 |
| Oludeniz Beach, Turkey |
Recently, I was feeling a bit sluggish at work. Responding to emails a little slower than normal, putting off filling out invoices, being a bit more haphazard with my accounts, etc. I started to notice the signs and symptoms of work exhaustion, known in its most severe form as the dreaded, "Burn-out." (Cue ominous dun-dun-duunnn music.) I wasn't quite at burn-out levels, I still enjoyed my job, still found joy and reward in my weekly sessions with clients but I didn't have that same level of vim and vigor for my practice that I had earlier in the year. All very self-aware of me to notice this, no? Well, I'll confess that it was somewhat brought to my attention when I was conducting a group clinical supervision session for a couple of graduate-level social work students. I was inquiring as to the students' level of burn-out and exploring what self-care strategies they had devised for themselves, if any. Which of course got the mental juices working and I slowly came to the realization that I, myself, have been neglecting that all-important concept of "self-care."
Self-care sounds just a bit too cheesy and jargon-y for me which is probably why it's not really in my normal vocabulary, but admittedly it gets right to the point. No matter what job you're in and no matter how much you love it, there will likely come a point when you find yourself to be inordinately tired, physically, mentally, and emotionally, by the mere thought of getting up in the morning and going to work. The red light blinking on your phone fills you with dread because you just know someone, or likely several someones, has left you a voicemail with tasks, requests, and possibly criticism.
