Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of Vet Chat. Today we are going to be looking at how we can enhance self-care in our lives with Liz Barton. Liz graduated from Cambridge in 2004.
She has had a varied clinical career, including a fabulous first job in the Lake District, truly treating all creatures great and small. She then moved to a small animal internship and has since been a small animal general practitioner, including ECC and shelter medicine. Throughout her career, her choices have always been balanced with life choices, with various caring responsibilities feeding into major decision points.
After starting a family, Liz became increasingly concerned about the well-being of friends and colleagues and started initiatives such as the Vet Mums Facebook group and Well Vet to help support those living and working in the profession. Since then, Liz has had a varied career, including everything from event management to website creation, to forum moderation. Liz has also written extensively on wellbeing, women's health and parenting in the profession and has been involved in PR and marketing activities too.
She recently joined VET CT as head of communications, where she has truly found a home with a company whose goal is to support veterinary teams by providing round the clock clinical support from specialists. So welcome, Liz, thanks so much for joining us today. Thanks so much for having me, Catherine, this is a great topic to chat about.
Wonderful. So as with many careers, you know, a veterinary career can be very emotionally and physically demanding on individuals and teams, which is why we're so thankful to have you here today to talk to us and to share your thoughts and advice and experiences around self-care. And so self-care can mean lots of different things to different people.
So what, if we just start this just by, you know, discussing self-care and what it is that it means to you. Yeah, so I've, you know, my understanding of self-care is definitely developed with over time. And I think now for me, it's really taking steps to ensure our own physical, mental and emotional health, don't suffer as a result of, you know, constantly giving out those kind of extrinsic activities and responsibilities, be that at work, whether it's paid or, or unpaid labour around the house, or.
You know, giving out to friends and family or even sort of wider society. You know, I think we have finite resources that change throughout our lives, you know, sort of internal resources, and we need to allow the time and space to recharge, and then sort of address our intrinsic needs. Yeah, absolutely.
What sort of, you know, what sort of things would you do if you, if you were feeling like, you know, you were a bit kind of overwhelmed or, you know, a little bit stressed? What sort of things would you encourage people to do to help with that? Yeah, I mean, I think there's a bit of a self-awareness piece around this, because I think Really what it boils down to is self-care is anything that kind of nourishes and replenishes our resources.
And it's about we're figuring out for us what actually drains us and what recharges us. So, for example, extroverts might re-energize by being around people, whereas in Introverts the opposite. They may need some sort of quiet space.
Some people need to get out. For me, I quite like getting out and pounding the streets or getting out on my bike, for, you know, a run or a good, a good cycle ride. Whereas for others, it might be a good book or doing some crafting.
And, you know, for me, on different days, it might be a good book versus a run. So, yeah, there's, there's lots of different, different ways, but I think for each individual, it will vary, and it will also vary for that individual throughout their, their life, you know, after having young children, you know, going for a run. It's not as appealing for them soon after giving birth, but the idea of having an hour with a good book is absolute bliss.
So, yeah, it's about kind of that self-awareness piece as well. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think for me, I.
I love spending time with my two little girls, you know, and getting outside into the fresh air. But equally other days when my two little girls might be driving me mad, I might just like to rest up and, you know, relax and just have some quiet time. So I guess it is that self-awareness, isn't it?
You know, different days, you'll feel different things as well. Yeah, and I think also there can be a bit of a, A tendency for us to think of self-care as kind of doing stuff we enjoy, but it's actually a much bigger piece than that. So it's about, you know, putting good fuel into our bodies.
So, you know, getting the right mixture of vitamins and minerals, making sure we get some vitamin D. It's also looking after our physical health. I don't just mean exercise with that, but.
You, you know, also things like, checking our breasts with the vet your breasts campaign, or if you're a man, you know, checking your testicles regularly, going to the doctor, dentist, getting your eye tests done, getting your vaccines, actually prioritising, you know, looking after your physical health as well. So yeah, or it might be. You know, socialising or calling a friend if we're feeling lonely.
And, you know, it might even involve something like a period of counselling or even personality profiling to actually figure out what, what makes us tick and how to get the best out of us. So it's quite, I think self-care we can sometimes think of as, as doing stuff we enjoy to make us feel a bit better, but I think it's, it's much broader than that, and we've got to be careful that we don't narrow it down too much. Yeah, absolutely.
How how can we be aware of our levels of self-care? Yeah, I mean, I think, there's some really great, work that's been done around burnout and around the five stages of burnouts. And I think that's a really great place to start, to kind of educate ourselves.
