Every year

when a holiday falls on a Thursday, I say next year I'm gonna take Friday off from work.

And then I never do.

This year (again) I felt guilty asking a student to come in on "their break" to cover and I hate having to get one of my teammates to stay with my clients since they are all already spread so thin.

While I love my job, the coverage thing is definitely problematic.

This, as well as the space issue and having to watch other staffs' patients during lunchtime are my 3 top gripes about work.

I've learned though I have to choose my battles and like anything else at most agencies....these issues probably will never change. Unless of course something bad happens, but let's not go there....

So the pros....(heh, heh we always have to look on the bright side!):

I don't expect very many of my clients to show up today though, so I should have plenty of time to catch up on some things I need to do for our holiday party next week.  I also may shoot my boss (who is off today btw!) an email that I'm leaving early, when the clients are done with treatment.

We shall see.

Do you have to go in to work today?  Do you have similar coverage issues at your job? What are other little gripes you have that you wish you could change, but know you never can.... Let's commiserate together!

P.S. I'm not shopping on Black Friday either because you couldn't pay me enough to go to the stores today, and even ordering online...being a social worker and all that, I have to wait till I have more money!! (the list of gripes is growing.....)

Anyone else?

Hate the holidays? 

I mean, it could always be worse, but the stress of planning, money, having to go back to work the next day, family all over the place....I'm so not looking forward to Christmas with the way I feel already at Thanksgiving.

I think next year we should just book Disney at that time and say sorry, we will be away....

Is it only Tuesday LOL?

I'm sitting in the dark this morning planning out some of the groups and activities we will be doing later today.

I also have supervision with my students so I am going to ask them to take the lead on one of these.

So far the ideas (some of which are all related):

Benefits of services/acceptance of services.

Impulsivity

What does support look like/what would it look like if it disappeared?

Meditation (found some great stuff online recently for this).

What are some of your favorite group ideas with clients?

oh Monday....

even though I know you're coming, you always creep up so quickly on me.

Monday's tend to be nice at work though because I have a creative bunch in.

we can work on something artsy and listen to music and chat about nonsense and it's therapy for the day.

I really enjoy my job.

every once in awhile we need a reminder.....

I went back to class today.

And when I was struggling the most, the words this yoga is showing you are ALIVE!!!!! came into my mind.

And it is so true....every once in awhile we need this reminder.

To appreciate what we have, even if the struggle in the moment is great. It's a blessing to be alive, practicing yoga, even in hot conditions LOL. It's just a blessing to be alive....cliche as it may sound.

Now even though it is only 7pm, I feel spent. But in a nice way.  I had a good dinner earlier and got my son a bath just in time before he passed out.

Now I'm about to go up to my bed myself.  

Yoga on a Sunday afternoon is the perfect way to lift my spirits, get me ready for rest as well as whatever this crazy week ahead may bring. It's just what I needed....

Did you get some yoga in this weekend?  What resonated with you from your session? 

SJWs.....

If there's one thing I can't stand about the interwebs especially, it's the goddamn SJWs....or social justice warriors for those of you not familiar with the acronym.

It's so ridiculous to me the things people will waste energy arguing about. And 99% of the time, especially in anything social work related, it has to do with them disagreeing with an experience or something we cannot change. 

On that note, I strongly believe our beliefs and boundaries especially are important in our work. 

There are many times I think we do need to go with our gut, especially when it comes to putting ourselves in situations that could turn out bringing on major liability.

It also doesn't make us a bad social worker, or even a bad person if we are not comfortable doing certain things just because another social worker would do it, or moreso in real life the agency encourages it. (hmmmm....agency policies, maybe that's an area to be mindfully questioned).

We all know our limitations. 

Self-awareness is very important to our job, and well, just life in general.

I also think it's important to be kind to one another, even if we don't like their opinion. 

Take a moment to reflect for a minute on what you are spending precious moments getting so heated over.

Yes, there are things to be passionate about and get worked up about.

But coming out of left-field and attacking others without even having all the facts is not the way to go about it. In my respectful opinion of course ;).

Would we go in like this with our clients?  Because I can sure as shit say there are plenty of things my clients do that I disagree with, but berating them is going to get me...no where.  

Why do we do this to each other then, when we should be supporting fellow colleagues?

I often wonder when I see stuff like this, is the person really a social worker/helping professional? 

Because in real life, I think those of us who do this work can joke with one another and not take things so freakin' seriously. I also believe that those of us who do this for a living, can relate well to one another and have honest discussions about the challenges and even things we differ in belief in....without the name-calling.

Especially the little things that are not even a blip on most people's radar.....including many of our clients radars....

Sheesh.  Is it really only just Tuesday?

Decisions, decisions.....

I finally went back to class yesterday after being totally non-committed to my practice this week.

My fave teacher was also back from his trip abroad.  Class was somewhat of a struggle bus, due to wonky heat and not being super-hydrated, but I made it thru.

I also saw that the studio is running a special on an unlimited yearly package for $1000 thru 12/24.

My current yearly expires the first week of December so I am debating if I want to buy this again.  It's a lot of money up front and a bad time of year to come up with that cash, but it really is the cheapest way to do this yoga.  If I go on average 3x per week, that works out to be around six bucks a class.

I'm probably going to end up doing it as my Christmas/New Years present to myself, but....A THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!!

Decisions, decisions.....

Judgment

So I played yoga hooky on Saturday. Just wasn't feeling going to late class after running around all day with my son.  But it absolutely was my intention to get there yesterday.  Until I pulled into the parking lot and saw that one of my least favorite teachers was covering. 

