Teacher Wellness
You are an educator. You are valuable. You are important.
PTSD for teachers. Yes, it's real and you're not alone
There’s a push for teachers to focus on student mental health – which is important – however, teacher mental health also needs to be addressed. One in twenty teachers report experiencing a mental health diagnosis lasting longer than a year. We can assume many more are suffering silently or undiagnosed, and that the numbers are on the rise with the added stressors of pandemic teaching. One of the mental health conditions teachers are often diagnosed with is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Read the full article here: https://www.boredteachers.com/post/ptsd-teachers
Toxic positivity in the work environment is not healthy for teachers and students
“Toxic positivity” as it’s known—or the papering over of legitimate feelings of anxiety, stress, or despair with saccharine, out-of-the-box phrases like, “look at the good things you’ve got”—doesn’t promote resilience in children or adults, said Marc Brackett, the director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence.
HEADSPACE FOR EDUCATORS
You’re here for them, we’re here for you. Headspace offers free access to all K-12 teachers, school administrators, and supporting staff in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.
Helping you be kind to yourself and your health, and guide your students and their parents through this difficult time.
COMING SOON...
Here you will find a curated list of podcasts on self-care and self-empowerment, recommended reading lists and many more.
Teacher Empowerment:
This week we use a sparkle jar as a metaphor for what happens inside our brain when we feel stressed and overwhelmed. The use of the sparkle ball in this exercise gives students a visual idea of what is going on inside their brains when they have strong feelings.
When kids are in a state of stress, the kind of effective learning that takes place in the prefrontal cortex cannot occur. Mindful breathing supports the strong function of the prefrontal cortex. When we pay attention to our breathing we slow the heart rate, lower blood pressure, and we can override the alarm responses set off by the amygdala. This gives control back to the prefrontal cortex so that higher level thinking can occur. The calming mechanism of the breath is reinforced as students watch the colored specs in the ball settle with each breath they take.
When children focus on their breathing through a daily practice it strengthens the neural pathways in the prefrontal cortex. Their brain creates a habit of reacting to stress and anxiety by focusing on the breath. This leads to reflective instead of impulsive responses. The more mindful breathing that is practiced, the easier it becomes for children to self-regulate.
Here are some ways to settle a busy mind before it becomes too frazzled. Please note that some of these methods have been introduced to you in earlier lessons — this is fine, since the reminders and repetition are very valuable.
Proactive strategies:
Before answering a phone call, take 3 mindful breaths.
As you head to a meeting, whether it is in your school or if you are traveling by car/bus/train, notice 3 things that you have never noticed before.
When you arrive home, before walking in the front door, focus on sounds that you can hear for 30 seconds.
These ideas are more for settling your busy mind when you are in the moment of a heated situation:
Simply place your hand on your belly, and notice one breath.
Listen for the tone of your voice. See if you can change it to a calmer tone.
Keep a glitter jar on your desk — when you receive an email or a phone call that is unnerving, shake the glitter jar, let it settle, and then respond.
Teacher Empowerment: January 26
This week is all about strengthening the neural pathways in the part of our brain that processes positive emotions. The simple practice of gratitude is one of the easiest ways to do this. Try it for one week and I guarantee that you will notice a shift. This is one small change that can make a big difference for you and your students!
In addition to making us feel better, the practice of gratitude helps students to use their prefrontal cortex more effectively. Feeling grateful can trigger the release of dopamine to the PFC. This dose of dopamine increases alertness, determination, attentiveness, and energy. Research has shown that students who formally practice gratitude get better grades, are more socially integrated, are more kind and helpful to others, and show fewer signs of depression. It is a simple, but incredibly powerful practice.
A few ideas for your personal Gratitude practice.
Keep a gratitude journal on your night stand. Each night before going to bed write down three to five things for which you are grateful.
Keep a gratitude journal on your desk at work. Before you leave each day write down one student and one co-worker for whom you are grateful.
