Today’s practice is one that we’ve done before: becoming a self-care ambassador. How has being intentional about self-care impacted your relationships with others? How might you advocate for self-care with people or settings where you encounter resistance?
Register for Saturday’s Zoom Session
On Saturday, March 30, we will hold our closing session from 11am-12pm eastern time. Dr. Chanequa will share tips for creating and utilizing the Self-Care Rule of Life. Register for the session here.
It has been a blessing to have walk this self-care journey with all of you. Having a group to journey with, sit with, chat with, be blessed by the diversity of perspectives has been a gift. I recommended it to a few of my friends. I have seen the value of reading the book on my own first and going back a second time with a group. The benefits of zoom is that we come together from different time zones.
Thank you Dr. Chanequa for writing it, sharing your story and inviting us along this journey in 2024.
I feel my head swirling a bit from the reading today as I reflect on it as a leader in my work context. My school is in major financial difficulties and we decided this term instead of cutting salaries we would expect more of all teaching staff. All staff seemed to agree to this but in reality there are many hard decisions to make about what is ‘fair’ and/or ‘equitable’. Like many jobs, so many aspects of teaching and teacher leadership work are not quantifiable like the classroom hours are. In the past, my ‘caring’ has perhaps been in modeling my own willingness to go above and beyond and pick up responsibilities from others so they wouldn’t need to. I am consciously moving away from this approach but it’s hard to juggle the realities of the school with being a supportive colleague and a caring leader. I understand that I can be supportive and caring but still hold true to the higher expectations/performance demands. But it’s often uncomfortable. I think I’m still pining for a “quick fix” that doesn’t exist and I need to accept the messiness of advocating for others and trying to keep the school going.