Emotional Self-Care for Teachers: Resilience and Stress Relief in the Classroom
Emotional self-care is paramount for educators, as the profession is inherently laden with emotional demands that can lead to significant stress and burnout. In this episode, we delve into various strategies designed to enhance emotional resilience among teachers, thereby fostering healthier responses to the challenges encountered in the classroom. We explore effective practices such as journaling, gratitude exercises, and the benefits of engaging with professional therapy, all of which serve to provide essential emotional outlets. Additionally, we emphasize the importance of acknowledging one’s emotions as a precursor to healing and resilience. By implementing these strategies, educators can cultivate a more balanced emotional landscape, allowing them to recover from stressful experiences and present themselves as more effective mentors to their students.
The emotional landscape of teaching is undeniably complex, and this episode offers a comprehensive examination of emotional self-care for educators. Nicholas Kleve delves into the myriad emotions that educators experience, asserting that the acknowledgment of these feelings is essential for fostering resilience. Teaching is described as an emotionally taxing profession, and the episode stresses the importance of recognizing and articulating one’s emotional state as a means of mitigating stress and preventing burnout.
Throughout the discussion, Nicholas presents a wealth of practical strategies aimed at enhancing emotional well-being. Among the most notable is the practice of journaling, which serves as a mechanism for educators to process their thoughts and feelings. He also highlights the significance of gratitude lists, which encourage a focus on positive aspects of life, thereby promoting a healthier emotional perspective. Personal anecdotes are woven throughout the narrative, lending authenticity to the discussion and illustrating the transformative power of these practices in Nicholas’s own life, particularly during periods of grief and transition.
Moreover, the episode emphasizes the necessity of seeking professional support through therapy, which can provide educators with the tools to navigate their emotional challenges effectively. Nicholas encourages listeners to reflect on their daily experiences and implement strategies for emotional reset, such as mindfulness and deep breathing. By reframing their inner dialogue and adopting a positive outlook, educators can cultivate resilience and enhance their overall effectiveness in the classroom. In essence, the episode serves as a vital reminder of the importance of emotional self-care in teaching, advocating for a proactive approach to managing the emotional demands of the profession.
Takeaways:
- Emotional self-care is crucial for teachers to prevent burnout and maintain resilience.
- Journaling serves as an effective tool for educators to process emotions and alleviate stress.
- Engaging in gratitude practices enhances emotional well-being and fosters a positive mindset.
- Therapy provides essential support for teachers facing emotional challenges and promotes healing.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Be a Funky Teacher
Transcript
Yeah, he's Mr. Funky.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Mr. Funky Teacher inspires greatness.
Speaker A:Makes you feel good.
Speaker A:Like your favorite playlist.
Speaker A:Keeping that fresh and funky.
Speaker A:Yes, he does.
Speaker A:He got some funky cool ideas to share for all you teachers.
Speaker A:He can empower others, students and teachers.
Speaker A:It's all about hard work and creativity.
Speaker A:He brings out the kindness in everyone.
Speaker A:He's got the passion to teach.
Speaker A:You hear it when he speaks.
Speaker A:He knows how to build strong relationships.
Speaker A:If you're seeking the best bunkiest, he is it.
Speaker A:He will empower you to improve.
Speaker A:You'll be helping others and loving it too.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Yeah, he's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:This is Mr. Funky Teacher with Be a Funky Teacher dot com.
Speaker B:I'm coming to you with another Be a Funky Teacher podcast.
Speaker B:Today's episode is is emotional self care for teachers, resilience and stress relief in the classroom.
Speaker B:That's what we are going to be focusing on.
Speaker B:But before we get into it, let's talk about three things I'm thankful for.
Speaker B:The first thing is taking my youngest to a card show.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker B:Over the weekend I had an opportunity to take my youngest son and his buddy to a card show where they sell things like football cards and baseball cards, hockey cards, basketball cards, things like that.
Speaker B:Pokemon cards, things like that.
Speaker B:It and it was fun watching them dig through different stacks of cards and learn about cards, talking to to the dealers about buying and selling cards.
Speaker B:And it really wasn't about the cards.
Speaker B:It was about connecting and making some memories.
Speaker B:And it was fun that his buddy got to go too.
Speaker B:It was a good time.
Speaker B:Second thing is the generosity of strangers.
Speaker B:I'm always thankful for small acts of kindness from people.
Speaker B:I don't even know whether it be a door being held, helping a helping hand, a helpful gesture, or a simple patience that can really flip an entire day.
Speaker B:These moments remind me that goodness still shines through.
Speaker B:I actually was at the card show and it was neat because a dealer there told my son and his friend to each take a card that they were interested in.
