Teachers in Transition - Episode 46 - Self-Care Strategies

Self-care is not selfish, but a lot of people think that it is. They think self-care is for other people. Or they convince themselves that they have to take care of other people first. You ignore your need to take care of yourself at your own peril, however. Learn why I mean by reading my newsletter article from this week at this link:  http://bit.ly/selfcarepracticestouseyourwholelife

Self-care strategies can go a long way toward helping you both manage and relieve the stress in your life. 

For more on how to manage and relieve the stress in your life, take a look at my stress management cheat sheet here:  https://kittyboitnott.lpages.co/cheat-sheet-on-stress-management/

For questions, thoughts or comments you would like to direct to me, please email me at kittyboitnott@boitnottcoaching.com.

#stress #stressmanagement #stressrelief #selfcare #selfcareisnotselfish

Transcript

Kitty Boitnott: 0:01

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." Welcome back to episode 46 of"Teachers in Transition." My name is Kitty Boitnott, the owner of Teachers in Transition and Boitnott Coaching. And this week's topic is stress and self care in helping to manage and relieve your stress. I wrote a post this week and if you're not on my newsletter list, I would encourage you to sign up for it. It's different from the blog. The blog is on the website and I'm irregular at best at keeping it up to date. But I am committed to offering my followers a newsletter each week. And I have never missed a single week since I started my business. And the same way that I haven't missed a single week of this podcast since I started it back in April. And in the newsletter I sometimes write about careers strategy and, and uh, help with your job search. But more often than not, I write about other aspects of my philosophy, my thoughts about things, especially as they relate to life in general as stress management, uh, getting rid of the clutter in our lives, mindfulness, those kinds of things. So if that is of interest to you and you'd like to be on the email list, uh, please let me know and I can add you manually or you can subscribe to any one of the resources that I offer on my website at teachers and transition. And that will automatically put you on the newsletter list unless you should choose to unsubscribe from the newsletter. This week's newsletter topic was self care practices that you should use throughout your life and it went out on Tuesday the 11th. And so here we are, um, the 13th. You will have an opportunity to see it circulating. Perhaps if you follow me on Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn. Uh, but I'd like to just talk a little bit about some of the strategies that I recommend in the newsletter. In case you aren't on the newsletter list and you don't have access to that particular set of information. So one of the things that I think is so critically important and, and let me just say that I know that stress is rising amongst my teacher friends out there. This is the time of year when it really starts to ratchet up at school and I've every year at this time from February through early spring, I see an uptick in the number of people who want the stress assessment, who need the stress a cheat sheet or who download my ebook on stress management strategies. And that is because as testing season rolls around and people are starting to get into the mode of getting ready for testing and the end of the year activities that the stress in many schools across the country just hits a fever pitch. And the reason for that in some schools is that those schools are already at risk. They've either not passed their States a standardized test in the past or they've been on the bubble. Maybe they've passed one year but not past the next year. They're considered schools at risk and unfortunately that describes more schools than you might think. A lot of our urban schools are considered categorized as schools at risk. A lot of our rules, schools are considered schools at risk and the teachers who staff those schools are held responsible for the, for the achievement of their students and the performance of their students on those statewide tests. And the teachers themselves hold themselves accountable. Uh, and so it's just, it becomes a, a situation that spirals sometimes completely out of control and out of all reason. I remember the first year that I was in a title one school back in 2002, uh, yeah, the spring of 2002 and it was a palpable feeling. It was like suddenly appall had just enveloped the school. You could see it in the teachers, you could see it in the students. They had tasks there as souls, which are the States, um, standards of learning. The state's version of standardized testing here in Virginia where I live, they had passed the year before, but they had been an at risk school for several years prior to that year. That they finally passed and everyone, everybody was scared to death. Are we going to be able to do it again? Can we pull it off again? What miracle can we, can we draw on? Or what could you remember what we did last year? What made the difference last year? And it just, it, it becomes unsustainable. So a lot of folks are coming to me for help with their stress and I want to offer as much support and strategies for managing your stress as I possibly can. That's why I want to remind you that self care is not a luxury and there are certain self care practices that you can follow through out your life every day as part of your routine that can help to relieve your stress and help you to manage your stress so that you can build the resilience that you need. So in the event that something major comes along, not just the day to day stress, but some, some major, you know, death in the family, a divorce, a illness, a horrible diagnosis, that when those kinds of things happen as they inevitably do in our lives, as we progress through our lives, that we have some reserve, we're resilient enough that it doesn't knock us completely flat, that we're able to get back up and keep going. That's what resilience is. And if you haven't been taking care of yourself all along, when those big things come along and knock you on your butt, it's harder and harder to get up if you're not taking care of yourself. So when I say self care is not a luxury, I mean it, it's not something that other people get to practice. It's not a luxury. It's not something that you can put off or think that you're not worthy of taking care of yourself or that you have to put everybody else's needs ahead of your own. Because the truth is if you're not taking care of yourself, the time will come when you don't have it in you. To take care of anybody else, you'll be the one that needs to be taken care of because stress gone unmanaged will not, might, will make you sick. