|
Dear dance educators,
We see you, we are you, and we know the beautiful and important work you are doing. We also know this time of year can cause us to feel burnt out, overwhelmed, exhausted, and overworked. As you are closing out your season, we want you to take a look inward, check in with yourself, and give yourself the love and appreciation you deserve.
Here are a few things we want you to remember right now:
- Your worthiness is not defined by your competition results.
- You have created an environment this season that has made dancers feel safe, seen, and supported. You are such an important part of their development as a dancer and as a human.
- You should celebrate yourself and your accomplishments this season just as hard as you celebrate your dancers successes.
- Feeling burnt out this time of year is normal - trust in who you are and what you have to offer. It is more than enough.
- You deserve and demand rest. Find some time to step away, get out of the dance environment, and allow yourself to intentionally reset.
Even though we know the demands of this job and all it entails, we hope you can take an intentional moment to feel fulfilled, celebrated, and accomplished. We invite you to lean into yourself and your needs right now, identify how to fill your own cup, and practice some intentional self-care. There are 6 dimensions of self-care we want you to be aware of:
1. Personal (reading a book, reflection, time with family/friends)
2. Spiritual (yoga, meditation, volunteering, faith, nature)
3. Physical (exercise, massage, sleep, medical care, eating healthy)
4. Psychological (support group/community, creativity, therapy, journaling)
5. Emotional (laugh, practice self-love, time with pets, cry, explore a hobby)
6. Professional (boundaries, vacation/time away, non-working lunch break)
Try to explore how you can enhance your self-care in each of these areas. Something we always like to remind people is the importance of time. You won't always have a full day off to dedicate to self-care so make sure you are brainstorming things that could take a few hours as well as things that could take 5 minutes. I know for me, if I've been inside working all day, sometimes it is important for me to get sunlight on my skin, so I will take 5 minutes of my lunchbreak to sit outside. But self-care is not one size fits all, it may take some implementation and practice to see what brings you the most peace and relief.
Gentle reminder: taking care of you IS taking care of them. You can't continue to be all the things to all the people if there is no YOU here. You are the foundation of your business and the more effort you can put in to caring for you, it will have a ripple effect on everyone who interacts with you.
We at Alignment are here for you! Here's to a wonderful end to your 2024-2025 season.
|
