Author: THTS Taru

Posted on

Day 20 Align Yourself with Your Dream

Photo by Daniel Apodaca on Unsplash

Today’s Meditation

____________________________________________________________

The Seven Keys to Living a Life with Passion and Purpose Are Commitment, Clarity, Attention, Staying Open, Having Integrity, Persistence, and Following Your Heart.

When you dedicate yourself to the happy teacher’s lifestyle, make it your focus and be willing to commit to that focus every day.

Now, I’m not saying that weekends and every day of your summer holiday should be spent on coming up with new lesson plans, or even thinking of lesson plans. On the contrary, if a day at the beach gives you the happiness you need to figure out your passion, then do that.

Ponder — “How Is This (whatever you’re doing/going to do) Helping Me Be Happy?”

Get your brain to play with you, your body, and your mind. Let it tell you what it needs, what your body needs, what your mind needs. If it’s a day of rest, good, if it’s a day of yard work, a day of volunteering – whatever it is, just do it with the mindset of aligning your hours and days, weeks, and months, to being the happy, relaxed, energized teacher.

Dedication to your craft can be even more important than talent. After all, the Sistine Chapel wasn’t painted in a day, nor was your teaching certificate earned in mere minutes. Take heart, and decide to align yourself with your dream.

Be True to Yourself, Be True to Your Dream

Stand in your own power of positivity, be aligned with your principles, think of yourself in the highest. Embrace all the parts of you. Foster responsibility for your own well-being.

When you are true to yourself, you feel empowered, you don’t want for anything; no need to compare yourself to others, wishing you had something, wishing you were someone else. You are completely at peace, content to be the happy teacher and finding that within you every day.

When thinking of your dream and dedicating yourself to the world of teaching, you can ask this question: “Who do I have to be in my inner world, to create effortlessly and easily with joy, the things that will nourish me in the outer world?”

Being passionate about education means being enlightened and involving yourself fully to the task. Learning new things develops the whole brain, the whole heart, the natural capacity of humans to evolve in our thinking and grow toward fulfillment.

What are you willing to do?

What are you willing to do, to even sacrifice, if needed, to find your dream, to live your dream, to be the happy, relaxed, energized teacher? Are you willing to say, “I am a successful teacher!” “A happy teacher, relaxed and full of energy!”

Put your energy into projects that you feel are worthy, so you can glean maximum happiness for your life, creating the happy, relaxed, and energized teacher.

And remember Woodrow Wilson’s words as you ponder your teaching:

“You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, within greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are her to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.”

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

Find your natural joy of teaching, figure out where you need to teach, what you need to teach, and who you need to teach. Your passion should bring you joy. The expansion of knowledge and power you receive from meditation can give you happiness and in turn, influence your everyday life.

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 Days 6-20 and beyond to create calmness, happiness, and energy in your life.

Keep Reading the blog: Day 21 The Happy Teacher’s Path

©2017-19 Taru Nieminen – The Happy Teacher Solution

Posted on

Day 19 Renewal at the Core

Photo by Jacalyn Beales on Unsplash

Today’s Meditation

____________________________________________________________

“The moment you take responsibility for everything in your life, is the moment you can change anything in your life.” —Hal Elrod

Renewal begins in the mind. And leaving the treadmill way of life behind. That way the natural happiness inside is released. We are renewed.

When we get overstressed, overwhelmed, tired and irritated, the negative feelings just add up, we begin to spiral downwards in our minds, in our body, our life. Energy is zapped out of us like the air being let out a balloon, all the air squeezed out, laying limp on the ground.

Decide to start anew

This is when we need to make a decision to re-focus, re-energize, and re-center ourselves. Clearing away bad habits and firmly deciding not to spend time on anything that doesn’t bring us happiness, and start anew.

The journey you’ve taken to become a happier, relaxed, and more energized teacher has given you tools to take care of life’s challenges, and today we celebrate the renewed teacher.

Renewing is making something new, fresh, or strong again; the time when something is effective or valid.

Validate your new beginning with vigor and fresh, new ideas. Make this time your strong time.

Take time to release the obsession that faster is better, that speed, performance, and “effectiveness” is the norm — take time to renew, to release, to connect.

Ask your mind and body what they require. It’s okay to let go of even some effective habits if they don’t serve you, if they don’t bring you happiness and fulfillment. Make a commitment to take care of the needs of your body and mind, being healthy. Explore your lifestyle. What is it that it needs to be healthier, more productive, vibrant and imaginative?

So far, you’ve gone above and beyond in your daily life by taking care of you, taking this journey to become happier; finding the simple, good life for long-term.

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

During this journey, you’ve taken care of the self-sabotaging inner critic, the procrastinator, you’ve gained focus, knocked down creative blocks, and overcome challenges. You’ve invited abundance in, and learned to create effortless motivation by creating a flow in your day. Now it is time to renew and find the simple, good life of a happy, relaxed, energized teacher.

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 Days 6-19 and beyond to create calmness, happiness, and energy in your life.

