Day 5 Banish Procrastination

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Today’s Meditation

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“Procrastination is like a credit card: It’s a lot of fun until you get the bill.”  — Christopher Parker

 Procrastination leads to trouble, and is a silent killer for many, including teachers. So, today’s affirmation is “I will take care of…“ – e.g. lesson plans, emails, parent calls, etc.

When yesterday we worked on inviting the self-critic to the table, today, we are going to address the procrastinator in particular.

Self-doubt often creeps in and we put off things we feel we can’t handle just now. We delay, delay, and keep telling ourselves that we do our best work under pressure. I kept telling myself this all along my college years and beyond. Feeling that I wasn’t ready, wasn’t good enough, and doubted my abilities.

Using distractions to procrastinate

Distractions often plaque us at home as well, we need to get dinner on the table, do the dishes, finish laundry and other household chores. We are bombarded with tasks to be done, even with help.

These distractions enable us to avoid what really needs to be done. It is rarely you can even be in the classroom and not think of the dozen other things you “need” to get done, to rearrange the desks, to start a new seating plan, to clean off your desk.

Procrastination is often an acute danger in a teacher’s day, putting off things that could be done in just a few minutes, yet thinking about them for hours, sometimes days! Yes, for example, lesson plans. We often think that getting them done the night before, that waiting to finish, somehow makes them better — they’re fresh in our minds, after all.

Imagine if…

But imagine if you could have your entire weekend to yourself, not having to worry about finishing up your plans the night before the new school week starts. What if you had planned it so that your lesson plans were in the principal’s inbox on Friday before you left for the weekend.

Imagine how you would feel. How liberating, how free to do YOUR thing and not the lesson plans. Now, you might be answering with: “But I don’t mind using my weekend to finish my lesson plans…” Ok, you might not. But you do need downtime – for you, your family, your friends. What would you do if your plans did not include having to think of the lesson plans all through the weekend? How would your mind feel? Your body?

“Getting things done is one of the best feelings yet.” —Unknown

pexels-photo-by Fancycrave

Living a true teacher’s life does NOT mean you have to be “on call” 24/7.

Often, as teachers, we feel that we must do just that. After all, it is a lifestyle. And that’s great. But you will feel better, your students will be better served, if you relax. You need to relax, and truly let go.*

No need to feel guilty if you take time for just You. And I mean no teaching issues to deal with at all.

So why do people procrastinate? What does procrastination mean? The Cambridge Dictionary refers to it as “The act of delaying something that must be done, often because it is unpleasant or boring.

Teachers often might feel as if they “still have plenty of time” as Sunday rolls around. You’ve taken care of your spiritual needs, your family dinner is all cleaned up, time to start the work week with Sunday night lesson planning.

The pressure to get lesson plans done

However, the pressure to now create your plans can be enormous. What if you can’t come up with something good? What if you can’t find that link to the YouTube video you wanted to show? What if your printer doesn’t work? What if you realize that you really needed to make some copies of the work you are going to give to your students on Monday morning? And you remember hearing Suzy exclaim, “Not again!” as she was clearing a jam in the work room copier.

All of this just adds pressure to you to perform, to deliver, to be an effective teacher.

Maybe you get on Facebook to see if you can find something, anything. Something good might come up in your feed that you can show or share with the students. But what if it doesn’t? Wouldn’t it be much nicer to actually comment on your friends’ photos and posts instead of frantically looking for content?

We often busy ourselves with tasks around the house, rely on social media to entertain, and sometimes check our email incessantly, and think we are working.

Make a plan, because “Someday is not a day of the week.” – Janet Dailey

Delay tactics increase fear

At the core of procrastination is the belief that delaying will somehow protect us. And that the longer the situation is on our minds, the better it will become. As our fears increase and our potential for good starts to dwindle, it can take a toll on your psyche, your career, your health, and your relationships.

Procrastination can be summed up to selling yourself short. Giving up a few hours of “not doing” to a frenzy of impulses.

Overcoming procrastination is a key to a fulfilled teacher’s life. Give yourself the gift of time, the gift of attention, the gift of today.

