In this week's episode, Kitty talks about stress management and offers four "A's" of stress management offered by the Mayo Clinic. The link to the article is provided here: https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/the-4-as-of-stress-relief
Listen and learn what the 4 A's of stress relief are. If you have questions or comments, email Kitty at kittyboitnott@gmail.com. Please review this podcast to help others find it.
In this week's episode, Kitty talks about stress management and offers four "A's" of stress management offered by the Mayo Clinic. The link to the article is provided here: https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/the-4-as-of-stress-relief
Listen and learn what the 4 A's of stress relief are. If you have questions or comments, email Kitty at kittyboitnott@gmail.com. Please review this podcast to help others find it.
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 to episode 147 of teachers in transition the podcast and the YouTube channel. My name is kitty boy, not. I am a heart centered career transition and job search coach to burn out teachers who are ready to leave the classroom, but don't know, or how to begin a new job search. I'm also a certified stress management coach. So I alternate topics each week on this podcast and YouTube channel talking one week about career transition strategies. And then on alternating weeks, I talk about stress management strategies and this will week. The topic is stress and I have to admit sometimes I feel like I've said all I know I've emptied my brain of strategies for how to manage stress. And I feel totally inadequate, frankly, in offering meaningful strategies for the folks who are teaching in untenable situations and are being expected to deal with unsustainable situations. And my heart goes out to you truly, if you are struggling in one of today's classrooms that has been<affirmative> burdened with additional duties because of COVID. And I know everybody has, then I am particularly sympathetic. I, I I've been out of the classroom long enough to know that I don't know exactly what you are dealing with these days. And all I can offer is sympathy and empathy. To the extent that that may be helpful, that said, I am committed to helping individuals manage their stress better, more effectively, more proactively because allowing your stress to go unchecked and unmanaged will ultimately lead to your being sick. And we don't want that. We don't want anyone to come down with COVID or anything else. And what I talk about becoming sick, I mean, stress can contribute to the onset and the exas exacerbation of diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular issues, gastrointestinal issues, skin rashes, and all the rest you name stress can be a, a factor. In fact, I just saw a headline earlier today about can stress cause COVID and no stress can't cause COVID, but stress can depress your immune system, making you more vulnerable to picking up COVID. So in a way there is a, there is a connection between stress and COVID and, and other illnesses. So what I wanted to share with you today is, uh, an article that I ran across, uh, that's distributed by the Mayo clinic and I trust at the Mayo clinic. It offers solid advice. And this is an article on how there are four steps to help reduce stress and cope with the inevitable stressors of every day life. It's not, it's not specific to teachers. It's just an article offered to help give some, a new perspective on how to manage your everyday stress, whether you're a teacher or a nurse, um, attorney or whatever it is that you may do. Most of my listeners, I trust are teachers. And so these four steps offered to help produce stress and cope with the inevitable stressors of everyday life or as follows. The first one is interestingly enough, avoid the four A's by the way. So avoid is the first one. And it says, take control of the stress that fills your day by finding ways to make the situation better. For example, if your commute is stressful, try buying a new CD to make it more enjoyable, create distance between you and something that causes your stress. If a coworker continually irritates you, for example, create physical distance between the two of you. And the third bullet is offered, say no when necessary. And I'm a big fan of the word, no learn to say it, learn to say no when it appropriate. And when you need to set better boundaries, that one practice learning to set better boundaries and saying no, instead of trying to be a people pleaser and saying yes to everything is as liberating as anything else I can think of to offer that you could do for yourself. If you would say no respectfully decline without drama, but just say no, and watch your life become less stress filled. The second a in this list of four A's to help reduce your stress is to alter communicate clearly and let people know your expectations. It can make a world of difference. For example, respectfully ask someone to alter how they are treating. You remember to use eye statements when addressing someone about how you feel state your limitations in advance. For example, you can say, I only have five minutes to talk, and it's another way to create boundaries for yourself. The third a is to accept accepting the situation can ease much of the stress when avoiding an alter don't work. Talk with someone about how you're feeling, call a friend, get coffee with a relative or schedule an appointment with a therapist. You forgive yourself or others. It's important. It's an important element of accepting stressful situations. And moving on is easier than sitting around stressing about UNC controllable situations. In my stress management workshops, I remind people of the, um, prayer, the serenity prayer that is used as a part of, of a regular AA meetings. God grant me the serenity to get how it goes to deal with it. It, God grant me the serenity to deal with the issues that I can to let go of the things that I can't and the wisdom that I'm paraphrasing and the wisdom to know the difference between the two that's a paraphrasing know what you can control, recognize what you can't control. Let go of any notion that you can control things that you can't control. Know the difference. The wisdom is the difference. So accept. And then finally, the fourth a is adapt, changing your standards and expectations of stressful situations can help you cope with stress. For example, don't strive for perfection instead, make reasonable substitutes throughout your daily life. Choose dinners that easier to prepare and still make your family happy. Don't replay stressful situations over and over in your head. Choose to focus on the positive aspects of your life. I don't know why it is that we tend to spend so much time on the negative and not so much time on the positive. That's a practice that you can work on. Choose the positive, choose to focus on the positive, change your perspective by asking yourself if the stressor will matter in five years or even in five days, lots of things go just blow over in five days. So let it roll off your back. It's probably not as big a deal as you think. And you can adapt to a lot of situations. If you make up your mind to, they go on to say in their conclusion, stress is a part of everyday life. Practicing. These four steps can help you provide balance for healthier, happier lifestyle. So that is from the Mayo clinic, from the writers of the Mayo clinic, there is no particular author credited for that list of four A's to help you manage and alter your stress. And the fact of the matter is you're the only one who can decide that you wanna take control of your stress. You can allow your stress to take a hold of you and run you into the ground, or you can choose to look at things differently. And to understand that there are some things over which you have control, and those are the things that you need to alter and adapt to and manage the things that you cannot control. You either decide to make the best of it and go along with it. Or you decide to make a change. And that's up to you. We all have choices. Every single day, we get to choose how we approach our lives, how we manage our stress, how we cope with the stressors that are part of our lives. And there are occasions when it's just time to say, you know, I'm done with this and that's when it's time to start looking for something new. My personal philosophy is that when a job becomes so unsustainable, as far as offering only stress without any upside, without any specific benefits, that it's time to think about making a change. But I also know there are a lot of committed teachers out there who are going to put up with whatever they have to put up with because they, they don't see that they have an option because their commitment is to their students. And I get that. I do. I get that. So whatever it is for you that you need to do, do it take charge of your own life. Don't ever allow yourself to be a victim and recognize that at every moment, during the day you to choose how you respond to whatever's going on in your world, and you can respond with drama and upset and add more stress to your plate, or you can choose to respond with calm, acceptance, or alter or avoiding the stress in your life by making different choices. So that's it for today. If you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to let me know. I'm at kitty boy, not@gmail.com. If you have suggestions and ideas for future episode, please let me know. As I said, I talk in alternating weeks about stress management strategies and work, work, uh, changing work strategies, job hunting strategies. And I'm open to suggestions from anyone who might have a suggestion. Love would love it. If you would review this podcast, wherever it is that you're listening to it, that helps other people who might benefit from this content to find me. And I would appreciate if you would do that, take care and stay safe until 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 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 kitty boy, not boy.coaching.com. If you are interested in finding a new career or just your life more, this is the place to start. I'm kitty boy not. And this is teachers in transition.