Month: July 2017

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Day 15 More with Less—Living in the Flow

Photo by Jared Erondu on Unsplash

Today’s Meditation

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“May what I do, flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back, the way it is with children.” —Rainer Maria Rilke

Imagine a flow of energy in your day coming through and around, surrounding you, getting the results you want, generating important ideas, those few things, that are most precious to us. Identifying what matters most to us and adding that richness to our lives.

If you were to focus on those things, you might be surprised, as many are, that 80 percent of what we have comes from only 20 percent of what we do. It’s called the 80/20 principle. This means that 80 percent of your happiness, the things that matter to you most, comes from 20 percent of what you do. And to use this knowledge to your advantage can give you “less for more,” with focus, and with focus, you can create “more with less.”

What’s important

Using less energy, sweat and worry to create the things that matter, the important aspects of our lives.

“It is not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results.” —Warren Buffett

When you think of our hectic, modern-day lives, we often hear and feel, that instead of working to live, we live to work. There has to be a balance. With self-confidence and the right life philosophy, we can achieve a more happy, relaxed, and energized teacher’s life.

“Less is more only when more [becomes]too much.”                   —Frank Lloyd Wright

Focused energy gives you freedom

Many of us worry more, not less, we are terrified of our freedom to do what we have time for. We feel like we are cheating, not working enough, just because we are now able to leave a few minutes earlier. No, you are not cheating. You are working less, and because your energy is focused, you are getting more for less.

Because you are controlling your time, your focus is on creating that time, you can now relax. It’s ok. Feel assured that you’ve started this road to happiness and that the way to keep making those improvements is to ask yourself: “What will give me a much better result for much less energy?”

Richard Koch asks these questions in his book Living the 80/20 Way:

Think of any great scientist, musician, artist, thinker, philanthropist, or business leader, [teacher of the year];

  • Do they achieve by trying to do something they find easy and natural, or by trying to do something that is hard and unnatural?
  • Do they achieve because they work hard, or because they find it easier than other people to excel in their chosen arena?
  • Do they work hard because they feel guilty, or because they identify with their work, believe in it, and love it?

After discovering the 80/20 way to live, I’m all of the above; I’m happy, relaxed, energized — writing comes naturally to me, it’s easier to excel, and I identify with my work, I believe in it and love it.

Best things in life are free

A smile is free, so are hugs. You often see people about with signs that read: “Free hugs” and yes, they are free, the people who give them out have decided to take their time and give to others.

Caring for a pet or a plant is free, appreciating life is free, displaying affection, committing a random act of kindness. Getting more with less. Think of the last time you genuinely smiled at a student, a colleague, or heaven forbid – your principal, the administrator! Has it been a while? Try it again. And if you do this daily, congratulate yourself.

“If most of my time doesn’t make me happy, how can I spend less time on these activities?” —Richard Koch

We continually talk about living in the moment. Living in the present. We do have a precious gift in today. Each moment does have its quality, our individual moment.

Annette Annechild, PhD., defines flow as an “-optimal state of consciousness- where a person feels and performs at his or her best. But it is also more than that. It is a unique state of consciousness. When you find your flow, you are able to concentrate with laser focus as your awareness and actions combine for peak performance…awareness of time and self strangely fade to the background and our senses are heightened [.]”

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Find your flow, your moments, your zone where time stands still, where you’re totally absorbed in the present. Where you are happy.

TRY IT! 5 DAYS of FREE GUIDED MEDITATION!

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All done with the 5 Free Days? If you found the meditation helpful, imagine what 21 Days of Guided Meditation can do? Order now and Listen to Days 6-15 and beyond to create calmness, happiness, and energy in your life.

Keep Reading the blog: Day 16 Kindness, Compassion, and the Inner Smile

©Taru Nieminen 2017   The Happy Teacher Solution

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Day 14 Achieving Your Highest Potential

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Today’s Meditation

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“Potential is a priceless treasure, like gold. All of us have gold hidden within, but we have to dig to get it out.” —Joyce Meyer

The voice in your head is the determinant factor in reaching your potential. It determines whether you succeed or not.

