Tag: teacher

Posted on

Day 9 Create Abundance through Gratitude

Photo by Jessica Bristow on Unsplash

Today’s Meditation

________________________________________________________

“Sometimes we should express our gratitude for the small and simple things like the scent of the rain, the taste of your favorite food, or the sound of a loved one’s voice.” —Joseph B. Wirthlin

 

When you started on this journey of meditation, of finding balance in your life, your career, your relationships, we started with the simple act of breathing.

Breathing with intention, and with clarity, is an antidote to the hassles of life, the challenges of teaching. Breathing deeply during meditation (or any other time) relaxes your muscles, lowers your blood pressure, and helps you manage your emotions. It creates the peace of mind, serenity, and tranquility we all need in our lives. And with practice, you will see positive results.

Peace, positive thoughts, and happiness, also come in the form of gratitude

Appreciation of the life you already have, the teaching, the family, the relationships, is a key to letting go of the scarcity mindset so many often cultivate. Instead, choose to cultivate a mindset of abundance, of energy, of love, and the love of teaching.

Today’s affirmation: “I’m so happy and grateful now that I can teach every day.” Feel free to change to anything else you might be grateful for in your life today.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to start a journal. But not just any journal, a gratitude journal. You might have heard of these and you might even have started one. If you have, but haven’t written in one in a while, it’s time to take it out again. If you’ve never had one, it’s easy to start. All you need is a notebook, any kind will work. It doesn’t have to be a fancy one. Decorate the cover with pictures and photos to make it special, yours.

The act of writing down of all that we appreciate brings peace, and knowing that we truly do have enough, we have more than enough. A friend of mine started with writing down, each day after the students had left, three things that went well that day. Nothing else. Just three things.

Sometimes we just forget

Learning to feel good about what we have can be harder than we think. We sometimes lose sight of what we already have and only think of what we don’t have.

“Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.”  —William Arthur Ward

 

A gratitude journal gives you a chance to be thankful for, appreciate, and notice all the beautiful, good, and precious that you already possess.

The actions you take today to feel abundant, and the confidence in your ability to produce, do, work, and be, are affected by your positive thoughts and focus. This way, you’re not acting, working, and being out of desperation. There is a purpose to all you do.

“I am so happy and grateful now that I…”

Writing down the words, seeing the words, and feeling the words of “I’m so happy and grateful now that …” —I am teaching, I have food in my belly, I have books to read, I am able to teach and influence lives every day, etc., brings joy. I could keep listing more, but instead, I will remind you that unlike some of your students, you most likely have food in your belly, you have warm water for your shower, and you can sleep safely at night.

Now the above is not to make you feel bad for your students or their families. On the contrary, it is to show you how good you do have it. Be thankful. Appreciate all you have. Appreciate yourself.

“I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness – it’s right in front of me if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude.”  —Brene Brown

Adopting a mindset of abundance can be very challenging at first, but it can also be the most rewarding aspect of this meditation for teachers. You’ll gain a renewed optimism in all your teaching. You’ll start to feel more blessed, more resourceful, and even more productive. All of this allows you to shift your reactions and actions to your environment. Feelings of happiness, relaxation, and appreciation embody your being.

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

The practice of appreciation and abundance reverses the trend of scarcity. You can be your own source of abundance and richness, of optimal happiness. Abundance and the law of attraction show us that the more we give, the more we receive. Show your brain, your body, and your environment that you appreciate them.

TRY IT! 5 DAYS of FREE 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 9 and beyond to create calmness, happiness, and energy in your life.

Keep Reading the blog: Day 10 Promoting Positive Change

©Taru Nieminen 2017   The Happy Teacher Solution

Posted on

Day 8 Insight into Challenges

Photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash

Today’s Meditation

________________________________________________________

“If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you.” —Zig Ziglar

Undoubtedly, when you chose to become a teacher, you knew there were going to be challenges. And that you would change in the process. It is so in any profession. You face small, insignificant challenges, setbacks, if you will, and larger difficulties, which can wreak havoc on your emotions.

