Orange County Employees Learn Self - Care Strategies
By: Orange County Department of Human Resources
Through Orange County ’ s recently launched wellness program, our Department of Human Resources started offering wellness webinars to provide tips on how to increase well - being. During the most recent webinar, employees learned the definition of self - care, strategies to improve their health, and how to create opportunities for improvement. The term self - care has been around for decades but has changed in meaning over time. What was originally defined as medical treatment has evolved into a necessary, mainstream tool. For some, self - care can feel difficult at first. What new skill isn ’ t? The good news is that it doesn ’ t have to be time consuming, expensive, complicated, showy, or doing “ nothing. ” Self - care can be as easy as sitting, talking, or whatever makes you feel good that is good for you. Employees also learned about the six pillars of well - being: physical, social, occupational, spiritual, mental, and emotional. The physical pillar includes quality sleep, personal grooming, and physical movement while the social pillar incorporates maintaining connections of value, volunteering, joining groups with shared interest, or anything that can form a connection with others. The occupational pillar makes up what you do for work, what you like about your job, career goals, debriefing challenging situations and the spiritual pillar characterizes things we find inspirational, what we value, and what we are thankful for. The mental pillar can be practicing to create positive intentions, objectivity, and adopt a growth mindset allowing one to make goals when needed and the emotional well - being pillar can be practiced by working to address the things that affect us each day through various methods like relaxation, visualization, or addressing and releasing the guilt we carry. Some of these pillars can also be combined in many ways as well. Each person ’ s self - care looks different and starts with reflecting on our current attitudes and behaviors. We can redirect attitudes and slowly change our thought patterns by saying positive statements – affirmations – to ourselves. Once we learn to redirect our thoughts, we can change our perspective and outlook on ourselves.
Keep an eye out for an email invitation from Jennifer McGuire to the next webinar. For questions regarding wellness benefits, please contact Human Resources at (540) 672 - 3313.
Page 13 | May, 2023
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