Self-care

Feeling good and functioning well

  • Allows us to cope with daily stressors, enjoy life and connect within communities
  • Rachel Dodge and her colleagues define wellbeing as the balance point between one’s pool of resources and the physical, psychological and social challenges faced
  • Both personal and professional work lives contribute to a sense of positive mental wellbeing
  • The wellbeing of University academic and professional staff matters in a myriad of ways

Wellbeing in professional life

We know wellbeing contributes to productivity, job fulfilment and sustainability, and staff wellbeing is critical to organisational success. As staff, we’re all responsible for our own health and wellbeing while contributing to a Healthy University where colleagues and students can thrive. The University’s commitment to the positive mental health and wellbeing of staff is clearly articulated in the Workforce Mental Health and Wellbeing Plan and the Health, Safety and Wellbeing Strategy 2020-2025.

With complementary University systems in place, staff wellbeing is fostered by an integrated approach at individual, team and organisational levels.

  • Meaningful work in healthy settings is known to have positive effects on wellbeing.
  • To flourish in the face of competing demands, it is vital to ‘renew’ yourself at work.
  • Renewal is more important than ever, when responding to student mental health issues.
  • Of course, we each have our own preferred strategies depending on the context.
  • Perhaps you have a professional wellbeing plan in place, or you would like to develop one.

Practise professional and personal self-care

  • The way you relate to yourself and your purpose is arguably one of your greatest assets
  • Self-care involves an ongoing commitment to your health and wellbeing during periods of stress
  • Strategies for self-care make most sense when personally resonate and values-based
  • Strategic self-care at work reduces risks of entering ‘the exhaustion funnel’ which may lead to becoming burnout.

Professional self-care

Some professional self-care activities shared by colleagues:

  • Check your work station ergonomics.
  • Take lunch breaks away from your desk.
  • Create blocks of uninterrupted time to complete tasks requiring high levels of concentration.
  • Set realistic expectations and limits with students and clients.
  • Consider walking to meetings.
  • Identify projects and tasks you find rewarding.
  • Ensure you use your flex each month.
  • Plan breaks and holidays ahead of time.
  • Take time to chat with your colleagues.

Wellbeing at work

Physical wellbeing

To build physical hardiness we need restorative sleep, good nutrition, regular exercise and adequate rest. The University offers a range of physical health and wellbeing programs for staff.

Sleep:
  • Better sleep contributes to mental wellbeing across the lifespan, and sleep improves cognitive functioning at work.
  • Adults aged 25-64 years require between 7-9 hours of sleep nightly.
  • The Sleep Health Foundation has ten tips for a good night’s sleep.
  • A free brief self-guided online course for Managing Insomnia is offered by This Way Up Clinic.
Nutrition:
  • Food is fuel and consuming a healthy diet boosts energy, mood and concentration.
  • Funded by NIB and developed by Professor Clare Collins and her team, this Healthy Eating Quiz offers useful feedback and recommendations.
  • We consume one third of our daily nutritional intake at work. How do you weave adequate nutrition and hydration into your workday?
Physical Activity:
  • Regular activity and exercise relieve stress and improves sleep and mood, as well as attention, memory and decision-making at work.
  • Have you tried a standing desk, walking meetings, a 7-minute work-out app, stretching or yoga at work?
  • How can you be active every-day?

Regular rest breaks:
  • Brief breaks at work can restore mental energy and motivation. For example, taking a five-minute walk in nature.
  • Research suggests being in ‘focused mode’ for long periods often prevents us from seeing a simple solution.
  • Consider the concentration rhythms that work best for you. For example, focusing in short bursts or working in ninety-minute blocks.
  • Don’t forget, time-out increases passion for one’s work!
Psychological wellbeing

Self-awareness, self-management and self-reflection probably lie at the core of psychological wellbeing