Start a gratitude ritual at work. Begin each faculty meeting by allowing time for faculty and staff to express gratitude for each other. If you are a principal, ask the faculty to email in advance if they have gratitude that they would like to express. Invite one or two public expressions per meeting.
Create a bulletin board in the faculty lounge with pieces of scratch paper. Invite faculty and staff to write down names and reasons they are grateful for each other and post them on the board.
Remember, you don’t need to do all of these! Pick a practice that resonates with you and commit to trying it for one week.
Teacher Empowerment: January 19
Today we are going to learn more about being mindful of sensations in our bodies. As we develop mindful awareness of the sensations in our bodies through the body scan, we become more in tune with how feelings and emotions present themselves inside of our bodies. This is also a great practice for those struggling with insomnia as it is very relaxing and can help to bring a wandering and anxious mind back to the present moment.
When we engage in an activity like the body scan, our attention automatically returns to the present moment. We know that when we can focus on the present moment our PFC works more effectively and we are able to focus our attention, solve problems, and make good choices. In this lesson we also use our focused attention to bring present moment awareness to the different parts of our body. This is another way to strengthen the Reticular Activating System (RAS), the part of our brain that helps us to focus on the task at hand while filtering out distracting sensory input.
Teacher Empowerment: January 12
This week we are going to help students develop emotional literacy. The ability to identify feeling in ourselves and in others is key to the development of empathy. The development of empathy relies heavily on face to face engagement and conversation. Using fun games and movement activities students will get to practice identifying feelings and connecting through face to face interactions.
When children can develop an emotional literacy (the ability to recognize and label emotions in themselves and others) it increases the development of empathy. Children learn empathy through face to face interactions. This begins when they are infants and learn that when they smile, mom smiles. The skill of learning empathy continues to develop through face to face interactions as they grow.
The rise of technology has lead to a significant decrease in face-to-face interactions.
In addition to providing opportunities for face to face interactions, helping students to recognize the feelings of characters in books is another way to increase their emotional literacy. It is important for children to be able to recognize how someone is feeling so they can react in a caring and compassionate way.
Teacher Empowerment: December 15
This week we will explore the fun and delicious practice of mindful eating! Mindful eating is a wonderful way to bring mindfulness into our day to day lives as we have several opportunities each day to practice. Be sure to check out the personal practice section for some wonderful tips to enhance a personal mindful eating practice. Enjoy!
We know that when the brain is in a stressful state it has a significant impact on learning. Focus, engagement, competence and achievement are only possible when a child’s brain is in a calm, receptive state. Mindful eating and mindful drinking give children the opportunity to be both relaxed and aware.
This fun and engaging activity feeds on children’s natural curiosity providing a relaxed yet alert state of mind. They are given the opportunity to practice “paying attention to the present moment” which helps them absorb details and think clearly.
The more children have the opportunity to formally practice this type of mindful attention the easier it becomes for them to use this type of attention in their day-to-day learning experiences.
Try to avoid multi-tasking while you eat. Put aside your work, computer, phone, and turn off the TV. Paying attention to the act of eating without distraction helps bring awareness to the present moment and also help us notice when we are full so we don’t over eat.
Take one mindful bite at the beginning of each meal. Eating is often about pleasure. When we give ourselves the opportunity to experience the pleasure of a bite, we are less like to continue eating mindlessly.
Slow down. Try putting your utensils down between each bite, or take a mindful breath between each bite.
Go for the chocolate! If you are craving a sweet, eat it mindfully. Our bad eating habits are often not as much about what we eat, but how we eat.
Weekly Journal Prompt
Draw a map of your heart. Draw a big heart shape in the middle of the page and include all the things that take up residence there. Your family may cover a big area in the center. And maybe music lives there too. And your lizard. Whatever you love, give it space inside the heart.
Teacher Empowerment: December 8
This week’s lesson provides another way to help your students understand how mindfulness can impact our brains. Using a garden as a metaphor we help students understand that, like seeds in a garden, the thoughts and feelings that we pay attention to are the ones that flourish.
