Menu

22Apr

How to Track Your Self-Care Practice

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Self Care Stress Management
Comments Off on How to Track Your Self-Care Practice

track your self-care practice

When I was in graduate school, I spent a lot of time (way too much, especially during class, I’ll admit) researching this newer movement about “going green”. I was fascinated by it and was so excited to learn more and revamp a lot of the things I was doing, eating, and cleaning with. It was my first time living alone and the first time I really went all in and had a strong opinion and stance on something. And I loved it. 

It became part of my lifestyle and something I wanted to bring into more aspects of my daily living and learning. 

  • There were TV shows devoted to green-living
  • Magazines and book being published
  • New products launching for cleaning (some obscure brands and some from household brands jumping in on the trend)
  • There were new ways of exercising (for me), that were more mindful
  • There were new grocery stores for me to explore and wander around
  • New products that were “eco-friendly” were popping up everywhere

Honestly, I really enjoyed this time and learning about so many new things, exploring and finding new products, and making shifts in my lifestyle. There were so many days and years where I felt like I talked about this a LOT and so much of what I was doing, thinking and reading was devoted to these “greener” practices. 

And then, one day, I felt like I had kind of lost it. I hadn’t explored a new store in awhile, found a new product to try, or been surprised to see a new product launched that I wanted to test out. I was a little dismayed and thought “I guess it’s not as important to me anymore”, and maybe, not to anyone else either. For a moment, I was really, really frustrated by that. 

How could I have gone so far in the opposite direction, to not be thinking about this ALL.THE.TIME. anymore. I mean, I dedicated a lot of my small, precious time in grad school (I also worked 5 days a week at a restaurant, serving and managing) to researching this, when I very well could have been studying a bit more (It’s ok. I got good grades and graduated. Just not “perfect”). 

And then I realized something:

  • I didn’t need lists of what foods to buy, because I had already learned it and the options were available pretty much everywhere I shopped.
  • I wasn’t exploring new stores, because I was frequenting the ones that worked best for me. And most places had a lot to offer.
  • Nope. I wasn’t testing out new products that popped up, because these were ABUNDANT and now widely available – not some obscure thing. 

Basically, I wasn’t constantly thinking about “going-green” anymore, because “going-green” was a lot more mainstream and it was a huge part of my daily life – without having to think about it constantly.

I had been practicing it for so long, that it was not just part of what I did automatically. It’s not nearly as fun as the exploring phase, but it is much deeper and more sustainable. It’s just part of life now. 

The same might be true for where you stand with your stress management and utilizing, learning, and exploring the tools and techniques, such as mindfulness, meditation, movement, journaling, and more. These things are more mainstream than ever, and could be viewed as trendy, or could be viewed as our culture finally catching up to what we all need, and realizing that not having these practices was creating more harm than good. 

Right now, you might feel immersed in it or even overwhelmed by it all. Or even feel that people are pushing it without actually offering help (like your boss or admin saying “remember self-care!”). There can be a lot to try, experiment with and to figure out what works for you and what doesn’t, and what really is just a trend. That can sometimes feel more stressful, or exciting, than you are looking for. 

But, one day, it will just be part of your routine – so much so, that you might not even realize you are using these on a daily basis. You’ll feel like you aren;t doing enough, or that you aren’t doing anything, because it is just part of who you are and how your day goes. Not stress-free, but more mindful and more aware, with tools to use when you need them and foundational practices built in. 

No matter where you are starting at now, here are a few things for you to reflect on, and see where you can go or how far you have already come: 

  • Awareness is the first step: If you are simply aware that you are feeling stressed or overwhelmed, and you can recognize the why or when, this is a huge step. 
  • Mindfulness is familiar vocabulary: The terms mindfulness, yoga, meditation, journal, self-care, stress management, etc are nothing new to you. You’ve been reading about them, listening to podcasts or courses on them, or trying them out. 
  • You’re stressed about your stress management: Yay! That can be hard, but it means you are working on it and on the right path (and, if you are feeling left out and alone, things like the SLP Stress Management Podcast or SLP Toolbox can help make it easier to figure out). 
  • Hearing about self-care from supervisor or admin makes you cringe, or cheer: Yay, again! Even if your reaction is an eyeroll, it means you know it is important, and are just overwhelmed at the thought of doing it. But you are still in that awareness place. 
  • You feel like you aren’t doing enough to try and look up new self-care routines, or you don’t talk about it as much or have it on your mind: It might make you feel guilty, or like you “aren’t doing enough” (imagine that, as an SLP, cue the sarcasm). It might mean that, if you are honestly avoiding facing your stress, but, most likely, if you have been working on this for a while, you are in it. You are doing things and incorporating them into your life without having to struggle or think about it constantly. It has been infused into your day and, even though stress might still be there, you are able to see it, see where you have stopped some of your practices, and get back into it with more ease and awareness. 

