Today I am celebrating.
I have just had an opinion piece on published in the Occupational Therapy Insight practitioner’s magazine. I wrote on building your wellbeing toolbox – those skills, strategies, tools and mindsets that allow us to maintain our own wellbeing while working in our chosen people-focused profession. (OT Insight is a members’ only publication for those discerning OTs who are members of OTNZ. The whole magazine this month is filled with articles on Caring for the Carers).
I explored the idea of building a toolbox, personal to ourselves and our life-work stressors. We each have our own reactions to stress. I have friends who thrive on spontaneity and being in the middle of all the excitement. I am more likely to be the one who has the checklist, and has prepared for every eventuality. Change the plan on me and I react with anxiety and frenzied re-calculating.
Recognising that as one of my stress triggers allows me to accommodate real life changes of plan – and there are plenty of those with four kids.
I acknowledge we are each wonderfully unique and that finding our way to manage stress is an individual journey, but can be supported in part by mentors and resources. So on top of my first writing being published, I am celebrating my amazing journey in supervision, the mentors I have been privileged to meet and the resources and tools I have discovered to support me.
