Archive for the ‘self-care’ Category

I haven’t been blogging lately because I have been working on writing offline.  We have just completed our book proposal for Writing Alone Together:  Journaling Within A Circle of Women for Creativity, Compassion and Connection (co-authored with Wendy Judith Cutler and Dr. Ahava Shira) and we are excited to send this labour of love off to potential publishers.

We are excited to bring this book to you in 2012, one way or the other!  The writer’s path is not for the weak of heart.  It is a courageous act to put your ideas, thoughts, feelings, soul onto the page.  If you are making your mark with words – know you are not alone.  Whether you write for yourself and/or for others – words and writing have the power to heal, inspire, inform.

Writing changes live, changes thinking.  In 2012, I am a writer.  I am a speaker.  I surrender to the call of words on the page and on the stage.

May we write alone together.  Together and alone.  To make art.  To make a difference.

I was just a Premier Coach along Success Row at the 2011 eWomen Conference in Dallas, Texas.  I had the privilege of hearing some amazing speakers including Jack Canfield, Sandra Yancey, Lisa Sasevich and many others.  Over and over again, in different ways, there was a theme to the messages and stories being told – including: 1) believe in yourself 2) align with your purpose, and 3) serve with your gifts.

I was writing in my journal after midnight on the Thursday evening of the conference, attempting to process all the learning and ideas from the day when all of a sudden this question appeared:  ”What lights you up?” and I wrote for an hour until I couldn’t move my pen anymore. Your turn…

Here are some journaling prompts to help put you in touch with your own unique purpose, passion, & gifts…

What lights you up?  I mean really lights you up?

What is your absolute on fire, on purpose, living your passion place? 

What is your brilliance zone…that sweet spot where your unique gifts shine?  When in this zone…you know it, your friends and family know it, the world knows it!

Happy writing!

The web is an amazing space to build community, access resources, and find tools for both personal and professional development. It can also be a place to wander aimlessly, get overwhelmed with information, and waste time. I love it when other people recommend web tools and interesting sites – it helps me jump into the deep end of the web with a sense of purpose and direction!  

MacKenna Stevens has put together a great list of web tools for Social Workers (many of these tools will be useful to others too!) – this list gives you a quick reference guide to some great online resources and tools that can save you time and connect you with your peers, check it out at http://www.mastersinsocialwork.com/25-amazing-web-tools-for-social-workers/

If you have favourite web tools/sites – please post a comment and share your suggestions! 

To your well-being & success, Lynda

I write in my journal almost everyday.  I am always looking for new ideas and inspiration for mixing it up, exercises to do, journal writing prompts, etc.  I thought you might like these things too – so….drumroll please….

The Creative Wellness Blog is committed to being a hub of inspiration, support and community for your journal writing, self-caring and self-discovery journey.  

4 Journal Writing Tips & Prompts to Spark New Insights:  

1. Journal in nature - if you normally right indoors, take your journal outside.  Get in nature, by water, sit beside a tree, lay on the grass…let nature speak through you and onto the pages of your journal.  I write outside at least 1 x per week, it is amazing how many new insights nature has to offer us! (how it sparks something wise and true in our human nature)

2)  Use images – try to journal without using any words for the first 5-10 minutes, simply draw or attach images (from magazines, your own photos, etc.) to the pages of your journal.  Now look at the images, ask:  “If these images could speak, what do they have to say to me right now?”  This is a tool for tapping into your intuition (by using left and right brain – language and visual)

3) Write gratitudes – in Robert Holden’s book, Being Happy, he suggests writing a list of 100 things you are grateful for – try it!  Don’t stop – make your list all at one time, keep your pen moving.  This exercise raises your soul vibration (the essence part of you that longs to feel and spread joy in the world).

4)  Explore your resistances – is there some area of your life where you feel stuck or resistant?  Resistance provides us with great information!  Let resistance have a voice in your journal - simply start by writing “I notice I feel resistance, what is this all about?”  Let the answers and insights emerge through the writing.  

Please share your journaling prompts and tips here…leave a comment…let’s inspire one another on and off the page.  To the “write” stuff, Lynda

Professional burnout is serious and a prevalent occupational hazard within the health, human and social services.  Burnout involves many contributing factors, including such things as personal stress management styles (proactive or reactive), the presence of systemic and workplace stressors (for example, unrealistic expectations, role ambiguity, lack of control, high workload, lack of supervision, etc.), nature of the work (high levels of emotion, stress and trauma), prevelance of high stress overtime (without ebb and flow), etc.  Burnout negatively effects your physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual health.

As a helping professional, it is important to be aware of the signs and symptoms of burnout, the three main indicators of burnout include:

1) emotional exhaustion – you feel tired all the time, you don’t feel like you care anymore (even about things, people and situations that you once cared for very much), you feel a lack of empathy towards others, this is sometimes referred to as “compassion fatigue”

2) growing sense of cynicism – you feel edgy, negative, pessimistic, and overall become very cynical about many aspects of life and work; there is a sense of depersonalization when working with clients (treating people more like objects or a diagnosis than as human beings) 

3) productivity goes way down – even if you feel busy, like you are working all the time, when a person is experiencing burnout their ability to truly concentrate, make decisions and think clearly is compromised and therefore productivity tends to significantly decrease; generally a person will feel less personal accomplishment

(Sources:  Christina Maslach, author of Burnout: The Cost of Caring; Joan Borysenko, author of Fried: Why You Burnout and How to Revive; and from my own Master’s project – Professional Burnout: A Conceptual Model)

There are online assessment tools to help you determine if you might be suffering from burnout, you can find one at http://www.mindtools.com/stress/Brn/BurnoutSelfTest.htm

If you are suffering from burnout, it is important to make empowering choices and take steps to turn things around so that you can experience health and happiness as a helper, as a human being. 

Creative Wellness coaching programs can help – including 1) Remembering YOU: A Self-Care and Wellness Program and 2) Life Source Writing™: A Reflective Wellness Practice for Helping Professionals.