Whenever procrastination starts to enter the room, our thoughts become rapid, even obsessive. Thoughts spin out of control and we start thinking of a dozen other things we could be doing instead of the obvious- for example the lesson plans or reading/answering emails, calling a parent. Let go of the anxiety and just do the task, no matter how unpleasant.

If you find yourself in this state of anxiety, of procrastination, stop what you’re doing and concentrate on your toes. Close your eyes. Think of the golden white light enveloping you, starting with the toes, up your legs, your body, your fingertips, your arms, your head. Breathe in and breathe out. This will bring you back to the present, you’ll feel calmer and you will be able to tackle the situation with a calmer perspective.

Everyone is unique and everyone’s reaction unpredictable

Don’t worry – you’ve take the time to breathe, meditate, and be in the present, you can have peace of mind that you will get this task done.

Procrastination puts obstacles in your way- you’re like Nicholas Cage trying to avoid the laser beams as you’re traversing through the museum floor, attempting to get to the priced golden cup, the holy grail of “getting lesson plans done.”

Heed these words from a fellow artist, Pablo Picasso: “Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone,” – or aptly and more down to earth: “Git-R- Done” – Larry the Cable Guy. 😉

There’s hope — through effort

Psychology Today says that “procrastinators may say they perform better under pressure, but more often than not, that’s their way of justifying putting things off. The bright side? It’s possible to overcome procrastination—with effort. Perfectionists are often procrastinators; it is psychologically more acceptable to never tackle a task than to face the possibility of falling short on performance.”

Two more quotes of inspiration from David Allen* and Olin Miller:

“Much of the stress that people feel doesn’t come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they started.” ― David Allen

“If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it.” ― Olin Miller

More appropriately, I think today’s motto could be the quote from earlier: “Getting things over and done with is probably one of the best feelings yet.” ― Unknown

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Overcoming procrastination is a key to living the true teacher’s life and the first step in getting things done.

To gain power over the procrastinator, listen to the powerful words to rid yourself of distractive behavior, to silence the voice that keeps telling you to “do it later” and achieve that best feeling yet.😊

**David Allen has a book out called: “Getting Things Done: the art of stress-free productivity.” I simply borrowed mine from the local library- a book on CD. And listened to it as I was driving.

TRY IT! 5 DAYS of FREE MEDITATION! Just click here, enter your name & email to get started!

or KEEP READING: Day 6 Laser-Focused Teaching

©2017 Taru Nieminen   The Happy Teacher Solution

 

Day 4 Sweet Inner Peace

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Today’s Meditation

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“No struggle – no progress” Frederick Douglass

Those words seem like an everyday occurrence in the world of a teacher. If it’s not your own struggle, it is the struggle of your students.

Today’s affirmation: “I have the power to…” e.g. gain inner peace, be insightful, be brave.

To gain inner peace for yourself, remember, that there is always something you can do. Change your thinking from a short-term fix to a long-term goal of experiencing sweet inner peace every day.

So far, we’ve focused on quieting the mind, finding your sense of control, creating your tranquil classroom, and harnessing the power of the breathing technique.

Silencing the inner critic

There is one aspect that many times gives us much trouble, our inner critic. We scold ourselves and are judgmental of the work we do. We criticize our time-management, our procrastination, we are angry because things didn’t go our way or expected, and we demean ourselves when lesson plans are not up to par.

Praise and positive thinking, even if deserved, is seldom cast our way from the self-critic.

And we know that the most feared foe is not the administrator asking for your weekly lesson plans or the colleague asking for some advice, but rather the inner critic who whispers, ever so forcefully, to scoop out a spoonful of judgment, a dollop of negativity, and a bowl full of scolding.

At one time or another, we have all fallen victim to this inner critic, whose voice whispers, ever so subtly… and then—self-respect, self-esteem are found way on the left field, with no chance of catching the ball.

The times we experience failures, real or perceived, our inner critic reinforces and finds new feelings we have — the guilt, the sabotaging effects of shame and self-criticism.

When we strive for perfectionism, and let that control our lives, we often do fail. We need to allow ourselves to be “good enough” and to create a world where the self-critic is diminished to appearing only when needed. Letting go of the constant self-barrage of negative thoughts and actions, is part of the progress on the journey of self-discovery.

