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!