Happy Thursday Y'all
This month's prompt was...
How Do I Take Care Of Myself?
How Do I Take Care Of Myself?
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I'll be 100% honest.
This is something I struggle with.
Why?
I throw myself into my work.
I read an article from The Association of American Educators which discussed this, saying...
"More than many other occupations, education is missional in nature. Educators are well aware that how well a child is educated will drive their success later on in life."
So combine that with the fact that I'm also (first) a missionary.
Two jobs merged into one career.
And I'm equally passionate about the two.
I'm a Missionary Teacher.
And as the AAE also said, "Educators feel as if they must always strive to do more and strive to try harder, making it easy to often lose themselves in the mission at hand."
I think it's a good thing to continually strive to improve oneself. To continually strive to be better at one's job.
But the issue comes when burnout happens.
AAE says, "Often this striving can lead to an unsustainable pace, and it's easy for educators to become burned out."
My job is a difficult one.
Some people have commented that because I only have 3 full-time students (plus others who visit my room periodically for shorter stints of time), I have it easy.
To that I say...
Ha!
I spend far more time preparing for my class this year than I have ever done in my 9 years as a teacher. I teach all core classes (Bible, Reading, Spelling, Grammar, Math, Science, and Social Studies) plus Life Skills and Social Skills. And since my three are at different levels, that means I'm essentially preparing 3 separate lessons/activities for much of what we do, since they're not always working on the same skill. And to make it a bit more interesting, I don't have a curriculum this year. So I've had to scour the internet, or my own brain, to come up with ideas for those lessons and activities. PRAISE THE LORD for the internet! :)
Also I don't have a planning time. Lunch is my only break. So I do come in early/late and work on the weekends too.
And this is only for the teaching side of my job.
Factor in the missions side (which is my first duty here on the field), and that adds in even more.
I have periodic paperwork I have to complete for the AG. We have meetings (which usually take a significant amount of time out of a day). There are conferences. There is fundraising and traveling.
And so on and so forth.
** And at this point, I feel like I need to post a disclaimer of sorts. I love my job. I love being a missionary. I love being a teacher. I am truly, 100% passionate about both. Please, please, please, don't think I'm just whining and saying I don't enjoy what I do. Because that is so 100% far from the truth.
Anywho - Back to the point of this post.
How do I take care of ME?
As I said, I often struggle with this.
A couple months ago, I realized I was on the verge of burnout.
I was coming in early and leaving late every single day. I was working for some amount of time every weekend. I was worried because I had been told there was a chance my class would be cancelled. So on top of overworking myself, I also was worried about my students' and their families' futures. I wasn't sleeping. I was facing anxiety like never before. And while I put on a brave face and a fake smile for my students and I continued to provide all they needed, inside, I was being eat up by anxiety and worry and stress.
And I realized something.
I definitely could not continue like that.
Self-Care is so important.
It shouldn't be a "nice to have one day" goal for the future.
It needs to happen right away.
After all, as the quote above says...
You can't pour from an empty cup.
So, I got out a pen and some paper and I quickly jotted down a list of some ways I could take care of myself a bit better.
And here's what I came up with...
* Sleep in. Sleeping in for me is waking up at 6:00, instead of 4:30 or 5:00. But still... It's amazing what a difference this has made.
* Leave my phone in my classroom at lunch. Because lunch is my only break of the day, I choose to take it as a full break. That means no checking email/texts, no scrolling through Facebook, etc. It's simply enjoying my lunch and chatting with friends/co-workers.
* Stay after work and prep/clean up for the next day. If I take those few extra minutes each afternoon to set up for the next day, I'm far more relaxed when it's time for school to begin the next day.
* Don't bring work home UNLESS it's mindless cutting or something like that. I made myself a promise to not bring work home anymore, unless it's something mindless. I have no problem cutting laminated cards, assembling goody bags, or something random like that. It doesn't require a lot brain power for those things. So I can do it while watching a movie or listening to music and relaxing. Actually, this is a stress reliever for me. So this mindless activity is great!
* No caffeine after lunch. Some days are harder than others. But so far, I'm doing okay with this one. I've just realized that when I do, I have a much harder time falling asleep. So, unless it's the weekend or another non-school night, I'll have no caffeine after lunch. And there have been many, many days these past two weeks when I've had no caffeine whatsoever all day long.
