Welcome to Day 1 of the course. Today is about what we mean by ‘spiritual well-being’ and why your spiritual well-being is important.
We know that people working in caring roles face emotional demands in their day to day work: providing personal care, comfort at the end of someone’s life, supporting families or simply dealing with the daily caring tasks. Over the next 5 days we will explore why it is important to look after yourself or your ‘spiritual well-being’. We will look at different ways of coping or letting off steam, and how to get support in emotionally demanding situations when you need it. We start the course by looking at what we mean by ‘spiritual well-being’ and why it matters. Just as it is important to support the spiritual needs of the people you care for, it is also important to look after your own spiritual well-being.
For many people, ‘spiritual’ probably means religious beliefs or different faiths. Whilst this is certainly true, ‘spiritual’ has a wider meaning such as our purpose in life, the relationships we build and our connectedness to the things that are important to us. You could think about spirituality as the things that motivate us or ‘gets us out of bed in the morning’. Spiritual well-being involves how we look after these things. Looking after spiritual well-being is important in supporting the people we care for, producing a happy and contented workforce and an organisation that does its job well.
Have a listen to our Audio Podcast for today, it is all about why the spiritual well-being of care staff is important and some of the challenges involved.
Podcast – Why is the spiritual well-being of care staff important?
Listen to the podcast before you start today’s activity. It is about 10 minutes long. Choose a time that suits you best such as on the bus, walking the dog or in a coffee break. When you are ready to listen click play below.
Play Today’s Audio
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
You can read the transcript if you prefer.
Activity – Looking after yourself
Now it’s your turn. As you go about your work today:
- Was there a time today when you felt that you needed some time out?
- What did you do, if anything, to look after your needs and well-being?
- Think about why it is important to look after yourself.
Top Tip: Keep a note book handy to jot down your answers to these questions. If you would prefer, you can download the Course Learning Diary to record your answers. This will be useful for gaining an Open Badge for the course learning.
Becoming more aware of your own spiritual needs will help you to support the spiritual needs of others. That\’s day 1 done. Tomorrow we will try out some practical ways for looking after yourself.