When we intentionally focus on positive thought and emotions, we feel happier.
Our brain is 3 to 5 times more sensitive to negative information than to positive. This is a survival mechanism that helped humans to survive as they evolved (i.e it was more important to be aware of poisonous snakes than to stop and smell the beautiful flowers). Today, we don’t have the same threats to our survival, yet our brain is still built to pay more attention to the negative input.
When we intentionally pay attention to the positive things in our life we strengthen the neural pathways associated with those positive memories. The more frequently the pathways are used, the more our brain likes to use those pathways, increasing positive thoughts and lessening our focus on negative experiences.
Sometimes I am amazed at how I find my mind wandering to the people in my life who bring me down, rather than those who lift me up. In a journal, or on a sticky note, jot down the names of 4 people who lift you up. Then, next to each name, write down what it is about these people that makes you feel so good.
Take this first activity one step further if you like, and pick up the phone and make a date with one of these people. During you time together share with them what makes you feel so good when you are together.
Look around your home. Find 3 things that you like about your home, write down specific things that you like about each item. The act of writing this down helps to strengthen the neural pathways related to positive emotions.
The next time you are stuck in traffic, which I know can be a stressful experience, look around and find a positive. Maybe it is outside your car — a nice sunset or a cool looking building, or maybe it is inside your car— you are with someone you love and now have the opportunity to engage in conversation, you have time to listen to a podcast you’ve been meaning to listen to, or a favorite piece of music. Finding the positive when faced with a negative is a challenge, but also a great opportunity
Weekly Journal Prompt
One nice thing you did for someone else today. Knowing you’re going to have to write about doing a good deed just makes you all the more likely to actually do a good deed. Enough said.
Teacher Empowerment: December 1
As children practice mindful seeing they strengthen the neural pathways in the prefrontal cortex as they become increasingly attuned to observing details by slowing down and focusing their attention.
In addition, the “I notice” exercise helps students to develop basic skills of empathy. Children learn empathy through face to face interactions. This begins when they are infants and learn that when they smile, mom smiles. The skill of learning empathy continues to develop through face to face interactions as they grow.
The rise of technology has led to a significant decrease in face-to-face interactions. Most children would prefer to play with their parents’ phone than engage in a face to face conversation.
When children have repeated eye-contact with peers, they begin to recognize them as a person with feelings. When they can begin to learn this type of perspective-taking, it decreases their desire to bully or be unkind. “I notice” helps children to become comfortable with face to face interaction and eye contact in a non-threatening way, indirectly helping to develop skills of empathy.
On your commute:
Pick a block or a street to practice mindful seeing. Try to find something you have never noticed before.
Take a different route to work. It is easy to go on autopilot when you are overly familiar with a drive.
At work:
Notice your favorite color. Spend a day or an hour and try to notice your favorite color in as many places as you can. This is a great way to create a mindful state and you become increasingly aware of your environment. Share this game with your students as well!
As you walk through the halls, smile at coworkers and students and count how many smiles you get in return. Challenge yourself to reach a certain number over the course of the day!
At home:
Take a mindful walk around your neighborhood and try to notice things you have never noticed before. This is a great time of year to closely examine the colors of the leaves on the trees and on the ground. You can add in some mindful listening by listening to the sound of the leaves crunching under your feet.
As your watch your favorite sports team or your kids soccer practice. Pick a player to watch who does not have the ball. What do they do? How do they move? Can you guess how they are feeling based on their body language?
Weekly Journal Prompt
What three things could you not live without and why? Your cat named Cupcake, actual cupcakes, your nephew’s giggle…it doesn’t matter. Just reflect and give a little rationale to get you thinking positively and in the spirit of gratitude.
Teacher Empowerment: November 17
This week our focus is on the amygdala that determines emotional responses by classifying sensory input. Input perceived as pleasurable is passed on to the prefrontal cortex (PFC) where higher level analysis can occur. If input is perceived as unfamiliar or threatening it does not progress to the PFC and a fight or flight response is triggered in the brain.