We need to make a shift to happiness

Happiness and perfectionism seldom go hand in hand. Let go of the inner critic and find happiness. Approve of yourself and your work.

Once you’ve created, written, and decided on your lesson plans for the week, looked over them a dozen times, it’s time to say: “these are good enough” As always, there’s room for improvement, but at one point, you need to let go and give yourself time to reflect.

To make progress on any goal, you also have to make mistakes. If not for mistakes, we wouldn’t learn anything. Isn’t this what we tell our students all the time? The same goes for us, as teachers.

It’s okay to make those mistakes, even admit to them in front of the students! Yes, that was a revelation that changed the way I taught – I gave my inner critic a seat at the table, yet, she was not in constant talk-mode. The negativity of making mistakes lessened, it was okay to fail. And learn from it – continue with renewed vigor.

Learning from your mistakes makes you wiser, more knowledgeable, and a better teacher.

Learning to deal with your self-criticism is a skill. It’s a habit you can break. By quieting your mind and focusing on controlling the self-critic, you start to master your work, yourself, your mind, and it can even let you overcome some area of weakness or a bad habit.

Learning to master your self-critic gives you the freedom to believe in yourself, your abilities, your teaching, your thoughts, and your creativity.

Take a compassionate view of your self-critic, and start to let her around the table, but not let her talk incessantly. Be aware of the self-critic, and remember- you wouldn’t talk like that to anyone else. So why talk to yourself in such a critical way? Be gentle. Be forgiving. Be aware.

Self-awareness, self-care, and acknowledging things that matter most are the essential skills to building up your self-control.

“Sandwich every bit of criticism between two layers of praise.”

—Mary Kay Ash

With each speech given at a Toastmasters speaking group, an evaluation is given. This includes three (3) glows — positive affirmations, something really good about the speech and one (1) grow— something the speaker can improve on. The formula is two glows, a grow, and lastly, another glow. Remember this as you go through your day.

Try to give three glows to yourself for every grow you find and every time you think you’ve failed. Think: What went well? You could even write these down. Three things every day that went well. If you do find a grow, add it to the list, but remember to give yourself something to actually grown on- don’t’ just jot down the negative.

What are three things you can change about the grow to make it a glow?

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Identifying your inner critic and letting it go on its way is the first step in silencing it. Often, the self-critic talk starts in childhood and we get so used to the voice that we think it’s just something that’s part of us. We think that it talks the truth and gives us perspective, when in fact, the voice is sabotaging our lives.

To gain power over your self-critic, listen to the powerful words to rid your self-talk of negativity, to silence the critic and achieve a serene place of peace.

TRY IT! 5 DAYS of FREE MEDITATION! Just click here, enter your name & email to get started!

or KEEP READING: Day 5 Banish Procastination

©2017 Taru Nieminen   The Happy Teacher Solution

Day 3 The Power of the Subconscious

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Today’s Meditation

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Self-sabotage is like a game of mental tug-of-war. It is the conscious mind versus the subconscious mind where the subconscious mind always eventually wins.” — Bo Bennett

In the past two days, you’ve learned the art of meditation, a breathing technique to propel you in daily quiet, and created a safe place to store your inner self.

In our subconscious mind, we begin to understand what holds us back from doing something we know is important. It allows us to begin the healing and to start paying attention to what our subconscious mind is telling us every day.

We all talk to ourselves on a daily basis (sometimes even out loud) and many times those voices are critical. We scold ourselves and are judgmental of our work, our time management, our procrastination, we are angry because things didn’t go our way, and we demean ourselves when the lesson plans don’t go as planned.

Why is it so hard to be happy?

Change the lens you’re looking through. You might find something amazing.

We have so many memories from our past which surface on a daily basis that sometimes we find it hard to live in “today.” Of course, we wouldn’t be who we are if all those things didn’t happen to us or we hadn’t experienced them. So how do we marry all the past incidents together, so we can move on?

We are going to invite them to the table with us, but they have sit where told.

“Any thought that is passed on to the subconscious often enough and convincingly enough is finally accepted.” —Robert Collier

Everyone has that sixth sense, but not everyone realizes or even believes in it. And not everyone uses it to their advantage. And everyone experiences it in a different way. So there’s no way to “teach” it. You can cultivate it though.

