self-care – Mind Body Classroom

Journaling: What are the Benefits? What to Journal About? and How We Can Make it a Habit?

October 3, 2022by stephaniewsson411Leave a Comment

What do you do when you feel as if you cannot hold your emotions within you? When you are a cup, ill equipped to hold the volume of your feelings, and at any moment, it can all come spilling out creating a mess that would be more than a little inconvenient to clean? For me, the answer is I write it down. Since I was a child, I have loved to write, and very early on I realized that when I put my ideas into words, even if I was unclear when I started, by the time I finished, I would have more clarity than when I began. As an adult, I can add personal color to the widely accepted and research backed consensus that journaling can be life changing. When I post on my instagram story about my journal, I’ve had several people ask me how I journal and what I journal about. I am here to offer research, ideas, and resources for those who wish to know more and begin to journal.

The Research

Deborah Christensen, MSN, APRN, AOCN writes that studies have shown that journaling helped Registered Nurses experience less compassion fatigue, make better decisions, and be more self aware. Though this study is specifically for nurses, I know that compassion fatigue and decision making are HUGE for teachers, especially after COVID. We encounter a multitude of student stories, some of which are traumatic. I remember my first year teaching. I was not prepared for the emotional toll of listening to my beloved students’ struggles. Not to mention, I had trauma myself as a teacher. One year, we lost a student, and I had to hold my students as they cried from hearing the news. I say this to emphasize that this profession has an emotional toll and our mental health should be taken seriously. Teachers also experience decision making fatigue. The amount of decisions that teachers make a day is ludicrous. Should we let this student go to the bathroom?; Should I address this behavior in front of the group or in a one on one?; Did my students grasp the concept, or should I re-explain using a different method? The list goes on and on.

I say all this to say, that though the nature or our compassion and decision making fatigue may be different than nurses, it is still a relevant concern in our profession. Journaling is a technique that can help, and why wouldn’t we want help?

What to Journal About?

Reflection is Key

Identifying emotions is one journaling practice that can help you process your emotions, while fostering the emotional awareness you need to set an intention for your day. I know what you’re thinking: “But I don’t have time, I already have to be at the school at the crack of dawn.” Well, I got you. Christensen shows a resource in her article that is has to be the quickest journaling prompt in the world. You just write down one word that expresses how you feel in all of the following categories: Physically, Emotionally, Spiritually, and Relationally. The example she gives in her article looks like this

Physically-Energetic

Emotionally-Anxious

Spiritually-Satisfied

Relationally-seeking

If you are having trouble identifying how you are feeling, you can save this graphic of the emotional word wheel to your phone, so you can identify exactly how you are feeling in each area.

Click to access Feelings-Wheel-Learn-How-to-Label-Your-Feelings.pdf

Gratitude is Good for Your Health

Celebration can be good for your immune system! Yes, when you write, celebrate what you are grateful for! Yes, for those of us who are on the more cynical side, who delight in satire and sarcasm, may find this unnatural and odd, but trust me, pushing through the immediate eye roll and making it a habit is worth it. By the time it is a habit, you will be looking around and noticing that you have more to be grateful for than you hold in your conscious mind on a regular basis. No, I do not think that this is a cure all, and I don’t think you should use it to gaslight yourself from a negative situation. But acknowledging that both gratitude and sorrow can exist at the same time is powerful. How can you expect to have a positive life if you never take the time to reflect on what is positive.

I started my gratitude journal by just writing down 5 things that I am grateful for in the morning. It doesn’t have to be life altering events to be worthy of documentation. Anything you are grateful for qualifies. The sun outside, the cup of coffee you’re drinking, the fact that you were able to take that last breath, anything that is positive. Eventually it got easier and the things that I am grateful for just flowed out of my pen.

