One thing that seems to be a constant theme the last few years is that most are operating in a constant state of crisis and stress. People are tired, students and teachers, so what are the best things to do for self care? I could tell you the typical things of eating right and all that, but I think you need some more specific and easily accessible strategies that might also be possible for your students. The pillars of self care are; mental, emotional, physical, environmental, spiritual, recreational, and social.

1. Water: Drinking water, seeing water, feeling water (do you see a theme here?) - most students are dehydrated and many people drink diuretics so making sure to hydrate is critical!

2. Organize and make the space appealing: Spending time in any space that is disorganized and does not have calming elements will increase stress. Having natural elements helps to ease the nervous system. (Ulrich et al., 1991).

3. Movement: This doesn’t need to be an entire cardio workout, but if you feel yourself starting to to get agitated and want to complain or if a student is complaining or making lots of excuses then move your body! A good technique is to walk up and down a staircase two times, (it may take more times for a student with good athletic capacity) and then see how you feel and what your focus is. I often do this with staff who want to tell me issues when I arrive at a building, I will say walk with me (I do the same thing with students if they have complaints when they see me) and I try to find a reason to walk quickly or up an incline/stairs. Typically by the time we get to the top they no longer have something that is sitting with them negatively!

4. Gratitude: I often combine this with movement, regardless of how I might have something nagging at me negatively, I will find something to focus on that I am grateful for. At times I even convince the student that I am grateful for something they haven’t yet achieved but through the presentation we state that they are. We aren’t being untruthful, but we are providing a scenario for how to create this success. For instance, if a student is attending each of their classes 10 minutes a day I might say, “Wow you are almost at 15 mins per class. That is really impressive! You were at 8 mins per class 6 weeks ago and that progression is impressive. You should be so proud of how hard you have worked! I am going to talk to your parents about how well you are doing at this!” Doing this at the end of a day is usually preferred so the student doesn’t self-sabotage. For yourself, you can do the same thing, wow this student wasn’t completing work 6 weeks ago and now they are looking at the assignments. You need the dopamine, give yourself the win!!

5. Mindfulness/Meditation: Take a few moments to practice mindfulness/meditation. Many people will say to me that they don’t have the time to think or a few moments, but they continue to rush around forgetting things and struggling to do what they intend because their mind is in chaos. Take a few moments to say, I need to use the bathroom, or get ready for this meeting, or get in 5 mins before the students to make the decision on what you want to have happen and imagine it. There are so many things that pull you in a hundred directions that this is critical to go in the direction that YOU INTEND.

6. Connect: Connect with someone you care about and don’t make this a time to crab about what is going wrong but to ask them what is going right, what they see that you are doing right, what are some ideas on how to connect with your more challenging students, but be careful not to get caught up in what makes that student challenging as this could be a path to negativity.

7. Practice Positivity: I say practice because it is a skill and it needs to be practiced. It is easy to practice the negative; it is abundant around us. Practicing how to be positive and how to provide positive feedback to those around you, especially your students, on how to be positive is critical so they can experience how to do this.

8. Get into the sun: You may not want to have morning duty, or recess duty but the direct sunlight can provide a huge lift in how you feel (An et al., 2016). If you don’t have the opportunity to get outside try and sit by a window for a few minutes.

9. Take care of yourself: Taking care of your body can be a way that helps you feel cared for, like brushing your hair, putting on hand lotion, putting on a sweater with soothing material, drinking tea, washing your hands, and as a teacher sometimes just going to the bathroom feels like self care!!