You need to look after yourself or you can't look after others ..

We are in a maelstrom. Our lives are displaced. Many of us are now starting to normalise the abnormal.

I am incredibly lucky. I have just had smoked salmon, avocado and strawberries and poached egg for breakfast. Later I will go for a walk through country lanes and maybe to a deserted beach before I come back to work. My life is quite full. If you read this you may wonder why I haven't been posting recently; the answer is easy, although I am not in my office I am fully occupied with work (and bit of gardening!).

I miss my young grandchildren more than I can express but I do morning exercise with my 4 year old granddaughter via conferencing (yesterday she put me through an exercise that was good for my vagina and bum - hard to keep a straight face!) and I love that I do a bedtime story with my 4 year old grandson, I see photos and the odd face time with my 2 year old granddaughter and watch her sudden growth with awe.

But my work is not what I normally do; it is mostly to do with supporting teachers and others who are in a much worse position than me - teachers who are going into schools to 'face to face' teach pupils whose parents are key workers or the pupils themselves are vulnerable. Many of these teachers have families and vulnerable relatives. Some are scared. Other teachers are working hard and grappling with new technologies and some, wrongly in my mind, are worried they are not doing enough. I also talk to a few anxious and sometimes despairing parents who are so worried about the impact on their children.

When I talk to teachers there is one theme I push all the time: Look after yourself. It is so easy when faced with such a saturation to just focus on the needs of others but it is critical to focus on yourself.

The attached blog is one of many produced for teachers. The advice is good - the key message is that professionals need to keep collaborating, communicating and learning from what they do. I will be writing - or finishing as I am suffering a bit of writers block! - a number of blogs myself which are nothing to do with IRIS Connect but about where and how to access support.

Take care, keep a professional focus, look after yourself as that will give you the mental strength to look after others.