full blown Burn Out – a syndrome that happens when you aren’t able to find balance in your life for a lengthy part of time, and you start to disengage form your work, losing passion, drive and motivation, and often feeling a sense of dread about going to work.

Burn Out is a real thing and can manifest in a few different ways, often very different than its predecessor, Chronic Stress. Here are a few ways SLP Burn Out might be showing up in your SLP work:

4 Sneaky Signs of SLP Burn Out:

  1. You start fantasizing about other jobs, any job, as long as it doesn’t require billing and face-time. At times, it just feels like too much and anything else seems like a better job than your current situation. 
  2. You don’t feel like speech therapy actually does anything – because of lack of evidence based practice or too mush reliance on evidence based practice. This is often a hallmark sign of Burn Out – cynicism. You start to question the effectiveness and feel disconnected from your work. 
  3. You feel like every other discipline you work with (teachers, nurse, OT, PT) has it better than you. This is sometimes true. But often, there are things in each of these that are stressful, in different ways, and Helping Professionals in general tend to have tendencies towards Burn Out. 
  4. You keep bouncing around from setting to setting, but there is always some problem that makes you move on. The problem is that stress is everywhere. It is sometimes the job, but sometimes it is learning how to manage that stress, so it doesn’t keep happening without being able to work through it. 

If you are starting to relate to these things, it could be burn out creeping in. SLP Burn out is what your Chronic Stress as an SLP becomes when it is unmanaged, and it looks a lot different than stress. While stress is often hyper, frazzled and anxious, Burn Out is more of an unnaturally calm (possibly depressed or deflated), hopeless and given up attitude. When you start to notice your stress shift into this, it is time to take action (if not before!), so you are able to reduce your burn out, love your career again, and find some ease and balance in your life.

To help reduce your Burn Out and manage your stress, try these tips:

  • Connect with a co-worker: Isolation is common for SLPs and the lack of connection can make it easy to feel stressed, disconnected and, eventually, burnt out. Try reaching out to an SLP friend to talk, share and get some help with your SLP struggles.
  • Take time for YOU: Self-care is not selfish, and this alone, downtime can be key in helping you to prevent, reduce and manage your stress and burn out. Take time on most days to do something reflective and restorative (such as yoga, meditation, journaling, walking) to help you clear your head, and find a new perspective or connect to what you are needing.
  • Reach out for help: Connection and Self-Care are key, but sometimes it takes even more. Reach out to a mentor, therapist/counselor, coach or someone who can help you work through it. You can also try checking out some CEU courses to learn more about Burn Out, Stress and how to work through them both.

For more resources on SLP Burn Out, make sure to check out the SLP Toolbox (free planners, checklists, journals, meditations and more). You can sign up below (it’s free to subscribe):


Much Love,

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19Jan

How to Set Better Professional Goals as an SLP

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Goal Setting
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Set Better Professional GoalsGoals and dreaming big can become overwhelming and can make you feel as if you are stuck and they are impossible to achieve or reach. This can lead to more anxiety, stress and burn out, usually the exact opposite of why you created the goals in the first place, because they seem like so much work, or it feels as if they will never happen.

When you are stressed or looking to create a change, it often feels like it needs to happen quickly, and with a HUGE shift in our daily life, in order to make it happen and stick. You probably really want that goal to part of you life, sooner rather than later, so you push, feel frustrated when it take more time, and eventually feel as though it is not worth the effort.

The good news is, goals are more achievable when you take smaller steps (or smaller goals) in order to reach the bigger ones with time. This means – they don’t have to happen all at once and they can happen (and should happen) with smaller increments .

Take creating healthier eating habits aka dieting, for example. With dieting, people tend to want to make huge, drastic changes and overhaul their diet, and in return receive results immediately. However, it is often the people who make small changes that build over time who reach their goals and keep results for the long-term, more than the people who make big, sweeping changes at once (like New Years resolutions). This is because the huge, drastic changes are often harder to do in the short-term and even more difficult to keep up in the long-term. It’s where yo-yo dieting comes from. Smaller goals, that may not yield as big of results immediately but instead build up overtime, are easier to start and to maintain, because you are incorporating them into your current life and learning new habits along the way. It cuts through the overwhelm and give you something more sustainable. This is true for any goals that you are trying to reach or changes you are wishing to make.

