5 ways to take care of yourself in these difficult times

In the light of everything that is going on and last month's blog post, I want to share several tips that I find very helpful, and I hope will help you. 

1) Focus on self-care: make good sleep, good diet and unwinding "me time" are need to be even a greater priority: when things are difficult, self-care needs to be that much more important. 
That point alone could be an entire blog post, but putting your self care on the bottom of your "to-do" list is not going to be helpful. 

2) Reduce media and social media: reduce everything that you do not need in your life but drains your energy and brain power. Protect your time and your energy.

3) Stay informed (2) and 3) are not mutually exclusive) - Limit your news sources to two, maybe three sources that you trust and like. Further - give journalists time to do their job. Jumping on a "breaking news" may be tempting, but the reality is that when the "breaking news" happens, very little is known. You probably saw the same footage running on the loop, because that's all media outlets have. Silence notifications to reduce further distractions, and read a full article (or watch a solid news report) some 24 hours later. You will end up feeling less frenzied, and bonus - you will be better informed too. 

4) Connect with yourself: find something that "recharges your batteries". No, scrolling doesn't do it. :) Consider arts, crafts, gardening, reading, playing music, volunteering with animals - something that will allow you to "get lost" in an activity for several hours at the time. Give your mind a break.

5) Connect with others: talk with others. While talking to people that "get your situation" (talking to people who work with you, or talking to other teacher if you are a teacher) is very helpful and can help reduce some pressure, I found that talking to people who "don't get your situation" can also be helpful (and challenging!). Connect with people who support you, but travel in different circles.
Explain to them how you feel, in a way that they will be able to understand.
Here is the challenge: it will require you to talk about things without "shortcuts" that people in your shared circle "get". When you "vent" with a colleague and friend about your job, there are certain challenges that are understood - dynamic of the job, cut-throat deadlines, boss with difficult personality.
But how are you going to express these things to someone who not only is unfamiliar with you job, but your field in general? Trust me, this person will ask questions that will surprise you, they will ask for clarifications in areas where you never needed to clarify anything. It will bring deeper understanding of where you are and it will allow you to evaluate things from a new perspective. 

Photo by Noorulabdeen Ahmad on Unsplash