Keep Reading the blog: Day 20 Align Yourself with the Dream

©2017-19 Taru Nieminen – The Happy Teacher Solution

Posted on

Day 18 Shaping the Happy Teacher’s Life

Photo by Austin Schmid on Unsplash

Today’s Meditation

____________________________________________________________

“When you follow your bliss…

doors will open where you would not have thought

there would be doors; and where

there wouldn’t be a door for anyone else. “

—Joseph Campbell

When it comes down to it, we all want a good life. Each and every one has the ability and power to manifest the life you want, the life of your dreams.

You can find joy and value in what you do by using your talents to positively influence the world around you. When you do this, manifest this, you are bound to be happier. Bound to be more relaxed, more energized.

Finding your passion or your “why”

When a person’s primary motivation and focus is on the “why” of their work, they are working on the A-level of their profession, career, relationships, and life in general.

The power of your mind can fully demonstrate what you can and will accomplish in your life. Making thoughts into reality and creating that authentic teacher’s life — seeing the ideas and possibilities come to life, to reality. When you start to put these ideas and possibilities into your life, think “integrity, intelligence, and high degree of energy” as those three can make you successful beyond belief. But also remember, as Warren Buffet once said in a Harvard lecture: “if you don’t have the first, the other two don’t matter.”

“If you don’t know what your passion is, realize that one reason for your existence on earth is to find it.” —Oprah Winfrey

Deepen your understanding of your core motivation, your passion, your “why” and journey toward putting your passion to work for you.

Your passions are the loves of your life, the things that are most important to you. When you talk about them, your face lights up, you give off a glow, your eyes sparkle and shine. Everyone knows you are passionate about these things.

When you think of your work as a teacher, ask yourself these four questions:

  1. What is my best work experience? (after you answer this, ask yourself the follow-up question: How can I duplicate that every day?)
  2. What is my best work detail? (i.e. what is most motivating to me? why did that detail make me feel so good?)
  3. What’s important to me at work?
  4. What’s missing?

Be specific with your answers, but most of all, be truthful. Only you see these answers. Writing them down can open your eyes to new possibilities, new ideas, new thoughts, and you might want to share some or all with your significant other, your best friend – someone who understands where you are coming from and where you’re going.

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” —Eleanor Roosevelt.

When you know your “why” — life is fun and engaging

Remember, when you are truly passionate about something, you don’t have to try hard to put attention on it. It’s fun, engaging, it’s exciting. Challenges might slow you down, but they no longer deter you. You might have to take a side street, a detour, but you eventually end back out on the open main road, cruising along, living your ideal life, making a list of your passions and manifesting them each day for the rest of your life.

If you’re struggling with finding your passion, I recommend The Passion Test- the Effortless Path to Discovering Your Destiny – a book by Janet and Chris Attwood, or What Motivates Me by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton.

Find your passion.

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

Shaping the happy teacher’s life starts with figuring out the specifics of life, visualizing the way we want our life to move forward. Today’s meditation can show you the happy teacher.

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 Days 6-18 and beyond to create calmness, happiness, and energy in your life.

Keep Reading the blog: Day 19 Renewal at the Core

©2017-19 Taru Nieminen —  The Happy Teacher Solution

Posted on

Day 17 Nurturing the Teacher Within

Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash

Today’s Meditation

_________________________________________________________

“If you feel burnout settling in, if you feel demoralized and exhausted, it is best, for the sake of everyone, to withdraw and restore yourself. The point is to have a long-term perspective.” —Dalai Lama

Teaching can be a revered profession, but unfortunately many are seduced by the summers off and the vacation time during the Christmas holidays, 180-day work year, etc.

And not everyone knows how to become a great teacher. It takes perseverance, talent, effort, and patience. A lot of patience.

What makes the difference?

Like a long-distance runner who keeps training day in and day out, but the one that has the best training under his belt won’t’ necessarily win. Attitude, skills, determination, strategies, and maybe even having a support group comes into play. But none of these will help by themselves. And as we’ve seen with barefoot runners, the type of sneakers you wear won’t help you win.

The same holds for teachers.  Each of us has a fairly similar set of tools to work with — a computer, a desk, software to enter grades and attendance, etc.

But it is the skills and abilities of the teacher, each individual, that makes all the difference. Therefore, it is critical to nurture the teacher within to refine those skill sets. The perseverance, talent, effort, and patience.

How do you nurture the teacher within?

You’ve already started on this journey to make sure you are nurturing the teacher within by practicing this meditation, by banishing the procrastinator, silencing the self-critic, reigning in the self-doubt in order to come out a better teacher, a better person, a ready, relaxed, and happy teacher.

“Invent your world. Surround yourself with people, color, sounds, and work that nourish you.” —Sarak

When a school or district gives its teachers the environment to continually excel and thrive and nurture herself, the talent a teacher possesses becomes extremely important. But you can do this on your own as well; by creating the conditions necessary for growth and development.

The definition of nurture

To nurture is defined as 1. to feed, protect, support, and encourage, 2. to bring up, educate, 3. upbringing, training, education, 4. development, the nurture of young artists, 5. something that flourishes, food.

You might have noticed that “education” and “development” came up more than once in different forms.

In that regard, you are in luck, as a life-long learner, you can train and develop, bring up the side of you that gives you more skills, more ability, more support, for you.

The life-long reader

Educate yourself by bringing yourself to the forefront of your teaching, and teach well, you must read.

“While slight attention to the soul can go a long way, it isn’t enough to maintain the active life and give the soul mere morsels.”        —Thomas Moore

When was the last time you read something inspiring about teaching? And I don’t mean a meme or humorous teacher analogy or video on Facebook. I mean a real book, or a professional article, something that can inspire you to invite love into your teaching. When did you last deepen your understanding and knowledge of the craft of teaching? Again, not just sitting absentmindedly at a professional development, skimming the material you’re supposed to read. But truly engaging.

And when was the last time you took really good care of yourself, your health, and ate healthy, nutritious meals, not a Luna bar gulped down during a break…

When you find the time to nurture yourself, you can create that perfect teacher’s life and it’s easier to have a positive mindset. You’ll have more time, more freedom, and life’s little challenges won’t’ bother you as much, you’ll have all your “ducks’ in a row.

“What’s vital about our creative process is that we learn to use it, to nurture it, and express it in our daily lives.” —C. Diane Ealy

Ask yourself what nurturing the teacher within means to you. There isn’t a set answer for this, everyone is different. You’ll need to decide what’s best for you.

Is it going back to university to earn a higher degree, take some classes? Is it getting on the school board, or finding out about professional development that you’ll enjoy? And not just the ones your district makes you take, so you can garner the needed education credits for your certificate.

Find what nurtures you.

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

Take time today to nurture the teacher within and you will find quickly that you will become more productive and less likely to be plagued by burnout and fatigue.

Nurturing requires commitment and a gentle approach toward yourself, to truly allow yourself to blossom as a teacher. Create a pattern of self-nurturing to feel your best. Every 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 Days 6-17 and beyond to create calmness, happiness, and energy in your life.

Keep Reading the blog: Day 18 Shaping the Happy Teacher’s Life

©2017-19 Taru Nieminen  The Happy Teacher Solution

Posted on

Day 16 Kindness, Compassion, and the Inner Smile

Photo by Nina Strehl on Unsplash

Today’s Meditation

_______________________________________________________________________________

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” —Aesop

Being kind and showing kindness has become somewhat of a sensation with the social media crowd. When someone shows kindness, it is often seen as an act to be shown off, to be spread (a good thing) and to some, a way of feeling better themselves, having circulated the video about the homeless man helping kittens out of a burning building…

And when asked, on camera, about why he did this act of heroism, this selfless act where he himself could have been seriously hurt, the man responds with questioning eyes, brow kind of furrowing: “Well, of course, there was a need and I filled it…anyone would do the same thing.”

Kindness gives you energy

Kindness and being a kind person does take some energy, but you receive it back thousand-fold.

Treating everyone with kindness can be the lifestyle of any teacher, should be the lifestyle of any teacher. Treating everyone as an equal, whether bank teller, administrator, waiter, waitress, janitor, lunch lady — affirming the golden rule. How would you like to be treated?

Make it a point to smile, to be kind, to tell a joke, to lift someone up, get the person to smile, be happier for just the mere fact that you happened to pass through their day. 😊 When you are kind to others and show kindness, people will be kind to you.

“Create a pattern of kindness in your life.” —Taru Kaarina Nieminen

Being humane to another can take many forms.

Think of what you could do – what would your random act of kindness be? You hear of people paying for the groceries of the person in front or behind them, putting quarters into the expired meter of a parking space.

It could be as simple as holding an umbrella for someone getting into a taxi as it’s pouring rain, carrying groceries to the car, to the front door, helping your neighbor rake the leaves, mow the yard; all kinds of different acts that take no money.

Volunteer to clean up a beach, a riverbank, an empty lot, do something together with a group if you don’t feel up to taking the world of kindness just on your own. Being together with like-minded people can propel you to do more, to be more kind to yourself, your environment, your relationships.

Spread love, receive love

“Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.” —Mother Teresa

Inspire kindness in your world. Do those random acts. And they can be as big or small as you wish. Start small if you’ve never done any. Start with a smile. It’s free, it’s easy, and it’s kind.

How can you do all this in an authentic way, so the purity of the kind act is preserved? Being sincere and earnest in your acts, reach out of your comfort zone as you keep giving, and therefore also receiving energy from the kindness you spread. Keep it meaningful to you.

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

Kindness and empathy are the foundations on which humanity will stand or fall. Be the rock for yourself, your friends, colleagues, family, your community. Be that kind person.

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 Days 6-21 to create calmness, happiness, and energy in your life.

Keep Reading the blog: Day 17 Nurturing the Teacher Within

©Taru Nieminen 2017   The Happy Teacher Solution

Posted on

Day 15 More with Less—Living in the Flow

Photo by Jared Erondu on Unsplash

Today’s Meditation

_______________________________________________________________________________

“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 [.]”

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

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!

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 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