Meditate on something you read

Another way I like to journal is to write about a poem or a quote that resonated with me. One book of poetry that I highly recommend for this is All Along You Were Blooming: Thoughts for Boundless Living By Morgan Harper Nichols. Wow, I loved this book so much I bought two more copies to give away as gifts. Morgan also has an instagram page where she shares her art and inspirational thoughts. I also love the book Celebrations by Maya Angelou. The poems are short enough to fit into a quick morning routine, but have deep and beautiful ideas to start your day off with.

Dream

You can also use your journaling routine to dream. Some days I start off my day by free journaling about what I want out of life. I think about my goals, my desired emotional state, and the nature of my desired relationships. This helps to motivate me throughout the day. It is important to think about your goals in the positive. Think about your goals as if they have already happened, so you can focus on the good feeling, and not the feeling lack.

Look it Up

If you are still stumped on what to journal about, you can look up journal prompts. When I was researching for this post, I googled journaling prompts, and there are hundreds of resources to help prompt you to write if you are at a loss for words.

How to Get Started and Keep Going

Journaling is a habit. It is something that you will need to put into your routine until it becomes automatic. You must be intentional especially if you are not naturally inclined to writing. If this is a new habit or you struggle to be consistent it might be helpful to stack this habit with something you do already. If you would like to learn more about habit stacking, I give an overview on my blog post “Personal Habits for A Successful School Year.” I go over techniques for creating and maintaining habits from James Clear’s book Atomic Habits.

Building Personal Habits for a Successful School Year

Sources:

Wilson, D. R. (2014). Mindful Celebration: It is Good for You. International Journal of Childbirth Education, 29(1), 4–5.

Christensen, D. (2018). Writing for Wellness. One Voice, 25–25.

back to school

How to Find True Rest

September 14, 2022September 14, 2022by stephaniewsson4111 Comment

Has this ever been you?

You just feel like you have no time. No time to be yourself because any time you take for yourself feels guilty and like a waste of time. Or maybe you want to take time for yourself, but you are so drained at the end of the day, that the thought of mustering up the energy to do anything after work besides your obligated tasks, like taking care of your family and dog, and then pouring yourself into bed seems outlandish and impossible. This was my normal state for years. Teaching and the impossible standards I set for myself pushed me into a negative cycle; a cycle which pushed me into depressive and isolating habits and emotions.

If this sounds like you, first I would like to express deep empathy because I have been there, and though I do not know your situation and I do not pretend to know exactly how you’re feeling. I relate to the hopelessness and fear that this cycle generates. I would like to help and share something that was instrumental to breaking that cycle, and it might seem outlandish, but not only do I have anecdotal evidence, I also have research to back it up (because I am a nerd, and I research things for my own fun and enjoyment lol)

Research

I am happy to say that I spend much less of my time in the depressive state I described above. I have the energy after work to do fun things like work out, cook, hang out with my husband etc. And no, it is not because I changed professions. I am still an educator and this energy came to me while I was still in the classroom. I might also add that this energy came while I was going through grad school. I wondered, “how is this possible?” My work load didn’t change, my profession didn’t change, my home situation didn’t change…” So I looked back for clues. When did I first start feeling better, and that was when I started to try new things. I started going to workout classes after work instead of pouring myself into bed, I tried yoga, cycling, boxing, and I even took a meditation class. My life really took a positive turn when I began to try to cook new things. I remember when I decided I was going to try and learn how to make macarons… it took me 4 separate tries but I did it! Then I taught myself how to build a website, and it birthed the blog you’re reading today. But why? On the outside this all just seems like MORE WORK. How could this lead to me feeling better rested?

“What type of tired are you.”

Well, it turns out, rest is more than just staying in and not doing anything: this has to be one of the most powerfully life changing ideas I have encountered. I read the book Sacred Rest by Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith which uncovered why these new activities filled me up rather than drained me further. According to her research, there are 7 forms of rest that we need in order to be TRULY rested: Mental, Emotional, Spiritual, Social, Sensory, and Creative rest. What type of rest you need depends on what type of tired you are. For me, as I look back, I was a little of every tired. The yoga helped cure my spiritual fatigue because I used the time to pray and connect with God; the meditation provided me with mental rest where I could take a break from all of the mental background noise that bombarded me everyday; and hanging out with my friends provided me with emotional and social rest.