Here is another example: Let’s say you are looking to reduce stress and overwhelm with some mindfulness practices. You have a friend who reduced their stress through daily meditation and you’d like to give it a try too. They are on Day 25, and are able to sit in a 20 minute meditation each day, without any issues with sitting, their mind wandering too much, or difficulty finding time to make it happen. You think this sounds like something you would enjoy, but the idea of sitting with your mind “blank” for 20 minutes seems overwhelming – you don’t have the time or stamina – so you decide it is too hard to do and not something that would fit your schedule. You share this with your friend, feeling upset that this goal won’t work for you.  Your friend let’s you know they didn’t start this way either. They started small and built up, until it became a regular part of their day, even though at first it seemed like it would be impossible.

If you wish to start a regular meditation practice, you have to start small and build, so that is becomes a regular habit that grows and helps you meet your overall goal. Start meditating for 5 minutes a day (or most days) and then build up to 10 minutes, then 20 minutes, as you start to make room for it and experience benefits from it. When doing it this way, you build up slowly, so the changes are easier to make and last longer than if you had started all at once.

With goals setting, it is not always about completing your goal quickly or overnight, but instead having an action plan to help you reach that goal as you grow. This will not only help you to reach your goal more effectively, but help you to keep going and evolve more once you reach your goal.

Let’s look at the common types of goal setting together:

  • SMART Goals:
    • These are the traditional type of goal setting, and are similar to the types of goals used for Speech Therapy clients.
    • SMART stands for: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely.
    • These goals are made to be well-defined, measurable goals that are realistic and are able to complete in a certain amount of time.
    • They focus on the smaller details.
    • The good: They give you a guide to follow and a time-frame to get there.
    • The bad: They can be limiting, without a lot of flexibility, and often don’t give you anywhere to grow once you reach your goal
    • Example: “I want to get certified in _ therapy technique within the next 2 years”.
  • Goals with “Soul” or Purpose:
    • These are more non-traditional, holistic ways to set your goals
    • A shift in how you look at your goals and the reasons behind setting them.
    • They focus on the bigger picture of your life, instead of the smaller details
    • They often work with how you want to feel, rather than focusing on what you should do or what you want
    • The good: They offer a lot of growth for creating your daily life and after you reach your goal.They are ever evolving.
    • The bad: They can be difficult to follow, without set steps or actions to take. They don;y always have a timeline or trajectory for how to incorporate them
    • Example: “I want to feel more freedom and passion within my work day”.

Both of these are great ways to set your goals, but they both also have faults that will make it difficult to pursue your goals, or to feel fully satisfied once you achieve them. In order to make better goals, you need to combine the two types to create a bigger picture and have an action plan. When you put the two together, you get to look at the bigger goals of how you want your work and life to feel – how you want to experience it – by setting smaller goals that can take you there and continue to evolve once you reach them.

Let’s set some goals: Start with the bigger picture and work you way down to create a step-by-step process of reaching your goals, and growing with them.

  • Start with the bigger picture – What is your overall goal?
    • What do you want to feel?
    • Find your core values/feelings/words that will help bring that to you
    • Examples: abundance, freedom, grounded/security, thriving, flourishing
  • Set a time-frame:
    • When do you see this happening (reasonably)? 5 years, 1 year, etc.
  • Plan it out: Decide how to make it happen in small steps
    • If your goal is 5 years – What do you wish to achieve by then?
      • What can you do this year, and each continuing year, to bring you closer to it
    • At 1 year – What piece of your 5 year goal do you want to reach by this time?
      • How can you start to move forward from your 6 months?
    • At 6 months – How will this help you reach your 1 year goal?
      • What more can you do to start to get to your year mark?
    • At 90 days  – How does this continue the month goals you have set?
      • How can you expand upon what you have done, to create more?
    • At 30 days: Where does this take the weekly goals you have made?
      • What can you do this month, and each month, to reach this goal?
    • At 1 week: How does this build upon each day?
      • What can you do each week to reach your monthly goal?
    • Today: How can you begin?
      • Where can you start today to get you there?