The amygdala does not distinguish between perceived threats and real danger.
For example, sometimes we may freeze when asked to speak in front of a group of people, or our mind may go blank when asked a difficult question. These reactions occur before our mind even thinks about the situation.
When we are mindful in the way we pay attention to sensory input we create a space between the input and our reaction to it. This gives the PFC a chance to choose the best response rather than the amygdala choosing a response for us.
When students can begin to recognize the alarm response in their brain, they can use breathing to calm the response allowing the PFC to function properly.
Deep breathing calms the stress response and creates time for students to create a thoughtful rather than reactive response.
This week take a few minutes each night to record events that trigger the stress response (the alarm) in your brain.
Creating awareness of the stress response and our reactions to that response increase our awareness of these small alarms. With awareness we are able to respond to situation thoughtfully rather than reacting impulsively. Try to record 3-5 events per day.
Try to notice the small alarms (someone says something that bothers you) as well as the big alarms (you come close to being in a bad car accident).
Rate each alarm on a scale of 1 to 10 based on how much stress it caused you.
Record your reaction to the alarm. Did it change your mood? Did you do anything to calm yourself?
Teacher Empowerment: November 24
We often think of mindful movement as slow and calm movements. While we do practice stillness, the movements can also be very active and aerobic. When we practice doing the Sundance quickly, we create a healthy kind of stress in the brain. The kind of stress that releases serotonin, a neurotransmitter that regulates mood, appetite, and the sleep/wake cycle.
High levels of serotonin are associated with an elevated mood while low levels are associated with depression. Though many neurotransmitters work in harmony to influence mood, serotonin is one of the most important.
If you have been practicing mindful breathing or listening regularly try to increase your practice time by 3 to 5 minutes
Notice opportunities throughout your day to incorporate mindfulness practices. For example, can you bring mindful awareness into the movements of your daily workout? Or, can you take five mindful breaths in your car when you arrive at a destination?
Weekly Journal Prompt
Set your intentions for the day ahead. Writing things down goes a long way in turning intentions into actions. So think about how you want your day to go and what it will include, and get it on paper.
SEL for Educators - Snapshot - vF.pdfTeacher Empowerment: November 10
This week our our focus is on the amygdala or “the alarm” part of our brain reacts to fear, danger and real or perceived threats. It was designed to protect us from threats and regulates our emotional state.
When a child is in a positive emotional state the amygdala forwards information on to the prefrontal cortex or “smart part” of the brain. This highly evolved area of the brain focuses our attention, regulates our decisions, helps us solve problems and think critically about information.
When kids are in a state of stress effective learning, the kind that takes place in the prefrontal cortex, cannot occur.
Mindful breathing supports the strong function of the prefrontal cortex. When we pay attention to our breathing we slow the heart rate, lower blood pressure, and we can override the alarm response set off by the amygdala. This gives control back to the prefrontal cortex so higher level thinking can occur.
When children focus on their breathing through a daily practice it strengthens the neural pathways in the prefrontal cortex. Their brain creates a habit of reacting to stress and anxiety by focusing on the breath. This leads to reflective instead of impulsive responses.
The more mindful breathing is practiced the easier it becomes for children to self-regulate.
TRY THIS: TAKE THREE MINDFUL BREATHS…
Each time you sit down to check your email take three mindful breaths before opening your inbox.
When you arrive to work, or home from work, take three mindful breaths before you get out of your car.
When you are stopped at a traffic light, put your hand on your belly and count how many breaths you take while you wait for the light to turn green.
Weekly Journal Prompt
A letter to your child self. So much of what affects us today was ingrained in us so long ago. Physical and emotional triggers. Fears. It can be really helpful to revisit little you and tell them everything is going to be alright.
Teacher Empowerment: November 3
This week our focus is on mindful listening. Mindful listening is one of the most powerful exercises for developing focused attention. This exercise will become part of the core practice that children engage in each time they have a mindfulness lesson.
