Promoting Compassionate Psychosocial Spiritual Care and Counselling During COVID 19 Crises Demands - Challenges - Responses (Continues) notes 3

Eugene recommended Dr Wolfalt’s book The Rites of the grieving person . Eugene contemplates who really had an affect on him. He goes near water - recommends taking 1/2 a day off during the week, a month he will go away for a day; a year he goes away for a week. How does this pertain to myself? Well since I have been told I am lucky because I work for myself. There is a lot of truth in that. I need to be the best I can be for myself in my care of others. I normally take time for myself each day. I am acutely aware on what really affects me. I feel I have been trained to monitor the different emotions I may go through during a day and at times suggest that clients become aware of the emotions they feel when either speaking to a person or experiencing any kind of event. Try it. You may be surprised how often you will be experiencing different emotions. It will also provide you with an understanding of yourself. What upsets you, challenges you, excites you etc…. Taking a day off a week is the minimum for myself. I normally take off a lot more. Ideally I would like to take a week off a month, but I have found that is not possible, so when this pandemic is over, I will be looking forward to visiting a place of interest in my beautiful city as if I am discovering it for the first time. After more than a year hiatus, that will be quite exciting. I still cannot leave Toronto for more than a few days because of commitments. However I have quite a few trips to look forward to. There are many people out there who work at jobs they detest because they have to put food on the table and I understand that. However, I would recommend wondering what it is you would like to do and train for that somehow. If you have a dream, explore it. Do you work to live or do you live to work? How can you get to where you would like to be? What support networks do you have? What do you think. Next week as we continue this topic we will talk about children again.