Self-care is any intentional action that is done by an individual to take care of their own mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health. Individual self-care involves any action during the day that helps maintain a feeling of calm, balance, and wellness (e.g. setting boundaries, meditation, play breaks, movement breaks, self-advocacy). Creating a self-care plan, where the identification and incorporation of specific self-care strategies for promoting resilience and maintaining a healthy life balance, can help ensure self-care becomes a part of daily routines. There are resources to assist families and youth to develop self-care plans and routines. There are a few suggestions below:

Families are experiencing increased levels of stress as they attempt to adapt to working from home while students are also learning from home. This novel environment during the pandemic can be disruptive to school, work, and family life.

How to self-care when you work from home and your child is learning from home:

• Create a Family Schedule
• Help your youth identify what goals they have for the year and what steps they need to accomplish them.
• Ask for help – schools and families are learning how to adapt to the new virtual settings. 
• Set up a designated workspace. 
• Create some games that can help get work done, coordinate a fun family activity, and help get things done around the house. 

For more information on how to use Self Care for Families and Youth, click here to see the resources from the Department of Education.