Happy Spring Equinox from Social Station, Spring is officially here! It is one of my favourite times of the year; growth cycles starting and new ideas emerging. On an equinox, both the northern and southern hemispheres are equally illuminated – that’s pretty cool! I have loved seeing all the bulbs spring to life and the days getting longer as we emerge from Winter. For the wordies - It comes from the Latin word meaning equal (equi) night (-nox), the day of the equinox is a time when there is an equal amount of night-time to daytime.
This got me thinking about how we can translate this into our working lives. Do we have balance? How do we pause and take stock?
Last week was #socialworkweek2022 and I carved out some time to join talks hosted by #socialworkengland. It made me proud to be a social worker and the fantastic work the profession does with often limited resource and competing demands.
There is no doubt it has been and overwhelming and rewarding, paradoxically working through the pandemic. Thinking of how teams pulled together and went the extra mile. Despite COVID being present in our societies and communities, as life returns (or reinvents itself) how can we pause, be present and check in with ourselves, what we have experienced and worked through? Where do we start?
Each person’s journey is unique as is our personal self-care tool kits; what do you do to check in and maintain mental and physical well-being?
I’m passionate about breaking the stigma surrounding mental health and preventing burnout in staff. Social Workers do a tough job and vicarious trauma is real.
When we feel good, we do good (increased productivity) and I’ve been researching how organisations can support staff well-being too. An excellent article here: Positive Psychology has some free, great resources https://positivepsychology.com/self-care-worksheets/
Well-being calendars are great to support teams and assessing the cost of living and financial well-being (ahem, pay rise anyone?!)
If you are a Social Worker or Organisation and want to chat more about supporting wellbeing, drop me a DM or email at katie.laws@socialstation.co.uk
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