These might not feel like enough or like you have changed your world completely, but any small step or change can be a huge shift and can become part of your routine and day. Over time, these just become how you live your life. 

And being an SLP, it is quite possible that you will doubt how much you do, tell yourself it is not enough, and feel pushed to do more. It comes with the perfectionism we all face being in our field. 

If you are feeling this way, or you are in the beginning stages of creating some of these patterns, it can help to have some accountability, or to keep track of what you are doing. This gets it out of your head and onto paper (or a tablet), so you can really see what you are doing and living. And that it is always enough. Having a “Tracker” can help you not to be perfectly on track, but to see what you are already doing and how far you have really come. 

I use a daily tracker-style journal to help me, in a non-stressful or perfectionist way, see what habits I am doing, how I am really doing a lot more than I give myself credit for, and to see how these habits work (and when I stop doing them, how it shows up in my world). 

These can be found in journals or you can create your own, or you can use one of the “Self-Care Trackers” that I have available in my brand new digital product shop. These really are key to help you track your self-care practice

You can download the “Self-Care Tracker Journal” of your choice, available in the SLP Stress Management Shop, then get started with some stress management and self-care resources in the SLP Toolbox (for free).

  • Monthly Self-Care Tracker
    Printable and Digital PDF
  • Weekly Self-Care Tracker Journal
    Printable and Digital PDF
  • Self-Care Tracker Journal Bundle
    Printable and Digital PDF

They are available as Monthly, Weekly, or in a bundle with both. Each comes with a guided journal practice to help you get started figuring out your Self-Care practices that you are currently using or not, and what you would like to do, as well as two versions of each tracker page. These can be downloaded, printed out, or used in a digital pdf app. 

You can download the “Self-Care Tracker Journal” of your choice, available in the SLP Stress Management Shop, then get started with some stress management and self-care resources in the SLP Toolbox (for free).

You can also join the FREE SLP Toolbox, and get access to those Self-Care tools you’ll be tracking, by subscribing below.

How do you track your self-care practice? Share in the comments below!

Much Love,

Jessi

Tags:
3Jun

5 Ways to Practice Self-Care as an SLP

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Reduce Stress Self Care
Comments Off on 5 Ways to Practice Self-Care as an SLP

self-care as an SLPLet’s be completely for a moment. Being an SLP is super awesome and rewarding, and at times super draining, stressful and downright exhausting. You most likely got into the field because you wanted to help people. From babies to kiddos to teenagers to adults to the elderly, there is something that you can offer them to help improve their daily life and help them thrive, communicate and, when needed, swallow and get nourishment. And the field only continues to grow as we learn more and our roles expand.

So, yeah, it can be rewarding. And, yeah, it can be stressful.

There is a thing that happens in a profession like ours, one where you help people ALL DAY EVERYDAY. It often leads to chronic stress and burn out and can make you either continue to live feeling overwhelmed and stressed each day, or cause you to quit completely. You see, as a “Helping Professional”, and I dare to say even more so for SLPs with our vast role, you are giving to others to the point of exhaustion. There is often no break during your day, there are infinite tasks to do in addition to your therapy, and you constantly feel like you need to do more, learn more and be more for your clients/students/patients. So you do more, and you give more, until you don’t have a lot left to give. And yet you still try to give more. It’s like pouring from an empty cup and hoping for a few more drops to come out, or scraping the bottom of an empty barrel.

And all of this is for others. So it is no wonder that you are exhausted, stressed, and overwhelmed.

The thing you, well we as a whole, keep trying to do is push through and give more, and what you, we, really need is to take a pause and fill back up. Give some BACK to yourself, so you are not empty, depleted or drained. Restore and recharge, so you can not only give back to others, but also make it through each day OK and eventually thriving.

The biggest thing – make time for Self-Care as an SLP.

And by self-care, I am talking about taking time to restore, check in and take care of yourself. Not to check out, binge your favorite show and down a bottle of wine/bar of chocolate/tube of cookie dough, while denying you have to work in the morning (it happens to the best of us!). 

Self-Care is not just a trendy thing. It is in fact science backed, which is what we look for as SLPs. Studies show that true Self-Care activities can help you to be more present, enjoy your day, and decrease your overall stress AND the way stress affects you.

It’s not always easy or purely fun, because true Self-Care as an SLP is WORK, but is makes all the difference. And, eventually, it becomes a part of your day that you really can’t make it through without. It takes you from struggling to survive each day, to fully thriving each day.

