Your Moods Suffers When You Forget Your Self Care
As clinicians we work hard, seeing our tough clients back-to-back, with little to no breaks. Also with sitting all day in isolation, is not healthy for our mind, or our bodies. This can take a toll on our mental health. We are meant to be social beings, who need connection with the outside world. So what are you doing to prevent your moods from dipping?
I understand what it’s like to feel exhausted, after the last session of the day. All we want to do, is to eat and go to sleep. This can be a very short term solution, as long as it’s not keeping your mood and energy low. If this becomes a pattern, then we’ll know it’s not helping our mental health and depression can happen. This should be our “warning sign” to return to our self care practices, so we can improve our moods and be present for our clients. Once I prioritized my self care, I noticed an improvement in my moods and I had energy for therapy. This is why I enjoy supporting therapists like you, so you too can develop a self care routine, that supports your mental health, so you can focus in your sessions too.
Here’s three tips to maintain your self care routine:
First make a list for your mental, physical and spiritual self care. It needs to be simple and something that doesn’t take a lot of time to do.
Make it official, by adding your self care plan to your calendar, with an alert set to different times, throughout your day. This will become a habit over time.
Remind yourself that if you skip your daily self care, that you’ll suffer the consequences, along with your clients.
Remember that self care is essential and should not be negotiated. We work in a tough field and we need energy, to do good effective work. So the next time you’re feeling too tired for self care, remind yourself that not only your mental health will suffer, but so will your clients. After all, we’re in the business of helping our clients heal, so let’s show up as our “best selves!”