Example: You want to have more freedom in your life, through less financial struggle. You decide pay off your student loans in 5 years, through a side hustle. In the first year, you need to make _ amount to help you pay for that, growing it by X each year through various streams of revenue. In the first 6 months, you need to be making X amount through a few of the revenue streams, so you market them to new sources. In the first 90 days, you have 2 steady streams of income, that will grow over time. In the first 30 days, you start selling your first product. In the first week, you start creating your first product. In the first day (today!), you decide what type of products you are going to create. 

*This is just an example and not a fool-proof plan. Your real plan will have more details and factors, most likely. 

Now go to your calendar or planner: If it’s not written down, it is more likely to NOT happen. You need to write it down and put it into your calendar/planner BEFORE you begin.  This way, you can see what to do each day or week to help you reach your goals. It also helps you to reduce some of the stress and anxiety that can come with setting goals, because you are taking it out of your head and putting it somewhere else. This allows you to examine it a little better, and also takes some of the responsibility of remembering it off of you.

Remember, goals that are worth doing, and that are most achievable, are ones that look at the smaller details to help you get to the bigger picture of your life.

What are your goals for your SLP life and what steps are you taking to create them?

You can download this entire post, as well as a free workbook for Goal Setting in the SLP Toolbox. If you are a member, look for the “Goal Setting Guide” in the SLP Toolbox. Not a member? You can sign up (it’s always free!) below.

Much Love,

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10Oct

Big Announcement: I’m Presenting at ASHA Convention 2018!

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Burn Out Career Advice Goal Setting
2 Comments

SLP Burn Out ASHA Pinterest
For many years, I wasn’t sure what my purpose was for my work. It was a constant battle in my head to figure out what work I was “meant” to be doing, and how that would balance with the est of my life (schedules, finances, career paths, relationships, etc). I spent a lot of time and a lot of money training and trying to figure it all out, and moved around to many different settings, classes, studios and paths.

But it always felt like there was a piece missing:

  • I didn’t feel like I fit in as an SLP
  • Yoga and fitness were fun but I wasn’t sure if they were sustainable
  • Health Coaching just wasn’t picking up
  • I wanted to help others but I didn’t know exactly how or what that looked like

The main part for me was that I didn’t know how to put everything that I had done and learned together, or see that it could all fit together. It wasn’t until I came back to the SLP field after a very long hiatus (almost 5 years) that I realized the people I wanted to help and reach out to the most were the SLPs.

I always knew that I wanted to help people to feel better in their lives. To me, that meant showing them that they could have more freedom in their daily life and wellness, feel less stressed and stuck, have more energy throughout the day, and feel as if they were doing meaningful work that was sustainable. I wanted to help people have more balance in their lives overall.

Most SLPs I knew go into the field to do all of that and to help others, but were doing it at the cost of their own health and wellness, both physical and mental, and were really struggling with their career choice.  Some were even, much like me, debating if they had made the wrong choice. This was mostly due to the constant stress and demands of the field, but also to the general giving nature of the work, built into a society and culture that doesn’t pride itself on taking care of yourself. The problem for SLPs is that when you give so much, and never give back to yourself, you burn out really hard and really fast.

I started working with SLPs, reaching out for coaching, FB groups and writing blogs. I had done this in the past, with no real audience to work with, and I usually heard crickets. But this time was different because I was different. I knew who I wanted to talk to and what I wanted to share with them – ways to reduce stress and prevent burn out. I wanted to share how to find more balance in their live and passion for their careers.

I would hear back from people in groups, via email and on social media. Eventually, I decided to offer coaching programs and help others more directly. And then I decided that maybe, just maybe, I could take this to a bigger stage, to reach more people who were feeling the stress and overwhelm of being an SLP.

So I put it all together and replied to the ASHA Convention Call for Papers.

  • I thought they would laugh
  • I thought they would think it was silly
  • I thought they would say “No, that’s not what out convention is about”

But instead, they accepted my application and I will be presenting a poster presentation at this years 2018 ASHA convention!

Honestly, I have felt a lot of heartbreak over the years in my career choices and path, but there has always been another voice that guided me to keep going and trust my instincts and intuition. This is what led me to teach yoga and meditation, to get back into speech, to do this work and to apply to ASHA. It’s moments like this that make it all worth it and keep me doing this work.

