Love yourself

As a teacher, it is hard to find the time to care for yourself when you spend soo much time supporting others. I know that I myself have had sleepless nights worrying about that one learner with an un-healthy home life, even though the matter was out of my hands.

Being an accessible and caring teacher has major benefits when it comes to learner progression, but it also means they confide in you about other problems. Even after reporting the issues to the appropriate authorities, of course you are still going to think and worry about it. I don't even think I have to discuss the ridiculous workload and deadlines that teachers have to deal with.

self-care is actually very important to enable you to be an effective teacher. If you are tired, either emotionally or physically, you cannot do your job well. Additionally, self-care is important so that you can model good balance and healthy boundaries to your students and colleagues.

Taking time out to care for yourself can remind you and others that you and your needs are important, too. Having a well-cared-for body can make you feel good about yourself and your life, and conveys to others that you value yourself. This can contribute to long-term feelings of well-being.

Over 40% of teachers report feeling high stress every day, which ties teaching with nursing as having the highest stress rate of any career.

Making small changes to your daily activities does not mean you have to reschedule your whole routine. Some of the things that I do to during my day to manage my wellbeing is to:

1. Eat lunch outside (weather permitting,) this allows the brain to refresh, listen to the birds and do some people watching! Food always plays an important part in my daily life, I now order Hello Fresh meals to ensure my diet is varied.

2. Embrace imperfection: Teachers always feel like they aren't doing enough, but in fact this is a good quality, knowing your weaknesses allows you to learn and grow. If you cant answer a question ask your learners to research and answer the question themselves, pass over the power of learning.

3. Always ask for help: Whether you need help from a colleague with a presentation or you ask a learner to help arrange the classroom in the morning. Breaking yourself to accomplish everything alone is never helpful.

4. Physical activity: You probably hear this all the time, but it actually does help. I am lucky because I do not live far from the main college campus, so I walk to work where possible. I also go to yoga every Monday evening.... after all, who enjoys Mondays?!

5. Leave work at work: I am very guilty of dragging my marking home and sitting at the dining table with piles of workbooks. This is actually extremely unhealthy and can transform your relaxing space into a stressful one. If needs must - go into work early in the morning to complete some marking.

6. Write down goals and accomplishments: This is something I do when I am struggling to sleep. Often I have many thoughts whizzing around inside my brain and the only way to calm them is to physically put them on paper as a little spider diagram. It is also very satisfying when you can tick off a goal afterwards!

7. Use your resources: This one seems obvious, but it is necessary. Your learning establishment will have support systems in place and if you begin to feel overwhelmed, try to use them.

Do you have any methods to manage teacher wellbeing? Drop me a message to let me know!