Here are a few ways to Practice Self-Care as an SLP:

  • Take breaks during the day:
    • This can be super challenging, especially when you work from home (which you most likely are at this moment). Make sure to take some breaks, even short ones, to eat, stretch, move, pee, whatever it is you need to do. It gives your brain and body a chance to recharge, so you can show up more focused, engaged and ready.
  • Get some rest:
    • It sounds easier than it is. If you are working round the clock to get your paperwork and other “tasks” completed, or find yourself binge watching late into the night to avoid your stress, you might be lacking in rest. Or you might be feeling like your thoughts start spinning as soon as your head hits the pillow. Try to set a reminder or timer before you need to head to bed, so you have time to unwind first. Then, if your thoughts are spiraling, try a journal practice called “brain dump” to put all the thoughts down on paper and get them out of your head.
  • Try being mindful:
    • Mindfulness simply means being aware and checking on how you are doing. You could try giving yourself a moment to check in when you wake up to see how you feel that day. Then use that awareness of how you are today to be realistic of how you might show up, react and move through the day.
  • Get up and move
    • Easier said than done. It can be easy to slip into the habit of working, and then working just a little more, and then a little more, until you have spent the entire day sitting Most likely, it leaves your body stiff, your brain frazzled, and an overall feeling of sluggishness. Try moving, even to walk to get coffee or water, a few times a day. Go outside for a quick stretch. Get up and take 100 steps. Do a few laps around your house or office. Stretch at your desk. All of these can help you to feel better and maintain energy during your day .
    • (Check out some of the Mindful Movement downloadable audios in the SLP Toolbox).
  • Eat and hydrate
    • It something you need to do, but might be forgetting to really do this during the day. Make sure you take tome to stay hydrated throughout your day. Coffee is great, but too much can make you feel less than good. Also include some water to sip on, keeping you hydrated, feeling good, and helping your voice to stay steady. Have a water bottle on your desk an refill as needed.
    • Snacks are important too. They help your body and brain function and focus. Make time for snack breaks and a full lunch. If you need to, have healthy snacks at your desk that you can eat in between sessions to help you stay energized.

For Self-Care resources, made just for SLPs, make sure to sign up for the FREE SLP Toolbox below. You’ll get weekly updates and resources to help you manage and reduce stress that can lead to burn out.

 

You can also learn more about managing stress and practicing self-care as an SLP in the following CEU/CMH courses:

Much Love,

 

Tags:
4Jun

Do SLPs Suffer from Chronic Stress?

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Burn Out New SLP Reduce Stress
Comments Off on Do SLPs Suffer from Chronic Stress?

SLP Chronic Stress Pinterest (1)If you are an SLP and starting to feel like you are constantly stressed, and that it just seems to keep building, you might be suffering from chronic stress.

While it would be great to say that SLPs do not suffer from chronic stress, that would be far from the truth for many SLPs, practicing and non. Being an SLP is a wonderful profession and career choice, but it also carries with it a lot of responsibilities each day; ever-changing paperwork, caseloads, and protocols; and requires you to give more of yourself than you might expect to give.

What are the causes of Chronic Stress for an SLP?

Chronic stress is what happens when the daily stressors you face, whether big or small, are left unmanaged over time. They begin to build, until your body and brain are stuck in a “cycle of stress” that has you feeling the constant pulls of stress, as an SLP and outside of work as well. When left unchecked, this chronic stress can grow and eventually turn into full-blown burn out.

It happened to me.

In undergrad, I was absolutely obsessed with what I was learning in my CSD program. Life was good, I had little outside stress and I thoroughly enjoyed my course work. When I went to graduate school, there was a very different vibe – it was much more competitive, while undergrad had a vibe of sharing knowledge. I was also living in a new city, my fiance was preparing to leave the country on a deployment for 8 months, and I was working 5 nights/days a week. I lived alone and was responsible for all of my own household “duties” and errands. I had little to no time for “fun” or going out with friends, or just enjoying the beautiful city I lived in.

Stress started to sink in, rapidly. I felt really disconnected, had little to no passion for my work, and never quite felt like I was achieving or doing anything, especially after years of pushing to get my degree. In the years to come, I never got out of the stress cycle, even when I had more freedom to decide how I ran my days,  and eventually became completely burned out in my third year as an SLP.

I really thought I had chosen the wrong career. No one else I knew seemed to feel this way. Around me, SLPs seemed to be thriving and really “into” their work – staying late and coming in early. I felt alone and isolated, which only fueled my stress more. If I had been able to recognize that I was becoming chronically stressed, I might have been able to prevent burn out and reduce my overall stress levels, breaking out of the cycle of stress.