Speaker B:That was just a kind gesture.
Speaker B:It kept.
Speaker B:It spoke volumes to me.
Speaker B:It spoke volumes to my son and his friend too.
Speaker B:Just a small kind gesture.
Speaker B:So three things I'm thankful for.
Speaker B:First thing is spending time at the card show with my youngest and his friend.
Speaker B:Second thing is generosity of strangers.
Speaker B:And the third thing is quiet calmness in the church.
Speaker B:Yesterday when I was in church, there was a moment where it was this.
Speaker B:A moment of pause, a moment of peace where I was sitting in the church, you know, and after a noisy week, the stillness helps me to reset and refocus when I get that, some of that calm quietness in a church.
Speaker B:And it does give me strength to carry a sense of calm into the days ahead, into this next week ahead.
Speaker B:So I appreciated that.
Speaker B:All right, so let's get into the three.
Speaker B:Well, we just covered three things I'm thankful for.
Speaker B:Let's get into our episode now, which is emotional self care for teachers, resilience and stress relief in the classroom.
Speaker B:This is such an important topic because we do have to acknowledge the emotional load that teachers face.
Speaker B:Teaching is emotional work.
Speaker B:We, we deal with joy, frustration, grief, compassion, all mixed in daily.
Speaker B:And what we know is like when we suppress emotions that can lead to burnout.
Speaker B:We have to acknowledge our emotions to help create space for healing.
Speaker B:And I, I encourage you to practice, like, name your feelings.
Speaker B:Practice naming your feelings.
Speaker B:At the end of the day, you know, I feel drained, I feel proud.
Speaker B:I feel whatever those emotions happen to be, name them, say them out loud.
Speaker B:Either.
Speaker B:I don't care if it's by yourself, if it's with a partner, or if it's by yourself.
Speaker B:And either can be benefo.
Speaker B:Sit in front of the mirror and name those feelings aloud.
Speaker B:You know, when we deal with, let's say, multiple student meltdowns before lunch, that can be stressful.
Speaker B:So instead of ignoring that stress, acknowledge it so you can let it go.
Speaker B:When we act like everything's all good and there's no problems, and yet we've had to go through something that has brought an emotional toll to us, we're not doing ourselves any favors.
Speaker B:And there's no doubt about it, we have to acknowledge this, the stress and emotional toll that teachers that teaching brings to us, especially when dealing with sometimes challenging behaviors.
Speaker B:So here we focus on acknowledging the emotional load that we are under as educators.
Speaker B:The next thing is think about, do you have a healthy emotional outlets available to you?
Speaker B:I would argue that we all do.
Speaker B:We might not always think about it.
Speaker B:One very healthy emotional outlet that we all have is journaling.
Speaker B:And it's.
Speaker B:I know it's cliche, right?
Speaker B:Like, oh, you know, take care of your emotional health journal.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:But there, there's a reason why therapists have their, you know, patients do journaling because it can be very beneficial.
Speaker B:It can help with our.
Speaker B:It can help with the mental clutter.
Speaker B:It can help process the day.
Speaker B:It doesn't have to be super long.
Speaker B:It can be as long as you want it to be.
Speaker B:But journaling does, does, and will help a lot of people.
Speaker B:Doing a gratitude list.
Speaker B:Doing a gratitude list is a part of my health.
Speaker B:It's a healthy emotional outlet for me where I redirect my attention to what sustains me to show an appreciation, to show thankfulness for what is in my life.
Speaker B:I'm not focused on what I don't have in my life.
Speaker B:I'm focused on what I do have in my life.
Speaker B:And I do that through the gratitude list.
Speaker B:My mom swore by gratitude list.
Speaker B:Boy, she taught me that growing up about if you're struggling, if there's something that you're facing, then reframe that into thinking about what are you thankful for.
Speaker B:So thankful that she taught me the importance of gratitude.
Speaker B:The third thing, a third healthy emotional outlet is therapy or counseling that builds resilience with professional support.
Speaker B:I want to encourage you to, if that's something you need to lean into, that.
Speaker B:I am so thankful that I have a therapist.
Speaker B:I do.
Speaker B:She's a grief therapist.
Speaker B:She specializes in grief.
Speaker B:As badly as I was in the mental space that I was in after my mom died.
Speaker B:And I knew that I was struggling with it, and I knew that I needed to get support in some way.
Speaker B:And so I leaned into the local therapy office.
Speaker B:And so, boy, by golly, there was someone who specializes in grief therapy.
Speaker B:And I'm still.
Speaker B:Actually, I'm still going to her.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:We're coming up on.
