Description: Dr. Boogren inspires the Squad to do some reflection and preparation for the upcoming holiday season.
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Transcription: Hi, and welcome to episode 11 of Self-Care for Educators. I am your host, Tina Boogren. This week's invitation is to think about how you want to feel as you move into the holiday season. So, for those of us in the United States, we are approaching oh, the craziness of the end of the year. We've got Thanksgiving coming up. We've got Christmas coming up for those of us that celebrate. We've got the end of the year, and this is notoriously a challenging time of year, especially for educators. We know we've got some nice breaks, but yet trying to get kids to stay engaged and us to stay engaged during this time can be challenging. We have all the demands and pressures of the holidays and what that means and brings for us.
So many people have so many responsibilities and it just feels like a lot. And, so I want you to just kind of pause and take a deep breath this week and spend a little time thinking about how do you want to feel. As you move through this season and really through the end of the calendar year. And, I want you to get really specific. I want you to write it down. Like, how do you want to feel? And, once you've identified that, then can you put some action plans or strategies into place to help ensure that? So, if you want to feel calm. What are some things that you can do to ensure that you feel calm during this season? Can you make sure that you take that 15 minutes that's just for you every single day and use that to do something that helps you feel calm and centered? If you want to feel connected, how can you ensure that you are focusing on the people as much as, if not more than, really what are the things, the activities are that you're doing?
How do you stay connected to the people that you love? If you want to feel prepared for 2024, which is crazy to think about, what are some things that you can do now that your future self will thank you for? If you want to feel reflective, right? This is oftentimes a time where we can start to feel really reflective as we look back on the year. How do you make sure that you have time to reflect, right? When we're so busy and crazy, it can be hard to do that. So, are you setting aside some time to do some journaling or just? Just some reflecting out loud with a friend or a family member on the year. You know, gratitude is a big one to think about. Obviously, we'll talk about that in the next episode as we move into this time of year. How can you ensure that you are keeping gratitude at the forefront of your mind? And, our feelings ...
So, twofold, I guess, really thinking about how do you want to feel and how can you make that happen and just spend a little time pausing this week. It's just kind of like a, a reset. Get your feedback on the ground again. As you think about looking at your calendar, what are all the events and expectations and obligations and things that you have going on to kind of get a clear picture of that and then pausing long enough to say, Okay. Okay, as I move into this, how do I want to feel? And, when we keep it in the forefront of our mind, I just think we're more likely to make sure that that happens and to do things to push us in that direction instead of feeling kind of, just out of control during the season. How do we get back in control of how we feel things that we do? How do we make time for ourselves?
I think it's important for us to just kind of pull up the break and really think about that this week. If you feel like it, I would love for you to jump on over to the Facebook group and kind of share. It's always great when we're able to learn and grow with each other and the Squad is the best for that.
As always, a huge thank you to Brooke for making this happen. Thank you to Solution Tree and Marzano Resources for this amazing job I get to do. And, to all of you, my bad-ass Self-Care Squad. Let's be really, really intentional about how we move into this season. We've got this. We've totally got this.