You can cultivate what you need and want out of your

teaching

Today, we start to clear away the misconceptions you might have about the work you do, about your job, and start enjoying what you’re doing.

So you can teach from the deepest part of your heart. To give your past the space it needs around the table, but not letting it run the conversation and take over.

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Let the past be with you, but not control the conversation. Invite it to be part, but not take over. Listen again to hear inspiring words of guidance to invite your past to be part of the party. 😊

KEEP READING: Day 4 Sweet Inner Peace

©2017 Taru Nieminen   The Happy Teacher Solution

Day 2 The Tranquil Space

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Today’s Meditation

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“When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.” — La Rochefoucauld

How does it sound and feel? Your tranquil classroom?

You’ve undoubtedly made one of those virtual maps or paper drawings of your perfect classroom.

Is yours tranquil? If not, what is the ONE thing you could change today?

Just one. Change the chair you are sitting on to a different place? Move one desk? Put up one poster to make you feel good? Get a calendar with a beach scene? The possibilities are endless, but choose only one.

Create your own image of the perfect classroom. Now go sit in it as a student, as a teacher, as an administrator. What do you see? How is it laid out? What colors do you see? What type of seating?

What does your space look like? Think of this when you embark on your second day of meditation.

Visualize your perfect classroom

Visualize your perfect classroom. After all, this is where you spend the bulk of your day as a teacher. Why not have it be perfect, and if not in reality, you can always visit it during your meditation. Now, before you debunk this idea, hear me out.

I currently live in Michigan. The cloudiest state in the US. And I love the sun. I crave sunshine every day. I certainly don’t get it here —sometimes for days, there is no sun. So during my meditation, I’m on a white-washed sun porch, somewhere in the tropics, sitting in my flowered chair with my laptop and I’m happily writing. This is the place I go when I meditate. It makes me happy.

Create your happy classroom (or any place that makes you happy) and go there when you meditate. Imagine what it would look like. What type of chair are you sitting on? When you walk around the space, what do you see? Create this space and make it special. This is where you can be the creative teacher, the most wonderful teacher, the one waiting inside you.

One my friends, Ellen, chose a cliff overlooking Lake Superior at McLain State park. It’s her happy place.

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It is possible for you to visit that safe space anytime of the day

So make it special. When you are able to do this, you can visit the place and feel a sense of quiet and peace, a sense of control and self-awareness.

When you’ve established that safe, special place for yourself, it gives you a better understanding of yourself, gives you better sleep, improves your learning and memory process as well as communication.

When you’re in your safe space, you can regulate your emotions — and actions towards your emotions — more effectively which gives you that inner peace everyone craves.

Meditation can give you that special space and safe place to think and ponder, to create and inspire.

Remember, meditation requires practice and patience.

Today we are going to create the safe, special, tranquil classroom or place that you can visit anytime.

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

Build your special place, make it yours. Listen to hear inspiring words of guidance to be able to visit your tranquil place anytime. 😊

KEEP READING: Day 3 The Power of the Subconscious

©2017 Taru Nieminen   The Happy Teacher Solution

Day 1 Create a Sense of Control and Quiet

Today’s Meditation

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“Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.” —William Blake

You’ve embarked on this journey to take control.

To no longer be exhausted. To feel like you matter.

To be more like yourself, not someone who merely goes through the day like a zombie.

Take the time now. Control your time. Concentrate on this ONE task.

Be present. Love yourself. Give this time for you, so you can give of yourself to others.

The difference will be amazing. Gift yourself the time. Just 10-15 minutes a day. You deserve it.

Imagine being able to manage your work, your day, your life, with ease. This is the essence of teaching and living in the zone. You begin to control the mind, instead of being controlled by the mind.

Stay positive. Be positive. Laugh. Smile. Be present for yourself so you can be present for your students, your friends, your family. Take a deep breath and let it out. It will all work out. Promise.

Peace of mind through daily meditation

One of the most effective means of achieving a sense of control and quiet is through meditation. Daily meditation is a proven way of receiving peace of mind from the troubles and distractions of everyday life and will help you to find that sense of control.

When your mind is cluttered, and jumps from one thing to another, thinking clearly can be an overwhelming challenge. Once you learn how to clear your mind, you can start to live, love, and teach more clearly. You become more focused and able to control every aspect of your day.

