Educators - NOW is the Time to Prioritize Your Well-being

I recently spent a week working with West Coast educators as they reflected on their teaching practices and approaches.  In just a few days, we quickly bonded over shared passions for learning, children, and education and our collective awareness of the unyielding stressors we feel in education. In addition to facilitating discussions and learning about pedagogy, I made an effort to help them appreciate all of their efforts and begin to consider ways to prioritize and take action to support their well-being. Suppose if we’re going to attract and retain dedicated teachers like the ones I worked with this summer, there must be a collective effort to foster conditions where prioritizing well-being is possible and celebrated.

Many educators share the challenges of teaching, which are layered with challenges in helping families, colleagues and their own families. As we savor the mid-days of summer, we have a window of time to rest and replenish and even to build habits for self-care that will provide a sense of rejuvenation and carry us refreshed and ready for the new school year.

It’s been shown that chronic stress takes its toll on our mind, body, and spirit in the form of “allostatic load,”  which refers to the cost of chronic or extreme wear and tear on our bodies, minds, and emotions (McEwen & Seeman, 2009; Schwartz & Pines, 2020). Allostatic overload occurs when demands on our internal resources exceed our capacities, such as the fear and uncertainty fueled by the demands of teaching and the pressure on finite resources we each possess. Two consequences of this overload are poor decision-making and burnout (Markman, 2020).

There’s no Magic 8-Ball to see what lies ahead, but using small steps for self-care can help refill and refuel. By prioritizing self-care this summer, you can develop habits that will rejuvenate and prepare you for the upcoming school year.  

Come back next week to read about my top 5 tips for rejuvenating now as we transition into our schools and classrooms this fall.   

Sources:

Markman, A. (2020, March 15). Slow down to make better decisions in a crisis. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2020/03/slow-down-to-make-better-decisions-in-a-crisis

McEwen, B., & Seeman, T. (2009, August). Allostatic load and allostasis. Allostatic Load Notebook. MacArthur Research Network on SES & Health, University of California, San Francisco. https://macses.ucsf.edu/research/allostatic/allostatic.php