As Charles Schultz remarked, “I know the answer. The answer lies within the heart of all mankind! What, the answer is twelve? I think I’m in the wrong building.” Finding your potential lies in finding the right building. And then, the part where most people stop: climbing to the top of the roof, no matter how many steps up the stairs it takes.

Let your mind relax

Thinking differently gives you the power to take care of your potential mind, bringing it to the surface every day, making the possibilities exponential. When you let your mind relax, like with meditation, you can recreate your surroundings, your mind expands — all the good that is in your mind gets even better. If you have doubts in your mind, fear and darkness, negativity — let light in instead.

“What a tragedy it would be if you lived your entire life without discovering who you are, without reaching your full potential.” —Ray Mancini

We often live in our minds, not stepping out, staying in our comfort zone, feeling it an achievement just to make it through the hour, the day, the week. The voice you hear in your head limits you, manifests fear of failure, the one telling you “you are not up to it” and that “you just don’t have the potential.”

If we were to cultivate positivity, let light enter our mind, focus on only the good, we can create blissful moments, harmony and joy every day.

“Everybody has creative potential, and from the moment you can express this creative potential, you can start changing the world.” —Paulo Coelho

Choose potential

No matter what you choose for your day, it’s all in your mind.

I wonder what would happen if you let your potential “out of the bag?”

Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, Marie Curie, and even Galileo were thought to be oddities in their time, radical thinkers. They had the courage to keep going when others told them they were crazy, weird, and stepped outside the box more than once.

By developing your unique strengths and talents, you will be able to expand your potential. Expanding your potential starts with thinking differently and focusing on the light. By removing the limitations we’ve set for ourselves, and taking the ideas we have, and cultivating them.

An idea cannot be defined, it grows inside your head, first as an inconceivable thought, then stewing for a bit or a while longer, and when it’s nice and ready, it pops into your consciousness and then you… either dismiss it, write it down, or exclaim it! But if you do nothing with it, it merely dies.

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Finding out how a part of you might be telling you that the world of possibilities is limited, is key in expanding your potential to do bigger and bolder things. Find your ideas, cultivate them, keep them, make a splash with them! Step outside the box as you continue on the journey to the happy teacher’s life.

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All done with the 5 Free Days? If you found the meditation helpful, imagine what 21 Days of Guided Meditation can do? Order now and Listen to Days 6-14 and beyond to create calmness, happiness, and energy in your life.

Keep Reading the blog: Day 15 More with Less – Living in the Flow

©Taru Nieminen 2017   The Happy Teacher Solution

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Day 13 Active and Mindful Listening

 

Today’s Meditation

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“One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.” —Bryant H. McGill

We listen to gather and obtain information, to understand, to learn and of course, for enjoyment. How we listen can carry a big part in the way we are perceived. Too often today, we tend to multi-task as we are listening to someone.

And often, unfortunately, we wander off, have to refocus again and again, and sometimes even completely stop listening to someone as we are too engrossed in our own problems, our own life, feeling like no one is listening to US…

Listening is an art

By becoming a better listener, you can improve your life, your energy to influence, to persuade, to negotiate. Listening actively, and with mindfulness, can benefit your entire life, even the way you see life.

“Listening is an art that requires attention over talent, spirit over ego, others over self.” —Dean Jackson

How do you figure out whether someone is listening to you or not? How infuriating is it to figure out that they are not? You just want to scream, right?! But hey, everyone does it — we are constantly multi-tasking, trying to do ten things at once, figuring out our next move, our next lesson, getting ready for the next day, making copies, just trying to get things done. But when you don’t listen to someone actively, mindfully, you are telling them, in essence, that they are

  • not important
  • what I’m doing right now is more important than your story
  • I don’t really have time for you right now (and if this is truly so, tell your friend, spouse, colleague this, let them (and yourself!) out of the misery and make plans to continue the conversation in five minutes, half an hour, tomorrow.)

But don’t just hang out, half listening —experts say we only ‘hear’ 25-50 percent of what we are listening to! Take heart in the following:

Every good conversation starts with good listening

Making eye contact, truly listening to someone does take effort. And not just a little. Put down the phone, stop checking Facebook, concentrate. It seems like that many of us have totally lost the art of concentrating on just one thing anymore. We feel like there is no time to do all the things we need to do.

Be attentive and relax. Just take this time to listen. Do nothing else.

Show that you are actively listening by simply nodding, smiling occasionally; use short, verbal comments like yes and uh huh.

Keep an open mind. Do not criticize the speaker, don’t even do this in your mind. It will just confuse you and maybe even make you miss the most important things the person has to say.

And please, don’t be a “sentence-grabber.” Do not interrupt the other person. Let them finish. I know, I used to be the worst. But when I learned how to actively listen, I learned so much about the other person. Provide feedback only when the speaker is done or if asked.

If you start to lose your focus, immediately stop, and refocus.

Empathy and non-verbal communication

“The first duty of love is to listen.”—Paul Tillich

Feelings of empathy allow you to be in the other person’s shoes. When you couple active and mindful listening with empathy, you win. This takes energy and concentration. So if you feel exhausted after active listening, this is why, and it means you’ve done your job splendidly! Congrats!

“When a woman is talking to you, listen to what she says with her eyes.” —Victor Hugo

You can glean a lot from what is “not said” and sometimes that speaks volumes! You can detect enthusiasm, boredom, or even irritation when you’re listening. So, the same goes for you. Your nonverbal cues can carry a great deal of information to the person you are listening to.

Often, because we have such a high-energy job ourselves, we forget that we also need to become better listeners.

To become an active, mindful, listener, follow these five guidelines-

  • Pay attention
  • Show that you are listening
  • Provide feedback
  • Defer judgment
  • Respond calmly and appropriately

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It takes a lot of concentration, and determination to be an active, mindful listener.

But if you do this, it can make you a better communicator, improve your relationships, and make you a more productive teacher.

TRY IT! 5 DAYS of FREE GUIDED MEDITATION!

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All done with the 5 Free Days? If you found the meditation helpful, imagine what 21 Days of Guided Meditation can do? Order now and Listen to Days 6-13 and beyond to create calmness, happiness, and energy in your life.

Keep Reading the blog: Day 14 Achieving Your Highest Potential

©Taru Nieminen 2017   The Happy Teacher Solution

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Day 12 Inspiration and Ideas Abound

Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash

Today’s Meditation

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“Teachers who are crazy enough to think they can change the world usually do.”

One of the most important aspects of creating the perfect teacher’s life is to remember, every day, the reason at the core of our being. The reason we started teaching in the first place.

Far too many people are confused about what they should be doing, in life and in their career. They want to be happier and more successful at work. They just don’t know how to achieve either.

Creating meaning and purpose

To have meaning and purpose in what you do, and to see results, — gives us motivation. Inspires us. In teaching, this often means finding the meaning and purpose. Sometimes we must dig deep to see it and find it. As Kevin James reminded us on day 10, he had “many teachers that were great, positive role models and [they] taught me to be a good person and stand up and be a good man. A lot of the principles they taught me still affect how I act sometimes and it’s 30 years later.”

Most days you have no idea what you might have said or done and how it might have helped a student. As you know, students rarely come to us and tell us: “Hey, you really helped me today. Thanks.”

When you have meaning and purpose in your work, you are more energized and find your work satisfying, and you find that teaching gives you so much enjoyment!

You want to have the energy and motivation to jump out and be ready for the day immediately, the second you open your eyes!

How do you find that motivation and inspiration, the ideas for the next day, the next week of teaching?

“When someone asks why anyone would ever become a teacher, remind them why it’s worth it. Every job has its ups and downs. But not every job can change a life.”

Remember, you are here for you and your students. As long as you remember that, things will work out. When you chose to start this journey of meditation, to make it till the end of the year, you chose to exclude the outside influence, bad habits, the people who do not serve you, all the distractions that didn’t allow you to operate at your fullest, your best self, your best as a teacher.

You’ve already figured out many things that have disconnected you from the world of teaching, and today, we are going to forge onward with finding the inspiration, the passion, your core motivators in doing what you do.

Finding what works for you

Remember, this meditation is merely guidance for you to find what works for you. What inspires one might not inspire you. What works for you, might not work for your friend. Modify the meditation, the pondering, and perhaps the praying you need to do to accomplish all you do in your teaching, in your day, and your life. Live, love, laugh. For some, that is all the inspiration they need.

Think about it, have you ever taught at a time you weren’t inspired, had no ideas? I bet every teacher has at one point or another. You just went through the day, uninspired, unhappy, tense, and with no goal.

You can make relatively small changes in what you do to make the day better, the week better, the school year better. Choose to be inspired.

Staying on track with teaching, being inspired, performing at your ultimate level are the aspects which bring value to you and your teaching. It gives you a sense of fulfillment. It’s more than money can buy. Knowing you’ve completed things, you’ve done well, is an intrinsic reward for a job well done. This reward gives you even more inspiration to do what needs to be done. But more importantly, it gives you motivation to do fun things. To enjoy your day and life.

Feel happier today — Order the full guide to listen to words of inspiration

Nurture your inspiration, find it in everyday occurrence, works of art, poems, music. Let family, friendship, and community inspire you. Inspiration can be easy, it doesn’t have to be a seismic shift in your doing and thinking.

When you are living a happy, relaxed, inspired teacher’s life, inspiration begins to occur effortlessly, you’re eager to work, you ignore outside influence, and you have a reason to teach. Look for the value teaching brings to you, your students, your family, your friends, all you do and say. It can be powerful.

TRY IT! 5 DAYS of FREE GUIDED MEDITATION!

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All done with the 5 Free Days? If you found the meditation helpful, imagine what 21 Days of Guided Meditation can do? Order now and Listen to Day 12 and beyond to create calmness, happiness, and energy in your life.

Keep Reading the blog: Day 13 Active and Mindful Listening

©Taru Nieminen 2017   The Happy Teacher Solution

 

 

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Day 11 The Happy Teacher’s Rituals

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

Today’s Meditation

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“There is a comfort in rituals, and rituals provide a framework for stability when you are trying to find answers.” —Deborah Norville

We often think of rules and rituals as controlling us, not giving us freedom. But in fact, that is exactly what they do. Rules, rituals, structure, organization, and planning give us the well-planned day so we can harness the “feeling of power, control, and ultimately the freedom into the internal motivation you need” says Craig Ballantyne, author of the Perfect Day Formula.

And to embrace the happy, energetic, and relaxed teacher, we need to establish those rules and rituals in our lives to control the day.

So, now, think of your rituals and some of your habits. A habit is drinking your morning coffee without thinking, brushing your teeth while staring at yourself in the mirror, slipping your feet into your shoes, mindlessly. Those are habits.

Ritual are meaningful, thought-out, thought-provoking ideas to better yourself

Don’t fill your empty space with habits. Instead, cultivate rituals.

Like anything else in life, this will not be easy nor a fix-it-all. Everyone is different. It can take weeks, months, or even years to cultivate rituals. So be gentle. But don’t let go of the mindset that you can change your life.

