Maintaining Self Care During Difficult Times

Dear TLS Community,

How are you all doing? Regularly I check in with TLS  staff and students throughout our buildings, but rarely do I  get a chance to check in with our bigger community. Personally, I know that there are days when I am doing well and others when I am not. This is an unusual and not so predictable time in our lives. The uncertainty is not easy and for many of us, coping is harder than it might appear. We are starting to add more stressors to the stress of the pandemic. Some of these may have been there prior to and some might be caused directly by it: pandemic, wearing a mask, getting your child to wear a mask, schooling, illness, job loss, holidays, family, changes in weather and daylight, isolation from friends and family, election, social unrest, financial stress, COVID burnout. Alone these things can be hard, combined, it can become unbearable.

Currently, there are more stressors present at a single time globally than there have been in any of our lifetimes. Yes, we are all in this together, because we are all experiencing these stressors to some degree. That is not to say that our experiences are all the same, just that the general experiences are there for all of us. Yet, we are still expecting ourselves to be able to do the same amount of work and provide the same amount of care and compassion. Our coping skills are worn down and we are all frazzled. 

As a company, TLS is working on becoming Trauma Focused. This means  a lot of training for our staff. Trauma is not something that only happens to, or affects kids. It does not have to be a single event. Trauma can also be caused by chronic stress, which as you may know,  is something we are all experiencing to some degree in the current climate.. 

We are all stuck in some form of Trauma response currently. Right now many of us are stuck in the limbo of  fight, flight or freeze. This means our stress hormones are going wild, our sleep and eating habits are off. We might not be functioning as well as we normally do, snapping at each other, driving more aggressively or having issues concentrating. I know, you all are thinking great, “yes I know this.” Yet, my hope is that by someone else saying this outloud,  you can realize that you are ok, it is ok to feel this way, and there are things that each of you can do to help yourself.

Over the next few weeks I will be emailing out resources for self-care to TLS staff. I will also work on having those posted here for any of you that might find them helpful. You all deserve to have the time for self care and to be taken care of. The caretaker is only able to give care if they fill up their own reserves. A car cannot function without gas and oil.  

Stay Well,

Molly Bochenek, MSW. LISW-S, CTRP-C

Licensed School Social Worker

The Learning Spectrum

mbochenek@thelearningspectrum.com