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. So taking care of yourself as the responsible thing to do. It's not a luxury, it's not self-indulgence and there are different kinds of self care that you need to be practicing and be aware of and have as part of your everyday life. So I want to touch on them briefly and then if you want to know more, you can download the newsletter that I will offer the link to in the show notes. The first one of course, and maybe of most obviously is your physical self care. Now that requires that you eat properly, that you are not eating for comfort, so you're not eating lots of sugar, sugary high fat, high carb foods, but you're eating for good nutrition, green leafy vegetables, fresh fruits, whole grains that contribute to the building blocks that your body needs in order to function properly and to be healthy. So physical care involves eating well, getting the physical exercise that you need, both aerobic and anaerobic, which means getting your heart rate up and at least sweating a little bit. And also doing some weight training or maybe even some core yoga training and getting enough sleep. You know, it doesn't matter if you're practicing mindfulness and meditation if you aren't getting the sleep you need because your sleep is absolutely essential to your being able to function well and to manage the stress that comes your way every single day without the proper sleep and the kind of quality sleep that you need. You're going to be irritable, you're going to be cranky, you're going to be short tempered. Things can happen. They will spiral out of control and suddenly you have a big mess on your hands. Whereas if you've gotten the rest that you need, you're better able to cope with what's coming in at you. And you can manage without having a big blow up or meltdown or temper tantrum. So physicals, self care is extremely important. So is mental self care. A studies show that people who keep themselves mentally active, stay mentally sharper, longer, uh, people who do puzzles, who like to read and maintain their reading habits throughout their lives. People who, um, engage in stimulating conversation, those folks do better mentally for longer than those who do not. So challenge yourself, make it a habit to occasionally challenge yourself mentally in order to keep that mental acuity, sharp, spiritual self care. Now, whether you go to church or not, whether you consider yourself religious or not, whether you even have a specific faith that you follow or not, I think it's pretty self evident that there is a greater power out there somewhere. That we feel better when we are connected to it as opposed to feeling isolated and alone and unconnected. So whether you, um, go to church on Sunday or simply meditate or read for spiritual guidance or, uh, watch things that inspire you on a, on a spiritual level, something that you feel here in this heart area of your body, whatever it is for you, do that practice, whatever it takes for you to feel that you are connected to a higher power. You know, I, I like to refer to it as the universe, the creator, the source of all, um, as opposed to putting a specific name on it. But if you believe in an entity, stay connected to that entity and do what ever you need to do in order to feel your spiritual bucket as well as your physical and mental buckets. You also need to take care of your emotional self care, uh, modulating your emotions. Learning how to cope with the natural emotions that we all feel. We are born with certain natural reactions to things in our lives. Sadness is a natural reaction. Anger is a natural reaction. Even though we try to tap it down and control it and not get into it, it's still natural to feel angry about certain things at times. Um, so when you feel happiness is a natural emotion, when you feel a certain way, allow yourself to feel that way. Don't try to lock it down. Don't try to tap it down so hard that you don't allow yourself to express it. Because emotions that are on lockdown and aren't expressed in a healthy way tend to sit there like a ticking time bomb and they blow up and you never know for sure when the blow up might occur. It's sure thing though, that there will be blow up. So find healthy outlets, ways to cope with your natural, healthy, normal human feelings and express them as you feel the need to at the time so that you aren't becoming that ticking time bomb yourself. And then there's a socialization, self care. And this one, I think a lot of people overlook or under value. You know, we think because we're connected to all these people on Facebook or Twitter, that we're somehow being social. I mean those are, they're called social platforms, right? But there's nothing, nothing, nothing that replaces in person face to face contact with people at work, with people in your family, with people in neighborhood and the community. So if you feel isolated and alone because you live alone or you maybe don't have a big social circle, you don't need a lot of people. In fact, I've, I'm of this school of thought that if you have a few close friends that that beats having a lot of, you know, shallow friends, you know, acquaintances, but do what you can to nurture those close friendships. Get with them once a month or every other week so you can have a chat, that tip, go to lunch, have coffee, talk on the phone if you have to. That's better than nothing at all. But the face to face is the best way to build your social muscle and to keep the healthy balance that you need as part of being a social being. We are social beings, we need people. We can't always function all by ourselves. Even though some of us might like to think we can, you can only be so self sufficient. So don't be afraid to ask for help and do keep up friendships that are meaningful to you, that you, that you want to keep in your life, that you want to nurture. And that's not to say that some friends come and go as a natural ebb and flow of life. Certainly that does happen. But what I'm suggesting is that you not, you not block yourself off from having a life, um, being part of a community, whether it's a church, a political, a group, uh, uh, meetup where you have something in common that you get together with like minded people periodically, whatever it is for you, get with people, be with people and you'll feel better. So those are just some suggestions for self care strategies. If you as a, as I said, if you want to know more, if you'd like to read the newsletter itself, then click on the link and I will be happy to send it your way. That's it for today. 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."