Self-Care

One of the hot topics for social workers and other mental health professionals is the concept of self-care:  "You have to take care of yourself in order to help others."  I feel "self-care" is in general healthy living and we all do better if we pay attention to our physical, emotional, and spiritual sides.  While in graduate school, we had to write up a plan and implement it for one semester.  As part of that plan, I bought this ivy plant for my office.  It was to serve as a visual reminder to take care of myself each time I watered it or looked at it.  I am happy to report that my plant is doing very well.  It has added several new shoots and leaves.  It likes it in the window sill of my south facing office and I like having it there.

In the fall, I added a orchid plant which was given to me by the administration of The Children's Center.  It was filled with white blooms when I first got it and I enjoyed it until the blooms fell off.  I have heard how hard orchid are to take care so I assumed that I would need to get rid of it eventually, but the leaves remained green and healthy so I kept watering it along with my ivy.  I seriously didn't even notice that it was budding again until one of the buds was close to opening a couple of weeks ago.  Now I have this beautiful bloom with several other buds forming.

I am quite proud of myself even though it was mostly accidental. 

Seeing these buds and my ivy made me think about if I was taking care of my "self-care."  Work and life are tiring on some days and I have watched more TV at nights since working full-time that I have in most of my life.  Sometimes I just can't think or talk or do anything else.  However, I feel good about both my life and work.  I don't feel overwhelmed by the stories I hear from my clients.  I feel lucky to be a tiny part of their lives where they feel heard and supported.  I enjoy clouds and sunsets, winter storms and rain.  Life is good...and of course, I have nine grandchildren who are amazing.