Examining your own well-being

MODULE ONE | Understanding and Coping with Traumatic Stress

PART SEVEN | Examining your own well-being

In the long run, taking care of our own well-being is an essential prerequisite for effectively helping others. It is one of the best ways to maintain fitness to continue in that helping capacity.

The first step to taking care of your well-being and dealing more effectively with stress and burnout is understanding your own self-care strengths and needs. Taking a personal inventory helps you understand where your natural self-care strengths lie, and which self-care areas need extra attention.

Before going on to the final section of this module, pause for a moment and take inventory of how you are doing, and identify which helpful lifestyle-balance strategies you use regularly.

For personal reflection…

  • What are some of your typical self-care and coping strategies (both negative and positive) when you are stressed, fatigued, or anxious?
  • What sustains you in this work (i.e., what refreshes you, energizes you, and gives you hope)?
  • What helpful self-care strategies do you wish you were using more regularly?
© Headington Institute 2007