Resolution: Keep Our Self-Care Word in the New Year
by Erlene Grise-Owens, Ed.D., LCSW, MSW, MRE, lead co-editor of The A-to-Z Self-Care Handbook for Social Workers and Other Helping Professionals
Recent posts have building blocks for SMART-er self-care in the new year. SMART-er self-care includes building vocabulary. A simple word can have significant impact on self-care!
My Word!
Last year, I invited us to do the One Word ritual. I chose Joy. What an effect this one word had! I have a deeper understanding of joy. Because I was looking for it, I saw/experienced joy everywhere! Amidst a challenging time, Rep. John Lewis summarizes, “Joy is a form of resistance.”
Here’s an example from my pervasive experience. I was having an off-kilter day—missed appointments, miscommunications, yada-yada. Leaving a parking lot from a meeting across town where a colleague didn’t show up, I felt irritation rising. Serendipitously, I spied a bumper sticker: “Choose Joy!” So, I did!
I hope you had a similarly profound Word experience and/or will consider this invitation.
Your Word!
This year, let’s refine the Word of the Year resolution to focus even more explicitly on self-care. Here’s a simple and effective word exercise that we use in The Wellness Group, ETC’s self-care well-shops™.
Step 1: What is YOUR definition of self-care? Write down the ONE WORD that encapsulates self-care for YOU. (One of the common mistakes in self-care is using someone else’s definition.)
This exercise elicits a wonderful array of meanings for self-care. The one word crystallizes an individual’s self-care. Here are a few of myriad examples: patience, sleep, health, fitness, balance, serenity.
Step 2: Articulate some details about your meaning. For example, the participant who said “patience” elaborated that self-care meant they’d have patience with the demands of work and other commitments. The participant who said “serenity” said that they wanted self-care for inner and outer peace.
Step 3: What is needed to help you achieve YOUR definition of self-care? What are small, SMART steps you can take toward your ultimate WORD goal? With the “patience” example above, steps included attention to sleep, exercise, diet—all basic factors that affect mood and energy. Other steps included use of supervision to help identify particular strategies. The person with the “serenity” definition identified yoga, nature, relationships, and journaling as key elements that fit for them.
Step 4: Use this exercise to develop an initial SMART self-care plan or to refine/revise. (See previous post, link above.)
Starting with the end in mind, to identify what you want the outcome of YOUR self-care to look like is an important shift. Using one word to crystallize YOUR self-care is clarifying. Then, partializing your meaning of self-care into specific actionable steps makes the outcome achievable. SMART-er, eh? And, it all happens when you keep your WORD!
Our Word!
I suggest BREATH as our shared self-care movement Word. In a previous blog, I proposed BREATH as an apt metaphor of self-care. That is, self-care is whatever helps one breathe more fully and freely. In 2019, let’s resolve to keep a word with self-care—Yours, Mine, and Ours!
And, consider writing a guest post. Share some words about your self-care journey!
Peace, Love, & Self-Care,
Erlene
Dr. Erlene Grise-Owens, Ed.D., LCSW, MSW, MRE is a Partner in The Wellness Group, ETC. This LLC provides evaluation, training, and consultation for organizational wellness and practitioner well-being. Dr. Grise-Owens is lead editor of The A-to-Z Self-Care Handbook for Social Workers and Other Helping Professionals. As a former faculty member and graduate program director, she and a small (but mighty!) group of colleagues implemented an initiative to promote self-care as part of the social work education curriculum. Previously, she served in clinical and administrative roles. She has experience with navigating toxicity and dysfunction, up-close and personal! Likewise, as an educator, she saw students enter the field and quickly burn out. As a dedicated social worker, she believes the well-being of practitioners is a matter of social justice and human rights. Thus, she is on a mission to promote self-care and wellness!