On Thursday, November 15th from 1:30-3pm, I will be giving 15 minute talks on Balanced Living for the SLP: Burn Out & Stress Management Using Mindfulness & Self-Care 

Poster presentations give you the opportunity to hear form a LOT of people on various subjects, but to also be more engaged with them. If you attend the session, you get to ask questions, share your experience and learn how to work through your challenges. And after the sessions end, the posters remain up throughout the day.

As you start to fill out your schedule for the long weekend, make sure to leave a few minutes to come see me. And if you can’t make it during the session scheduled time, send me an email and we can meet up or I can answer any questions you have.

I can’t wait to continue this journey, so that more SLPs can learn how to manage the stress that they struggle with each day. Together we can work through this and find more balance in our SLP life.

Thank you all for supporting my dreams and work, and for working so hard to find your own as well.

I’ll see you at ASHA.

Much Love,

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10Oct

How SLPs Can Combat the Sunday Blues

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Burn Out Reduce Stress Self Care
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Sunday Blues Pinterest
The “Sunday Blues”. It’s a phrase that floats around many of the SLP fb groups, forums and pages. It is something we talk about with each other, but only if we are sure it is a “safe” place and others are probably feeling it to – otherwise we might be judged, seen as not good enough, or perhaps even told we aren’t cut out for the gig.

The “Sunday Blues” is a feeling that many SLPs get at the end of the weekend, right as they start to wind down and get into work mode again. Some feel it lurking throughout their weekend, ready to creep out at any moment. While others send their weekend feeling completely disconnected form the stress of work, only to have it hit them hard when they start to wind down the fun and turn their focus onto getting ready for the week ahead.

The Sunday Blues can hit any SLP, any day of the week, and it is usually a feeling, in the pit of your stomach, that starts to grow and grow until you get to bed, sometimes keeping you from sleeping at night and leaving you feeling exhausted come Monday morning. Just in time for a new week.

These feelings are a form of anxiety, that can build from a gnawing feeling in your belly to a full blown panic and anxiety attack. The first time you feel this, it can be alarming, because you may not know where or why it is happening. There are many SLPs you have started to feel this Sunday Blues feeling when they have seemed perfectly happy and content with their work.

The feeling usually starts to happen because there is an imbalance in your work and home life. It might not be something you are aware of, or it might seem like you aren’t doing anything different than the other professionals you know – taking work home for the evenings or weekend, prepping on the weekends, running errands all weekend, spending time with your family and friends, sleeping in late or staying up late, etc. All of these things can start to build, and can throw your life out of balance before you realize it.

The further anxiety and panic can come from something called “future-tripping”, where you keep looking ahead, to the impending week and all there is to do, which builds the stress around the week. These Sunday Blues can make the week ahead and the tasks that are involved seem much more stressful and time-consuming than they really will be. By looking too far ahead and thinking about “what could happen”, you start to create a build up of anxiety and stress that might not be needed.

To help combat the Sunday Blues, in both forms, there are a few things you can do:

  1. Make sure your weekends are replenishing you, and not depleting you more.
    1. If you are running errands, paying bills, chauffeuring kids around, etc, you are just doing more work (or a different kind) at home. Give yourself time to do something for you that isn’t a task or errand.
    2. Don’t bring work home. There will be times that you have to, but it should not be the norm. Leave work at work, and find time there to do paperwork, and consider, as hard as it is, to plan less so you have more time at work for other things.
  2. Create a Must-Do list for your weekend Self-Care (you can find one in the SLP Toolbox).
    1. 3 things that you will do (they can be small) to make sure you take time for yourself.
    2. Think of things like a cup of tea, read a book, go to yoga, take a walk, wake up 15 minute earlier than everyone else, etc.
  3. Prepare for the week, but only in small doses.
    1. Make sure you have clean clothes, food, etc, but you don’t have to spend your entire weekend doing chores and meal prepping.
    2. Have the basics ready, but also give yourself time to enjoy the weekend.
  4. If you start future-tripping, try a breathing and meditation practice to bring you back to the present moment.
    1. This will help you to bring yourself out of your head and into your body, in this moment, so you can take action (or rest) where needed.
    2. Try this video for more tips or this meditation.

