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My biggest take away in this course is managing my time. A strength of mine is researching resources to improve quality of work. I began my graduate program this summer and I have compiled many resources provided to me in folders, bookmarks and book titles I want to read and collect. Therefore, this takes time and I then feel overwhelmed with what I want to achieve. I am a mother, wife, teacher and student. This lesson came at a wonderful time, to help me manage my time and create self-care for myself. According to the book, "Counselor Self-Care", change can be unsettling, and we may experience setbacks along the way. Change requires us to venture outside of our comfort zone and most times we have mixed emotions about making a significant change. If we do not attend to our physical, psychological, emotional, or spiritual needs, our bodies, minds, and souls will likely pay a steep price. I realize I need to make time for self-care, such as, rest and mindful exercises.

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A good starting point is self-reflection. When staff reflect on their own lifelong process for developing social and emotional competencies, they gain insight into their own strengths and areas for improvement. (Who Helps the Helpers? SEL for School Counselors’ Mental Health, n.d.)

Social emotional learning is a favorite of mine. My positive outlook on life is my life goal. Creating good habits, setting goals, following self-care strategies with compassion is what I strive to do. As an educator, I sometimes feel normal to the burnout and the fact that work is difficult. Therefore, I need to self-reflect and remember self-care is the tool to productivity.

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It is a reward to help others, but I need to help myself FIRST.

Professional self-care consists of prioritizing time and organizing the workload.

Keeping work time and personal time separate.

Managing the stress, burn out and compassion fatigue by speaking up to coworkers and creating a strong communication plan.

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Corey, G., & American Counseling Association. (2018). Counselor self-care. American Counseling Association.

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ProQOL. (2021). Professional Quality of Life. ProQOL. https://proqol.org/self-care-tools-1

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Who Helps the Helpers? SEL for School Counselors’ Mental Health. (n.d.). ASCD. https://www.ascd.org/blogs/who-helps-the-helpers-social-emotional-learning-for-school-counselors-mental-health

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