Teachers in Transition

Teachers in Transition - Episode 143 - How to De-stress During the Holidays

December 22, 2021 Kitty Boitnott Season 1 Episode 143
Teachers in Transition
Teachers in Transition - Episode 143 - How to De-stress During the Holidays
Show Notes Transcript

The holidays are a "happy" time of year, but they can also be stressful. Many people are missing loved ones who have passed away, and while it is always bittersweet, those "firsts" can be especially hard, especially the first Christmas. I know because I lost my brother this year, and this will be the first Christmas without him.

Thankfully, there are things you can do for yourself to help you de-stress and manage your stress more proactively and effectively--not just during the holidays but throughout the year. For a cheat sheet on how to de-stress during the holidays, click here:  https://kittyboitnott.lpages.co/cheat-sheet-on-how-to-de-stress-during-the-holidays/

And if one of the ways you are thinking that you might de-stress during the holidays includes changing jobs in 2022, let's talk. Set up a complimentary Discovery Session at https://teachersintransition.com.

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 boy. Not I'm a career transition and job search coach. And I specialize in helping burnout out teachers just like you deal, not only with the stress and overwhelm of your day to a 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. 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 boy, not welcome to teachers in transition.

Speaker 2:

Welcome back to another episode of teachers in transition, the podcast and YouTube channel. My name is kitty boy, not I am the owner of boy, not coaching LLC. And the founder of teachers in transition. I consider myself a heart career transition and job search coach to burnt out teachers who are ready to make a career change, but don't know how or where to begin. I'm also a certified stress management coach. And because of that, I alternate topics each week, one week talking about career transition. And on alternating weeks, I talk about stress management strategies. This week, the topic is stress. And this week of course is the highlight of the week will be Christmas. This weekend. We are well into the 2021 holiday season, which is rife with all kind of stressful events from parties where we're trying to make good impressions to family, get togethers, where there might be strife or attention to considering the loss of a loved one from this year. Perhaps this is the first Christmas without someone in your family. For me, it's the first Christmas without my brother. And it's going to be a difficult period for myself and my sister because firsts are always hard. And a lot of people have lost a lot of people this year. So there's sadness around that and stress goes along with sadness and then there's the hustle and bustle of making sure you've bought just the right gift for everybody and worrying about making sure that all, all the cooking and baking and stuff that you need to do for the holidays gets done as a result of all of that. People tend to be more tense, more stressed, more worn out during the holidays than during other times of the year. And because of the, at a few years ago, I created a cheat sheet around stress management strategies for the holidays. Now these are strategies you can use any time of the year, and I've included them in other items that I've created over the years, but this particular cheat sheet is, uh, on how to de-stress during the holidays. And I've got seven strategies that I'm going to share with you today. And I hope that maybe even just one of them will be useful to you. So the first one is to stay hydrated during the winter time, depending on where you live. Of course, if you're now down in Florida's or, or one of the Southern states where it's not so cold and you don't feel restricted to being indoors, it's a different situation, but in many parts of the country, this time of years, when we retreat to the indoors we have on our furnaces and our fireplace, which tend to dry out the air. And because we're surrounded by dry air, we tend to dry out that much faster. So one of the things that you can do to help to manage your stress is to stay hydrated, which means perhaps drinking a little more water than you would ordinary really do. And you need to drink before you start to feel thirsty. Once you're thirsty, you're already dehydrated. And so you need to be drinking a little bit throughout the day. And if you don't like water, green tea is a good substitute. Water is the best because it's, uh, not clutter up with a lot of other elements like sugar and sodium that you might find in soft drinks, or even, even sports drinks that are recommended, but not necessarily all that good for you. You wanna stay away from anything that has sugar in it. Anything that's going to hype you up, or you give you more, um, sugar than you need. And you wanna stay away from drinks that have been loaded up with other chemicals and sodium cause sodium can have a negative impact on your blood pressure. So water's best. But if you can't, uh, tolerate water, at least use a substitute like a low calorie green tea that you can stay hydrated with. You want to, I know this is the season of goodies and I just attended an event yesterday where the, uh, there were so many goodies that you couldn't decide which one you wanted first, but this is a time of the year where we