A session on self-care was conducted on 27th July 2024 for all the teaching staff by counselling unit. The session was conducted offline in AV room, 6th floor. The objectives of the session were –

• To help teachers understand what is mean by self-care.
• To help them understand the common stressors in the field of teaching according to research.
• Make them aware about the various areas of life where self-care needs to be done so we can have a well-balanced and healthy life.
• To share few tips on self-care techniques.

The session began by welcoming all the teachers, and to start with, the self-assessment self-care questionnaire was given to all the teachers to solve. This was done for self-reflection of teachers. They were not asked to share the results. The session progressed with sharing of information on what all the research says on what kind of stresses are there in field of teaching and it leads to burn out, fatigue.

The session further progressed with sharing information on how taking care of all the aspects of life like mental, physical, social and spiritual needs to be taken care of to achieve overall wellbeing. Various tips were shared with the teachers on how to take care of all the 4 aspects of life. Smita madam shared her personal example explaining how if we don’t prioritize self-care and keep on compromising things in our life it leads to lot of dissatisfaction and it takes a toll on our well-being. The session ended with a circle dance and a sharing of all the teachers wherein they expressed how they were feeling then in one word and a compliment to the person on their left.

The feedback received from the teachers after the session was positive. They found the session helpful and rated it highly in terms of its effectiveness. When asked about their key takeaways, they emphasized on giving time to yourself, understanding the real meaning of self-care and why it is important, how self-care should be practiced every day etc. They further suggested that they would like such sessions to be conducted more frequently and on various other topics like diet, nutrition etc.

The session was jointly facilitated by Mrs. Rashmi P. Deshmukh madam and Mrs. Smita Pradhan madam.