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Resilience and Wellbeing: What works for you
Strategies to support resilience and wellbeing for individuals
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Catharine Hydon, Early Childhood Consultant
[Catharine Hydon, Early Childhood Consultant]: Hello everyone, my name is Catharine Hydon. And in this video, we're going to hear from educators who participated in the survey and the focus group.
They've agreed to share their insights, their stories, their challenges and some of the things that they did during this global pandemic that actually worked for them.
We know that you enjoy hearing educators talk about their own practice and we hope you find some particular strategies here that you might like to implement.
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Mariam, Coordinator
[Mariam, Coordinator]: The thing is that having a strong support system around me, my colleagues, if I know I am struggling with something, I know I have a good team with me.
I can speak with my fellow coordinators. I can speak with my director.
So knowing that the help is there, if I need to get help. And the other thing is having all the knowledge and information about the available resources because the biggest thing, what we have seen in our community is that the people, they are not aware what help is available and how to get that help.
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Hannah, Educational Leader
[Hannah, Educational Leader]: A lot of my passion comes from really wanting to elevate the profession and kind of shout from the rooftops about why we are so important.
I always have the phrase in my head that we're early childhood warriors, that there is always a battle to fight whether it's funding or whether it's getting people to really appreciate what we do.
And sometimes it's supporting families with that as well.
That can be hard when you're supporting children whose families may be don't fully appreciate all the work that we're doing with their child but that actually really fuels me to keep going and to keep promoting the amazing work that we all do in this profession that can quite often get overlooked.
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Megan, Assistant Manager
[Megan, Assistant Manager]: I do things with really focusing on my personal wellbeing and not only just for work. I really, I think I recognise that until I had my personal life in check that me professionally was not going to be to the best of my ability. So things like I started yoga.
I used to go for walks. I used to take time to myself, drive to the beach. You know, the little things that I enjoy doing.
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"Working and making a difference, connecting what I'm doing to the impact that has on others gives me something to focus on."
Survey Respondent
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Voice actors have been used to read survey responses
[Survey Respondent]: Working and making a difference, connecting what I'm doing to the impact that has on others gives me something to focus on.
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"I find that I do creative activities, crafts, arts, gardening, cooking, things just for me."
Survey Respondent
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Voice actors have been used to read survey responses
[Survey Respondent]: I find that I do creative activities, crafts, arts, gardening, cooking, things just for me.
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"I find that I like doing things for me, especially activities where you can achieve success like doing a difficult jigsaw puzzle."
Survey Respondent
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Voice actors have been used to read survey responses
[Survey Respondent]: I find that I like doing things for me, especially activities where you can achieve success like doing a difficult jigsaw puzzle.
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"I love getting out in nature, it's incredibly relaxing, relieving and it's good for your physical health as well as your mental."
Survey Respondent
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Voice actors have been used to read survey responses
[Survey Respondent]: I love getting out in nature, it's incredibly relaxing, relieving and it's good for your physical health as well as your mental.
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Melissa, Early Years Leader
[Melissa, Early Years Leader]: Make sure you're getting enough sleep. Make sure you are practicing those mindfulness techniques, doing yoga, doing some sort of exercise, working on your resilience. And what's great
about resilience is that you can build resilience, it's something that you can teach. It's something that you can learn.
So really working on that and just having a positive, proactive mindset and really remembering like, this situation may be challenging, it may be out of our control but you do have control of your emotions and how you respond. So working on your emotional intelligence as well is really important.
[Mariam, Coordinator]: And the other thing is that I always try to set some goals for myself, small practical goals.
So achieving like, going for a walk, like I have to go for a walk every day for five days. Even if you accomplish that goal, that will give you okay, I have done something.
So setting up little goals in these hard times will give you a feeling of accomplishment and that will definitely impact on your wellbeing.
[Hannah, Educational Leader]: I think the days when my wellbeing might be a bit lower, remembering that purpose can really lift me up and kind of spur me on.
So my advice for new people coming into the profession would be to really reflect and recognise what your own passions are within your role of supporting young children.
And also just as an individual, what your hobbies and interests are and things that fuel you as a human being and how you can bring that to your role with children and working in your teams in the educational programs.
[Melissa, Early Years Leader]: You know you feel like you're making a difference in the world, it's definitely a rewarding career to be in.
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"I've always enjoyed working with children and guiding them through their learning. Remembering this helps me."
Survey Respondent
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Voice actors have been used to read survey responses
[Survey Respondent]: I've always enjoyed working with children and guiding them through their learning. Remembering this helps me.
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"I create to-do lists to both prioritise tasks, manage my time and also gain a tangible sense of achievement by crossing items off that list."
Survey Respondent
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Voice actors have been used to read survey responses
[Survey Respondent]: I create to-do lists to both prioritise tasks, manage my time and also gain a tangible sense of achievement by crossing items off that list.
[Mariam, Coordinator]: Changing the story about resilience and wellbeing for early childhood educators is not theirs alone.
It's a conversation that we need to have with approved providers, with organisations, with services.
It's a conversation we need to have on an ongoing basis where we raise issues and we come together to find creative solutions so that we can deliver high quality early childhood education and care to Victoria's children.
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Summary
- Take time for yourself
- Refocus on your purpose
- Set achievable goals and celebrate small wins
- Access available supports:
- Revisit the wellbeing webinars and positive psychology on the 'Supporting early childhood educator mental health and wellbeing' webpage
- Learn more about mindfulness with Smiling Mind
- Access your Employee Assistance Program (EAP) if available
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The Education State, Victoria State Government, Education and Training
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Victoria State Government
Authorised by the Victorian Government, Melbourne
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