Resilience – Page 2 – Happy Schools

Do You Look After Yourself

March 28, 2024

Recently I was suffering from “man flu”. Men are always the last to know that they have it. Luckily my gorgeous wife was able to point it out to me. Apparently, “man flu” is when a man has a slight cold but they think it is the end of the world! Now, I am not a believer in “soldiering on”. I believe that when my body is ill I need to rest and let it get better. Consequently, I cancelled several work and social appointments. Now, I could have gone along but it was just not worth it. There was a slight chance I could have infected the person I was meeting (and depending on their air-conditioning system, half of the…

Are You Suffering Decision Fatigue?

March 21, 2024

Stevef

Resilience

Research shows that on average, teachers will make more than 1500 educational decisions every school day. That’s more than four decisions every minute! ‘Decision Fatigue’ is an area currently being researched at Stanford University. Researchers have found that constantly having to make decisions creates fatigue and puts us at risk of making poorer decisions later in the day. As we become more mentally tired, we start acting more impulsively. Author of the book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, Roy Baumeister believes that this explains, “Why ordinarily sensible people get angry at colleagues and families, splurge on clothes, buy junk food and can’t resist the dealer’s offer to rustproof their new car. No matter how rational and high-minded you try…

Adrenalin Junkies

March 14, 2024

Stevef

Portfolio

Teachers and other staff in schools often live an action-packed life, typical of the adrenalin junkie. You only know two speeds. You’re either on — full-on — or asleep. The feeling of an adrenalin high is addictive, without realising it you may be trying to be ‘ON’ 100% of the time. You may not be aware that this is how you go through your day. You’re simply moving fast in response to a high-speed life and the expectations of your peers and students. The downside of the adrenalin high is the adrenalin crash! This is the feeling of anti-climax you get when you finish a major project or the restlessness you feel on holidays, the boredom you endure when you…

Fear and How to Do It

March 9, 2024

Stevef

Resilience

A popular saying is ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’. The theme behind the saying is common – if you are scared of something, walk up to it, meet it head on and you may be surprised that it’s not as scary as you thought. Remember the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz? He had no courage – until he found that what he’d been afraid of all his life, wasn’t really frightening at all…and he regained his self-esteem. Fear is like furniture and objects in a dark room. We walk into a dark room and start to bump into obstacles and soon we are anxious and stressed because we don’t know what is in our way. We…

Ten Tips for Beating Fatigue

February 29, 2024

Stevef

Resilience

I’m tired! There’s too much going on outside of work, too much work inside of work. I’m reaching the tired that obliterates memory of antidotes and there are still lessons to be planned, work to be marked and reports to be written. So I’m going to brainstorm a list of what helps to prevent plunges into fatigue: #1. Take a 10-minute walk. They say I’ll feel the energetic benefits from a 10-minute walk for the following two hours. One of the first things we tend to do when we are busy and stressed is STOP exercising, yet this is the thing we need most! #2. Stop reading anything related to education for a week. Or cut down by 90…

Start Well – Finish Well

January 18, 2024

Stevef

Resilience

Working in schools can be demanding. Each year it seems that more is expected of you than ever before. Competing demands result in having too much to do and not enough time to do it. It is the cumulative effect of workload and insidious day-to-day sources of stress and not the less frequent intense sources of stress, which staff in schools are most concerned about. Most people start the year with renewed energy, focus and vigour. They have enjoyed a well-earned break and are ready for another challenging year. Establishing systems and good habits are essential at this time of the year. The start of a new school year should set the tone for the rest of the year. Now…

Distract Yourself to Reduce Anxious Thoughts

December 7, 2023

Stevef

Resilience

Almost everyone feels anxious at some point in their lives. For some people, anxiety occurs regularly, even daily. Research has shown that distracting yourself from feelings of anxiety can help to curb them. Actively distracting yourself takes your mind off of the anxiety you are experiencing. For this technique to be most effective, you need to choose to distract yourself, rather than someone else distracting you. What is a distraction strategy? A distraction strategy is simply an activity that takes your mind off your current emotions. Instead of putting your energy into your worries and increasing your anxiety, you can focus on other things instead to give your mind and body time to calm down. It can be difficult to…

What Are You Grateful For?

November 30, 2023

Stevef

Resilience

I recently asked my doctor how I was going after he had run a series of blood tests on me. He said, “Ken, if I was you, I would be grateful for every day I am alive.” There’s an endorsement if ever there was one. He was joking, of course. But, surely that is good advice for all of us. I think that too many of us spend too much of our time focusing on what is wrong in our lives and what could go wrong in the future. Though let me be quick to say that if you are presently dealing with very tough life circumstances, it can often be very hard to find anything to be grateful for.…

How to End Self-Critical Thoughts (Part 2)

November 23, 2023

Stevef

Resilience

In part 1 last week, we recognised that at times we can be our own harshest critic. Our expectations can be unrealistic and we can take it to heart when things don’t work out as we had planned. In responding to these self-critical thoughts we looked at the first two steps of the 4 N process. NOTICE the Thought – dump what is going on in your brain onto paper. NORMALIZE the Thought – negative thoughts are normal in the human brain. NEUTRALIZE the Thought Neutralizing is where we’re trying to just get to the facts of the situation. We are taking the punch or power out of the circumstance. It helps by removing the adjectives and adverbs. For example,…

How to End Self-Critical Thoughts (Part 1)

November 16, 2023

Stevef

Resilience

At times we can be our own harshest critic. That little voice inside our head can be very self-critical. This can be because our work in schools can seem never ending. There is always more that can be done. More planning, more preparation, more consultation, more factors to consider and more meetings to be held. Despite our best efforts, sometimes things don’t quite work out the way we might like and often that leads to further self-critical thoughts. We can mentally beat ourselves up about what we “should have done!” Often this is unrealistic and not helpful. Hindsight is such a wonderful thing. Thoughts are important because they drive our actions, our choices, our results and ultimately our happiness. The…