If you are feeling the pressure of the week ahead, it doesn’t have to continue each week or get worse each day. Take some time to bring yourself out of the moment of stress, so you can take action, find more time for self-care, balance your work and weekend, and maybe take the next steps in your career life as needed.

If you are looking for more ways to reduce stress, here are a few other things to try:

You can also subscribe to the free “SLPToolbox” for even more resources and meditation practices.

Much Love,

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9Oct

How to Create and Evening Routine

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Burn Out Meditation Reduce Stress Self Care
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Evening Routine Pinterest (1)

Stress. Overwhelm. Exhaustion.

If you are an SLP, you are probably familiar with these, and have felt them off and on throughout your career. As Helping Professionals, it is our job to care, completely, for our patients/clients/students, and when we give so much to them each day, and then add on the administrative (aka paperwork and billing) side of things, we are usually left feeling drained, overwhelmed and stressed.

When you are feeling stressed, one of the best ways to start to feel less stressed and overwhelmed is to start to create routines, habits, or rituals that help you to feel more calm, centered and in control of your daily life. These help to bring about balance, while also giving you the routine you need to know what is coming each day, within both your work and home lives.

Morning rituals are very common, since they help you to start your day on the “right” foot. They usually entail waking up a little early, having a movement and/or meditation practice, taking time for yourself and making sure you fuel with breakfast and coffee.

Evening routines and rituals, however, are a little less talked about but can have a HUGE impact on your daily life satisfaction.

When taking time to create a routine of some kind in the evening, you take the time to  let the tension of your day go, while creating new ways to reduce stress and help you relax before you drift off to sleep. It can help you to feel more relaxed and restored when you wake up, and also to get deeper sleep or to get to sleep more easily.

How to Create an Evening Routine:Copy of Ep 20 Graphic A

  • Carve out dedicated time each evening, perhaps right before bed or right when you get home/end work.  5-10 minutes can be enough to help you transition, by letting work thoughts stay at work (or let your mind relax before slumber) and releasing some of the tension you might be carrying form the day.
  • Find something that both relaxes you and helps you feel less drained and depleted. Try a Self-care practice that allows you to unwind form your day, but also nourished you on a deeper level. Bubble baths can be great, but deeper practices, such as journaling and meditation, can help you get even more out of your time.
  • Make sure you choose something that allows you to check in, rather than check out. Binge watching your favorite show might be all you feel like you have the energy for at the end of a stressful day. Go ahead and try it – but notice if it becomes routine. If you are doing this every night, just to make it through, you are likely to be checking out instead of checking in.  This will create more stress overtime and won;t really help you to destress. Instead, choose a self-care activity that helps you to face and let go of some of the stress.

And example of an evening routine to help you transition from work to home might look something like:

  • At the end of the work day, take a few minutes to write down 3 things you need to do tomorrow. If there is anything on your ind form work, go ahead and write about it to get it out of our head. Maybe even write down 3 good things from your day.
  • Meditate, stretch or deep breath for 5 minutes. If you have more time, go for a walk or try an energizing workout.
  • Grab some water, tea, coffee and a healthy snack for your commute home, so you are energized and nourished as you head to your duties at home.

For an evening routine closer to bed time it might look something like this:

  • Grab an herbal tea or water to hydrate for tomorrow (not right before bed though).
  • Take 5-10 minutes to meditate or deep breathe. If you have the time, take longer and add in some movement such as deep stretches and folds to help release tension from your day and prepare you for sleep.
  • Write down your top moment from the day, as well as 3 other small but positive moments that occurred.

When you carve out sometime for yourself, it helps you to check in with what you are feeling and needing, mentally, emotionally and physically, so you are more aware of how to move through in that moment and as you move into the next day. It also helps you to refuel and give back to yourself after spending the day giving back to so many others. When you do this, you are less drained and exhausted, which means you are of better service to others (and yourself as you move about the world.

What can you do today to create more routine? Leave a comment below and make sure to check out my recent interview over on SLP Happy Hour podcast, where we discuss Self-Care and creating an Evening Routine as an SLP.

You can also find more resources, such as meditations and stress relieving webinars, over on my education page. You can also subscribe to the “Balanced SLP” newsletter/magazine for monthly-themed self-care video tips, fresh blog posts, new meditation audios, recipes to-go and more.  You can subscribe below.

Much Love,

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