* Devotions in the evening. This isn't the same for everyone. I know some people believe you should do them when you first wake up. But, honestly, I'm just not coherent enough when I first wake up to comprehend what I'm reading. So I've found when I wait 'til evening time, I'm able to concentrate and study far longer. And I'm spending more time than ever before studying the Word and studying all my Savior has for me to learn. I'm loving it :)
* Gratitude Journal. Every night, I write down some of the ways God blessed me through my day. I'm finding that when I shift to having an attitude of gratitude right before prayers at night, I spend far more time thanking God versus whining on and on about this or that. Plus, when I am having a bad day, I can pull out my Gratitude Journal and remind myself of God's blessings in my life.
* Intentionally set REST time in my weekend. Due to my schedule during the week, I literally have no choice, but to work a bit on the weekends. However, I can intentionally set one day of my weekend (or two half days as it usually happens) to rest. And by rest, I mean that I spend time not solely relaxing, but I also (and more importantly) spend time at church and I spend (more) time in the presence of God.
So yes, until something changes (which is highly unlikely), my job will always require me to work extra hours after school and on the weekends. And I know that since I am pulling double duty with working for the AG and for my school at the same time, I'll always have more responsibilities than some. And I'm okay with all of that. I truly do love what I do.
But I know that I CAN indeed follow these steps and thereby do a far better job at taking care of ME in the process.
After all, as the quote above says...
You can't pour from an empty cup.
So, I got out a pen and some paper and I quickly jotted down a list of some ways I could take care of myself a bit better.
And here's what I came up with...
* Sleep in. Sleeping in for me is waking up at 6:00, instead of 4:30 or 5:00. But still... It's amazing what a difference this has made.
* Leave my phone in my classroom at lunch. Because lunch is my only break of the day, I choose to take it as a full break. That means no checking email/texts, no scrolling through Facebook, etc. It's simply enjoying my lunch and chatting with friends/co-workers.
* Stay after work and prep/clean up for the next day. If I take those few extra minutes each afternoon to set up for the next day, I'm far more relaxed when it's time for school to begin the next day.
* Don't bring work home UNLESS it's mindless cutting or something like that. I made myself a promise to not bring work home anymore, unless it's something mindless. I have no problem cutting laminated cards, assembling goody bags, or something random like that. It doesn't require a lot brain power for those things. So I can do it while watching a movie or listening to music and relaxing. Actually, this is a stress reliever for me. So this mindless activity is great!
* No caffeine after lunch. Some days are harder than others. But so far, I'm doing okay with this one. I've just realized that when I do, I have a much harder time falling asleep. So, unless it's the weekend or another non-school night, I'll have no caffeine after lunch. And there have been many, many days these past two weeks when I've had no caffeine whatsoever all day long.
* Devotions in the evening. This isn't the same for everyone. I know some people believe you should do them when you first wake up. But, honestly, I'm just not coherent enough when I first wake up to comprehend what I'm reading. So I've found when I wait 'til evening time, I'm able to concentrate and study far longer. And I'm spending more time than ever before studying the Word and studying all my Savior has for me to learn. I'm loving it :)
* Gratitude Journal. Every night, I write down some of the ways God blessed me through my day. I'm finding that when I shift to having an attitude of gratitude right before prayers at night, I spend far more time thanking God versus whining on and on about this or that. Plus, when I am having a bad day, I can pull out my Gratitude Journal and remind myself of God's blessings in my life.
* Intentionally set REST time in my weekend. Due to my schedule during the week, I literally have no choice, but to work a bit on the weekends. However, I can intentionally set one day of my weekend (or two half days as it usually happens) to rest. And by rest, I mean that I spend time not solely relaxing, but I also (and more importantly) spend time at church and I spend (more) time in the presence of God.
So yes, until something changes (which is highly unlikely), my job will always require me to work extra hours after school and on the weekends. And I know that since I am pulling double duty with working for the AG and for my school at the same time, I'll always have more responsibilities than some. And I'm okay with all of that. I truly do love what I do.
But I know that I CAN indeed follow these steps and thereby do a far better job at taking care of ME in the process.
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