{"id":7933,"date":"2026-02-24T23:57:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T03:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/?p=7933"},"modified":"2026-02-24T23:57:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T03:57:16","slug":"love-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/love-yourself\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Yourself"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7934\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Love-Blog-FB-300x157.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"157\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Love-Blog-FB-300x157.png 300w, https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Love-Blog-FB-1024x536.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Love-Blog-FB-150x79.png 150w, https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Love-Blog-FB-768x402.png 768w, https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Love-Blog-FB.png 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Show yourself some love this month!<\/p>\n<p>February seemed like a good month to talk about taking good care of your mind, body and soul. \u00a0Burnout is a real and growing risk, not just for OTs, but for all healthcare workers, and intentional care is one of the best strategies you can deploy to combat workplace burnout.<\/p>\n<p>While the work of an OT is noble and beautiful, it is also hard and heartbreaking to walk alongside some of our patients.\u00a0 Paperwork is more complex, caseloads and productivity standards can be daunting, reimbursement strategies are ever-changing, and patient-focused care may seem like the last priority for your employer.\u00a0 All these stressors, if not managed, can lead to burnout.<\/p>\n<p>Burnout is important to acknowledge and address proactivity because its impact ripples out across your life.\u00a0 Burnout impacts your mental and physical health, burnout impacts your patients and co-workers, and burnout is felt by your family and friends.<\/p>\n<p>So how do you know if you are burned out?\u00a0 There are dozens of quizzes across the internet \u2013 burnout is a hot topic right now \u2013 but you can evaluate your own state of burnout by thinking, journaling or talking to your bestie about these 3 areas:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Physical Symptoms:<\/strong> Are you constantly exhausted even after a good night\u2019s sleep?\u00a0 Do you have physical symptoms like headaches, stomachaches or gastro symptoms that aren\u2019t explained by a health issue? Do you have trouble sleeping? Do you get sick with every cold and virus?<\/li>\n<li><strong>Emotional Symptoms:<\/strong> Are you critical and pessimistic about work and coworkers? Do you feel isolated and disconnected from your work? Are you more easily annoyed or overwhelmed?\u00a0 Do you dread going to work? Have you lost your passion for OT? Do you doubt your abilities and the impact of what you do?<\/li>\n<li><strong>Behavioral Symptoms:<\/strong> Are you making more mistakes?\u00a0 Do you struggle to complete tasks?\u00a0 Have you pulled away from coworkers, family or friends? Are you procrastinating or calling out sick more?\u00a0 Have you adopted unhealthy coping strategies like an increased use of alcohol or drugs?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If your answer, after considering the above questions, is yes, I am struggling with burnout, go back to the title of this blog: Love Yourself!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Self-care:<\/strong> Evaluate what you are doing or not doing to take care of yourself.\u00a0 Try some time management techniques to be sure that you protect some time for yourself each day.\u00a0 Deliberately build some moments of joy back into your day.\u00a0 Carve out some time to practice gratitude, sing along to your favorite song, or give someone a compliment.\u00a0\u00a0 Also create a self-care routine that supports you.\u00a0 Drink more water.\u00a0 Get more sunshine. Move your body in a way that you enjoy \u2013 yoga, dancing, hiking, swimming, or weightlifting. Find time for breathing in a deliberate way.\u00a0 Meditate before bedtime.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Workplace:<\/strong> Brainstorm some ways your work could be improved.\u00a0 Can you delegate any tasks?\u00a0 There is typically an entire team around your patient \u2013are you trying to do it all? Talk to your supervisor and ask their advice on coping with your workload and expectations. If you have ideas that could benefit the entire team, share them.\u00a0 You could also consider switching jobs \u2013 a new employer, a new setting, or a new patient focus may be an important move for you.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Support:<\/strong> Seek support from a mental health profession through therapy, coaching, or peer support groups.\u00a0 The perspective and strategies you gain from therapy can be a game changer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Approaching yourself with love, taking care of yourself, and putting your needs first can help protect you from burnout and support your impact as an occupational therapist.\u00a0 As you build supports for your mind, body and soul you will have more energy for the patients who count on you each day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Show yourself some love this month! February seemed like a good month to talk about taking good care of your mind, body and soul. \u00a0Burnout is a real and growing risk, not just for OTs, but for all healthcare workers, and intentional care is one of the best strategies you&#8230;<a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/love-yourself\/\"><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#DC0201\">Read more<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7934,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Love-Blog-FB.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7933"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7935,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7933\/revisions\/7935"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}