Tag Archives: stress

Holiday Self-Care 2019

Working in libraries and serving your community can be exhausting. Take a moment for yourself!

It seems like this is always an extra-stressful time of year: holidays, end of semesters, rushing to finish things before the end of the year.

So we want to help! CMLE cares about you, our members and library communities, and we want to see you through this season as healthfully as possible! 😊💕

We’ve talked about ways to tackle stress in the world of libraries before (check out our podcast episodes on the topic: Linking Our Libraries Episode 12 and a bonus episode on Stress Management) and have written a post with some relaxing reading suggestions.

  • From this excellent Bustle article: “Self-care means taking care of yourself in every aspect: Emotionally, mentally, physically, spiritually, and relationally.” The article offers 12 ways to engage in self-care.
  • Psychology Today shares some ways to begin taking better care of yourself in this article.
  • Oprah has this article filled with expert self-care suggestions.
  • Mindful.org shares their five rules for self-care in this article.
  • In case you’d like more reading suggestions, Real Simple has this list of books to help you relax.
  • Plus, the U of M has this article explaining the benefits of reading for stress management!
  • CMLE created this article full of links and skills to help you combat workplace stress.
  • When all else fails, wrap yourself up in a blanket and/or find a nice animal to snuggle. See below:

Day Thirteen of the CMLE Summer Fun Library Tour!

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/82/Human-emblem-OK.svg/200px-Human-emblem-OK.svg.png

You have had “those” days – the days when things keep going wrong, disasters just follow you around, and you get to the point where you just want all the bad things to just stop.

Summertime is filled with fun things, but can still add stress to your life!

The Internet is here to help you!

This is a very low-stress site, easy to use, and will help you to feel better right away: click the Make Everything Okay button, and just wait.

Feel better? Us too!

Check out the tag “Summer Fun Library Tour” on our site to read our entire fun series!

 

Stress-Busting Therapy Dogs!

Fancy dog
clearly a hard worker, at being mellow

We have talked about the great work dogs do in libraries to help kids with their reading, and some of you already have these dogs hard at work in your library.

This month, as we look at ways to mange stress in our libraries and workplaces, we wanted to look at dogs again; this time looking at pups who work to help bust stress! An increasingly popular activity in academic libraries, especially as the semester wraps up, therapy dogs provide a tool for libraries to help their communities to be successful in their work.

Continue reading Stress-Busting Therapy Dogs!

Stress management through meditation

stress
take a moment to notice your breathing…

You may have seen the news stories about the value of meditation, and in this month of looking at Stress Management at CMLE we want to share more of that information with you.

Most studies are being done to show the value of meditation in reducing stress levels, reducing anxiety levels, reducing your sensation of pain, and actually changing the physical structure of your brain.

All these great things, and it only takes a few minutes a day. If you have not already incorporated this into your daily routine, looking at the science behind the benefits of meditation may encourage you! Continue reading Stress management through meditation

Emotions are contagious: Let's make them good!

stress
spread some relaxation around your library!

You have probably heard, and noticed for yourself, that emotions are contagious. If one person in the library is having an excellent day, everyone else feels a little more smiley. And if someone comes in with the clouds of gloom over their head – you know things are going to be a little more challenging for everyone.

We are stress-busting this month, so let’s concentrate on ways we can help spread positive emotions around our libraries!

The article The More You Energize Your Coworkers, the Better Everyone Performs gives a few suggestions for strategies to energize yourself and those around you.

  • Build High-Quality Connections
  • Create Energizing Events
  • Use Tools that Promote a “Giver” Culture
  • Try Mapping Relational Energy

Continue reading Emotions are contagious: Let's make them good!