Learning to take control of your mind can seem like an overwhelming task at first. But as with any learning, it is a process and takes practice. Some will start, then stop the very next day, and never look at this program again. Don’t give up. Forgive yourself and restart.

Meditation can give you peace and flow into your day

“When the breath wanders the mind also is unsteady. But when the breath is calmed the mind too will be still, and the yogi achieves long life. Therefore, one should learn to control the breath.”         Hatha Yoga Pradipika

At this point you’re just wanting to make it to the end of the day, the week, the end of the school year with success. Meditation will give you just that.

Meditation can give you that peace, the flow you’re looking for, help in finding your zone, connecting with yourself.

Meditation releases us from the endless chatter in our minds, the busyness we often resort to in our daily life — without resorting to self-destructiveness via drugs, alcohol, or food to make ourselves feel good and worthy.

Meditation allows us to focus.

Experiencing success in all aspects of your life

“Quiet allows us to [teach] from the heart, not just the head.” —Annette Annechild, PhD.

The perfect teacher’s life is not only experiencing success in the classroom, but also the joy of creating and producing great lessons without pressure and the freedom to create them with ease.

The increasingly frenzied pace of our lives can profoundly affect the ability to lead a true teacher’s life. With your summers off — completely off — whatever that means to you.

The constant feeling of chaos in the world leads many of us to levels of anxiety beyond our control. The barrage of news events, technology driven social media, and instant access to all things electronic, can lead us to feel restless, sleepless, endure nightmares, and have a general feeling of suffering.

How do you combat all this? By taking control of your mind and experiencing peace and quiet.

Capturing a sense of control and quiet Is perhaps one of the most important aspects of meditation in ensuring that you can connect to your inner teacher. So you can nurture and support the talent and conditions necessary for inspired teaching.

Research by Dr. Daniel Siegel reveals our sense of control truly means: “Perhaps the deepest need people have is for a sense of control. When we feel out of control, we experience a powerful and uncomfortable tension between the need for control and the evidence of inadequate control. Note that the need is for ‘a sense of control’, not just for ‘control’. This need around how we feel about control is much deeper and has a wider scope than just seeking power and the control it brings.”

Meditation has been practiced for centuries to quiet the mind. “Practiced in the East and the West, in ancient times and in modern societies, mindful awareness techniques, like meditation, help people move towards well-being by training the mind to focus on moment-to-moment experiences.”

Capturing quiet and having a sense of control is perhaps the most important concept to master in order to connect with your inner teacher and refine your talents of being a life-long learner.

In the first parts of the 21-day journey in The Happy Teacher Solution, you take control and quiet the mind. The tools herein can help you align yourself with the basic needs that are often drowned out by today’s hectic lifestyle and the many demands of your career.

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Take control of your day, quiet your mind. Listen to inspiring words of guidance to learn the simple art of meditation and give yourself a quiet, peaceful, mind.  😊

KEEP READING: Day 2 The Tranquil Space

©2017 Taru Nieminen   The Happy Teacher Solution

Introduction and Welcome

Reinventing the way Teachers Live, Love, and Teach through Guided Meditation

Dear Fellow Educator,

My sincere hope is that this guide will help you in your journey as an educator, life-long learner, and influencer.

Remember, though, that this is merely a guide, not medical advice for any ailment. But it certainly can’t hurt.

As Herbert and Benson, Harvard medical doctors, have pointed out: “Meditation decreases oxygen consumption, respiratory rate, and blood pressure, and increases the intensity of theta and delta brain waves – the opposite of physiological changes that occur during stress.”

We all strive for less stress.

The value of meditation is not in the length, but in the starting.

For you, the change might be fast and profound. A transformational change — or it might be slow and less profound at first. “It is for those who wish to change.”

Meditation re-orients and reprograms the brain to give you a sense of control over your days and your life in general.

From Frustration to Calmness

Meditation can take you from frustration to calmness, from impatience to empathy, from anger to compassion, from arguments to peaceful agreement, from procrastination to complete focus, from disagreements to harmony, from absolute obedience to peaceful negotiations, from dysfunction to order. That’s a big promise, but I do promise that if you keep on with the 21 days, your life will change. You will feel more peaceful; you will have more peace, harmony, compassion, empathy, order, focus, and control over your days and life.

