My 250th Check-in on August 8, 2016. |
Teaching is an incredibly demanding job like many jobs where you are care-giving. It gets intense responding to the needs of students throughout the school day. My work week sprints from the starter gun on Mondays to the finish line on Friday. When I started doing yoga, I just scoffed at the idea of laying down for ten minutes on a mat to breathe. I rarely had ten minutes to pee during the day much less breathe. Self-care, however, is a valuable component to my teaching life.
I do Camp Gladiator most days as part of my self-care routine. Based on the photo to the left and my current data, I have spent a minimum of 135 hours doing CG this past year. I will add about 45 Sundays of net-walking and an assortment of swim days at the springs and the beach. I can sprinkle in days spent hiking too. All of that motion adds up. During my best of self-care weeks, I workout at least 5 times, the worst three times. I think do a solid job of physical self-care.
Reading each night is a my form of mental self-care. I read each and every night, some nights more pages than others. I am sure the number of books by my pillow is annoying to my husband at times and I often wake up with my glasses lost in the blankets, but reading nightly is my self-care ritual. My daughter has joined me in this practice since she was born, which makes it seem a little less selfish as a parent. I say this because self-care can feel selfish, but it is a valuable practice to model this for your kids.
My self-care is a work in progress though. Last year, I made a conscious effort to do no work for my day job on Saturdays. I tried to live my Saturdays throughout the year as summer days. I also hermit-ed on Sundays afternoons by getting my exercise and grocery shopping for the week completed by 10 am. This year I resolve to write more, blog weekly, attend that yoga\mediation class that I have been researching for four months. These are some steps I want to take to better my care and the start of the school year is always a fine time to do that. How will you put yourself first this upcoming school year?
The sprint and finish line sentence resonates with me this morning. Self-care is so important especially at the start of the school year. Good reminders, Beth.
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