Self-Care Strategies Paper
University of Phoenix
BSHS/465 – PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND IDENTITY
My classmates all have very similar strategies in relieving stress. Prioritizing and having hobbies are a good way to have self-care. When a person is too busy with any activity, even outside of work, things can be very stressful. Some add exercise and mediation to help them. By taking up a hobby it could calm a person when they are stressed and some hobbies can even help solve an issue. When I sew I like to turn on the music and think about things while sewing, because that is my mind seems to be clear. Prioritizing is a very big step in self-care because it allows a person to give certain importance to activities. If a counselor has home obligations and choose work over home it could cause tension and stress, which eventually cause them to have more problems at work because they will feed into one another?
Many of the strategies stated by my teammates are things I have already tried and tend to work. One strategy that I may try is meditation. I have seen meditation work for many people. I would give all of these strategies a try.
There were several self-care strategies used by my teammates that are similar to mine. I engage in leisure activities that relax me. I read a little every day, even if it is ten minutes to give myself me time. Other team member tries to take inventory of her life and prioritize. One makes sure he gets enough sleep and another teammate also used meditation.
I think of all of these other strategies that I would like to incorporate trying to get more sufficient sleep. This will be a battle for me because it always seems as though there is so many things to do in a day and not enough time.
One strategy I think I would not use is incorporated with the sufficient sleep and that is reducing caffeine intake. I love my coffee too much. I also have tried mediation in the past and have found it does not help me so I probably will not use it again.
I think all of these techniques can be useful to help clients for a few different reasons. Firs these techniques can help to keep the human services professional mentally healthy and better able to do their job. Secondly, these techniques can be taught to clients to help manage their own stress.
Work can become very stressful and cause individuals to start feeling emotionally, physically and mentally exhausted. Some individuals might start feeling overly stressed causing him or her to not perform job duties or constant demands. There are a lot of comparisons of certain strategic stress reduction and management techniques used between myself and some of the team member’s. One strategy that I have used to elevate stress is meditation and deep breathing techniques. Yoga is a deep breathing and meditation technique that has been very beneficial on relieving stress because it involves moving and deep breathing. Hatha yoga is the type that I use because it is simple and it is great for stress relief. Another comparison I found that I have among the team member’s is having quiet time or personal time. Sometimes it is nice to have a quiet place to relax such as the beach, on the patio or even a room. Reading a book can be very relaxing and a person can get lost into what he or she is reading and not have to worry about the realities of life. A few differences I have with a team member would be diet and exercising. Many individuals find that wellness and working out is a great stress reliever. It helps an individual focus on what his or her work out might be. Another difference is getting enough sufficient sleep. I personally have insomnia so this is not a strategy I personally use to reduce stress. Sleep or taking a nap is a great way for many other individuals to reduce stress, it helps reenergize the brain and body to help him or she becomes more focused. It is important that individuals know what works and what does not work for themselves. One team member discussed prioritizing. I personally would not think that I would use prioritizing as a stress reliever for myself, but that is what makes us unique individuals. It does not hurt to try different techniques of stress relieving. One self-strategy I would use as a human service professional would be using a technique that is quick. Human service professionals are busy individual’s and need something that would be a easy technique as deep breathing. It is important not to over work yourself; therefore, it’s about managing what an individual can handle.
When interacting with my teammates, I learned a tremendous amount about strategies that could be incorporated into my own life. It’s always important to be open to strategies that work for others, because this could be the key to successfully overcoming stress at the workplace. Something new that a team mate suggested that I will incorporate into my own life will be focusing on dieting and exercise. Whenever I am stressed, taking care of my own priorities and self-worth is one of the last things that I want to do, however I can definitely see how this could be beneficial to one’s overall stressors, and can aid them in being as successful as they can be. Taking care of one’s self not only influences the body positively, it also benefits the added stressors that we experience in our chose careers.
When comparing my self-care strategies to my team mates there are definitely some similarities such as spending leisure time with family/friends outside of work to relax and distress and also using breathing techniques. Some different strategies that I have not used before would be exercise and dieting. When I get off of work I am mentally and physically exhausted from being with 28, three year olds. The last thing I want to do is exercises. However, this is a strategy that I could work on and try to incorporate into my life, if not daily at least bi daily or weekly. All of the strategies that my team mates used would be ok for me to try, and some may even become new habits and strategies I can use in my daily life. As I learn these stress reducing techniques and self-care strategies I can incorporate them into my client’s lives to help them cope with stress. It’s something I can personally share with them and have tried myself.