It is a commitment, but, I hope the reason you looked at this was to find a lasting solution to a problem, your frustrations, lack of control, not just a onetime deal to get through this one day. Meditation can give you just that. I believe these are words worth repeating: “It is for those who wish to change.”

Enjoy Sense of Control

Meditation gives you a sense of control. Many times, we feel utterly lost in the hustle of everyday life, trying to juggle work, family, friends, and commitments.

To take control of your day and life, you need to be mindful of each moment and event. This will take time. Meditation and mindfulness is not a cure-in-a-minute-type hype. But don’t worry if even after several days and weeks of meditation your thoughts wander off while at an important event. This is perfectly normal. In fact, you probably shouldn’t try to be in a moment 100% every day, every minute of the day. That would be exhausting. Your brain needs the “downtime” to recoup and rethink events, happenings, and thoughts.

The “daydreaming,” if you will, should always be part of your day and life and with meditation, it can become more vivid and real. You might be inspired by your daydreaming in totally different ways than before.

Breathing promotes physical wellness and restores cells.

Breathing promotes healing and ensures circulation of both oxygen and blood throughout every fiber of your body. And because breathing is automatic, we can make it a focal point of meditation.

If it can do that on its own, imagine what conscientious breathing can do for you.

So, the first thing to do is to figure out how to breathe and focus. Now, this can be very hard at first, so don’t give up. I often notice while I’m meditating and practicing yoga that I’ve stopped breathing deeply, with intention, and that’s okay. Just re-start.

Notice how you breathe. Take a deep breath and exhale. If you are sitting in a relaxed position, you probably filled the upper part of your lungs and then, as you exhaled, you slouched. It’s okay, don’t worry, most of us do it exactly the same way.

How to Breathe in Meditation

Inhale through your nose, exhale through your mouth. Some people like to breathe only through the nose. This takes a bit of practice, so if that’s your way, just keep practicing even if it doesn’t feel right immediately.

Now, sit in a chair with your back straight and pretend there is an empty balloon in your stomach and you are going to fill it. Breathe in and fill the balloon. When you exhale, think of the balloon and try to get all the air out of it. This means that your exhale is about twice the length of the inhale. You could count to 3 to 4 as you inhale, and then count 6 to 8 as you exhale.

Another variation of the inhalation/exhalation in calming and meditating breaths is to use the 4/7/8 regulation. Inhale for 4, retain breath in for 7, and exhale for 8 counts. Now, again, remember, any type you adopt, will take time. And as with meditation in general, the longer it’s taking and the harder it is, the more you need it. 🙂

The breathing helps you stay present in what you’re trying to accomplish. “Live in the moment” as they say.

Posture in Meditation

There is no right or wrong way to lie or sit while meditating. Choose a posture that is comfortable for you. You don’t have to contort your body into a Lotus position (this is the posture you see established yogis use- sitting with a straight back and legs on top of each other, legs crisscrossed on top of each leg). I’ve been practicing for more than a year now, and no matter what, this is not comfortable for me.

You can simply sit on a chair or lie on your bed. It is recommended that either way, your back is straight. So even if you can’t lie all the way down on your bed, still try to have your back straight – propped up by pillows, if needed.

Devote yourself to action, to doing this every day for the next 21 days. You CAN carve out 10-15 minutes every day. Your life might depend on it. Or at least your sanity.

You only need to get up a few minutes earlier to reap the rewards. Or maybe it will be easier for you to do this in your classroom, before anyone gets there, before anyone else is in the building or classroom. Take the 15- minute break at work you always feel that you need. Give time for yourself — take the 15 minutes out of your lunch (and believe me, I know exactly how hard it would be- my lunch was exactly 35 minutes long, and that included the “passing time” for the students), end of the day (lock your classroom door if needed), sit in your car for the time it takes you to meditate, take a break, — control your day.

Pledge this gift to yourself, decide, and commit.

Most sincerely,

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KEEP READING: Day 1 Creating a Sense of Control and Quiet

©Taru Nieminen 2017 The Happy Teacher Solution — Meditation for Teachers