As a professional within the field of mental health, or any field for that matter, maintaining your own mental health is essential. Providing care for yourself and ensuring you are managing your emotions can help you provide the same support to others in your practice. Using these simple recommendations can help you stay healthy and avoid focusing all of your energy on others.
How to Manage a Self-Care Routine
Establishing a self-care routine can help you ensure you are setting the time aside for your health, which is necessary for your general success. A strong separation between your work and home life is essential for healthy boundaries to be maintained and for you to not reach a state of burnout.
Relax
Allow yourself time to relax. Whether you choose to relax by taking a walk through nature, watching a movie, reading a book, enjoying a bubble bath, or dancing around your room, engaging in an activity that allows you to relax your body and mind can greatly influence your mental well-being.
For many hard-working professionals, this form of engagement each day may feel like a waste of time. However, spending at least 30 minutes doing something enjoyable and relaxing for you can help you be more productive during your working hours. Ensuring you have time to sit back and enjoy your day allows your mind to reset and focus on other tasks later.
Drink Water
Water is one of the most important factors in our diet to manage. While consuming healthy foods is extremely beneficial, ensuring you are hydrated can influence your body and its functioning even more. Staying hydrated helps your body maintain homeostasis and your mind think clearly.
Tracking the fluid ounces of water you consume each day can help you determine if you are regularly drinking enough water. For men, 104 ounces of water is recommended daily by the Harvard School of Public Health. For women, 72 ounces is recommended. To encourage yourself to drink water throughout the day, try carrying around a water bottle with you. Keep track of how many times you refill your water bottle throughout the day and calculate the approximate amount of fluid ounces you consume. This can help you determine if you need to increase your water intake.
Set Your Own Goals
Many people working with individuals recovering from substance abuse or dealing with any form of mental health disorder strongly encourage their clients to set goals. After all, goal setting is an important aspect of recovery that can keep your clients on track to success.
Setting goals in your own life is just as important as it is for your clients. Use the techniques you give to your clients to establish goals for yourself. Follow up on your progress and enjoy the satisfaction of achieving your goals.
Obtain Quality Sleep
As a professional, you are likely aware of the impact sleep has on your ability to maintain information and execute your desired actions throughout the day. Working in a mental health environment can cause a great deal of stress, potentially keeping you up at night. Relax your mind and let go of the stress from the day when going to bed to improve your chances of getting a good night’s rest and being able to reset for the next day.
Know Your Needs
Establishing healthy routines and taking the time to care for yourself can help you avoid reaching an overwhelming point of stress within your career. However, this stress can still be present with all of these habits in place. Taking the time to reflect upon your emotional state and figuring out what you need is extremely important.
If you notice that you are overwhelmed regardless of your healthy habits, take a day off. Take a vacation if necessary. If you are struggling to help a specific client, reach out to another professional for a second opinion. Try using a different method. Having the ability to adapt to new situations and recognize what you need to better your performance and overall lifestyle can provide a lot of benefits for you as well as for your clients.
Seeking Professional Help
If you struggle to maintain a healthy state of mind and feel that you would benefit from professional help yourself, don’t be afraid to reach out. It can be intimidating to receive more intense counseling as a mental health professional yourself. However, counseling services can benefit everyone. If you find yourself struggling to manage a self-care routine and are falling into negative habits, we encourage you to seek help for yourself.
These recommendations may seem extremely simple and similar to what you tell your clients already; however, it is important to focus upon these aspects in your own life as well. It can be easy to overlook the importance of these aspects in your own life. The simplicity of providing self-care is essentially the same for both you and your clients. Specific alterations can be made to cater to your specific needs, but managing overall health involves following simple habits that can benefit everyone’s life.
Working to support others in their journey to recovery success may be your main focal point throughout the majority of your days. However, ensuring you are taking the time to care for yourself is essential to continue providing others with this support. Engaging in healthy habits focused on self-care can help you manage your mental state while working in the field of psychology. Ensuring you take time to relax and enjoy your day will help you reset your mind and provide full attention to your work later on. Maintaining physical health is just as important as maintaining mental health in this field of work. Allowing your body and mind to function at their best potential can help your clients get the most from your sessions. To learn more about how to manage your health as a professional, reach out to Dream Recovery at (949) 732-1960.