Wow! I think that "You're not a god." is a line that I need to remind
myself over and over again. Too often I work as if it all depended upon me
and don't take time to rest.
I struggle with the term "self care" because it's seems "selfish" and "self
centered," but I don't struggle at all with saying that if you need to call
it that and do something about it, so that you aren't doing #1, #2, and #3,
that is good. Maybe it's the why behind it. Why do I need to rest: for me
and my comfort or so that I can better serve those around me? If I am
acting like the above, I am not being a good steward of the gifts God has
given me.
It's been interesting thinking about this while reading through the
Gospels. The times that Jesus is asleep in a boat or off by Himself stick
out to me.
Random, tired thoughts. Hope they make sense.
How's Ivan, Liz. Been thinking of you and Chris and praying for you.
On Sat, Oct 20, 2018 at 11:02 AM Elizabeth Lovelace <
dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I shared this on FB, but since Renee isn't on FB anymore, I wanted to
share here.
I follow the page "Confessions of a Funeral Director" and this post today
really resonated with me (we had talked about self-care not that long ago.)
"Human service workers: learn to recognize the symptoms of burnout.
So, here’s the thing with human service workers, we’re kind of like those
moms who can have a 103 degree temperature with all the body aches that
come with it and they’re still up at 6 AM packing their kid’s lunch and
making the kids their breakfast. Human service workers can be the same . .
. warriors for the people we’re serving, willing to go to work even when
we’re hurting because we know we’re needed and we’ve prioritized others
over ourselves.
This “warrior mentality” is dangerous, though, because it makes us REALLY
bad at practicing self care. The “warrior mentality” works in the
short-term, but you won’t have resilience or longevity in your profession
AND you’ll destroy your personal life if don’t learn to practice self care
in the long run.
It’s somewhat easy to know if we’re sick. You can pull out a thermometer
and it lets us know, but there’s no mechanism we can stick under our tongue
to measure for burnout. Instead, we have to LEARN to recognize signs of
burnout. Here are the three major signs (sourced from Sherrie Bourg Carter):
...
1.) Physical and emotional exhaustion, including (but not limited to)
anger, depression, anxiety, weakened immune system, insomnia,
forgetfulness.
2.) Cynicism and detachment, including (but not limited to) detachment,
loss of enjoyment, constant pessimism, and isolation.
3.) Feelings of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment, including (but
not limited to) increased irritability, decreasing productivity, apathy
towards work, and hopelessness that things will never change.
Please, please, please don’t take these signs lightly. Working for people
isn’t easy work. It’s demanding, and it can be addictively rewarding. So
addicting that just like other addictions, we can convince ourselves that
“everything’s fine” and “I can handle this.” You can’t. You’re not a god.
And you know more than most how vulnerable humans are. Yes, people need
you, but we want a healthy you, the best you. So make self care a priority
because you can only care for others if you care for yourself. #
confessionsofafuneraldirector"
<https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/confessionsofafuneraldirector?source=feed_text&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARBVJ-14ssZAZfjUDzYo3LlwRWxaotI3N7qylSAu8xTVIDsCvSyfY7v_p11GaOUIVFF_oRBhLrbJrZE5cKEsrN3N-0kA03cKrZ8dnfFurq36hjrq2yonUpuPq3l6RsoVX_f61zP_Ma9XdcUj-qaFB1MFbhOf28sYEPXKMqHCkYuNUaXr4K7iXAIwRLCGONQfttlTSXBgUotWcRgRwCCn9actYig&__tn__=%2ANK-R>