Speaker B:On.
Speaker B:It'll be about a year.
Speaker B:Well, this winter, in February coming up will be two years without my mom.
Speaker B:And there's still days that I still struggle because of my mom being so influential in my life.
Speaker B:I took it extremely hard.
Speaker B:There's still still days that.
Speaker B:That are still sometimes tough.
Speaker B:I'll just be real.
Speaker B:And that's hard to admit to all y' all out there, you know, because I wanted the.
Speaker B:I've always wanted to give the Persona that and the energy that, hey, I'm physically strong, I'm mentally strong, and nothing can get me down.
Speaker B:But my mom, Diane, kicked me on my butt.
Speaker B:Oh, my goodness, it kicked me on my butt.
Speaker B:And I'm so thankful that, that.
Speaker B:That I've leaned into therapy.
Speaker B:And with going through the transition of moving to a different school district, my grief therapist actually encouraged me to keep seeing her on a regular basis right now, just because sometimes going through a big transition in our lives can sometimes cause us to regress.
Speaker B:She said, where we go backwards when we're kind of moving through grief.
Speaker B:And she's.
Speaker B:JSA said she's very pleased with how well I've moved through my grief with.
Speaker B:And I think I've.
Speaker B:I've gone.
Speaker B:I had.
Speaker B:I think I've gone through it and I've done a lot of healing.
Speaker B:I don't.
Speaker B:I'm not getting over, because that's not the right words, but I am moving through my grief and, and moving on and learning how to handle my grief, I guess.
Speaker B:But it doesn't.
Speaker B:I don't want to go backwards because.
Speaker B:Because I want to be impactful, but I knew I needed someone to do it with.
Speaker B:And I'm so thankful that when I was in my prior school district, there was really great coverage, actually for the.
Speaker B:I'm very blessed because not everyone is in that state where they.
Speaker B:They have good coverage for therapy.
Speaker B:I did.
Speaker B:And I.
Speaker B:Actually, where I'm at right now, there's 100 coverage too, for.
Speaker B:For grief therapy.
Speaker B:And that's.
Speaker B:Wow, that.
Speaker B:That is pretty powerful because why wouldn't I take advantage of that then?
Speaker B:So I.
Speaker B:If that's available to me, especially knowing what type of workload this is.
Speaker B:And I might actually.
Speaker B:She not only does grief therapy, she.
Speaker B:She just.
Speaker B:Just does therapy in general.
Speaker B:And so I've.
Speaker B:I've considered just kind of keep going, kind of where I can check in with her and kind of help because knowing how stressful teaching is and.
Speaker B:And the emotional toll that it takes on us, I consider just continuing to go kind of, maybe not as often, but still continuing to go worse.
Speaker B:Kind of transitions from, like, grief therapy to just regular, like, therapy where just kind of helping to process some of that emotional load.
Speaker B:So I can be at my best for my students, and I can be my best not only for my students, but for my family also.
Speaker B:So it's.
Speaker B:That's up to.
Speaker B:You know, a few years ago, I would have never wanted to admit that I'm going to therapy.
Speaker B:And I don't know why.
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker B:I think it's still some of the stigma tied to it that, that we have to admit is there.
Speaker B:I don't see, you know, hey, therapy is fine for other people, but not for me.
Speaker B:Well, it's fine for me now, and it's wonderful for me.
Speaker B:And I'm so.
Speaker B:Thank.
Speaker B:I don't know, I still don't think I'd be where I am today if.
Speaker B:If it wasn't for that time with grief therapy.
Speaker B:And I not only did the grief therapy, but actually did for a couple of months.
Speaker B:I did a grief group also, which really was impactful where I got to Work with other people who had lost family members.
Speaker B:That was, that was pretty powerful too.
Speaker B:But the grief therapy, I'm been going with that.
Speaker B:The therapy.
Speaker B:So you know, talking about having healthy outlets, journaling, gratitude list therapy or counseling, I encourage if you need faith and mindfulness, it's so important where if you can do some prayer meditation, deep breathing for grounding yourself.
Speaker B:How important is that stuff to you on your emotional well being?
Speaker B:Critically important.
Speaker B:It's not just.
Speaker B:Once again, it almost sounds cliche or people joke about it, but it matters and it can be impactful.
Speaker B:And so I encourage.
Speaker B:Oh, I'm almost, I almost forgot one other thing here.
Speaker B:I have a note here about creativity outlets.
Speaker B:I'm always looking for ways to bring in and have a creative outlet and that, and having that impact, it can very much impact us emotionally.
Speaker B:I think of this podcast is one way for me to have a creative outlet for myself.
