Description: This week, Dr. Boogren describes a reflection activity that can help us better uncover things that are positively adding to our lives or making us feel even more stress.
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Transcription: Hi, and welcome to episode nine of Self-Care for Educators. I'm your host, Tina Boogren. This week's invitation. Is going to be something I actually want you to write down. You can think about it in your mind, but I think this is really, it's more powerful if you write it down kind of a journal exercise, if you will. If journaling isn't your thing, you can do this on the back of a napkin or a sticky note, doesn't matter. I'm a journaler, so that's, that's language that works for me. But, if you just cringed and were like, Oh no,. I don't do journaling is not my thing. That is okay. I just want you to just write this down, because I think it's just that much more powerful when you write it down. So, here's what I want you to do. On your piece of paper or back of your napkin or a sticky note or journal, whatever it is, I want you to just draw a line down the middle, so you've got two columns. And, on one sided I want you to write, I feel better when, and on the other side I want you to write, I feel worse when. So, on one side, I feel better when and on the other side, I feel worse when.
And, I want you to just do some reflecting, maybe a little self-audit of what are things in your life that when you do them you feel better? And, what are things that when you are honest with yourself that when you do them, you actually feel worse? This is something that I do every single, every once in a while to just kind of check in with myself of, Whew, what's going on? But, it's just a little self-audit. I think is the best way to describe it. So, for example, I did this recently and some things that showed up under my I feel better when column where things like, I feel better when I get enough sleep, when I'm hydrated, when I don't drink alcohol, when I eat vegetables, when I have protein, when I strength train, when I hit my macros. Macros are something that I kind of track for my own health benefits. When I take walks, when I eat slowly, when I stop eating before I am stuffed, when I am connected to my husband and my friends and my family, when I have white space on my calendar.
And then, on the other side, I feel worse when, and you can kind of see there's some parallels here, right? I feel worse when I don't get enough sleep. I feel worse when I'm too busy. I feel worse when I'm gone from home too much. I feel worse when I eat fried food. It's so delicious, but I feel worse. I feel worse when I eat too much. I feel worse when I choose pop or soda or coke, depending on where in the country I am, over water. I feel worse when I have alcohol. I feel worse when I eat too quickly. I've noticed that my digestion gets really messed up when I'm eating totally mindlessly no matter what it is that I'm eating. I feel worse when I don't pay attention to what I'm eating. I feel worse when I'm disconnected from my friends, from my family. I feel worse when I have too much on my to-do list, when I'm working too much. I feel worse when I don't move my body. I feel worse when I don't stretch. You guys, I'm old now and I've got this like pain in my glute that makes my whole leg hurt. So, it's just constant reminder that I need to stretch. I need to stretch multiple times a day. Anyway ...
So, that's just a sampling of some of the things on my list. So, it's always fascinating, because it's just kind of a reminder to me. It's like, I don't know, it's putting up bumpers and remembering that when I'm within those bumpers, when I'm on the right path, when I'm feeling good, or when I am paying attention to and doing those things that help me to feel better, and when I, whew, kind of hit the bumpers or jump over the bumpers and get off on a whole different path and feel worse ... It's the recognizing it so that I can kind of like, Whoop, okay, went too far that way. Now it's time to reel it back in and attend to some of those things that I know helped me to feel better. So, try that this week. See if that works for you, and you can look in all different areas. You can ... Your personal life, professionally, diet as in noun. Not a verb, but I mean as in your diet/nutrition. Think about your sleep. Think about your rest. Think about your movement. Think about your commitments. Think about what you say yes to, what you say no to. Your friends. Your family. All of it. All of the things I want you to think about, and just work on that list. I feel better when and I feel worse when,
And to do a little self-reflection. Are you able to check off more on the, I feel better when or are you feeling like, Whew, I am checking off a lot of those I feel worse when, and it explains maybe why it might be really hard right now. Are you ... Why you might feel like you're really in that burnout disillusionment phase, and then put into place what we talked about last week. What's one small thing, one five-minute action you can do to help yourself feel better? So, that's it. That's what I want you to try this week. You can kind of see why, I don't know ... I think it's powerful to write it down. Of course, you can just think about it in your mind, but I'm gonna nudge you to put it on paper, something that you can come back to and look at again and again. And then, that I feel better when kind of becomes your game plan, right? ... Of hopefully little, tiny, little actions that you can do to just kind of keep yourself on the track of feeling better. Notice it's not about, I don't know ... how we look--it's about how we feel. It's that idea that we talked about at the start of the season of how do we want to feel, and what are those small actions we can do to help ourselves feel that way?
I feel better when. I feel worse when. No judgment, just a little reflection, a little self-audit and a little nudge towards moving towards those items on your I feel better when list. You've got this. I'm cheering so hard for you.
As always, a huge thank you to Brooke for making this happen. Thank you to Marzano Resources and Solution Tree for the job I get to do. And, for you, my bad-ass Self-Care Squad. I'm cheering so hard for you. Have an amazing week.
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