Description: In this episode, Tina reminds us of the importance of rest and shares practical ways to make time for it so we can start the new year refreshed.
Resources: Find 180 Days of Physical Wellness at Marzano Resources, Solution Tree, or Amazon.
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Transcription: Hi, and welcome to Self-Care for Educators. I am your host, Tina Boogren. This is Season 5, Episode 15, and this week's invitation is to take a break. As you move into this week of the school year, for many of you, this is your last week before break. I know it varies. So my guess is probably some of you, I don't know, I'm looking at the calendar. No there's, I'm hoping that you wouldn't have to go next week as well. So I know it varies, but for most of you, the places that I work with, I know are wrapping things up this week. And as you move into your time off, I want to remind you to rest, to rest, to rest.
I know, everyone's a little bit different in terms of what their break looks like. And for some of you, your break is crazy. You are trying to figure out the holidays and you are cooking and you are buying presents and you're wrapping presents and you're taking care of all of the things. And my heart goes out to you. I know it's a lot. And some of you maybe have a little bit more of a relaxation period that's coming up for you. Wherever you are on that spectrum, one end or the other or in between, I just want you to rest.
We know the importance of rest. And by rest, I don't necessarily mean to take a nap, although that's one of my favorite ways to rest. I just mean, take a deep breath and rest. Give yourself a break. I want you to take a break from work and school. I want you to take a break as much as you can from all of the demands. I want you to just find time to rest. And here's what I encourage you to do if you haven't done it already. I want you to look at your calendar and I want you to think about for this chunk of time that you are hom- one week, two weeks, it kind of varies, I know. I want you to think about where can you purposely rest? And I want you to put it in your calendar. What we know is that most of us, if it's in our calendar, whatever system you use, we're more likely to do it, right? It's where I record our doctor's appointments and meetings. So I want you to put rest on your calendar, just like you would a doctor's appointment and decide what that looks like for you.
What does rest look like for you? Is rest literally laying down and taking a nap is rest indulging in watching a marathon of holiday movies or Hallmark movies or whatever some season of a show is. I am deep, deep into the depths of Gilmore Girls and it's making me so happy. I'm on season 2. I'm starting from scratch. And so one of my favorite ways to rest my brain, my body, is to just sit and allow myself to watch a couple episodes of Gilmore Girls.
Maybe resting for you is reading. Maybe resting is just playing a game with your family. A rest could be a walk, right? There can be active rest too, that you're just, whoof. You leave maybe the headphones at home, you don't listen to music, you just take a quiet walk or maybe you do listen to music. You get to make the rules. This is yours. I just don't want you to start back the new calendar year back at work and feel like you got no break over your break. Sometimes we have to fight for that rest.
Some of you, like I said, yay, feel really, really grateful because you're going to have lots of time to rest and relax and rejuvenate. And that is awesome. Lean into that. But if you happen to be listening to this and you feel like, “Pfft, oh. I'm so overwhelmed. I don't know when it's going to happen. I fear that I'm going to start back in January and I'm going to be even more exhausted than I am currently.” Then you need rest more than anyone and I want you to really fight for it. Ask for help if you need it. Offer up. If I do X, Y, and Z so you can rest during this time, can you do X, Y, and Z so I can rest during this time?
It can just be a break away from your family. Maybe you go sit in your car somewhere. Maybe you allow yourself to go to Target by yourself, right, and wander the aisles. Maybe you allow yourself to sleep in. You don't set an alarm. There's just a gazillion things you could do. I just want you to think about starting next year, calendar year, as in 2025.
Consider how you want to feel. I've mentioned this a few times in the past few episodes and how you can get yourself there. Most likely, however it is that you want to feel is going to require a little bit of rest right now as you move into this break. So maybe you spend time this week thinking about how do you define rest? What does rest feel like for you right now at this season of your life? And you spend time looking at your calendar and finding those pockets for rest and you mark it off, you commit to it. Maybe you set a reminder on your phone. Maybe you block it off as a doctor's appointment, but you're actually just going to sit in your car by yourself in a parking lot and listen to a podcast. Like you do you, you figure out what it is that you need, but I want you to plan for it because like I said, I don't want us to get started again at the at the start of the new year and be like, Oh my gosh, I'm even more tired as we don't want to move into January feeling like we're at a deficit already.
And one of the things that we know is so essential is rest. If you need support with this, I'm going to, I'm going to just lovingly remind you that my book, 180 Days of Physical Wellness for Busy Educators, one of the main pieces of physical wellness is rest sleep and rest. So there's lots of strategies in that book. I present a whole chart at the beginning so you can go to the weeks that specifically are talking about sleep and rest and maybe just dig into those weeks, but that might be a resource for you or you don't need it.
Just decide like, what does rest look like for you right now? And when are you going to take it and commit to it? How are you going to follow through? What sort of accountability? Your own accountability? Are you going to hold each other accountable? What are you going to do to make sure that you take a little time for you?
And I'm going to let you know that I'm going to do the same thing for myself and Adrienne. I want us to be able to take a break as well, so we're going to take two weeks off from the podcast. We will come back again to help kick off the new year. Don't you worry about that, but trying to allow a little bit of space and rest for us as well. And so this episode will be the final episode of this calendar year, but look forward to, we will be back to help kick off January and get 2025 started off on the right foot.
So please know I love you. I'm cheering for you. I'm so grateful for you. Adrienne,. we are so, so grateful for you as well. We hope you get some nice rest. And thank you to Solution Tree Marzano Resources for this job that I get to do that I love so much and I need a little break from just like all of you. And to you, the listeners, the badass self care squad, you can rest. Lean all the way in and feel my hand on your back this week. I'll see you in January.
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