I think everyone has one of them.  For whatever reason, you just don't like their style.  With this one, I think she talks too much, does lots of corrections to the point it makes class drag on, and can be very hands on which depending on my mood, I may or may not like.

But I was there. And not going to skip class just because she was there too.

So in I went.  And boy was the room hot even before class started!  I guess this was making up for lost time because several of the recent classes I went to, the heat wasn't working properly.

Then class began.  And so began the teacher in her typical sigh-worthy style.  My focus became to just get through the class and try to put her out of my mind as best I could. Warm up and the first few postures of standing series were pretty challenging.  I got called out for doing a posture wrong, as always in her class.  Got through it with a smile though. 

And then something even funnier happened.  She kept calling me by the wrong name. Over and over. And finally I couldn't take it so I corrected her.  Which I think she and my peers thought was hysterical.  The class changed for me at that point.  Something clicked in my brain. It became lighter, it became fun.  I didn't see her as annoying anymore....I also welcomed her corrections and hands on work. 

We even made small talk after class.

What I learned yesterday is that we need to leave our judgment at the door. At that even our least favorite instructors are human too, and overall generally mean well.  I think back to different teachers I've had growing up and throughout my studies, and many who I have found annoying or strict or whatever...have ended up being some of my favorites that I've learned the most from.  

Appearances can definitely be deceiving.

 

All these students...

at work must be rubbing off on me.

I had a dream last night I was back in school. (For what exactly, I'm not sure).

I just remember being in class with one of our current pre-doctoral students and I had to write a paper about frogs.  I hate frogs. Like birds, they are one thing that if you put next to me I would probably run away screaming from.

Of course I waited till the day the paper was due to start writing the damn thing, didn't remember anything about formatting, and was going to the student for help.

Then my alarm went off.

Thank goodness.

I have no desire to go back to school, especially when it involves having to write papers LOL.

I also take this as a sign that I'm totally ready for the weekend.

TGIF!

P.S. I just decided to look up what my dream meant and apparently frogs and being in school is not necessarily all bad ;).   

Yay Thursday!

And I got an early yoga class in last night so I'm not exhausted this morning.

So happy I had off on Tuesday because the week is totally flying.

Just have today and tomorrow at work, then hello weekend!!

No plans either except for the studio.

I love lazy weekends with nothing set in stone.

How's your week going? Hope it's nothing real crazy & passing by quickly too!

It's so nice....

To have a day off from work.

I enjoy my job most days, but being "on" all the time with clients, families and students....it can become draining.

My son had off from school today so I decided to just take the day, instead of sending him to his grandparents like I normally do.

It's a total lazy day around here...did a little bit of cleaning this morning and will probably fold laundry later, maybe go for lunch somewhere and hopefully hit the early evening yoga class for once.

Usually when I go to class during the week, I can only go to the 8 pm and by the time I get home and get settled, and then wake up early for work the next day....I'm exhausted.

I also am taking two days off next week for school closings, and looking forward to that time too.

I'm working all Thanksgiving week though because I felt guilty asking students to cover for me;).....

Early AM reflections

First off, living in the moment, I must say my coffee tastes really effen great this morning.

LOL.  It's the small things right? There really is nothing like waking up to an amazing first cup of coffee. 

Especially if you tossed and turned most of the night, like I did.

I went to class yesterday. So needed, especially because all kinds of things have been getting to me lately, and I hadn't been there in a week.    It was decent, even though it ended up being almost like a comedy show of hot yoga, with everything silly going wrong, from a fill-in teacher who kept losing track of her words to the heat not staying on to a student being sent out of the room multiple times to try to figure out why the temp wasn't staying put.

I kept telling myself to focus on the instructor's words though and tune out all the other nonsense.  I did so and ended up having a great class.

I came home, made a yummy dinner (ravioli and huge side of broccoli slaw) and hung out with my son until he fell asleep.

Went to bed early (thank you fall back savings time) and woke up after midnight with the most randomest of thoughts.....which lead me right back to my yoga mat.

My mind in the middle of the night lead me to the fact that everything important in my life could probably fit with me on my yoga mat. Everything else I could ultimately let go of.  I laughed to myself thinking of trying to get my son to stay put with me on my mat in real life.

Well, it's Monday morning and the beginning of another long week.  I'm actually looking forward to work this morning because we have lots of fun new things to play with.  I'm also going to lead some kind of group on mindfulness.  Anyone have any good ideas for this topic btw?

I have a bunch of meetings going on tonight so no studio, but I have off from the job tomorrow so yoga is definitely waiting for me.

Happy Monday everyone, hope you have a great week.

Yoga & coloring

Feeling bummy again today.

It's been a lazy day so far....no plans at all. Weather is very gray though and it's also November 1st.  

I've never been a huge fan of the holiday season.  I think the cost and needing to hang out with lots of different people constantly for a couple months, followed by the thought of a long cold winter in the new year doesn't make me feel so merry and bright.

It's definitely a good day to get myself to the yoga studio though, which I will be doing shortly.

Also need to stop off for a quick run to the craft store.  Need to get some items to wrap raffles for a community organization, and want to check out to see if I can find anything I can get for my clients at work.

I hit up Five Below yesterday and found lots of arts and craft supplies and art idea books.

The adult coloring books are a huge hit lately, and even I do a couple designs each week right alongside my clients.

I highly recommend checking them out for another form of relaxation.  There are also tons of free printables online.

Hope you are having a laid back weekend out there too. Getting in some yoga or anything else good?  Any new ideas you've found recently to release stress?