I highly recommend her book. I listened to the audio book which comes with an accompanying PDF assessment that can help you identify what type of tired you are. Additionally, the chapters go in depth about how to get the kind of rest you need. I mean it when I say this book was an instrumental factor to understanding my needs more intimately, and it helped me become more efficient with supporting my physical and mental health.

If you are not a reader, though I believe we all are on the inside, you can check Dr. Dalton-Smith’s website with FREE resources.

Free Resources

Dr. Dalton-Smith’s website with FREE resources.

The Fun Factor

The next piece of influential research that helped me on my journey to joy is The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos. This is a podcast by Dr. Santos who is a Yale professor who teaches a class on get this, how to live a better life! The episode that influenced me the most is “Laurie Gets a Fun-tervention” parts one and two. This podcast shook me to my core because it held a up mirror and made me realize that I could NOT remember the last time I actually had fun! Like true fun.

Fun actually has a definition. In her podcast, Dr. Santos explains that we use the word fun way too liberally. A lot of the time we use the word fun as an inverse to work. Just because it is not our job, doesn’t mean that it is actually fun. To qualify as fun it must satisfy 3 factors: playfulness, connection, and flow! When you are playing, you are engaging in an activity that you are doing just for the sake of doing it. It isn’t for accolades or necessarily an end goal, it is for the pure enjoyment of engaging in the activity. Connection with others is also important for people who do not describe themselves as “people people.” As humans, we crave connection, and when we feel the connection it adds to the fun factor. Lastly, flow. Flow is when you are so present and involved in an activity that you lose track of time. It is when you are immersed in what you are doing, and time flows naturally.

For me, my fun factors came when I was cooking a new recipe. It was playful because it was out of the norm, and it was an experiment just to see if I could do it. I felt a connection with others because I would share my recipes and endeavors with my friends and we would get to eat afterwards. Lastly, I was completely in flow zooming from sink to stove to counter dancing all the while! I also found ways to make my date nights with my husband more than just us sitting on the couch and watching TV. I set up a paint and sip where we followed a youtube painting tutorial, I bought a magnetic dart set so we could compete with one another in the house, and we even took a trip down memory lane and played rounds of Battle Ship.

The possibilities for fun are endless, but the important part is to just start experimenting. I promise you, the introduction of more fun in your life can only help.

Thank you!

Thank you for reading, and I really hope this helps. I mean it when I say that being intentional about rest and fun has changed my perspective and outlook on life. I am hoping the same for you. You deserve to have joy and peace in your life. Until next time remember, mind, body, and then classroom. In that order.

back to school

Building Personal Habits for a Successful School Year

August 31, 2022by stephaniewsson4111 Comment

I am just going to be transparent: I fell off on my healthy habits. I am inconsistent, some days I will make it to the gym or a long walk with my dog. Some days I will pour myself into bed right after work, sleep, and then wake up, eat, then go back to sleep. Some days I get up early and do some blog writing in the morning, and some days I will keep pressing snooze and miss my window all together. I know that this doesn’t sound too bad, but not only does it fail in comparison to past me, it is also significant because I attribute my healthy habits to why I am able to maintain a positive mindset while tackling significant challenges like teaching 9th graders and convincing them over and over again that they should read! I mean have you ever tried to convince a teenager to read, it is exhausting and it takes the utmost self care to maintain.

Last year Me was killin’ it! I would get up, meditate, journal, workout and walk my dog all before even getting dressed to go to work. I would come home and still, somehow, have energy to do all of my grad school work, and on Wednesday’s I would be in class until 8:00pm and then still have time to read a non-school related book. All while full time teaching. Life has taken a turn, and I look back on that woman as unrecognizable, amazed by her go-getter attitude and the discipline to wake up so early everyday.