need to, in, in addition to, uh, managing the number of sweets that we eat, also manage your, your nutrition, eat, uh, some, some green, the vegetables eat, eat some salads to, to avoid gathering up all the extra calories for the holidays. Um, stick with green, leafy vegetables, and whole grains and whole fruits and vegetables from the produce department with an eye toward keeping your body well nourished during the holidays, don't just load up on sugar because of course that's, if you have a tendency toward diabetes, that's going to just exacerbate your diabetes. It's gonna make you feel sluggish and, and heavy during the holidays. And then will just have regrets at the beginning of the year and have to go on that, uh, FA famous first of the year diet. So you can avoid some of that by managing what you eat during the holidays. You wanna try to get some exercise in, even if it's just a brisk walk through the neighborhood five times a week, because exercise can help to de-stres yourself. It can, uh, that I endorphins can help with your stress. It will help to clear the cobwebs in your head. You can take, um, meditative walk to help calm yourself. So walking is an excellent exercise, but you can also go to the gym a couple days during this week, since Christmas is on Saturday and most places, aren't going to start closing down probably until Friday, you've got today, at least maybe Thursday to get in an extra workout, pay attention to your sleep. Most adults need somewhere between six and a half and eight hours of sleep each night. And so you need to create a sleep hygiene. Let's go to bed at the same time each evening and try to get up at the same time every morning so that your body becomes regulated to the time and amount of sleep that you individually and unique need. Don't forget the importance of breathing. I actually have an app on my phone that reminds me periodically to take a mindful breath. You can do that, or you can just put a post-it on your computer to remind yourself, need to stand periodically, and you need to breathe periodically. If you work at your computer much of the day, it's also helpful, especially during the stressful period holiday period, to create a practice of prayer or meditation, or both it reconnected with your higher power, whatever it is for you, whatever you call your higher power, whether it's God, the universe source the creator, whatever it is for you reconnect with that energetic source and remind yourself that you are not alone. There is a power greater than yourself that you can plug into just like it can take a, a lamp cord and plug it into the electricity so that it lights up without plugging it in it won't light up. You have to have that source, that energy source from the electrical unit in the wall, plug yourself into your higher power and reconnect. And finally, don't forget that the holiday season, just like any time of the year is a time for on relaxing, taking care of yourself. I'm going for a massage this week. So I'm going to be looking forward to that last week. I went for a Manny petty and treated myself to that. It'd been a few weeks since I had done that. So I did that for myself, for the holidays. Do whatever it, it, that whatever works for you, whether it's a walk with your partner or time with your pets time with your children or your grandchildren or your nieces and nephews take the time to enjoy the moments. One of the things that will bring me. So this Christmas being the first Christmas without my brother is all of the previous Christmases that we spent together. The laughs that we had, the stories that we told, the camaraderie that we had as siblings, as adults, memories, we shared. Don't miss out on those because when your loved one is gone, that's what you've got your memories. And you need those to, to hold you together during the sad and stressful times of the year. What I wish for you are happy holidays times that you can enjoy times that you can de-stres before you have to go back to school after the first of the year. And if you would like to talk, if you'd like a copy of the cheat sheet on how to tress during the holidays, there's a link in the show notes that you can take advantage of. In addition to that, you can also make an appointment. If you like. I am working through the holidays. I have some slots in my calendar for next week. If you'd like to talk about how you can use 20, 22<affirmative> to help you find the new job, the new career change that you want. Let's chat. So sign up@teachersandtransition.com slash calendar that's teachers in transition.com/calendar. Let's just have a complimentary discussion, a discovery session about whether or not the new coaching cohort that I'm starting on. January 3rd is a good fit for you. We will be starting work on how to transition from the classroom into a new career in 2022, on January 3rd for a 16 week area to work our way through the jump, start your job search program and figure out what it is that you wanna do with yourself and your next career and how to make it happen. So teachers in transition.com/calendar, if you'd like to learn more, that's it for today, have a, a wonderful, wonderful holiday, and I'll see you next week.

Speaker 1:

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 episode. 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 kitty boy, not boy.coaching.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 boy not. And this is teachers in transition.