ABSTRACT
Self-care does not happen on its own. First, we need courage to be open to what we might need to help us, we need to be curious to try new things and most of all we need a diverse set of tools to help us with our self-care. As we tune in to what we need, our curiosity and courage will help us to seek out tools to help us engage with our self-care. These tools are strategies and practices that we can appreciate as resources to help us to action maintenance and protect and grow our self-care. We will call on the ones we know are our go-to tools when we are exhausted. We will call on the tools throughout each day to help us be our best selves, and we will call on new tools that we will learn about.
Wellbeing science is a foundation for the diversity of tools for self-care. There are many different frameworks, and some will be introduced to you later in this chapter. The one I call on often is PERMAH which I have used to inform a toolbox model of self-care in this book. PERMAH stands for positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, accomplishment and health. It is one such framework that allows you to access and embody a variety of different areas that support our wellbeing and build on our talents and what energises you to support your wellbeing. It is accessible, and this is one of the reasons why I use it in this book.
Although this book is focused on you, as a teacher you can also translate it to the classroom. Key is that I want you to feel empowered to explore what interests you, and I am very much hoping your curiosity gift becomes fully charged.