The thing is, it is really hard to recognize chronic stress for what it is when you are in it, and it can be even harder to explain it to non-SLPs close to you (friends, family, partners, etc), because you feel like they just won’t “get it”. This makes it difficult to work through and to reduce, but once you do recognize it, you can work through it, manage it, and feel that you are finally in control of the stress.

What does chronic stress for an SLP look like?

  • Lack of passion: If you were once really passionate and interested in learning about your career (or future career), but now feel like you don’t want much to do with it, you might be suffering from chronic stress. Chronic stress for an SLP, especially when it is starting to lead to burn out, can make you feel a bit apathetic or disconnected from your work, and often appears as boredom. This can be one of the telling signs that something is off in your work or day, and that stress may be to blame. If you are feeling this lack of passion, try 2 things. First, find some outside hobbies to help you feel engaged in something during your week. This will help some of the stress fade and help you feel more balanced. Once it does, then you can look at your work itself. Second, sign up for some new courses or ask to take on a project that you are interested in at work, in order to start to feel more connected and passionate again. 
  • Pushing through: Chronic stress for an SLP can often time make you have frantic, nervous, hyper energy that keeps you feeling like you need to push through to finish your work. This might look like working up until the point of exhaustion or beyond to get an IEP done or taking on every last patient you can in one day (even if it’s 100% ok to wait until tomorrow). This energy pushed you, but it is not in a sustainable way, and leaves you feeling drained and depleted once you do finish your day. It could also look like showing up early or staying late to finish work, which could lead to feelings of resentment towards your work, or that you’ll “never get it finished”, or just really throw your life out of balance.  If you are feeling this way, make sure to set timers to give you breaks when you are working on projects. Also, set a firm time to leave work (not too late or too long after the end of the day), so you are leaving on time and leaving work at work. 
  • Feelings of isolation: Sometimes, when you know you are feeling stressed, it can make it seem like you are alone. Even though it seems this way, the majority of SLPs, sadly enough, are feeling stressed by their work and the imbalance in their lives. This is true for most other Helping Professionals as well, whether in the education or medical setting. So even though you feel alone and isolated, you most likely are not. To help feel less isolated when you are stressed, reach out to a fellow SLP friend or another colleague and set up a break or coffee date or some kind to talk about your stress. use this as more than just a venting sessions (although that can be helpful to start) and come up with some ways to help each other or to be accountable for each other. Just having someone who understands can be incredibly helpful. And if you are the ONLY SLP at your work, and this leaves you isolated, set up some dinner dates or weekend self-care dates with other SLP friends or people in your area. 
  • Lack of competence and confidence: There are times when you won’t know exactly what to do with a client or student, but those times are rare. Most likely, you’ll need a refresher or to go research something quickly, and be able to treat the patient or refer them to someone else. And if you are the only person they can see, chances are, you do know more than you realize, or you can find the info, to help treat them. SLPs are resourceful. However, chronic stress for an SLP can make it feel like you don’t know what you are doing when faced with a case you are less familiar with, and this stress can continue to grow until it makes you feel like you mist not be a very good SLP. Chronic stress for an SLP can also make it harder to problem solve ad figure out a solution, because stress hijacks some of the problem solving parts of the brain, making it more difficult to work though problems. If you are feeling this way, there are a few thing to do. First, remind yourself that you know more than you think and you are capable of learning even more. Find mantra or have a motto to help you through times like this. Then, you can reach out to a colleague, look through references, or even sign up for some courses to help you learn even more and continue to grow as a clinician. 
  • Changes in your mood: One of the biggest ways chronic stress for an SLP shows up is in your overall mood. When you are stressed, you might notice you feel more annoyed or irritated, you have less patience and you overall have a more cynical attitude or approach to work – or home. Or it might feel like anger, uncertainty or even nervousness, or really any type of change. This is usually one of the first things that people notice when they are starting to wonder about stress. It is also one of the biggest things that seeps out of your work zone and into your family and daily life. If you are noticing that you feel irritated, less patient, annoyed, etc, the best things for you to do are to bring more balance into your life through self-care. Things like meditation, journaling, mindful movement, and reflecting will give you time to take a break from work, shift your focus, and turn your attention inward to work through the feelings and stress that is there. 

Chronic stress for an SLP is something that most SLPs are facing, but it doesn’t have to be something that sticks with you, or that you have to experience as an SLP. Below you can sign up for (FREE) resources designed specifically to help SLPs work through their stress:

For even more insights in to chronic stress for an SLP and what you can do to help manage it, check out these online CEU/CMH courses available now: 

Much Love,

1741931346171517140715

Tags: