Description: This week, Dr. Boogren leads by example and encourages the Squad to take some much deserved rest time.
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Transcription: Hi, and welcome to Self Care for Educators. I'm your host, Tina Boogren. This is episode 16 of our fourth season. And, this episode is just about taking a break. So, as this comes out, it's going to be the week before Christmas here in the U. S., and for most of us, that marks a break that's coming up. I know everyone's got their winter break at various times times, but it's coming up, and I am going to give myself two full weeks off in December. And, that's going to start the week of December 18th. And, I was thinking about this episode, and I was thinking, Gosh, let's just give ourselves permission to take a break. I know the holidays are a lot for a lot of you. You have tons of responsibility and tons of family things to think about or things to get done, food to make, volunteering at different places, different social events, and it can be a great time of year and a really hard time of year and a really busy time of year.
And, there's a lot of expectations that come up around this time of year. And, so this is, I just want you to hear me whispering in your ear to take a break. Mark it on your calendar. Find some time that's just for you that feels really good to slow down. Maybe you ... Maybe you take it, I don't know, between ... It depends on when you get out of school, I guess. I keep thinking, or get your break from work, so you'll have to decide when that works, but I know that there's kind of the buildup to Christmas, if you celebrate Christmas. The buildup to that can be a lot, and then there's kind of that letdown or slowing down time between Christmas and the New Year, and if you don't celebrate Christmas, what does that look like for you during that time that you have off?
And, can you really commit to really, really, really slowing down and taking a break and whether that means you allow yourself to sleep for a full day, or your break means you need some alone time, and you're going to schedule an afternoon that's just for you out of the house. Or, you get everyone else out of the house, and you stay in the house, or you go to a movie by yourself. Or, you connect with someone that you feel a little bit disconnected from. It can be a thousand different things that you can do, but I just want you to take a break. You don't have to work the entire time. I want you to slow down. I want you to remember the dial that we've talked about before, right? That, is this a time that you might be able to turn the dial up in a few places or is it a time that you need to turn the dial down? Or, maybe it's a little bit of both. Maybe part of your break you turn the dial up and part of your break you turn the dial down. Only you know the answer to that.
I'm really just here to just keep repeating those three precious words to you over and over again. Take a break. Take a break. Take a break. Even just saying it feels like I can kind of feel some things release right when I do that. So, I'm going to be taking a break for sure. I don't have any travel scheduled. I have a couple of appointments that I never have a chance to get done that will be getting done. But, I've got some date time with my husband, I've got some plans with my family, and I'm trying to keep a lot of white space on my calendar that's just kind of open and not scheduled down to the minute, because I really, oh, that feels really good to me to have some white space on the calendar. And then, I'm going to start just kind of writing a list of the things that I want to look forward to that would feel like a break during those last two weeks of December of 2023, that would feel really good.
Oh man, even just an afternoon on the couch, just watching TV feels like a good break. Creating some visions and plans and for the 2024 calendar year and kind of putting a bow on 2023 feels good. Reading always feels like such a luxurious break for me. Reading fiction, nonfiction. I like to read nonfiction too, but the break really feels like fiction. Getting in some long walks ... Getting in some just time to breathe ... Enjoying slow coffee, as I like to call it, right, where we just take our time and drink our coffee slowly in the morning ... I love to go look at all the lights around the city. Just all sorts of things that I want to put on my list that, so I've got a whole menu of choices that might feel good as I commit to slowing down. When we take a break, we slow down, and that's really important in our jobs, especially in December, November, October, we've really worked some, some high energy days, right? Whether in the classroom, in the building itself, in the district office, wherever it is that, that we work.
It's a lot of high energy. And, so we need that. What Tim Kanold, my colleague would call that that quadrant to time to kind of balance things out. So, if we've been really, really high energy, we need that kind of low energy to just find our balance again. So, that's what I want you to do is you move into your break whenever that is. I want you to take a break. Please know that I'm taking a break too, but we will come back and our first podcast of 2024 will be released on January 7th of 2024. That's crazy to think about, so we're gonna just take a beat. I want Brooke to take a break. I want to take a break. We're gonna take a little beat. Give ourselves a little bit of breathing room, and then we'll come back strong starting on January 7th.
I'm sending you a big hug, each and every one of you. I'm so grateful for all of you. I know, as I said, the holidays can be a real challenge, and so I want you to feel my hand on your back. Feel the whole Squad's hand on each other's backs as we move through this time. And, remember that you are worthy of, and worth, relaxing, and slowing down, and taking a break. I'm cheering so hard for you. Have an amazing, amazing, rest.
As always, thank you so much, Brooke. Thank you so much, Brooke, for all the work you do. Thank you to Marzano Resources and Solution Tree for this incredible job I get to do, and to you, my bad-ass Self-Care Squad. Take a break. You've earned it.
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