Tag: a happy teacher’s life

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Restoring Mental Energy

Tranquil Meditation scenery
Pixabay.com

Sometimes, no matter how much meditation, deep breathing, or mindfulness we pack into our day or week, our mental energy can be depleted.

To restore it without drugs, alcohol, caffeine or food, try one of these ways:

Find uplifting and positive activities

If f a Facebook or YouTube cat video makes you laugh, then watch it. Just in case you need a fix right now, here’s one:

If prayer or meditation gives you the needed relief, then pray or meditate.

If playing with your children does the trick, then play.

Some days, binge-watching Netflix can do the trick. 😉

Make a list of activities that are uplifting to you and make you feel positive about life.

Do what you love just like Bob Ross

(Here’s a link to Bob’s YouTube channel!)

Work aside (the one that pays the bills), what is it that you LOVE to do?

Baking, cleaning, organizing, reading, painting, running, walking in nature?

Some say you can’t choose what you do for a job and many say that the notion of “doing what you love, so that it doesn’t feel like work” is reserved for the few and the talented.

But each time you decide to do something (life, work, family) you are making a choice.

A choice to eat or not to eat the chocolate cake instead of an apple for breakfast. That’s not to say you have to beat yourself up about it. Admit your choice, and move on. But do realize you did make that choice.

Same with work. You CAN choose to take steps to better your situation. You can choose to be happy you have a job in the first place. Often that can be the catalyst to accepting what you have, and often it can be the catalyst for change.

You could start turning your hobby you love into work you love. It may take time, but it is possible.

If you are already doing what you love (teaching), then make every moment count. Do the things you love to do with your students, brainstorm with colleagues to make your school the best – the greatest – place to work and learn.

Mission for a purpose

Often, focusing on the “why” of our work can restore your energy.

For teachers, the why can be helping students understand grammar or math problems, influencing lives, ensuring students are taken care of, getting them ready for the real world.

For a factory worker, it can be that the microwave-ready veggies they put into the bags parents are purchasing helps the harried family have a fast and nutritious meal.

Restore with gratitude

writing a gratitude journal
pixabay.com CC0

When you are grateful for even the smallest things in life, you can quickly restore your energy. Writing down or saying out loud the things you’re grateful for today can increase your positivity.

Simply state: “I’m so happy and grateful that I have…

…food in my belly

…a job

…money for gas

…a nice home and family

…a healthy lifestyle etc.

Bringing work home

As teachers, we feel that we should be available 24/7, including nights and weekends.

After all, we do have summers off as well as time during the Holiday season to recharge.

You know well that it doesn’t work that way.

When you’re working 6-7 days a week, you’re doing no one any favors. Least of all yourself.

When you’re not happy, no one is happy.

We don’t even realize it ourselves that we project the unhappiness and exhaustion we feel onto everyone else as well – students, colleagues, and family alike.

Bringing work home won’t show as extra pay at the end of the month. Nor any less.

Instead, try to do all the work possible at school – at work.

Now, if you’re an English teacher like I was, there are times when you have to take a stack of essays home to read and correct. But it shouldn’t happen every night.

And if you’re like me, taking that bag of work home but not even opening it because you are so exhausted, well – that just creates more stress, because now you didn’t take care of it. (I wrote about the belief of how hard a task is here)

My solution was to have rituals in place, so that work was done at work, and home was for relaxing.

Cultivating a calm mindset is the key in managing the way your energy is expended.

That energy can be replenished with meditation. To feel calmer, happier, and more energized, click here for guided meditation written for Teachers by a Teacher.

I wish you a calm day.

Most sincerely,

Taru

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

Master your life to find happiness and fulfillment. Live in the moment, be present, be here now, and use your talents to create a clear and tranquil mind.

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 and continue to create calmness, happiness, and energy in your life.

Use coupon code Love2019 during the month of February to get $9.00 OFF regular price of $29.00! (That’s 31% off!)

Keep Reading the blog: 9 Tools to Get Enough ZZZs

©2018 Taru Nieminen – The Happy Teacher Solution

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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