Tag: nurture

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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 17 Nurturing the Teacher Within

Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash

Today’s Meditation

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“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