It sort of gives you the warning signs of when daily stresses start to impact us and the kind of things to look out for. And, you know, obviously with the 5 stages of burnout, the first stage being when we're kind of effectively overusing our resources, but in that kind of energised way, or that almost sort of manic phase where we're getting really stuck in when we're just starting a new job and we're absolutely loving it, but we are actually. Using up too much of our resource day by day, but we don't really notice any negative impacts at that stage.
And then the next stage is where, you know, the daily stresses start to get to us and start to niggle, and that is actually the best sort of phase to intervene at is, is the second stage, rather than getting to the kind of chronic stress levels and then the sort of impacting our, our daily lives more severely and then sort of full burnout. So, yeah, I would encourage everybody to kind of look at those five stages of burnout, almost, you know, not necessarily pin them to the fridge, but, but just be aware of, of the early indicators. I mean, for me, it's actually that I shout at the children more.
Yeah. About silly things, which I really shouldn't be shouting at them about. They kind of look at me as if like, I don't really think that deserved a shout.
And that's, that's my kind of early warning sign. It's like, right, I'm shouting at you cause I'm stressed, not because of anything you've done, so I need to address that. Yeah.
Oh no, that's brilliant. I'll take a look at that, the 5 stages of burnout. Sounds good.
Yeah, I was gonna say there's a really good, podcast that Marie Hollowayuk has done on it, or maybe it was a webinar or something that's freely available. . So yeah, that, that might be a good topic actually to explore.
That's wonderful. Thank you. So do you think that It does or can affect our performance at work, like is that something you've had experience with or seen throughout your career?
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, the, the phrase goes, we simply can't pour from an empty cup. And, you know, I think there's a couple, there's a bit of research around this that, you know, self-care not only promotes sort of positive individual health, but it helps us to manage stress better, increases productivity at work.
And I think a key one is it also leads to higher self-esteem. And if you think about kind of long term career, ambitions, outcomes, retention, you know, actually that self-esteem piece is, is really important. I've, I've sort of looked in the past at Maslow's hierarchy of needs where, you know, you sort of look at that pyramid of where our basic needs are at the bottom, going up towards, you know, those sort of higher goals and aims and, you know, realising that sort of self-actualization where we have peak performance and happiness and realise our full potential.
But The base layer of that is things like getting enough sleep and you know, getting decent nutrition. It's the base things that we need to kind of feel safe and secure in our lives and if we're not actually creating the time and space to, you know, get good nutrition and, and sleep properly and have those kind of base, base needs met, then we can't actually sort of progress up that, that pyramid. And, you know, let's face it, we, we perform our best and we enjoy our work the most when we are, you know, kind of in that place where we feel well supported and happy and healthy.
So it's, it's absolutely vital for that. Mm, absolutely. Would you, would you really encourage people listening to this, maybe like practise managers or, you know, other people who are managing teams?
Are there any sort of strategies that you might encourage them to, you know, take forward with their teams to really help people in the profession right now? Yeah, I mean, I think there's a really, important take home about burnout, that it's more as, a symptom of the system than the individual. And it's absolutely vital that we create the boundaries that enable people to sort of Enjoy well not enjoy self-care, just to actually look after themselves, you know, it shouldn't be an enjoyment, it should be a, it's a basic human need.
So things like protected lunch breaks that actually allow people the time and space to get outside and get some fresh air, or, you know, maybe even get into nature. Things like finishing on time as a, as a norm so that people again, can kind of, have time and space to recover at the end of the day. Again, there's a huge piece around sort of having the time to recover emotionally from work and even putting in things like emotional debriefs can, can really help people to, to do that.
So I absolutely think that, You know, as, as businesses, we have to be prepared to create those spaces to allow people to look after themselves. Yeah, absolutely. We've, one of the initiatives that we actually started last year at the webinar that was, introducing well-being plans.
And, you know, it's something that we check in with the team at least each quarter, and, you know, just check. That people are feeling supported and, you know, it, we found that it just does really help to, you know, increase productivity and just to retain people as well, you know, to have these open conversations with them. So that's something that we'd really encourage as well, with teams.
Yeah, and I think, I've seen the whole campaign that VETE have run as well, you know, kind of encouraging practises to make sure that. You know, their teams aren't sort of, hungry, alone, angry, lonely, tired, etc. So I think, you know, what, what you're doing internally in the webinar that and these campaigns that or these tools that practises can use to kind of think about where they can support their teams, .
To, to make sure that, you know, these kind of things that negatively impact us, you know, are managed and, and reduced wherever possible. So, yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
Brilliant. So, obviously people are generally very busy at the moment. At the moment it feels that way more than ever.
