Hi, this is Welcome to Self ™ Caring for the Human in the Therapist Chair, and I’m your host, Dr. Hayley D Quinn, fellow human, clinical psychologist, supervisor and trainer. Welcome to Self ™ is a place where you can come and learn ways to elevate your own care and compassion. A place to rest, be soothed, and at times maybe gently challenged to think about yourself and your practice. A place to remember that you are human first, choose the helping profession is just one of the roles in your life. My aim is that this is a place of soothing, comfort, nourishment, growth and nurture. A place where you can also welcome your self.
Hi and welcome to another episode. I can hardly believe we are at the end of Season 3. I still have moments of wondering how I’ve ended up as a podcast host!!
I feel so grateful to all of you for tuning in and especially grateful to those of you who’ve taken the time to provide me with feedback. It means so much to me to hear your thoughts and know what you’re enjoying and finding helpful.
As you may be aware I recently presented a training with my friend and colleague Dr Lisa McLean. It went really well, and we really enjoyed being with such a great group of participants. We’re already talking about plans to do it again next year so if you missed out this time perhaps you can join us next year.
Following the two-day training I headed straight off to a wedding in the beautiful Northern NSW hinterland. Not the best timing in terms of me doing too much but definitely a beautiful weekend and something that felt important for me to do even though I knew I had a really busy week leading up to the wedding.
When we are very busy, it’s important to acknowledge the need to recuperate. It doesn’t mean you can’t strive and achieve and engage in things that you really want to do but it’s helpful if you can pace what you’re doing and think about ways to engage so it is sustainable. I always find it is worth thinking ahead, when I know I have a busy time coming up I think of what I need to take care of myself during that time, sometimes that might be saying no to other things that come up as opportunities for me even if I want to do them. Now I’m not always going to get it right and that’s ok but it definitely helps to think about it beforehand and also rest as much as I can in the lead up as well. I invite you to think about what might be helpful for you during busy periods in your life.
Can you believe we are already in December! Where has this year gone! As always at the end of the year, I spend time reflecting on the year that has passed, I have spoken about this before, but I think it’s worth mentioning again. Can you allow yourself some time to reflect on how your year has been? What went well, what didn’t go so well? Are there things you’d like to change? If so, try and be as specific with yourself as you can. Are there some different choices you could make in regards to your work or home life? It might be helpful to write these down so you can come back and reflect on them at the start of the new year. It’s so easy to forget isn’t it the things we want to change then we get busy with the end of year stuff and by the time the new year starts it’s what was that thing I was going to do, so it can be really helpful to write it down.
Have you thought about your leave time for next year? Planning for breaks ahead of time can prevent you getting too far into the year and realising that you haven’t had a break and subsequently feeling worn out. How do you decide how much time off you need? What motivates your decision making in this area? Is it your values and tuning in to what you need or is it more based on fear and scarcity? Again, I invite you to give this some thought and I hope you can allow yourself some time and space just for you in the new year and I know that can be different depending on your own context but even if it is just a small amount of time and space, just come back to what would be the smallest thing that would be helpful for you.
We are entering what we are sold commercially as the most wonderful time of the year, yet we know that this can be one of the hardest times of the year for many people for many reasons. Think about what would be helpful for you during this time. Is it saying no to some things? Is it putting boundaries around how much time you spend somewhere or with certain people? Can you make some choices that suit you regardless of what society is telling you is important right now? I do hope you can.
At our recent training, during a conversation with one of our lovely participants I spoke about the relationship we have with ourselves. As soon as I’d said it, I forgot what I had said but it felt important. I don’t know about you, but this happens to me a lot. Graciously she helped me remember and this is what I had said to her. When you change the relationship with yourself, you start to ask yourself different questions, when you ask yourself different questions you get different answers, when you get different answers, you can make different choices and when you make different choices your life changes. Thankfully this has been my own experience and I’ve been able to change the way I live my life, run my business, and engage with myself in a really positive way. This is my wish for you as well. Now this process hasn’t always been easy, and I have certainly reached out for support from others at times with this and I have certainly had times where I feel like I have slipped back into old habits and then I remind myself of how it can be different, and I keep going. Things aren’t always easy but this one I believe is really worth it.
Now speaking of different choices, I have decided that for Season Four the frequency of the podcast will be changing to monthly. I have some other exciting projects in the mix that I will bring to you in the new year and need to make sure I’m not overstretching myself and can give the time and work needed to each project. I want to enjoy the work I do; I think it’s really important we at least enjoy some aspects of the work we do, and I want it to be of high quality for you as well, that’s really important to me. It’s hard to do either of those when we are overworked, rushed, and exhausted. So, I have tuned into myself, listened to my wisdom and changing the frequency of the podcast feels like the right thing to do for now. For those of you who listen in as soon as an episode airs, I hope the extra wait isn’t too long for you and for those of you who struggle to keep up with all your favourite podcasts, I hope this now provides you a bit more time to catch up on episodes you haven’t heard yet. I’ll be sharing on social media some of the old episodes from Seasons 1, 2 and 3 and if you haven’t tuned in I hope that you do and if you find them helpful I’d really appreciate it if you’d share them with others as well. Thank you again to all of you for tuning in. It means the world to me.
I wish all of you a safe, supported and compassionate end to 2022 and that the new year brings new opportunities to enhance the relationship you have with yourself so you can live full and meaningful lives honouring your humanness whilst caring for others. Thank you for the beautiful work that you do within your communities. The work you do can be both challenging and rewarding. Please remember that you’re human first.
Go well and go gently with yourself
Thanks for tuning in.
Thank you for sharing this time with me today, I hope your time here was helpful and supportive. If there has been something in this episode that you have found helpful, I invite you to share it with another person you think might benefit. I’d also love it if you would like to leave a review wherever you tune in. Reviews really help to increase awareness of podcasts, meaning I can spread helpful information more widely. All reviews are welcome and much appreciated as I know they take time out of your day. If you’d like to be notified when the next episode airs, please use the link in the show notes to join my mailing list. Music and editing by Nyssa Ray, thanks Nyssa. I wish you all well in your relationship with Your Self and may you go well and go gently.
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Disclaimer
This transcript may not be an exact representation of the audio