Episode 15: The Emotional Checkpoint

Description: In this episode, Tina introduces an emotional checkpoint: a short, mindful pause to identify how you’re feeling, where you feel it, and what you need next. Checking in even once or twice a day can interrupt stress and build resilience during the December rush. It’s a small shift with big impact.

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Transcription: Hi, and welcome to Self-Care for Educators. I am your host, Dr. Tina Boogren. This is episode 15 of our sixth season, and this episode is coming out, uh, the first Sunday in December, which means the first thing that I want you to do is I want you to pause for a second. I want you to take a deep breath because this is kind of the teaser for our invitation for this week.

We're going to keep it really simple. What we're going to do is we're just going to make time for an emotional checkpoint every day this week if you can. So here's the deal. We know we stop and we check our phones, and we check our emails, and we check our lesson plans. But how often do we pause and check in with ourselves emotionally? 

Remember, emotional wellness is one of the four dimensions of wellness that Tim Kanold and I have identified in our educator wellness framework, and it's essential, and especially during this time of year as we are moving into, huh, the craziness that can be December. So what our emotional checkpoint is, is it's really, it's just a short, mindful pause that's designed to help us notice what we're feeling before that feeling hijacks our entire day. Let me say that again. This emotional checkpoint that we're going to engage in this week, the reason we're doing this is because this is just, it's a short, mindful pause and it's designed to help us notice what we're feeling before that feeling hijacks our entire day. 

So this is about awareness. It's not about fixing. It's a quick kind of, oof, how am I really doing moment that builds this emotional wellness and can help to prevent burnout during this really challenging time of year.

So here's why this works. So number one, I think we've said this in past episodes, we- I love this phrase- we name it to tame it. And what we mean by that is that naming something brings regulation. In other words, when we name our emotions, like I'm frustrated, I'm grateful, we reduce their intensity, especially of those more challenging emotions, right? The frustration. So, the psychologists call this just affect labeling. 

Here's another reason why this works. It interrupts our stress loop, so even just a brief pause activates our parasympathetic nervous system, thus lowering our stress hormones, and that's what we need right now, this time of year.

Here's another reason that it works. It builds resilience. By regularly tuning into our emotions, we are able to respond rather than react. Thus improving our relationships with our students and our colleagues and our families, and our ability to make good decisions. So that's a lot of good reasons for why this is essential.

So here's how we're going to do it. Let's get really practical. First thing I want you to do is set a cue. So think of natural moments in the day that could be a cue for you- the bell ringing, every time that you walk down to the copier, every time you close your laptop. Whatever those cues are, use that as a reminder to pause. When you pause, just ask yourself a couple questions like, what am I feeling right now? Whew. Can I name it? Where do I feel it in my body? Is it in my chest? Is it in my stomach? And then what do I need in this next moment? So let me repeat those questions for you. When we set that cue, so the bell rings and then we pause and we're going to ask ourselves:

1. How am I feeling right now? Name it. 

2. Where do I feel it in my body and

3. What do I need next? 

Once we've done that, it's going to be really essential that we respond with compassion, not judgment. 

So, you know, we can be irritated. That is okay. Of course it's going to happen, right? You might be content. That's fantastic. Celebrate it. You might discover that you are exhausted. That's okay. Acknowledge it. And then that “what do I need next?” allows you to plan this tiny little kind of micro action to support yourself. So maybe you need to drink some dumb water. Maybe you need to stretch, maybe you need to take a breath. Maybe you need to sit down for a minute, maybe you need to text a friend.

And then ideally, I'd love if we could repeat that throughout the day. So even just one or two checkpoints can change the emotional climate of our day. And then in turn, our classroom environment, our time with our colleagues, our time with our families. So let me give you an example of how this could look.

So let's say it's between classes, the bell rings, that's your cue. You're going to pause and you're going to check in with yourself and you're going to realize, whew, I'm feeling anxious. And I feel it in my shoulders because my shoulders are tight. And so you take a couple of deep breaths, you roll your shoulders, right? Just that tiny little pause before you greet the next group of students coming into your room. And you note, okay, I feel really proud that I was able to call out how I was feeling. I was able to recognize where I felt it in my body. So I'm feeling anxious. I feel it in my shoulders. And then what do I need next? So I realized I just need to take a couple deep breaths. I need to roll my shoulders, I need to regroup. Whew, fresh start with this next group of students coming in. 

Like that is so powerful and doesn't take a lot of time. And let me circle back to one of the things that I said at the start of this episode was, we're doing this because we want to try to notice what we're feeling before that feeling hijacks our entire day. See, without that pause and check-in, that anxiety could just keep snowballing and getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And we can be really frustrated with this new group of students coming in that really didn't do anything. And thus then were having this reaction rather than this thoughtful response. 

So that pause, that teeny tiny little pause during this notoriously challenging time of year where we are able to just set that cue, figure that trigger out that's going to remind us, okay, quick check-in. This is the emotional checkpoint. What am I feeling? What do I feel in my body? What do I need next? And that responding with compassion, t's okay. Whatever comes up. Remember our emotions are not good or bad. We need all of them. It's just name it to tame it. And then that essential piece, what do I need next? What do I need next? And this pattern that we're launching is teaching our nervous system that we are safe, we are seen, and we are supported by ourselves, which is really, really incredibly powerful.

So, you know, if we check our email, what, 47 times a day? What if we just check in with ourselves once or twice if we give ourselves the same kind of benefit as we do our text messages or our emails? And really think about what your kind of cue is going to be that's going to remind you to do this. Maybe it's in between every single class, I think would be a great idea. Maybe it's, you know, before you get the day started, before you get outta your car and you walk into work in the morning. Same thing in the evening before you get outta your car and you go into your home at the end of the day to really check in with yourself. 

And what we're tapping into here really is the emotional wellness piece. That just, that first routine that we identify in our framework of that awareness piece, and we're going to call it good, which is the awareness piece of where we just pause and just can we identify what we're feeling in this moment? Where do we feel it in our body? That's big time awareness. And then what do we need? What do we need to do in this next moment? Again, where we're able to not let certain, especially hard emotions hijack our entire day? Let's give it a shot. I'm going to do it too, as always. I always offer up things that I'm working on myself. So feel me, feel me engaging in this invitation alongside you this week.

As always, we're so grateful to Adrienne, Solution Tree and Marzano Resources. And to you, uh, the Badass Self-Care squad. Thank you for tuning in. Thank you for listening. Thank you for who you are and all the great work that you do. I'm just so stinking grateful for you. Make it a great week. I'm cheering so hard for you. I love you.   

If this episode resonated with you, find more mental wellness episodes here.