Description: Happy New Year! Dr. Boogren kicks off the new year by asking one really important question: How do you want to feel today?
Resources:
1. Join the conversation on Facebook!
2. Get your copy of the fabulous book, Burnout, here!
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Transcription: Hi and welcome to Self-Care for Educators. I am your host, Tina Boogren. This is episode 16 and also our very first episode of 2023. I just wanna start off and wish you a very, very happy New Year. I so hope that you were able to fully sink into your break and enjoy a little bit of slow. A little bit of extra time with your family or time for yourself. A little more opportunity for rest. I hope, hope, hope you had an amazing, amazing break. And, as we get started with 2023, as I was thinking about this episode, I kept getting stuck. As an Enneagram three and an upholder, I love reflecting, writing goals, choosing my word for 2023, creating my 23 things that I want to accomplish in 2023, setting up my new planner, all the things. And, so I was tempted, of course, to kind of go down that road, but I also know everyone is different. And, for some people that just doesn't work. And, it doesn't work for a lot of reasons.
Number one, just personality-wise, it doesn't work for them. And, it's also just sets us up for the idea of comparison. And, we know, I think it was Teddy Roosevelt that said, Comparison is the thief of joy. And, I really start to feel that big time in January. You know, as I look through my social media accounts and see people celebrating all the great things that happened in 2022 for them, and looking ahead to 2023, I love it. And, my empathy kind of antenna goes off, because I know for a lot of people 2022 wasn't a great. And, sometimes it's really hard to see other people celebrating when we're maybe in a place where we're just in a different place. And, so here's what I want us to think about for this week. My long-winded way of getting to our invitation matches what I've been asking over in our Facebook group. P.S. go find us on the Facebook group if you haven't already. That's, that's my happy place on the internet. Simply search for self-care for educators. And you, you should see my face and please come join us.
And, as many of you know, every single month I kind of choose a question, and that is the repeated question for the month and for January of 2023, my repeated question is, how do you want to feel? How do you want to feel today? Yeah, we can think about how do we wanna feel in the new year. That's actually how I chose my guiding word for 2023, which is gentle this year. I'm really trying to, no, no. I am committing to not just trying, I am committing to gentle. I wanna be really gentle with ... I wanna be gentle with my time. I wanna be gentle others. I wanna be gentle just in how I view the world. I started with the word relaxed, and I still love that word, but I kept running across different quotes and memes and pictures and different things that just kind of steered me from relaxed, which is still there to gentle. I just love the feel of that. I love the sound of that. So, that's my guiding word for the ... but over in the Facebook group again, because that might just feel a little bit too much looking, thinking for the whole year. What if we just think about how do we wanna feel today?
We wake up in the morning, and we ask ourselves that question, and we stay still long enough to hear the response. Maybe we wanna feel productive. Maybe we wanna feel relaxed. Maybe we wanna feel energized, excited. I'm gonna nudge you towards obviously choosing a positive word, because one of the things that we know, and I learned this from Emily and Amelia Nagoski in their fabulous book that I always talk about Burnout, is that when we have something positive to reach towards. It's just works better for us than constantly getting stuck in that negative place of how we don't want to feel, right? So, instead of saying, I don't wanna feel rushed, let's think about, I want to feel relaxed. Even that example that I gave you can kind of hear the shift and, and I kind of feel it in my body when I say it differently. Instead of saying, I don't wanna feel rushed saying I wanna feel relaxed today. I even say it more relaxed.
So, that's the invitation I want you to play around this week with asking yourself that question, how do I want to feel? .And as a little bonus, I want you to use Gretchen Ruben's advice and show up that way, whether you feel that way or not. So, if you wanna feel relaxed, ask yourself, how would I behave if I actually felt relaxed? And then, do that. And then, the crazy part is, you will become relaxed if you wanna feel energized. Think about, if I were energized, how would I behave? What would my behaviors be? Act that way. And, crazy enough, you will start to become that act the way you want to feel. And then, to kind of come full circle at the end of your day, I encourage you to circle back and check in. Did it work? What do you need to change for tomorrow? Did you forget about how you wanted to feel? Maybe you wanna write it on a post-it note and stick it on your computer or in your planner or on your desk, or take a photo of it and put it as your screensaver on your phone so that it's a constant reminder of how you wanna feel, so you don't lose that intention.
You know, what we're doing here basically is setting an intention for ourselves. You know, I'm a big fan of setting an intention, and I love doing it in this kind of gentle or soft way of simply asking, how do I wanna feel today? Of course, I think it'd be awesome to do this with your students as well, or with your PLC, your teammates, your colleagues, your family, or just completely on your own. It's not gonna take a lot of time. Certainly doesn't cost any money just a way for you to intentionally move throughout your day. Ask yourself, how do I wanna feel today? And then, act as if and then circle back and check in and celebrate. I hope you have an amazing week. My wish for you is that you feel awesome this week.
As always, a huge, huge thank you and happy New Year to Brooke. The dream team, right? Brooke is the one, well, not even a team, she does it on her own. Brooke is the one that makes this all happen. We're so grateful for her, and thank you also to Solution Tree and Marzano Resources. I can't believe I'm starting another year with these amazing companies that help me to shine and help me to bring this work to all of you, which is my last, but certainly not least--a huge thank you to you, my bad-ass Self-Care Squad. May 2023 be gentle and soft and relaxed, and so full of awesome just like you.
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