Why is Self Care Important During Distance Learning?
Self Care is Not Selfish-It’s Necessary
What keeps teachers mentally strong during a crisis? To many teachers looking for self care tips, it feels selfish to even try to carve out time for ourselves when so many people need our attention.
It’s quite the opposite. Self care is how teachers will stay strong and serve well through this difficult time. The time for good self care habits for teachers has never been more pressing. Ready for the first self care tip? Yes, it’s for teachers, but it’s honestly for anyone looking for better self care while teaching or working from home:
Self care is more than just bubble baths. It’s an essential skill – to prioritize your well-being for the long term- that’s so difficult to implement at a time like this. Distance learning is our foreseeable future, which means that teachers need to prioritize their health now more than ever when teaching from home.
I don’t know about you, but this fabled time for hobbies is not a thing for teachers working from home! We are now juggling more roles than ever, and just getting in an hour of uninterrupted work is a straight miracle. So how are we going to add in time for self care, and why is that even important?
Need help organizing your self care each day? Grab the free Self Care Planner for teachers here
These changes in our workspace mean that we need to make changes in our headspace as well so that we can show up and serve better each day in a time when our students need us most. Distance learning calls all teachers to up their self-care game. Here are my daily self care routines that are keeping me sane during distance learning:
1. Drink water and stay hydrated
This one goes without saying. The true importance of hydration in your self-care routine is that it clears your mind and your body by filtering out toxins and supplying your immune system with the daily supplies it needs to do the job. More mental clarity to fight off all the outside noise of shrieking children and dogs? Yes please, I’ll take a swig of that.
If you’re like me and you can never remember how much water you drink, don’t worry–download this free self care planner to track your water intake each day to make sure you’re drinking enough!
2. Daily Meditation
Tough times call for strength of mind, and the most fortifying thing you can do for your mind is to train and relax it. Meditation has taught me how to control my own thoughts and emotions–I’m living proof that it’s possible to train yourself to feel better through daily meditation.
But don’t take my word for it, try it once and the break it gives your normally racing mind will amaze you. The app Headspace is free for educators and you can start with as few as two minute intervals to try it out. Want some numbers? This study reports that Google employees who used a meditation app for 8 weeks reported a 31% reduction in anxiety alone.
3. Practice Gratitude
Did you know that practicing gratitude boosts your immune system? Positive thoughts really do help your body to prevent illness in addition to giving a dose of much-needed perspective. Every morning before I start work, I write down five things I’m grateful for, and it fills my body with a sense of peace. It reminds me that even in a crisis, I still live in a world of abundance. Gratitude doesn’t mean that we’re not sad about the truth of our current circumstances or deny how hard it is. It helps to balance us out and bring us joy by reminding us to appreciate what we have.
Looking to start a gratitude practice but don’t know where to start? Grab my free Self-Care planner for teachers. It walks you through the process.
4. Limit news and media exposure
Although it’s important to stay informed, I’m sure that you’ve noticed by now a trend in media when reporting news on current affairs: the reporting uses emotionally-charged language on purpose to keep you reading or watching. Although the news exists to inform you, it’s also competing for your attention, and doesn’t mind resorting to sensationalism to do it.
Use good judgement in which networks you choose to consume. I’ve found it’s easier to consume news now through a daily email update of curated articles. This way, I get to decide what to read and it’s much easier to filter out more things I don’t need, like fear or anger.
5. Exercise
You already know that exercise is an essential self care habit, but what if I told you specifically that cardiovascular activity makes you less prone to infection? Check out this publication from Exercise is Medicine.org to see the CDC’s powerful stance on how beneficial just 150 minutes a week can be in keeping your body and mind healthy.
Also, let’s be for real, the fridge is right there. Staring at you. For eight additional hours. Fight back with some pushups and go ahead and indulge in some cupcakes–you can burn it off later! Just promise me you’ll eat some veggies too, m’kay?
6. Get fresh air
One of the most anxiety-fighting, antibacterial, fear–crushing things that exists is sunshine and fresh air. It’s been destroying germs since germs started hangin’ out. And it’s also incredible for your mood and state of being. If you can’t get outside, turn off the AC and sit by an open window to let in the fresh air, I promise you that it’s much better for you than central air anyways. You’ll be amazed at how much it lifts your spirits and clears your head as well as taking care of your immune system.
7. Take time to slow down
The nature of our current global situation is that things are changing every day. Our normal is changing every day, twice on Sunday. This is mentally taxing on a regular day, let alone with all the other emotions you have going on. It’s not just some frou-frou advice–slow down for a minute every day. If you want to be there for your family when they need you most, when your class needs you most, you need to give your brain and your heart time to process.
There’s so much we don’t know and so much of our brain chemistry relies on patterns and routine. With so much disruption, you won’t function at full capacity if you’re constantly pushing through and pushing forward. In fact, you’re actually costing yourself your brain’s most valuable processing speed. Take a minute to slow down and process the newness, and any updates, good or bad, so that you can tackle tomorrow.
8. Sleep at least 8 hours
Sleep is the most powerful reset button. Check out this video below about the transformative power of sleep and how it affects our daily lives and health. Now that you don’t have a commute, you can probably get some more of it! Take any silver lining you can get, right?
I don’t know about you, but if I need to be cooped up with the family for an extended period of time, I also need sleep to be not-an-evil-sass-monster *ahem* great freaking mom with lots of patience for endless tantrums and outlandish requests while trying to work.
9. Create a Pump-Up Playlist
Teachers need brain breaks too. Since it’s hard for us to switch up our environments because we’re teaching from home (and often surrounded by all kinds of noise like dogs and kids and the like) we have to be creative about how to switch up our mood. I got this idea from the one and only Rachel Hollis at her Rise Business Conference. She has a few songs always tucked up her sleeve to help her feel like Wonderwoman when she needs to do somethings she hates to do. I think it’s time that teachers teaching from home steal this idea and make it our own. Call it a brain break if you like!
What are the five songs that pump you up no matter where you are? What song can shift your mood as soon as it comes on? Don’t overuse this playlist, but keep 5 songs or so tucked in your back pocket for when you need a boost.
Printable Self Care Planner
If you’re ready to organize your routine around self care instead of trying to squeeze it in the margins of life….if you’re tired of feeling overwhelmed with your tasks and wonder how you’ll get it all done…you’re ready to take your self care to the next level with this year-long printable self care planner.
Bonus Self Care Tip for Teachers
Need help organizing your self care each day? Grab the free Self Care Planner for teachers here
What does your new self care routine look like? Is there one that I missed? Tell me below in the comments some of your self care tips for teachers. If no one told you today, you’re an amazing teacher – I can tell because you care about teaching for the long term by taking care of yourself.
Sincerely rooting for you,
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