Speaker B:For you, I don't know what it is.
Speaker B:It might be music, it might be laughter movement.
Speaker B:I love music.
Speaker B:I love laughter.
Speaker B:It could be dancing.
Speaker B:What I. I don't know what it is, but maybe it's something for you.
Speaker B:Find something for you that is a creative outlet that help you with your hat.
Speaker B:So you.
Speaker B:It's a healthy emotional outlet for you that's so important to have.
Speaker B:Once again, one thing that's been huge for me as an emotional outlet is grief therapy along with doing gratitude journaling or gratitude journaling through this podcast where I share things I'm thankful for.
Speaker B:And this podcast itself is, is a creative outlet and it's actually a form of journaling too.
Speaker B:So it's actually.
Speaker B:And then I'm very big into the breathing.
Speaker B:I've been playing around with some Wim Hof breathing techniques which I might have to talk about those in future episodes.
Speaker B:And there's a lot of different breathing methods available that, that can help us move through different things through especially through moving us into being healthy emotionally.
Speaker B:So those things are, are so important, those healthy emotional outlets.
Speaker B:And I guess the third thing that, that I want to talk about is to build resilience through reflection and rest.
Speaker B:Emotional resilience equals bouncing back, not avoiding stress.
Speaker B:We can't just avoid stress.
Speaker B:And so think about, about having a reflection question like what went well?
Speaker B:What challenged me?
Speaker B:What can I leave at school before you leave at the end of the day, maybe ask yourself those three questions, have some reset strategies for yourself emotionally.
Speaker B:Like hey, like, like a short walk or a quiet break or breathing exercises.
Speaker B:Those things that you can do not just at home in the evening, but maybe during the day too, because we know that teaching is stressful.
Speaker B:Teaching is hard sometimes.
Speaker B:My.
Speaker B:I have some challenging behaviors, as a lot of you might have some challenging behaviors.
Speaker B:How do you deal with some of those students who have challenging behaviors?
Speaker B:Well, one of the things that I do is, boy, do I utilize my lunch break as much as possible sometimes just by sitting in silence.
Speaker B:And that's okay.
Speaker B:Silence and breathing and maybe having, you know, some protein or something.
Speaker B:Even my, my plan time when students are at specials, that's a time where it's important for me to sit and to reset.
Speaker B:And sometimes I just don't want to talk.
Speaker B:Sometimes I just want to be with my own feelings and my emotions where I'm just kind of decompressing in that way.
Speaker B:That's important to have that opportunity too.
Speaker B:And then just to reframe our.
Speaker B:Our thinking.
Speaker B:Like, instead of saying things like, well, today was ruined because of blah, blah, blah, right?
Speaker B:Like, instead of that saying, today was challenge.
Speaker B:Today challenged me in these ways and I learned from it.
Speaker B:Because what.
Speaker B:Right, like you had you call it as it is.
Speaker B:Today was challenging and I learned what from it.
Speaker B:I mean, when you reframe your thinking, when you.
Speaker B:Because we all have that inner dialogue, right?
Speaker B:Everybody has an inner dialogue.
Speaker B:But if we use that inner dialog to focus on just the negative or say, well, everything was ruined today.
Speaker B:Today was a garbage day, and just kind of dwell on that, that.
Speaker B:That is not.
Speaker B:Not a direction that we want to necessarily go.
Speaker B:And it's really hard on our.
Speaker B:It's really hard on us emotionally when we, we approach it in that way.
Speaker B:So I want to encourage you to, for.
Speaker B:For your emotional well being to reframe your thinking as much as possible.
Speaker B:And then that's where I'm really big with students on affirmations too.
Speaker B:I encourage you to do maybe create five affirmations that are meaningful to you that can help with your emotional well being ultimately, as, as we.
Speaker B:As I bring things to a close here and reflect on what.
Speaker B:What I've shared here with all y' all and some key takeaways is that emotional self care is a lifeline lifeline for teachers.
Speaker B:It is not about being perfect.
Speaker B:It's about being present, processing emotions and moving forward.
Speaker B:Be present, not perfect.
Speaker B:Write that down.
Speaker B:It's going to be in the test, right?
Speaker B:Be present, not perfect.
Speaker B:Make sure that you process your emotions well.
Speaker B:I hope you found value in this episode.
Speaker B:I hope you found some nuggets of advice in this episode that will be meaningful and purposeful.
Speaker B:To you moving forward.
Speaker B:And ultimately remember to inspire greatness in young people.
Speaker B:And don't forget to be a funky teacher.
Speaker B:Bye, now.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher yeah he's Mr. Funky Teacher yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:Sam.
