Ah, back to school time. For those of us who follow a Northern Hemisphere calendar, these past few weeks have marked the start of a new school year. For many of us, this is an adrenaline-filled time, an exciting time where we meet new students and colleagues, re-connect with our purpose and imagine the potential hidden within this school year. Most of us aren’t thinking about burnout/exhaustion/overwork (or if we are, we’re trying to push it to the far recesses of our mind and convince ourselves it’s not going to happen this year. Unfortunately, educators are consistently one of the highest groups to experience symptoms of burnout (emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and lowered feelings of accomplishment). This can stem from so many places – high workload, an unsupportive workplace, transition stress, lack of agency and perfectionistic tendencies to name a few. Before you despair, just know that it doesn’t have to be an inevitability! There is SO much space for sustained wellbeing and joy in education and some simple practices can help us to harness that while we prevent burnout from paying a visit. Here’s a few simple ideas to help you kickstart that sense of wellbeing this school year: 

Reflect on your wellbeing needs

(Image from: https://extension.unh.edu/blog/2023/05/do-you-know-8-dimensions-wellness-what-they-say-about-your-well-being) 

Did you know that there are eight different dimensions of wellness? We often think of wellbeing as being just physical or mental, but there are many other facets of ourselves that also need to be considered in order to feel balanced and well. If one of these facets is out of whack, this can contribute to our stress and dysregulation. Now, of course it’s not possible to be completely balanced at all times, but it is important to consider how well and connected we feel to each different dimension of wellbeing. And if we feel that one or two in particular are not being nurtured, what is one tiny thing we could do to help boost that wellbeing? Last year, I was feeling disconnected from my friends who were far away and we instated a weekly 5 minute video update – we can watch and listen to the videos on our own time and it’s helping us all to feel more connected and regularly updated with each other. Perhaps you want to boost your physical wellbeing but you don’t know where to fit in more exercise – try for a ten minute walk around the school during your lunch break, or ask a colleague if you can have a walking meeting rather than a traditional sit-down chat. 

Find your people

Strong social connections = greater sense of wellbeing and flourishing. The research is clear. As educators, it is incredibly important that we are guided by our values and a strong sense of purpose. Who are the people that help you to cultivate this and feed that fire of passion in the workplace? Who can you share ideas, successes, fears and hopes with? Who will engage in healthy venting with you, rather than getting stuck in a soul-sucking cycle of complaining? Who will nudge you to take care of yourself inside and outside of work? Perhaps you’ve got a fabulous team in your building, or a cross-divisional workout group. Maybe you’ve met people outside of school in the larger community. Perhaps you’ve even found kindred souls online, in places like Story Workshop Studio, Ed Events, or even our very own SENIA member community. We can’t do this wonderful rollercoaster of life in this delightfully chaotic sector of work alone. Be sure to take the time to nurture your growing community. 

Build your boundaries

Whew, this is a hard one for me. I’m a “yes girl”, a recovering people-pleaser to the max. And no matter how much I’ve tried to deny it and find other ways, I’ve come to the hard realization that real self-care must start with boundaries. Remember those eight types of wellbeing we talked about above? No way we’re getting close to balance if we don’t have boundaries. At work, this might show up in a few different ways. A designated time in the workday to check emails; a set time in the afternoon/evening when you turn off from work; a non-negotiable weekly coffee chat/exercise class/date night. It can be so hard to say no or even “not right now”. And sometimes we have to say this to ourselves as well as others! It can be helpful to have a boundary buddy who will help us stay on track or to journal about our experiences throughout the process of establishing boundaries. It’s also important to recognize that this is going to look different depending on what’s going on in our lives, and that’s okay! As I’m writing this, I’ve just finished week one at a new school and am going on week three in this new country. Suffice it to say that my boundary game is lacking, but I knew that coming in. Transition time is a steep learning curve and, while it’s actually a perfect time to build and reinforce habits (hello morning meditation in my school’s mindfulness room and weekly group exercise classes) it’s also an overwhelming period in an international teacher’s life. I’m allowing my life to be a bit chaotic for right now, knowing that I’ll be able to feel more settled once I feel more rooted. 

Stop “should”-ing all over yourself

This is a good one to remember in conjunction with all of the above. We love love love to listen to that nagging little voice in our heads telling us what more/better/different we should be doing. So rarely do we take the time to stop and celebrate what is going awesomely. Next time you hear that voice (which is trying to be helpful, believe it or not), perhaps you might try to thank it and politely ask it to leave, and then turn your attention to something that you ARE doing. Maybe that student you made a connection with, or the lesson that was so engaging, or the new recipe you tried, or that boundary you’ve been (mostly) sticking to. Allow those positive feelings time to sink in – it takes longer but it’s worth it! 

Experience micro-moments of presence

Due to my aforementioned chaotic transition, I’ve engaged in some good old-fashioned procrastination in writing this piece and I’m glad I did because it gave me the chance to listen to this great podcast yesterday. I’m a huge proponent of mindfulness, and research tells us how beneficial it can be for teachers and students. And yet, it can sometimes feel like one more thing. To make it a bit less scary and still reap the benefits, where can you engage in small micro-moments of intentional presence in your day? Just 5 minutes a day helps boost your resilience against burnout. Try some of these short guided practices from UCLA mindfulness, or hop on an app like Insight Timer. When super short on time, just pause before you leave your house in the morning, close your eyes, and take 3 deep breaths in and out of your nose. Cultivating this presence is the foundation for sustained wellbeing and flourishing. 

We can’t do it alone

One of the big problems in our field is that many professionals feel like their wellbeing is their responsibility alone, and that’s just not the case. We have to acknowledge that there are systemic factors that influence personal wellbeing, and while there are some elements here that we can influence, there are some things that we just cannot change on our own. There is no yoga class or breathing technique that is going to stamp out inequality and injustice, and in these cases people are often left feeling demoralized. In these cases, the support of our community and mental health professionals is extremely important to lean upon. 

So happy back to school! We hope that this year brings joy and awe, and that you are able to find the small tweaks that help you to feel consistently energized and connected. What are some of your best practices for wellbeing? We’d love to hear them!