1. Reward yourself for all your hard work.
If your life were a video game, what would make it fun to
play? As the designer of the game, you get to decide the difficulty level, the
cheats and the rewards. Make sure after each level (which in school life could
consist of each day, each week, each term and each year) you have clear rewards
for yourself. After each day it could be something small like your favourite
snack or a movie night. After each week it could be a night out with friends.
After each term a weekend away or that new pair of shoes. And finally, with six
weeks off at the end of the year, I think you deserve an extended holiday for a
week or two at least. For me, the promise of an Italian summer motivates me to
get through the cold mornings and late nights!
2. Be vulnerable and open.
A problem shared is a problem halved. The beauty of current
statistics on mental health among school teachers is that you can guarantee you
are not alone if you are feeling stressed. Now that it is all out on the open,
stress need not be this giant stigma that people are ashamed of. It is a
natural by product of working in a difficult and demanding job. Talk to people
openly about that which is troubling you and you will immediately feel lighter.
In addition the people you talk to might just have physical, tangible ways of
lightening your load.
3. Take a slightly elevated perspective.
Imagine you were hovering above yourself watching your life
unfold. Is it in a state of order or chaos? To save time and effort and ensure
that you get enough time to relax, try having clear system in place for as many
aspects of your life as possible. The time in which you plan lessons, the time
in which you mark books, the way you ensure differentiation, the time you give
to your family, the time you get up in the morning and the time you go to bed.
All these, and many other areas of life, can be designed into a system. Once
you get into the habit of sticking to your systems, you will liberate your mind
to relax without having to constantly react to the ongoing movement of time.
All the best businesses have systems for everything; this is the reason that no
matter which Nandos (one of my favourite franchises) you go to, you get the
same experience. Taking that slightly elevated perspective and observing our own
mind is also a profoundly spiritual practice, the best selling spiritual text
‘The Power of Now’ by Eckhart Tolle suggests doing exactly this to avoid
becoming overtaken by our overactive minds. Confused? A more in depth blog on
this technique is coming soon.
4. Download Headspace
If I were to choose just one of these tips to help improve
your wellbeing, this would be it. Start a meditation practice. Meditation was
the one thing that improved my wellbeing when I was at an all time low and gave
me the impetus and strength to get back into education. The easiest way to
start a meditation practice if you have no idea what it is all about, in my
opinion, is to download the Headspace app on your smart phone or computer. You
can do the Take 10 program free of charge and see the difference that relaxing
for 10 minutes a day, without any stimulation, can have on your life. Download
it, try it! You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
5. Make time to exercise
Exercise is the body’s natural anti depressant. When we
exercise we flood our brain with serotonin, the feel good drug. A synthetic
anti depressant from the doctor works in a similar field with the same drug,
which is why they are known as Selective Seretonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI).
A major difference in my eyes is that taking the drug instead of exercising means
you miss out on all the holistic goodness of moving your body, it gets you out
the house or off the sofa, it burns calories and much more. I have nothing
against taking medication, and understand that it is of profound benefit to
many people. But some people do not want to take that route. My advice if that
is you, find your nearest yoga studio where you will get to meditate at the
same time. If meditation isn’t your thing, there is sure to be a form of
movement that suits you, whether it is joining the gym or even going for a
simple evening walk.
6. Upgrade your media
This may be a controversial one, but it is something that
has a profound impact on my wellbeing. Switch off the news! When I think about
the countless hours I have spent watching or listening to daily news updates it
makes my head hurt. How much of that information did I retain? Very little! How
angry and scared did it make me on a daily basis? Very! The beauty of the
modern age is we are much more in control of what we watch and listen to. We
are the Netflix generation who decide what to watch and when. Have a healthy
diet of comedy, documentaries and the occasional episode of Take Me Out (no
need to take life too seriously)!
A major upgrade to my media has also been the addition of audio
books and podcasts for my commute. There are thousands of hours worth of
podcasts on your smart phone covering any range of topics. I look forward to my
commute to and from work these days instead of berating the traffic and getting
angry at the ominous newsbeat every hour on the hour. I promise you will not
fall behind with what is going on in the world, in this age of information it
is near impossible to completely escape.
7. Make somebody else smile
“If you want to be successful in life, help other people.”
Not that you should need any excuse to be kind, but being of
service to others is a sure way to feel connected and happy. As teachers, or
anyone working in the school environment I am sure you are all doing this in
abundance. Ask yourself the question at the end of the day, “Who did I help?”
and remind yourself of the value you give to the world. (On a side note,
getting school kids to answer this question at the end of a lesson is a great
addition to a plenary that makes them feel good and shows what they have
mastered).
8. Upgrade your diet
As the saying goes, food is medicine. This is a real
foundation level element of wellbeing that so many of us overlook. However,
there is really very little difference between foods and drugs and medicines.
Any item of food can fall under any one of those categories depending on the
key ingredient that we add: Intent. Ask yourself the question next time you
consume something. Are you eating it because you want to nourish yourself and
treat yourself with love and respect? Or are you eating it because something to
do with distraction, greed or laziness? It is a difficult one to get right, and
something I regularly fail with, but even chocolate and red wine can be medicinal,
nourishing and a well deserved treat. The problem is that they are easily
abused and sugar is thought to be more addictive than cocaine. For me, I try to
think about the 80/20 rule. As long as 80% of your diet is clean, real,
unprocessed food you should be good. Even science now proves the saying “You
are what you eat”, with research showing that the aforementioned serotonin is
made in the gut. Garbage in, garbage out.
9. Be present
I am sure this post is full of contradictions given that I
have suggested using lots of incentives to get you through the day, such as
holidays and treat nights. But try as much as possible to keep your attention
on the present moment. This will become especially easy if you start a
meditation practice, as mentioned above. The past and future should be no more
than a tool to inform the present. The past is slowly evaporating into memories
that become less and less accurate and the futures we anticipate will mostly
not come to pass, if ever with 100% accuracy. More importantly, the scientific
truth for your wellbeing is that your body does not know the difference between
actual threats and imagined ones and the stress hormones are released either
way. In that fight or flight mode, cortisol rushes to your limbs and focuses
the attention of your body away from your vital organs, where it is needed
most. For the second time in this post I would recommend ‘The Power of Now’ by
Eckhart Tolle for a deeper understanding of this concept.
10. Be brutally honest with yourself
Tried steps 1-9 as well as a whole bunch of other things and
still find yourself feeling helpless?
Listen to your intuition. I sincerely hope that we can
improve the culture of all schools to one where wellbeing is placed above all
else and hopefully the statistics on teachers leaving the profession will
improve. My aim with this blog is to help in some way to make that happen.
However, sometimes sticking it out is just not possible. There was a time in my
life where I genuinely felt I had no choice but to take a break from the
profession. 99% of people I spoke to advised me to stick it out, and in fact it
was only one person I remember who said with real conviction that I should not
(as well as a handful of others who I knew would support me either way). That
was my mom, and I knew deep down that she was the one who was right. It was and
is something of a last resort and is not a decision to be taken lightly. It certainly was not easy and there were many
conflicting emotions but it really was the best thing for me. For some people
they absolutely should stick it out, but only the individual has the right
answer. Whatever you decide I can guarantee you one thing about your life, it
goes on.
No comments:
Post a Comment