Write your rituals and rules down. Think about them. Which ones will serve you best? Of course, you will need to put your shoes on to go to work and brush your teeth to keep your dentist from ostracizing you, etc. But do not dwell on these trivial matters. Some people find it a chore to put their shoes on, sigh with disgust when they don’t effortlessly slip on, cringe when the zipper is stuck on their pants or the button fell off as they buttoned the shirt. Really? Are you going to let that ruin your day? Bother you? This is unhealthy. And also the reason we need to cultivate rituals and rules. When you do, you won’t even think of any of the above, you will simply get another shirt off the rack, find a new pair of pants, and change the shoes. Effortlessly.

When you have rituals, habits won’t bother you. Guaranteed. And if they rear their head, breathe. Breathe deeply. Let it go.

What rituals do you need to cultivate?

Maybe a ritual you need to cultivate is more sleep. Or better sleep. Or the BEST sleep ever.

Here’s an example of a ritual: If you’ve never had a rule about eating after a certain time at night, you might have noticed that you mindlessly snack in front of the TV night after night. However, if you’re trying to lose weight, you might give yourself a rule of not eating after 6 pm or not eating at all while watching TV. Conquer the stress by establishing this ritual. Make it a “house rule.” Others will tempt you, ask you if you’re sure you don’t want just one scoop of ice-cream, just a small bowl of chips and dip, a handful of pretzels. And your answer will be: “No, thanks. I don’t eat in front of the TV.”

Now think of it this way: if you’re diabetic, you wouldn’t touch that ice-cream, knowing you’d have to stick yourself with a needle if you did. Then answer is pretty straightforward. No ice-cream for me, thanks.

Commit to your rule, think of it as the law. If you break it, you end up in jail.

Habits are easily broken, but rituals stay for life and grow with you. Be present.

Even with the meditation you are now practicing. Don’t make it a habit, make it a ritual. If it becomes a habit, awareness is lost.

When you have rituals in place, making decisions during your day, in your teaching, will become automatic and effortless

Make a list of 10-12 rules for living the perfect teacher’s life. To show you an example, here are top 5 from my Rules for Living the Writer’s Life (simplified), so you can see what they might look like.

  1. Wake up no later than 7:15 am, and go to bed no later than 11:30 pm. Every day.
  2. Yoga and meditation to start the day. Then breakfast and reading until 9:30. Fill out gratitude journal during breakfast.
  3. Read and write every day: Read min. one hour/day, write a min. 1000 words/day
  4. Make a list of 6 action items for the next day the night before
  5. I’m responsible for my actions and non-actions (probably my most powerful one for me!)

Then, — there is the NOT to do list, which includes all the things that can sabotage the day.

  • No TV during lunch or before 6 pm (if I do this, I know that’ll be the end of the work for me. I will just sit there and watch episode after episode of Forensic Files, Hawaii Five-O, etc. on Netflix….)
  • No eating after 7 pm

Now, write down your own list of rituals and stick to them. And remember, nothing worthwhile in life is easy. So keep at it. Don’t give up. Truly, implementing my entire rituals list has taken over six months. I’m STILL trying to break out of the habit of eating in front of the TV.

To see what the perfect day formula looks like and how to implement it, check out my article on LinkedIn and visit Craig Ballantyne’s website here. (I am not an affiliate, I just believe in it.)

Feel happier today — Order the full guide to listen to words of inspiration

Choose to control your time, your day, your life. Choose freedom of time by cultivating rules and rituals to keep your sanity, dis old, bad habits, create new, great habits, and conquer your day.

TRY IT! 5 DAYS of FREE GUIDED MEDITATION!

Just click here, enter your name & email to get started!

All done with the 5 Free Days? If you found the meditation helpful, imagine what 21 Days of Guided Meditation can do? Order now and Listen to Day 11 and beyond to create calmness, happiness, and energy in your life.

Keep Reading the blog: Day 12 Inspiration and Ideas Abound

©Taru Nieminen 2017   The Happy Teacher Solution

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Day 10 Promoting Positive Change

Photo by Mark Adriane on Unsplash

Today’s Meditation

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“Your positive action combined with positive thinking results in success.” —Shiv Khera

 

We’ve concentrated on many things during our journey so far. Many of them have been somewhat negative in nature, but all have changed into positives. There can’t be enough said about how positivity can change a person’s life.