Review your wellbeing:
  • Put some tools in place to review your wellbeing at work on a regular basis.
  • If you were to choose a wellbeing question to reflect on each day, what would it be?
  • Some colleagues keep a reflective journal and review their chosen wellbeing strategies at the end of each semester.
Revisit your sense of purpose:
  • Revisit your purpose to guide your goals and priorities.
  • Keep developing your time management systems and don’t forget to set aside time for planning.
  • Focus on what you can change and influence and accept what’s beyond your control.
Apply your strengths and skills:
  • Apply and your strengths.
  • Take stock of your current skills and decide which skill sets to develop next.
  • How would you describe ‘me at my best?’
Accept your emotions:
  • Identify and accept your full range of emotions.
  • You may like to ground yourself by noticing your feet on the floor and then broaden your attention to what you observe around you, or self soothe by becoming aware of one of your five senses.
  • Cultivate positive emotions, for example, recall a positive memory, a person who wishes you well, an achievement you’re proud of, practise gratitude.
Check your thinking:
  • Appraise your thinking. Is my thinking realistic here? Check the facts.
  • If your thoughts aren’t relevant and useful, let them go and refocus on your priorities.
  • Acknowledge your inner critic when it shows up, say thank you for your opinion (with respect) and remind yourself, what would I say to a colleague or friend?
Adopt a growth mindset:
  • Professor Carol Dweck’s research on growth mindset suggests the quickest way to get back on track is to consider what you’ve learned from a disappointment or setback and to practise self-compassion and acceptance.
Pause for self-compassion:
  • Dr Kristen Neff has developed some useful self-compassion exercises based on her extensive research.
  • Cultivating kindness and compassion towards others is also associated with greater sense of wellbeing.
Practice mindfulness:
  • Paying attention to oneself and others with non-judgemental awareness helps relieve stress and improve relationships in the workplace.
  • Even practising short guided mindfulness meditations can have positive effects on wellbeing. You may like to listen to an ABC broadcast on Being Mindful.
Social wellbeing
  • Evidence for the wellbeing benefits of belonging, relating and connecting is irrefutable.
  • Some colleagues will be part of a closely-knit team while others are working in more isolated settings or teaching casually.
  • How can you continue to develop your social connections, collaborative support networks and communities of practice?
  • You might like to find ways to communicate with colleagues from diverse backgrounds with different interests.
  • Are there options to reach out online or via new workplace design?
  • Don’t forget to look out for one another and to ask RUOK?
Consider mapping your professional support network for supporting students in distress
  • After referring a student for help, consider debriefing with a colleague or mentor.
  • You might like to map your professional support network.
  • Whom would you approach and whom would you support?
  • Which friends and family are there for you as well?
  • Please access the University Employee Assistance Program (EAP) if you notice any persisting signs of stress which interfere with sleep, concentration or enjoyment of your work.
  • Managers and Supervisors can also seek immediate advice and support through the Manager Assist Service

Personal self-care

  • Keep active with regular exercise and eat well
  • Get enough sleep and rest
  • Consider creating a self-care plan
  • Connect and reach out to others
  • Learn something new to help build confidence
  • Maintain a work-life balance
  • Take a time out and renew
  • Make time for the things that you enjoy - gardening, reading a book or spending time with family
  • De-clutter - digitally or physically in your workspace

Manage Stress

  • Monitor your stress levels and know your signs of stress
  • Identify main sources of stress
  • Activate key strategies to manage stress (cultivate calm, check your thinking, move towards your goals).
  • Keep learning new skills to cope with stress
  • Engage in conversations with colleagues about how you juggle the seasonal demands of the academic year and work-life interactions.
Video

How to make stress your friend

In Kelly McGonigal’s tedtalk ‘How to make stress your friend’, she invites us to embrace stress challenges.

"It is important to know your stress patterns and modulate any negative effects"

Build your resilience

  • Resilience resources help people adapt to challenge and change, and to rebound from stress and adversity.
  • Resilience is a dynamic process that fluctuates across situations over time.
  • You might like to keep honing your resilience toolkit.
Building resilience
Evidence-based activities:
  • Maintain physical fitness
  • Tune into your breath and your body to reset. For example, try slow abdominal breathing, progressive muscle relaxation or change your posture.
  • Practice mindfulness in everyday life or mindfulness meditation.
  • Keep things in perspective. Is this matter minor or major?
  • Foster realistic optimism and persevere to find solutions.
  • See past experiences as a training ground for learning from mistakes.
  • Notice what’s going well at work.
  • Step back if you need to calm strong emotions.
  • Schedule a worry and problem-solving time.
  • Move towards your realistic goals – just chip away.
  • Make good enough decisions rather than perfect ones.
  • Nurture a positive view of yourself and your strengths.
  • Cultivate psychological hardiness via 3C’s - commit to your valued purpose, take charge of actions within your control and frame situations as challenges.
  • Imitate resilient role models.
  • Keep a notebook for your creative ideas.
  • Listen without judgement and offer support to colleagues.
  • Resolve misunderstandings and conflict early - 12 skill summary of conflict resolution.
  • Do something that signals the end of each workday.
  • Some people prefer to segment their work and personal life, while others like to integrate them more flexibly.

You may like to explore the Work-Life Management Model developed by Oades, Capulti, Robinson and Partridge (2015) which highlights seven domains:

  • M - mindfulness
  • A - acceptance
  • N - nurturing needs
  • A - authenticity
  • G - goals, actions and time management
  • E - environmental opportunities and threats
  • R - responsibility

Supporting mental health and wellbeing of staff & the community

One’s mental health moves back and forth along a continuum, depending on a range of risk and protective factors related to life circumstances, and we know interrelationships between mental health and wellbeing are complex. Spanning wellbeing concepts from prevention to recovery, the University Workforce Mental Health and Wellbeing plan identifies three priority strategies:

Promotion and prevention:
  • Support University events which promote wellbeing.
  • Talk about ways to care for wellbeing in the workplace.
  • Engage in team discussions about promoting student mental health and wellbeing.
Education and training:
  • Continue developing your mental health literacy
  • Take advantage of professional development opportunities, for example, enrol in Mental Health First Aid training
  • Challenge stigma
Early recognition and support:
  • Act early if you notice signs of lower wellbeing or you observe a relapse in an existing mental health condition.
  • Access EAP services for wellbeing checks and debriefing.
  • Support colleagues experiencing mental health conditions.

Resources for staff & further reading

Resources

Resources for Staff - University

Resources for Staff – Community

Resources