The Two Best Ways To Counter Stress As A Teacher

I just wanted to share some helpful content with two ways to handle daily stresses as a teacher.

Sleep

Sleep is by far going to be the most important part of any successful teacher’s regiment. When someone has enough sleep, they are more likely to make better and clearer decisions, they will most likely have more self control, and will be happier than someone who is not getting enough sleep.

Getting at least 8 hours of sleep a night is the best way to counter the stress of being a teacher.

Meditate

The hard part about teaching is that when you’re at school with students, you always have to be on. I have worked other types of jobs when I was younger, and I never had to be “on” for the whole time. When I worked at the bank, there was downtime. When I worked in retail, there was downtime mentally when there were no customers present.

But when it comes to teaching, we always have to be “on”. On school days there will always be students present. Your mind has to constantly make decisions. Did I present the material well? Little Johnny says he’s sick, but he has done this for the past 4 days in my class. Remember you have that ARD meeting at 3 pm today. The list honestly goes on of our daily thoughts, actions, and processes.

We are daily problem solvers. I would speculate that we solve over twenty very important problems daily. All of that critical thinking, requires critical rest.

This is where meditation is going to be key.

You need to let your mind rest, and I don’t mean watch your favorite show at lunch, or binge watch it when you get home. The mind has to have periodic daily rests, other than when you’re asleep.

One way I practice this is once during my conference period and once at lunch. For five minutes I go to where I can’t be bothered. I usually shut off my lights in my classroom or I am in my car. I silent everything around me. Then I take deep breaths, inhaling through my nose, and exhaling slowly through my mouth. I shut all my thoughts off and focus on one calming thing(usually being on a beach on a warm sunny day watching the waves come onto shore). When I inhale, I tell myself I am taking in clean air and good energy, when I exhale, I tell myself I am letting out all the bad air and toxic vibes. I make sure to breathe really deep during this exercise.

There are also some really great meditation videos on Youtube that help as well.

Teaching is a very rewarding career, but to have longevity in it, you need to put some of your needs first. I hope this email has been helpful.

Cheers!

-E