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We’ve all been there. Feeling so overwhelmed that your body and mind feel clouded. No matter what you try to do to calm yourself down, you can’t. Or, you go through the days, the weeks, or the months, on autopilot, wishing you had a break. The easiest solution seems to shut down or ignore the responsibilities, the students, and the staff. But your passion and your livelihood won’t let you. We can’t promise that the stress will go away, but we can help you with some tips to manage stress. Here are five tips to help you manage your stress.
Number 1: Organization and Planning are Key.
The best way to manage your stress is to be preventive. The first step is taking all of your thoughts, tasks, and ideas out of your head and onto a Task Dump. A task dump is a list (digital or physical) of things that are stuck in your mind. From the task dump, you can make weekly, daily, or monthly to-do lists to help organize your mind. Next, you should have some type of planner. This can be as basic or as lavish as you desire, but the point is for you to take ownership of your time and your goals. Lastly, after you’ve dumped all of your tasks and planned for them, make sure to schedule times to plan, rest, and eat. Yes, you may have a lot to do, but when you give yourself time to do all those things, you will be less stressed.
Number 2: Scan Your Body & Be Aware.
Our bodies hold stress and we are so used to walking around with it that you may never notice. Many of our diseases show up in our bodies years before the doctor recognizes them. They come in the form of headaches, body heaviness or pain, irritation, extreme fatigue, and mental fog. As an educator, I’m sure you have experienced one or more of these things in your career. . To relieve some of this tension, I challenge you to do a body scan. Take as little as 30 seconds to close your eyes, sit or stand and just breathe. Begin to scan your body and notice where your tension is held. Also notice where it hurts, and how deep or shallow you’re breathing. Continue to practice this when you have some free time. More information can be found here: https://www.headspace.com/meditation/body-scan
Number 3: Plan for Small Pockets of Joy Throughout the Day
You must take control of your life and seize your day by being intentional about your joy. To pour into everyone else’s cup, yours needs to be filled. Be intentional about pouring joy into your cup. Whether that is packing your favorite snack, planning a phone call with your loved one on the break, or sitting in silence in your car for 10 minutes before your shift, MAKE SURE TO PUT YOU first. These intentional pockets of joy can be as little as 30 seconds to as long as you desire, just make sure you account for them using Tip #1.
Number 4: Create & Lean On Community
Community is important because it is in people that we find that we are not alone. Make sure to seek community and support from your fellow educators. You all will be able to understand, process, and lean on each other for support through the known and unknown. Also, you can make sure to let your community outside of your workplace know how they can support you, if you feel comfortable. A lot of times people do not know how they can support you , until you say it out loud. Make sure to get the support and foster your community in a way that makes sense for you.
Number 5: Be Flexible & Go with the Flow
Let go of the things you can’t control. It may be stressful when lesson plans don’t go as planned, or when a student misbehaves, but these are things you can’t control. The things that you can control are the things you should focus on, and even when they don’t go as planned, being flexible allows you to have the confidence to know that things don’t have to be perfect. The goal is wellness.
I hope this helps you manage your stress well. For more stress management tips and resources, please check out these websites below:
https://resilienteducator.com/
https://anchor.fm/teacher-self-care
https://solidaritywoc.medium.com/back-to-school-a-survival-guide-for-teachers-of-color-8c2700eeaa10
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hide-and-seek/201205/managing-stress
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/tests/personality/what-are-your-stress-triggers
https://www.bamradionetwork.com/genre/teachers-aid/
Make sure to check back for more resources concerning educator wellness. :)
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