Prioritising tasks and making time for personal wellbeing is easier said than done and I have realised this along the course of the case studies. While I was initially judgemental about the head teacher in the case study not following my advice from case study 1, I am more understanding now.
It is very difficult to focus and critically analyse and apply information when you are emotionally distracted by familial or personal issues. It is important to be proactive and have support structures in place before a stressful event occurs, such as recognising possible triggers and identifying coping strategies to deal with those triggers – much like we do as teachers by setting up our classroom structures.
Much like the head teacher librarian in the case studies, I have a lot on my plate. Work for me has been tumultuous for nearly my entire adult life. I have only been employed as a permanent employee for a mere 6 of my 32 years in gainful employment. I have had several genetic defect and life-threatening operations and 2 complicated pregnancies. I have immigrated from the U.S. and have lived for 22 years in Australia without my birth family. I have lived for 6 years in the Far West of NSW and have found the climate (both in terms of weather and work) challenging. Thus, I have had to work very hard over the years to try to prioritise travel and home life over work and career status…not easy when teaching is your passion!
I thought I had it all together!
I’ve tried to develop some hobbies that do not require other humans (photography, gardening, reading, playing with my dog) and learnt to take time to do these hobbies when I am feeling overwhelmed.
I have tried to prioritise my home life over my work life by shutting off and leaving work at 5:00pm each day. This has been made easier by only working 2 days a week and working in a NSW Department of Education Preschool that locks its doors at 3:30 each day.
I also set limits on parts of the house for electronics as to where they are not allowed (e.g. the kitchen/dining areas, toilets and bedrooms) in order to ensure that our family are sharing spaces appropriately and interacting authentically together in these spaces.
I have tried to combat the lack of permanence in my job and lack of power and control over my destiny, by attempting a masters degree in Teacher Librarianship. (Although my work hours have been modified to include this, which adds to my stress).
I try to live life in the moment, focussing on what I need to do in the next minute, rather what I need to do later or tomorrow or in 5 years time. It is great to have a vision, and strategies to achieve that vision and I’m very thankful to finally have this. It is also important to recognise that sometimes the steps towards the vision begin by simply swinging your legs out of the bed to start the day and thinking of nothing else until you’ve achieved that goal.
Then something happens that isn’t expected – as it always does.
Both of my children are on the autism spectrum, and it is likely both my husband and I are also (although only my youngest is the only one to recently obtain a diagnosis of ASD, ADHD and SPD). While I’ve always known that my boys are different and I appreciate and enjoy difference and I was not worried about going to Manly for a week for the diagnosis process, the final diagnosis of my youngest, particularly when there is a major assignment due for my degree, has caused my life to re-enter a state of flummox. What I didn’t plan for, was how to tell him about his diagnosis and how to deal with his emotional state following that discussion.
Thankfully I have my very supportive husband has looked after the children full time to enable me to complete it. Thankfully, we’ve been talking to the children regularly about ASD, so the news, when we can sit down and discuss the plan for delivering it, won’t come as such a shock.
Thankfully, through the support structures were in place through CSU, I had applied for and was granted a week extension on my assignment.
I’ve also located the ‘Personal (Wellbeing) Strategic Plan’ provided by the ETL504 course resources, have saved it to my files and will include it in my repertoire (see also the link in the menu on the left side of this blog). I hope this will help me in the future to be more proactive in my personal wellbeing and possibly help others too.