When we practice mindful listening we are activating the Reticular Activating System (RAS) in the brain. The RAS helps the brain to filter through all incoming stimuli and determine which stimulus is the most important to focus on at that time.
Imagine you are in an airport and there is a constant flow of auditory information coming into your brain. Most of that information does not come to our conscious attention. However, when we hear an announcement that there is a delay on our flight the information comes to the forefront of our attention. This process is your RAS at work.
In school, kids’ brains have to process a lot of sensory information:
Noise from other classrooms
Distracting classmates
Humming lights
The buzz of the air conditioner
When their RAS is working effectively, they are able to filter out all of the unnecessary information and focus on what the teacher is saying. Practicing mindful listening strengthens the RAS, making it easier for kids to focus their attention on the most important task.
INFORMAL MINDFUL LISTENING ACTIVITIES
On a short walk, bring your awareness to the sounds that you hear.
As you lie in bed, either in the morning or evening, take a moment to listen to the farthest sound you can hear.
The Negative Bias of the Brain: The Power of Sharing the Positive
CATEGORY: MINDFUL LIFE BLOG
I got a big laugh during a presentation I was giving last week in Atlanta, where traffic can be absolutely awful. I was talking about the negative bias in the brain, and I asked them “think about your commute – when was the last time you thought ‘wow, that’s an excellent driver’, instead of wanting to flip half a dozen people off each day for failing to put their blinkers on while changing lanes?!”
The reason we don’t notice those good drivers, I explained, is because our brains are far more sensitive to negative information than positive. This dates back to our hunting and gathering days when it was more important to pay attention to poisonous snakes and saber tooth tigers, than to stop and smell the beautiful flowers. This hyper-awareness of the negative is a survival mechanism.
Today we don’t have the same threats to our survival, but our brains are still far more sensitive to negative information. As Rick Hanson says, "our brains are like velcro for the bad and teflon for the good!"
Think about this:
When you stand in front of a full length mirror, which is an easier list to come up with, five things you would like to improve about yourself, or five things you think are awesome about yourself?
When you look at your kid's report card and there are 4 As and a C, what goes through your head – 'My kid is killing it', or ‘What’s going on in that class?'
When you have a job review, and your boss tells you 9 amazing things, and 1 area that you need some improvement in, what do you tell your partner when you get home?
I’m as guilty of this as anyone – I easily get hung up on the slide I forgot in my speech rather than the compliments I received when I was done.
In A Moxie Tribe this month, we have been spending a great deal of time working through this. The key is to strengthen the neural pathways in the prefrontal context of our brain that are responsible for cultivating positive emotions.
Here’s a simple hack to get you started: One Funny Thing
At the end of each day, write down or share with someone one funny thing that happened today.
Research shows that humor is powerful. Our laughter creates physical effects on our bodies, releasing dopamine, increasing blood flow, and strengthening connections with others. And when we can find the humor in a tough situation it provides a healthy way to cope.
When we reflect on these events at the end of the day, rather than ruminating about our problems, we direct our attention to pleasant experiences, and we have the opportunity to relive that positive experience in the present.
Weekly Journal Prompt
A note to your future self. Give yourself a pep talk. Ask questions. Or explain how you made it through a problem you’re currently in the throes of. It doesn’t have to be formal. Just thinking about yourself in a different time can help you put your current state into perspective.
mindful-life-in-just-minutes-a-day.pdfTeacher Empowerment: October 27
This week we shared our Introduction video to Mindful Thinking. This introductory video provided the core knowledge that you will need to help you proceed through the Weekly Wellness program. This is so relevant for staff and students today, how it impacts our brains and our students' brains, and how it can create a state of mind where students are ready to learn, allowing you to move through material more quickly and efficiently.
Weekly Journal Prompt
Stream of consciousness flow. Set a timer for 10, 15, or 20 minutes and write whatever comes to your mind. It might get weird, but it doesn’t matter. Keep writing. What’s important here is that you don’t edit yourself. Don’t go back and read what you wrote. Don’t stifle the ink flow with self-judgment. Just write.