Why is self-care important?
Burnout is extremely common in education. In 2022, 81% of Canadian teachers said they were putting the needs of their students ahead of their own. In 2018, 30% of Canadian teachers reported leaving the profession within five years of starting it. Self-care strategies have been shown to help prevent burnout and are associated with more positive attitudes to one’s career. In short, more self-care = more career satisfaction = less burnout.
A good self-care plan should include…
- Consistent behaviours that increase wellbeing
- Behaviours associate with BOTH physical, mental, social and emotional wellbeing
- Behaviours that can be measured, so one can easily tell if they are following their self-care plan
My self-care plan for teaching:
- Physical:
- Exercise 30 minutes each day
- Go to bed before 1 am every weeknight
- Mental:
- Meditate for 5 minutes every night
- Meet regularly with my psychologist
- Social
- Have at least 3 conversations with students, unrelated to academics
- Emotional
- Journal every day about one beautiful moment that happened during my day
Evan Mitchell Beck 