We often have a natural tendency to react emotionally and struggle with disappointment and unhappiness when this happens. We realize life isn’t a bed of roses. The way we go forward after those difficulties, challenges, and setbacks determines how they affect our career, our life, our families, and often, our relationships with students, parents, and administrators.

We could just complain, keep adding to the negativity already building up or we can trust our instinct, our intuition, to keep a positive outlook on whatever challenges are thrown our way. Often, when we think of challenges, we think of them in a negative light. But if you change your lens and start thinking this was just one of those things that just happen, and inevitably, happens to everyone. In our teaching, and overall, a positive aspect can work wonders.

Challenges are supposed to test us

When we choose to confront and solve the problem or challenge, we gain insight and our ability to overcome the next challenge is heightened.

A challenge is supposed to test our abilities. Think of yesterday’s brick wall, whirlpool, or keyless door. They’re there to give us a chance to see how badly we want something. To see how we are going to overcome the challenge and what it will teach us.

If not for challenges, we would not be able to navigate in the forest of wills, desires, and choices

And remember, if teaching was easy, everyone would be doing it. 😉

Feeling stressed about a challenging situation isn’t the most difficult part. It is the frustration over not knowing what will solve that challenge that keeps us up at night, wondering, feeling anxious. And if you know the answer and are just procrastinating about the work that needs to be done, then remember that running away from the challenge only distances you from the solution. The work or solution could be as simple as making that parent phone call, emailing the administrator, or speaking to a student about cheating.

Getting stressed over and over about the same situation makes it worse every passing minute. When challenges arise, we feel our abilities are put to the test. Welcome the challenges. And remember, again, if teaching were easy, everyone would be doing it. Accept the challenge and know that overcoming challenges is extremely gratifying.

They just keep coming

Some days, the challenges keep piling up. And we get frustrated because the solutions we came up with don’t work- they might even make the situation worse! Teaching, devoted teaching, and overcoming challenges, is to have patience. Patience that the precise, the true, the best solution will come to you. Have faith. You are a professional. All the solutions you’ve already come up with show that.

And, please, stop doing what doesn’t work. If you know, in your heart, as many teachers can attest, that waiting to call a parent about a bad situation will only make it worse for all involved, then you know the challenge is to make yourself make that call as soon as the bell rings and the students are out. Just make the call. You’ll feel better.

One of the best advice I ever received about parent phone calls was to start the second day of school and keep calling, with positive news — every day. When the first call from you is a positive one, the whole atmosphere in the classroom changes. Students come to school smiling! They tell you about the phone call, they feel proud, valued, and cared for. It can be an almost overwhelming transformation. And then, if you must make that challenging phone call, start with a positive note, and the parent, the student, and you will feel better.

“Don’t limit your challenges, challenge your limits.”

One of the ways to tackle a challenge is to visit with the challenge for 5-15 minutes first thing in the morning. Maybe this is the time you need to meditate. Take the challenge by the horns and shake it. Grapple with it. An answer is imminent.

Don’t dwell on it forever. Just take care of it. Creating some type of plan (a good one to propel the challenge forward and therefore win) and then following the plan is better than not having any plan at all, just drifting along on the currents of apathy. So, MAKE a decision, FOLLOW the plan, and you will WIN.

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

Procrastination, facing a creative block, and controlling the inner critic are just some of the challenges we face as teachers. Visualizing success when faced with challenges can help you in finding better ways to overcome them and find solutions. Take the time to “see,” visualize, the positive outcome available for the situation.

When you feel overwhelmed with challenges, take into account Roger Crawford’s wise words: “Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional.” Choose to rise to the challenge, conquer the obstacle, think success, see the positive.

TRY IT! 5 DAYS of FREE 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 8 and beyond any time – every day if needed!

Keep Reading the blog: Day 9 Create Abundance through Gratitude

©Taru Nieminen 2017  The Happy Teacher Solution

Posted on

Day 7 Lesson Plans Re-energized

Photo by Diego PH on Unsplash

Today’s Meditation

__________________________________________________________

“A mind when stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions.” —Anonymous

You’re staring at the cursor in the document, the blank page, the empty mind. You’re waiting for that spark of inspiration to hit you so you can start your lesson plans.

