The more I work with caring professionals, the more I see how self-care is a laboratory that shows us from the inside out how giving and caring work. Working through the Eight Dimensions of Wellness myself, I’ve often noticed how my own goals often support everyone around me in surprising and beautiful ways.
Over the years, several people have recommended journaling as an emotional self-care strategy. For a while, I successfully adhered to a nightly routine of writing streams of consciousness across journal pages. After a couple of weeks, I inevitably dropped the practice. When I looked back at my entries, I realized that most of the writing was simple summaries documenting my day-to-day to-do lists. The ritual of selecting the perfect smooth-writing pens, inspirationally adorned journals, and soul-searching daily writing prompts completely failed to support my emotional self-care journey.
I understand that the number of children who not only experience traumatic events but also suffer lasting injury that affects how they engage in learning, life, and love, is shockingly high. Nevertheless, I do not and will not believe that we should accept trauma as a normal part of growing up. It is time to create communities where adversity is expected and trauma is rare.
One highly effective way for organizations to live the Eight Dimensions of Wellness out loud is for leaders in the organization to think about their school, nonprofit, or government agency as though our organization was one person. This is different than how we normally think. Typically, we view the schools, nonprofits, or programs we lead as systems made up of departments full of people with a variety of roles. Instead, let’s think of our organization as though it were one person, and reflect on opportunities we might have to make self-care systemic by living the Eight Dimensions of Wellness out loud.
I recently led a workshop on self-care for an amazing group of caring professionals from Youth on Their Own, YOTO. While feedback from the workshop was positive, participants did ask for more time to work with three specific activities that accompany the Eight Dimensions of Wellness Cards. Below are the activities and an explanation of how to use them. Feel free to use them for your own personal reflection, or as part of a whole-staff development.
Yesterday, I had a conversation with a student and their special education teacher. We were revising the student’s behavior support plan, and I wanted to know more about which area of wellness they wanted to prioritize.
Self-care is a journey—and because we’re all in different places on this journey—helping others heal requires some familiarity with the map. Build healing-centered schools by practicing self-love, self-awareness, and self-service: first towards yourself and then your school community.
Self-awareness is, according to CASEL, the ability to “understand one’s own emotions, thoughts, and values and how they influence behavior across contexts.” Last week, I worked with a group of twelve teachers, counselors, and school leaders at Davis Bilingual Magnet Elementary School. Davis is a K-8 school in Tucson Unified School District and serves both Spanish-dominant and English-dominant emerging bilingual students. Our goal was to create something to help students understand and regulate emotions. What impressed me more, however, was how powerful our work became for teachers themselves.
I recently sat down with Ms. Jamie Bradley, Principal of Dobson Academy in Chandler, Arizona, to talk about three beautiful strategies to strengthen positive relationships among staff. The video is below, and here they are in a blog.
Whether through a formal club or an informal safe space, forming a Gender-Sexuality Alliance is an outstanding way to support LGBTQIA+ youth. To learn more, contact us. And, if your school has a GSA, tell us about it in the comments below.
