Well, 2021 has gotten off to quite a rocky start, but since this week's topic is about stress management, I am offering information about how to manage stress using a PDF from the World Health Organization, and I am providing some links to material that you might find useful as you work your way through your own emotional response to what has been happening in the news this past week or so.
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Speaker 1:
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 burn 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 and transition.
Speaker 2:
Welcome back to episode 94 of teachers in transition the podcast and the YouTube channel. My name is kitty Boitnott. I'm the founder of teachers in transition and the owner of Boitnott coaching. And if you've listened to me in the past, you know, that I alternate topics one week, I talk about stress management strategies because I'm a certified stress management coach. And on alternating weeks, I talk about career transition strategies because I'm a heart-centered career transition and job search coach. With years of experience working mostly with teachers who are ready to make a career change, but need help because they don't know how or where to start this week. The subject matter is stress. And as I record this message, it's January 12th, 2021, not quite a week after the rioting sedition earnest activities that took place in Washington, DC on January 6th. Now I'm not going to sugar coat. What I think about what happened last Wednesday, it was awful watching it beyond stressful distressful, dismaying sickening. Those were my reactions to it. And so any thought that we had that 2021 was going to offer us some sort of respite from the stress and strain of 2020 ha jokes on us, right? But that doesn't mean that we can't individually do whatever we need to do to take care of ourselves. And because of that, I want this week to share with you. I have shared in the past, I will reshare my cheat sheet on stress management. In case you just want a down and dirty cheat sheet. I will also offer, again, the link to my ebook on stress it's called stressed stretched and just plain overwhelmed. And I am also going to include a link to a it's an illustrated guide book that has been published by the world health organization. And so in today's message, I want to share with you some of the main strategies that this booklet sponsored by and published by the world health organization. Some of the terms that they use to help explain how we can manage our stress more proactively and productively. Uh, and one of the things that they talk about is how, when we are really stressed and we start to get lost in the stress and the emotions that go along with the stress, that your ability, you know, the crankiness, the, um, sense of, of, um, outrage that we can feel when we're, when we're not totally in the moment they call that getting hooked, being hooked by your emotions, as opposed to being grounded and becoming aware of your feelings and your situation that when we can, when we can disengage from the emotions of the moment and, and more or less observe ourselves and our reactions to a situation we can avoid getting hooked. But when we're in the moment, you know, when we're in that, that fresh indignation over something that somebody said or something somebody did, then we're hooked, we've allowed ourselves to get hooked in that moment. And we act out accordingly, usually not in the healthiest of ways. So we need to take time as a stress management strategy to ground ourselves and to become more self-aware they also talk about the importance of acting on your values and remembering who you really are at your core. And they talk about the importance of being kind, not just to other people, but to yourself, you know, in the book, the four agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, when he talks about, um, not taking anything personally, he, he talks about how you shouldn't do that to yourself. Either. You shouldn't, you shouldn't talk about other people and you shouldn't talk ugly to yourself either may not be that one that I'm thinking about. The four agreements are, um, never take anything personally, never assume anything, always do your best. And now I forget what the fourth one is, but in that book, he talks specifically about how we talk to ourselves as well as how we talk to and about others. And he does a really nice job of reminding us that often we, we speak in our heads to ourselves worse than we would ever think to speak to someone else. And usually that happens when we're in that moment of being hooked into a negative emotion, resentment can add to it, um, uh, feel a feeling of umbrage about something that's happened at work or at home of a feeling of being taken for granted. All of, all of those dealings that we all have felt at one point or another. So remembering to be kind to yourself as well as to others, engaging in the moment, as opposed to allowing yourself to get hooked away and all embroiled in the emotions of the moment, engaging with what is real and what is in yours specific experience right now at this moment. So those are some of the suggestions that they offer. It's really quite well done. It's illustrated. So, you know, any, any age group can read it and get value from it. So I'm going to include the link and a thank you to the world health organization for having provided the book, this particular book on stress and stress management. And that's all I have to say today, because anything else I have to say, it's just, it will just sound trite. We are living in serious times and I don't, I don't want to minimize the seriousness of it W we're living in a precarious age. And it feels like to me that we have some serious choices to make individually and collectively about what kind of world we want moving forward. And I can't tell you how you should choose, but I will encourage you to get back in touch with your core values And think about good versus evil, because I want to suggest to you that what we witnessed last Wednesday was evil at work. Not good was nothing good about that. Now that's my opinion, but I don't think anybody who's thinking clearly and looking at that situation clearly can say that it was anything but evil
Speaker 3:
[inaudible].
Speaker 2:
And so we need to, we need to confront that, but at the same time, we have to take care of ourselves and our families and our community by getting back in touch with our true core values, which is being kind, taking care of one another, supporting one, another, lifting each other up, And that's it for today. Have a wonderful weeks. Please stay well, stay safe. I'll see you next week.
Speaker 1:
So there you have it. An episode of teachers in transition. I hope you enjoy 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@kittyboitnottatboitnottcoaching.com. If you are interested in finding a new career or just enjoying your life more, this is the place to start I'm kitty Boitnott. And this is teachers in transition.