Dear MDECOE Community,
It is with much gratitude that I recognize the extraordinary work of faculty, staff, administrators, community partners, and students during the past academic year. As we come to this ending, my wish is for all of you to always take good care of yourselves. It may help to reflect on what self-care really means for each of us. In a blog in Psychology Today, Dr. suggests, “Taking care of yourself means compassionately accepting yourself for who you are instead of burning yourself out trying to be everything to everyone all the time. It’s living your life in a way that doesn’t leave you needing to check out..” Below are a few other suggestions:
- Self-care is allowing yourself to be normal and average, instead of always pushing yourself to be perfect or exceptional.
- Taking care of yourself means compassionately accepting yourself for who you are instead of burning yourself out trying to be everything to everyone all the time.
- Self-care is not about believing that being super busy is a badge of honor and making yourself so exhausted that you in ways that aren’t actually good for you. It’s about taking time to take care of yourself because you truly know that you aren’t broken and don’t need fixing.
- When you take care of yourself, you become the author, not the victim, of your life. You create a life you truly enjoy, instead of one you might need recovery, or even , from. It’s not creating a life that looks good on paper, but one that fits well with who you are.
- It’s not looking to others to meet your needs; it’s meeting your own needs.
- Self-care means doing things you initially don’t want to do and making the choice to do what’s uncomfortable. It’s facing your problems and unresolved issues head-on, instead of avoiding them and then trying to distract or soothe yourself later.
- Self-care is living a life that’s meaningful and being true to yourself.
To read more, please go to
For a list of other self-care options, please see our COE self-care website for resources for faculty, staff, students, and the community at:
/eisner-education/self-care/articles-information-self-care
Congratulations to all and thank you for another extraordinary academic year in the College of Education! Let’s always find time to give ourselves the care we deserve.
Warmly,
Shari