Curious about my own tendencies and habits, I, being me, wanted to learn the science behind this… How could I be so consistent in one season, and in the next, the habits that came to me with ease seem like herculean feats. I started my investigation by beginning the book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear, and I think I might have figured out the answer.

According to his book, each habit that you have starts with a cue, something that signals to your brain that it is time to start a habit. Our life is littered with cues, so much so, that sometimes we don’t even know we are being triggered. Something that we think is a choice, may actually be a reaction to a cue.

Forreal y’all… not an ad, not sponsored, just really enjoying the book!

I started to think back to past bad-ass Stephanie, and I realized my environment completely changed, and one major cue was gone. I got married, so I moved in with my husband, so the life I designed to support healthy habits changed, and a huge thing that used to cue my habits, GRADSCHOOL, was over. I had no school work to design my self-care around. This led me to a journey to regain my healthy habits and intentionally design a new routine to fit my new life. I am going to share some of my research in hopes that it is helpful to you as you try and live your best life while educating in such a time as this!

Identify your desired habits.

What is going to make your day run as smoothly as possible? What is going to pay off for your mental health in the long run? Do you know that exercise makes you feel amazing even if it is a pain to get to? Will it be so much better for your morning to have your lunch already packed? Do you reach the end of the day and realize you forgot to do something, so a planning routine will pay off? Identify what will make life easier and thus support your mental health.

Schedule it, make it obvious, and make it easy!

In his book, James Clear explains the principles of behavior change. By nature, the entire world is lazy! Yes, it is literally a law. Everything from water to humans will take the path of least resistance, so you need to make sure that the desired habit is a part of that path. If you want to work out, make sure you have easy access to your gym or equipment. Set out your workout clothes and make sure your gym is on the way home. If you want to plan your day in the morning before work, set out your planner on your desk, so you see it right when you come into your classroom.

Stack it and make it attractive!

Habits work best when you pair it with another, attractive habit. When James Clear says “attractive,” he means that you already like to do it. For example, I knew that after work I love to watch something to get my mind off of things, but I also know that I need to cook dinner right away to avoid the call of the drive-through and I also needed to be done cooking in time to work out, so I put a movie on my ipad, wash the dishes, and start dinner. I am not allowed to watch anything if I am not doing the dishes. Now I associate the chore with something I like, and it’s pretty fun (Well as fun as doing the dishes can be haha)! Another technique is habit stacking. Habit stacking is doing a habit you are trying to build right after a habit you already have. For example, I write this blog everyday after I meditate and journal. I meditate and journal everyday without fail, so if that becomes a cue to write my blog, then I will begin to write everyday without fail.

It isn’t about how long, it is about how often.

This sounds simple, but for some reason when I read this it blew my mind! It doesn’t matter if you have been doing something for a year, if within that year you have only repeated the action 20 times. Building a habit and how it sticks is about repeating it enough, so the behavior moves to the habit part of your brain! This means you can start slow but often. For example, to build my morning routine, I used to just get up and sit on the couch, so I can get into the habit of getting up. Once I did it enough times, getting out of bed was automatic. Then I began to add in routine and since I did it everyday, it also became automatic. Now I feel completely off when I don’t complete it when in the past, I hated it!

This is an oversimplified explanation of what the book explains, but I hope that it was enough to get you started or inspire you to get the book. I think it is helpful in designing my environment and a life that serves me, but I also think it could be helpful for teaching. We try to instill healthy academic habits for our students. Understanding behavior change and the way habits are formed and maintained could benefit us greatly in assisting students to building their own academic habits. Maybe that will be my next post! Let me know if you’re interested.

Thank you for making it to the end. And remember Mind, Body, and then Classroom. In that order!