Gratitude isn't often thought of as a stress management strategy, but it should be. Consider the various things in your life for which you could be grateful. The air you breathe, for example. The people in your life who are there to support and uplift you or make you happy. Your pets. Your home and material possessions that you treasure. The moments when you laugh or just smile. When life starts to feel overwhelming, take a breath, and remind yourself that this too shall pass, but you have much for which to be grateful and think about those things for a moment. Doing so will change the trajectory of your thoughts and remind you that you have much to be grateful for no matter how the momentary stress may have your down.
This channel goes with a podcast by the same name, "Teachers in Transition." Kitty Boitnott, a former educator turned Heart-Centered Career Transition & Job Search Coach is an expert on teacher burnout and its negative physical effects on the body, mind, and soul.
Gratitude isn't often thought of as a stress management strategy, but it should be. Consider the various things in your life for which you could be grateful. The air you breathe, for example. The people in your life who are there to support and uplift you or make you happy. Your pets. Your home and material possessions that you treasure. The moments when you laugh or just smile. When life starts to feel overwhelming, take a breath, and remind yourself that this too shall pass, but you have much for which to be grateful and think about those things for a moment. Doing so will change the trajectory of your thoughts and remind you that you have much to be grateful for no matter how the momentary stress may have your down.
This channel goes with a podcast by the same name, "Teachers in Transition." Kitty Boitnott, a former educator turned Heart-Centered Career Transition & Job Search Coach is an expert on teacher burnout and its negative physical effects on the body, mind, and soul.
Are you a teacher who's feeling stressed out and overwhelmed? Do you worry that you're feeling symptoms of burnout or are you sure you've already gotten there? Have you started to dream of doing some other kind of job or perhaps pursuing a whole different career, but you don't know what else you're even qualified to do? You don't know how to start a job search. You just feel stuck. If that sounds like you, I promise you're not alone. My name is Kitty Boitnott. I'm a career transition and job search coach and I specialize in helping burnt out teachers just like you deal not only with the stress and overwhelm of your day-to-day job, but to consider what other careers might be out there waiting for you. Join me for"Teachers in Transition." In some episodes I'll be speaking to stress management techniques and how you can manage your stress on a day to day basis. In other episodes I'll be talking about career transition. What tools do you need to be successful in a job search when you're moving from one career into a totally different track? These are questions that you need answers to and I can help you find those answers. My name is Kitty Boitnott. Welcome to"Teachers in Transition." This is Kitty Boitnott of"Teachers in Transition" and welcome back to Episode 29 of the podcast and the YouTube channel"Teachers in Transition." This week I want to talk a little bit about stress and a stress management strategy that you may not ordinarily think of as a stress management strategy. You know, I've talked in the previous episodes about the importance of breathing, the importance of eating well, the importance of getting the sleep that you need, the importance of staying hydrated, the importance of exercise, the importance of meditation or prayer or both to help you stay grounded to the through the day. And finally, the importance of having fun. Taking time to do things that help you to relax. Something other than a work-related activity. What I haven't talked about thus far is this particular notion which is that when we are feeling stressed out and overwhelmed, it's important to stop, take a deep breath, interrupt all the negative thinking which causes all the negative emotion which makes us feel anxious, the knot in our stomach and the tightness in our chest. Just take a deep breath. Take a moment. And when you are feeling particularly stressed and overwhelmed, just stopped yourself and remind yourself all the things for which you have to be grateful. No matter how bad things may be in some area of your life, there are other things that are surely going well that you forget about in the moment when you're so overwhelmed with all the negative. So, it's going to take practice, obviously. It's not something you do automatically. What you do automatically when you're stressed out is you just hunker down and you start to feel stressed and your breathing becomes shallow and you develop that sick feeling in your stomach and it's just, it's not a fun experience obviously. I want to suggest to you, though, that it is possible to stop yourself in this, in the negative force of the event that's occurring around you and just center yourself with thoughts of who and what you have to be grateful for. You know, Louise Hay used to say, Louise Hay of Hay House Publishing who was a model of um, poise and grace and lived such an inspiring life for so many people. She used to talk about gratitude. In fact, she created a whole set of different cards that had mantras or affirmations on them, things for which to be grateful and one of them was just to be grateful for the air that you can breathe. We take that so for granted, and I'm not talking about necessarily breathing exercises for stress relief, I'm talking about just being grateful that there is air yet to be breathed. That you don't have to worry about running out of air. If you're healthy, if you're, if you're just in your day to day routine. I'm not talking about people with lung disease who have to struggle for their breath or have to have oxygen. I'm talking about just in your day-to-day work activities. When you are able to remind yourself of the abundance of oxygen in the air that is there available for you to breathe in for this breath and the next breath and the next. So something as fundamental as remembering to be grateful for the air that you breathe can be an important reminder of all the things for you have to be grateful. But I have some other suggestions for you as well. So, if