But the mind is blocked, the eyes are glazed over, and the mouth is dry.

This is probably the scariest places for a teacher. Not being able to think about a single good idea, finish the task. We are faced with a week of students climbing up the walls, frustrated parents, administrators sending us emails about missing lesson plans, and colleagues shaking their heads in pity.

The confidence is collapsed, and you’re frantically searching for something to fill those white pages – the pages that should have something meaningful ready by Monday, by tomorrow, by next week.

Having this block can make you give up, you throw up your hands and lament that you just can’t do it today. And here comes the procrastinator, rearing its head. Do not let it in.

Every teacher struggles with this, not having an idea, no creativity pops its head around the corner to say “hi!” -saving your plans.

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” —Nelson Mandela

Truer words are yet to be spoken about writing your lesson plans. That is why yesterday, I urged you to have a template. You have the framework of your plans to start with, and guaranteed, the inspiration will come. You are not staring at a blank page.

Just like any other task, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Start with something someone else has already done. It’s okay not to have a new idea for every day. Some of the best ideas I’ve ever come up with have started with reading or teaching someone else’s lesson plans first.

The ideas are everywhere. Just look around you in your classroom. I bet you can find an idea right there. Re-teach a part of grammar, revisit a cool experiment, figure out a new way to teach the math problem, or find a new kinesthetic approach to a lesson you taught last semester. Review. Students like knowing what’s coming, and when you tell them since they know the subject so well, you’re going to try something different today, a way to get them moving.

Prepare, prepare, prepare

For a teacher, the block to come up with new ideas can be a daunting. As Gail Godwin’s quote tells us: “Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theatre.” But even with theatrics, you must have the preparation done.

 “A self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood.” —Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

This is what most of us need to hear somewhere around 2 pm every day when energy levels are dipping, our afternoon coffee cup is empty, and dinnertime seems like a world away. The creative spirit has left the building. Just because we don’t feel like it, doesn’t mean the work can be neglected.

So how do we come to terms with the realization?

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

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

Experiencing a creative block is different for each teacher but the results are the same. The inability to be productive, to work, to feel energized is taken away.

When we are grappled by the block to create, it is hard to even get started. Today’s meditation will take care of that. When you “Clean out a corner of your mind, Creativity will instantly fill it.” (- Dee Hock)

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 7-13 and beyond to create calmness, happiness, and energy in your life.

Keep Reading the blog: Day 8 Insight into Challenges

©2017 Taru Nieminen   The Happy Teacher Solution

Posted on

Day 6 Laser-Focused Teaching

@tobiasc

Today’s Meditation

__________________________________________________________

“It’s very tough for me to focus. I’m like: Look, something shiny! No, focus. Oh, there goes a butterfly.” —Gabby Douglas

Our ability to focus is often distracted by the clutter in our physical and mental world. And the ability to focus, which is attributed to be one of the most important traits of success, is often the one most lacking. Boredom, the un-challenged brain, mental and physical fatigue can ruin even the most focused activities in our lives.

Can you believe that as I was writing this, I actually listened to a voicemail! Yes, so insignificant compared to this important task of writing, yet, I didn’t want to miss something. Guess who it was? The exterminator, wanting to make the appointment to take care of the termites I have munching on my house. And that just goes to show, that we are all subject to FOMO — now labeled as an actual disease: ”Fear Of Missing Out.” Seriously, though, we need to start seriously (yes, I know I just used that word twice) thinking about how to focus on ONE thing at a time. Uni-task instead of multi-task.

Do that one thing well. And then move onto the next.

And do that well.

Choose to use the first 15 minutes of your day to clarify your mind, get rid of the mental clutter and mental fatigue. The chaos affects your ability to focus. The clutter limits your brain’s power to process information. This unfocused part limits you from being the most effective teacher. Clutter can distract you to the point that even small, menial tasks can seem overwhelming.