How would you encourage people to practise self-care on days where, which really do just feel crazy busy anyway, and then they, you know, being told that they should incorporate additional things, you know, related to self-care. What would your tips be to people to enable them to fit those things in? Yeah, so I think, things like try and, you know, again, if you can leave the building for a lunch break and get some fresh air, or if you're somebody that gets re-energized around people, you know, try and make sure that, that you can connect with somebody over lunch.
There's also some interesting stuff around recovery from work, and how you can actually use the commute home to help you kind of emotionally download so that when you get home, if you, if you're thinking about and stewing on things that have gone on during the day, you're not actually recovering. And, you know, effectively your brain is still counting that as work time. So there's some really, there's a, a great talk that Professor Eleanor O'Connor did for, for Well Vett on recovery from work, which is again freely available.
So I can share the, the link with, with you for that, which just talks through some really practical tips about having a, a routine that you do on the commute home that enables you to recover from work better. There's sort of simple things like having better sleep hygiene. So there are simple steps that we can take around, you know, improving our sleep habits.
And then, you know, again, there's different things work for different people, but, just a simple thing like gratitude journaling. So it might be just writing down three positive things, Before you go to bed. It doesn't have to be huge.
It could just be like, oh, you know, saw my first butterfly of the year, or smelt the blossom, or, you know, my kid gave me a hug when I wasn't expecting it. Just it might be really, really simple things, but it actually, over time, rewires the brain to think more positively in general. So there's simple things that That can be done to, you know, even within busy working days, or maybe, you know, again, making healthy food choices.
And what I would say is just like, pick one of those and, and do it for a few weeks until it becomes habit, and then pick another one. And, you know, that's, I would say for the kind of busy day to day vet who can't really think of, anything apart from getting to the end of the day. Just those little, little things, one at a time is a, is a good way to start.
But I think there is also an important longer term piece here that, you know, we do have to invest in, in self-care, and actually doing that, that investment of both time, effort, it might even be money, you know, some of these things like joining a gym costs money or getting a personal trainer or having some coaching, you know. So it is about also investing in the longer term. Yeah, no, that's brilliant advice.
I think, you know, some of the most powerful testimonials that we've ever had at the webinar that have been around, mindfulness and management and sort of coaching sessions, and I think as you say, It feels like it's an additional thing that you have to take on, but the results, you know, from the feedback that we've had are just incredible, so completely agree, would really, you know, encourage people to do that as well. Yeah, I, I would agree with that, I think. I had, when I started all the sort of well-being initiatives, I'd kind of written off things like yoga and, breath work as, you know, a bit namby pamby and weren't really for me.
And, and actually, as a result of trying them, through, through making them. Accessible to other people. I had to kind of give them a go myself.
And they've completely revolutionised my life. And I, I don't say that lightly. I mean, literally, a little bit of breathwork has just hugely, hugely helped me, particularly with things like public speaking and stuff.
I used to be like a shivering wreck, and, and it's massively helped me both the night before to get better sleep and to be relaxed on the day and to actually perform in the moment. So don't underestimate the power of, you know, literally one minute of, of breath work to really calm that adrenaline drive and, and chronically long term reduce your cortisol levels, which has huge, you know, mental and physical health benefits. So.
You know, don't, don't knock it till you've tried it. There's a huge body of research out there about mindfulness and, and, breath work, that, that has, you know, so many positive benefits. So yeah.
Yeah, brilliant. Oh, that's great, Liz. Well, thank you so much.
Are there any, we're just getting close to time, but are there any final points that we've not covered that you might want to encourage our listeners to, to try? Yeah, I think, I just wanted to touch on the fact that, you know, the World Health organisation defines self-care as the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health and cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a healthcare provider. So that for me sort of blew my mind about what self-care is.
It's preventative care. It's not just about self-care as an individual, it's also about community health, our herd health as a veterinary community, if you like. And it's about providing and seeking support where it's needed.
This is not just about self reliance and self-sufficiency and taking yourself off to a spa for an afternoon, you know, it's about working together as a community to support one another as a preventative health piece. So as I was saying earlier, you know, look after your physical health, your nutritional health, as well as your. You know, emotional health.
So, yeah, I, I think that's quite an important sort of twist on the self-care piece. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, no, Liz, thank you so much.
I think, you know, very inspirational and all the work that you're doing around well there, amongst many, many other things is incredible. So again, just thank you Liz for joining me today and hopefully we'll see you soon. Yeah, thank you so much.
Bye, bye bye.