you want to jot these down and just as a reminder for later. Or make it an exercise. Write down all the things that I'm going to suggest that you think about that you might be grateful for. So starting with what are the relationships or who are the people in your life for which you are grateful that perhaps you sometimes forget to be grateful for. You know, we take people for granted just like we take the air we breathe for granted or the water we can drink for granted. We just, we get caught up. We get caught up in our own drama. And we forget that there are other people who are there to support us, who want us to succeed, who are there to give us a pep talk if we need it. Who is that person for you? Maybe you have more than one. If you're lucky enough to have multiple people who can do that, go for it. Give them a call. Perhaps you're grateful for your children--for the lives that they're leading. That was for the, for the ability to watch them grow and thrive. Or perhaps you're grateful for your spouse or a parent. You know, if you still have your parents, you should be grateful to have them. I've lost both of mine. And so you know, once that time is over, once the time you have to share with your parents is done, there isn't any going back, so be grateful for them while you have them. And there are friends, there are the people that you grew up with that were perhaps considered your best friends from childhood all the way up to your good work friends. People that you've developed relationships with at work or at church or somewhere else in the community. What I'm suggesting is that there are multiple people in your life that you can be grateful for that just the fact that they're there. And instead of taking them for granted, be grateful for them and remind yourself how lucky you are that you have them in your life. There are people who don't have anyone. I mean, I doubt that any of you who are listening to this right now fall into that category, but I don't know that. So if you're in the position of not having someone, let me urge you to find someone, someone you can confide in, someone you can ask for advice from, someone you can just lean into when things get tough. So people, relationships that you can be grateful for. That's one category of practicing gratitude I want you to think about. Also think about what would material possessions are you particularly thankful for? I am not a fan of being overly materialistic. And in fact, I'm getting ready to do a major declutter of my own home, getting rid of stuff that I no longer need. But there are things that I am grateful to have. And as far as material possessions, I'm grateful for the roof over my head. I'm grateful for the vehicle that I drive. I'm grateful for the dogs that I have. I had to put one of them in her crate because she started barking just as I started to record this episode. But I'm still grateful for her. So what things do you have? What, what specific material possessions? Maybe you're grateful that you have a retirement fund socked away or college savings for your children. What is it that you would consider that you'd be grateful for in the material way? Think this goes back again to who are the people in your life? Who is it that you know you can always count on when things get tough? Be grateful for that person who, whoever he or she may be. Think about what's the best thing that's happened to you so far today. And I want to suggest that getting up is probably one of the best things that happens to each one of us. Remembering that, that everybody got up today. So if you're up and out and about, you're feeling pretty good, be great. If you're not sick, not in the hospital, not depending on other people to take care of you that is something for which to be grateful. Your health is something not to forget to be grateful for. My mother used to say, if you have your health, you've got everything. I had to get to a certain age to appreciate the truth of that statement. But she's exactly right when you have your health, you have everything, so you want to protect it, and one way to protect your health is to protect your, your body, your mind, your spirit from all the stress that bombards you every day. And then think of that. What made you smile or laugh most recently? Maybe it was just a few minutes ago, maybe it was a few days ago. I went to see"Downton Abbey" this weekend and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I laughed, I cried. I smiled. All of the things that go along with enjoying a movie like that. I had watched the series and was sad when it came to an end. I was happy when I heard that there would be a new movie. And I remember thinking the first time I saw the trailer a few months ago, how much I've missed those people and how much I loved them. So what is it that made you smile? A joke you heard a story that somebody told you, an anecdote that you heard, something that you learned that just hit your funny bone. These are things that can help you to get grounded again and gratitude. And when you are feeling grateful it is much harder to get caught up in stress. So I want to suggest to you that as a practice moving forward, when you start to feel yourself getting caught up in some drama at work or even at home, just stop for a moment. Take a deep breath. Think of one of these things. Who are you grateful for? What has made you smile today or most recently? What are the things that you're grateful for? That your life would be very different with that. Who were the people you know you can count on when the chips are down? Those are things that we need to be reminded, reminding ourselves of all the time that we are grateful and happy to have them. That's it for today. This is Kitty Boitnott of"Teachers in Transition." Have a great week. I'll see you next week.
:So there you have it, an episode of"Teachers in Transition." I hope you enjoyed the information and I hope you'll plan to come back. Please subscribe to"Teachers in Transition" so that you can be alerted of future episodes. And let me know if you have any questions or topics that you would like me to specifically cover in a future episode. I'm more than happy to help with individual questions as well. So email me at KittyBoitnott@BoitnottCoaching.com. If you are interested in finding a new career or just enjoying your life more, this is the place to start. Hi, I'm Kitty Boitnott and this is"Teachers in Transition."