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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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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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7Oct

5 Meditations to Reduce Stress

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Meditation Reduce Stress
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5 meditations to reduce stress pinterest

I’m not sure what it is, if it is just this “season” of my life or something going on in the world and our lifestyles, but I have been feeling more and more stressed lately. It isn’t anyone thing that I can pin down, but more a few different things that have been piling up or happening at once. There are days when stress seems manageable or non-existent, but then there are days when it seems impossible to deal with.

Some stress is good.  It is your bodies natural response to a possibly dangerous or risky situation, known as your “fight or flight” response. Stress can keep you safe (flight) or motivate you to do more (fight). If you have ever felt like you work better when you have procrastinated, you are well-versed in using stress as a motivation to get something done. Stress is even what we do to our bodies when we work out, bu it is done in a good, purposeful way. This is when stress is use acute, or short-term. It’s when stress is prolonged, or chronic, that it is not good for you.

Prolonged stress can cause your brain and your hormones to work on overdrive. According to the Mayo Clinic, prolonged stress can lead to anxiety, depression and sleep problems, as well as weight gain, heart disease, digestive issues and even mild cognitive impairments. These happen because your body never gets the chance to recover and turn off that “fight or flight” response. Instead, it feels as if it is always under attack, releasing a steady stream of stress hormones and overworking your brain.

You might feel like stress is inevitable, and you’d be right. Stress is not something that we can get rid of completely, after all, some stress is good for you. The best thing to do is find ways to reduce your chronic stress and find a tool that helps you manage it better. One of the best ways to handle this stress is through a regular meditation practice.

Recently, meditation has gone from a practice for the new age, woo-woo, hippy-dippy tribe to something that people everywhere are being prescribed and practicing. Meditation, along with practices like yoga and deep breathing, have gone mainstream. Much of this is due to the large amounts of research that support meditation as a way to rewire your brain, and therefore your daily habits, coping mechanisms and stress patterns.

Research has shown that meditation is not only creates a few moments of calm in an otherwise hectic day, but it actually rewires your brain to handle stress better. It can also help to improve your memory and perhaps even prevent or slow the progression of diseases of the mind, such as dementia and Mild Cognitive Impairment. This is because meditating actually helps your brain to function better. According to a study from University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Healthy Minds in Mindful Magazine, regular meditation can increase the gray matter thickness of your brain, which can help you with everyday functions like problem solving, attention and memory. It also helps decrease activity in the amygdala, the home of our “fight or flight” response. Too much stress and trauma can cause your amygdala to work in overdrive. Meditation has been shown to help decrease that response, so you are better able to work through stressful situations on a daily basis. It also helps to decrease the release of cortisol, your stress hormone. Too much cortisol can contribute to the extra weight gain, anxiety, sleep trouble and memory issues you might experience when you are stressed. Meditation can help you lower these levels and regulate them, to help bring balance back into your body and mind.

Your meditation practice doesn’t have to be scary or intimidating. There are plenty of resources (most are free!) to help you get started. Take just 5-10 minutes a day to meditate. The resources below are 5 simple meditations to try, with apps or websites to go with most. Find a quiet place where you can sit comfortably, without distractions. If you are comfortable with it, close your eyes and begin.

5 Meditation Practices:

  • Find a mantra to focus on and repeat:
    • A mantra is a quote or saying, sometimes in Sanskrit, that means something to you. Repeating a mantra to yourself is a way to help your mind stay focused on one thing. It also makes it easier to let distractions drift on by. You can use a mantra of your own or try one of these guided meditations from Deepak Chopra.
  • Take 5-10 minutes to observe your breath:
    • This is a very simple meditation practice and a great one to start with. All you do is take a deep breath in and pay attention to the breath moving into your body. Then breathe out and pay attention to the breath escaping your body. Repeat for 5-10 minutes. If you want more guidance, try this mindful breathing meditation from UVA’s Mindfulness Center.
  • Practice counting down from 100 or 70.
    • As you sit with your eyes closed, start by taking a few breaths. Then just start to count down from a number between 70 and 100. This helps you to focus on one thing, allowing your mind to clear a bit. If your mind wanders, that’s ok, just comes back to your counting. It take 5-10 minutes to complete.
  • Chant or sing aloud:
    • If you are wanting to try something out of the ordinary, or perhaps something to keep your mind from wandering, chanting is a great meditation to try. The “Satanama” (sa ta na ma) meditation takes just over 10 minutes and is broken down into increments. If you feel bored with meditation, this one will keep you focused and help prevent some of the boredom. There are many chants you could try, but this one has been shown to possibly help prevent dementia and cognitive impairments. You can find it on YouTube.
  • Savasana or body scan:
    • If you want to deeply relax during your meditation, try a Savasana or full body scan. Savasana is also known as the “corpse” or “final relaxation” pose in yoga practices. It is done at the very end of classes to help you fully relax after your practice. It is done by laying on your back. You can simply breathe in this pose or recite a mantra silently, or do a full body scan. A full body scan helps you to notice and deeper levels of stress that might be present within your body and breath, so you can start to release them. You can try this one your own by simply scanning, or observing, from our toes to the top of your head. You can also find a guided practice from UVA’s Mindfulness Center here.

If you want to try more meditations, or have a little more guidance, try finding a meditation class near you or try one of these meditation apps: Headspace and Pacifica. You can also follow along with the guided meditations in the Resource Library.

Have you ever given meditations a try? Why or why not? If so, what type worked best for you? Leave a comment below and lets discuss how we can help it work for each other.

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
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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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