Monday, April 27, 2015

What Do You Do When You're Overwhelmed?

Bobbi Campbell contributed today's post. More of Bobbi's thinking can be found here.

What do you do when you are overwhelmed?  I have an interesting coping mechanism for this...avoid, avoid, avoid, until it is impossible to ignore the mountain of work seeping through every crack and orifice, extending out at least 3 feet.  Sometimes the workload is self-imposed; sometimes it is because of the choices I have made (working full-time with a 75 minute commute, mother of three...yada, yada, yada, yada) and mostly, it is due to the demands of being an educator - I know anyone reading this blog...are you out there bloggess?, knows exactly what I am talking about. Plain and simply, the demands can make one question education as a career choice.  But this blog is not about questioning your choice, because we all know we are in education for a myriad of reasons, mostly centering on making a difference in a child’s education.  This blog is about taking care of yourself, so that you CAN take care of the education of children.

Lately, our district focus has been on the following agenda items:
  • Gradual Release of Responsibility
  • Equity Traps
  • Growth Mindset
  • Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Practices
  • Focus Standards: W1, W5,W10, SL6, R1, L6, R10

While the areas of focus are extremely important, none of it matters if you are stressed, overwhelmed and unsupported.  I can hear your questions now…”This is our job, we have to learn, do, pay attention to all of these agenda items!” - yes, you do, but first we need to practice self-care so that we can be more efficient, more focused, more open to learn new things and try them, and gosh darn it, happier.  

The following list of self-care or sanity savers are not prescriptive, or necessarily healthy for you, but they work for me.

  • Force yourself to exercise. I personally get up at 4:30 to get the darn thing out of the way.
    • Choose yoga if you know you will be in meetings all day.
    • Kickboxing if you know you will be working with difficult people.
    • Tae Kwon Do if you know you will be working with someone higher up on the food chain
    • Weights if you have to present in front of a large audience (you may sweat and have to take off your jacket, showing your arms, hence the weights).
  • Phone a friend who will make you laugh.
  • Keep positive notes, letters, emails handy and retrieve them when you need some cheer.
  • Go to your favorite takeout place and get dinner for the entire family.
  • Open up an expensive (my expensive bottle is probably not your expensive) $12.00 bottle of wine and have, not just one glass, but two!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • Stop at T.J. Maxx on the way home and purchase a small pick-me-up item.  Nothing major, just a little treat!
  • Journal. Put it away. Take out journal and read it. Write back to yourself.
  • Step outside and look up to the sky.  Take a deep breath and stretch  your arms, reaching towards the sky.
  • Hug your loved ones.
  • Get at least 7 hours of sleep, no matter what tasks will be left undone.
  • Paint your toes.
  • Read a trashy novel, followed by something of quality.
  • Repeat to yourself: you did your best, forget the rest.

So, if you want to be a happier, more productive employee, take care of yourself by practicing self-care.  Your colleagues and the kids will appreciate it!

1 comment:

  1. Great timing for this awesome post! I often need to remind myself that I have to take care of myself before I can be a great wife, mom, teacher and colleague!

    ReplyDelete

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