Jack Canfield gives us a few words of wisdom about distractions: “Successful people maintain a positive focus in life no matter what is going on around them. They stay focused on their past successes rather than their past failures, and on the next action steps they need to take to get them closer to the fulfillment of their goals rather than all the other distractions that life presents to them.”

A cluttered mind can impact your mental and physical being

A cluttered mind can impact your mental and physical being. It creates anxiety and increases the procrastination we took care of yesterday. It limits the new, exciting, and powerful things from entering your day and life.

Drs. Brown and Fenske (Harvard Medical School and University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, respectively) have come up with a “set of strategies for remaining mentally sharp even under trying circumstances.” Meditation is one of them.

They’ve studied focus, and specifically how we process information. “Preliminary research suggests that maintaining focus…might help build brain tissue. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital conducted MRI studies of people who regularly practice meditation, and found that compared with controls, they had more gray matter (brain cells) in areas associated with attention and sensory processing.”

“When we clear the physical clutter from our lives, we literally make way for inspiration and ‘good, orderly direction’ to enter.”           —Julia Cameron

 

The clutter that needs to be cleared includes both your work and home environment. And how fitting that is for a teacher. For which teacher does not bring home some work every now and then. Take care not to bring too much. Even though, as we agreed before, teaching is a lifestyle, it does not mean you have to be “on call” 24/7.

It took me years…

It took me years, but I finally figured out that bringing a bag full of work home was doing no one any favors. The bag sat there, staring at me (yes, I believe it had eyes!) begging to be opened, scolding me when I wasn’t eagerly tackling the essays that needed correction, or the grades that needed to be entered into the “Power Teacher” software.

On the rare, I did read through a stack of essays, and if I was so crunched for time that I “had to” correct and enter grades, I did do it. But more often than not, the same bag went back to school, unopened. Now disappointingly sighing at me as I laid it next to my desk the next morning.

Find a way to focus

I found a way to focus, though, at school. It took a while, but anyone can do it. I decided that instead of drudging the bag back and forth, I would finish all my work at school. I became laser-focused on this task. So, now, instead of wasting my time wandering around my planning hour, frantically trying to make copies, finishing lesson plans for the next day, leisurely using my cluttered mind to make excuses to do anything but grading and entering (the things I despised most) I did that first.

And my reward was that I started bringing less and less work home. Some days, no bag was carried out. It was all done. I used my planning time with laser-like focus. I made a plan, put Pandora on, listened to relaxing music and just did it. Whatever needed to be done. And I laid all of this out the day before, so I knew what I would be doing the next day during my planning hour; I didn’t waste half of it thinking about what I needed to do. I already knew.

And then I uni-tasked. I kept on grading, reading essays, until the hour was gone. I made so much progress, that most days, I could leave “early,” exactly when I was “allowed to” according to the contract.

I also didn’t leave on Friday until my lesson plans were done and in the principal’s inbox. This took a few months of hard work, and planning, but it could be done. Just work on them a few minutes every day. Have a template, if you don’t have one, here’s one I used. Most of it was just filling in that week’s standards and then figuring out what needed to be added. Now, your school might not need such an extensive form, or they might need more detail, or not even require you to hand in lesson plans. But even after ten years of teaching, I found it very helpful to write down exactly what I was doing.

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

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

Psychology and the art of meditation go hand in hand in showing us that our thoughts and the items in our mind are often thought of as just occurring naturally. However, we can control our thoughts and the items we let in.

Order now and Listen to Day 6 as we take the journey together to a laser-focused teaching day, where the ability to focus is engaged, and the laser-focused teacher can emerge.

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

or KEEP READING: Day 7 Lesson plans Re-energized

©2017 Taru Nieminen — The Happy Teacher Solution

Posted on

Day 5 Banish Procrastination

Via Pexels.com by FOX

Today’s Meditation

_________________________________________________________

“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

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

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

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

 

Posted on

Day 4 Sweet Inner Peace

Via unsplash.com

Today’s Meditation

_________________________________________________________

“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?

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

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

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