As teachers, we often must be the bearer of bad news about unsatisfactory grades or calling about unruly students, learning yet another method of teaching, when you just mastered the old one, being called for lunch duty during your planning time, etc., etc.

But on the other hand, think of all the good that has happened, think of all the things you could write in your gratitude journal about your classroom this year. You could even start a gratitude journal for the classroom. Have students write in it. They do see the world differently. Only allow positive writings, if you do start this. You could call it “The Positive Journal,” “Our Classroom is Positive,” “Be Positive.” I’m sure you can come up with more creative titles. 😊

You’ve already started your positive journey, why not include your students? It might be slow at first, but it’s like the river that flows into the ocean, little by little, it does.

“Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.” —Willie Nelson

 

How to start a positive journal-writing experience in your classroom:

Choose a notebook, binder with loose leaf paper, even a folder would work. Or “open” a mailbox (e.g. shoebox, large jar) where students can drop words of encouragement, positive notes to classmates, you, the principal, and overall just tell what a positive experience they’ve had at school. And if your students are too young to write, maybe a “positive day” sharing session at the end of the day would work. Here’s another great project. The results are amazing.

“Delete the negative; accentuate the positive!” —Donna Karan

Make it positive

While teaching 8th grade English, I made a positive phone call home about a student. When the parent answered, I could hear the helplessness in the greeting already: “What has Kadra done now?” When I told about my positive experience with their child, I could hear (and imagined seeing) the astonishing gasp, the open mouth, the tears swelling up. This mother had never, in the eight years her child had been in school, received a positive phone call! How sad. Be the change, start today. Pledge to make five positive phone calls today. And another five tomorrow. Keep calling. Every day.

“For me, life is about being positive and hopeful, choosing to be joyful, choosing to be encouraging, choosing to be empowering.”—Billy Porter


Merriam-Webster defines positive as marked by or indicating acceptance, approval, or affirmation, having a good effect, and marked by optimism. Sounds like a winner, doesn’t it?

Vow to only post positive news, positive comments, positive affirmations on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. This can make a tremendous shift in the way you think. Unfollow negative people. Choose to be positive, choose to spread only positive news, choose to only start a conversation with positivity.

Love yourself first

“Love yourself first and everything else falls in line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.” —Lucille Ball

A teacher’s life can be filled with hardships and struggles, but with a positive mindset, you can find the wonders of teaching, love what you do, and live the ultimate teacher’s life.

The change to be the teacher you’ve always strived to be is within you. The power lies within you and the transformation to positive outcomes will shine through. Others might have already noticed it.

When you blanket yourself in love, you spread the love to others. Feel the love, the positive change, the transformation, taking place. Remember yesterday’s reading about influence? Feel like you haven’t reached anyone? You can influence someone.

“I had many teachers that were great, positive role models and taught me to be a good person and stand up and be a good man. A lot of the principles they taught me still affect how I act sometimes and it’s 30 years later.” —Kevin James

Feel happier today — Order the full guide to listen to words of inspiration

With this tenth day of meditation, you’ve reached a real turning point in attaining the happy teacher’s life. You’ve faced challenges, struggles, and difficult parts of yourself. As teachers, we know that teaching is not always easy, but it is always worth it.

TRY IT! 5 DAYS of FREE GUIDED MEDITATION!

Just click here, enter your name & email to get started!

All done with the 5 Free Days? If you found the meditation helpful, imagine what 21 Days of Guided Meditation can do? Order now and Listen to Day 10 and beyond to create calmness, happiness, and energy in your life.

Keep Reading the blog: Day 11 The Happy Teacher’s Rituals

©Taru Nieminen 2017   The Happy Teacher Solution