Self-care is an essential part of life, especially for teachers. It's not selfish or lenient, but rather a way to take care of your physical and emotional health needs to the best of your ability. Research suggests that self-care promotes positive health outcomes, such as building resilience, living longer, and being better equipped to manage stress. Taking care of ourselves emotionally helps us better understand ourselves, cope with challenges, and develop and nurture healthy relationships.
If you don't take care of yourself and let stress take hold of you, you run the risk of serious, even life-threatening illness, including heart disease.Unfortunately, very few of us spend time on essential self-care. Every time you solve something on your list, you get rid of a burden. Over time, you'll have more energy to do what's really important, and you won't have as many stressful and reactive moments in your life. You'll feel better, sleep better, and have better relationships with your loved ones. Self-care is about taking care of your health and making sure you have everything you need to thrive as a teacher.
Without taking care of yourself, you won't have the energy to help your students. Self-care is about finding ways to calm and strengthen the mind, body, and spirit. It's also about taking small steps every day and discovering how to take care of yourself so that you can cultivate health and well-being. If weekly manicures or monthly spa days are out of your means, there are many other self-care practices you can adopt. Avery Kalapa says her work to create affirming yoga spaces and communities for people of all genders is inextricably linked to self-care.
Practicing self-care activities can help students learn to manage and cope with challenging situations. At Everyday Health, self-care is about taking steps to meet your physical and emotional health needs to the best of your ability. Strategies to Help Preschool and School-Age Children Develop Self-Help Skills in the Inclusive Child Care Environment. Why don't you choose just one and make a plan to improve it? Even if each one takes some time to address it, you may feel much better in the long run. In fact, practicing self-care may be in the best interest of everyone in your class. By eating well, getting enough sleep, exercising, and finding other ways to take care of yourself, self-care can help you reach your potential in the classroom, which in turn will also help your students succeed. Different people will adopt different self-care practices, and even their own definition may change over time.
Give this printable list of self-care activities to families as a way to help children and caregivers learn to care for themselves together. Now that you've learned why self-care can be one of the best stress management strategies for teachers, it's important to find ways to incorporate it into your daily life. Ideally, a healthy self-care strategy should include an activity that addresses each of these factors every day.
