Description: Dr. Boogren challenges the Squad to a short and sweet activity that can have major benefits.
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Transcription: Hi, and welcome to episode two of season four of Self-Care for Educators. I'm your host, Tina Boogren. This week's invitation is to take a walk. I know, I know for a fact that I have talked about walking before, but as always, I think it's important to kind of revisit some of the invitations that we've thought about before, because I don't know, it's kind of a fresh start, new school year. We might as well revisit and reestablish some of these core essential invitations and routines that we've talked about before. Sometimes it's nice to just bring them back, and as many of you know, oh, I love a good walk. I call my walks oftentimes AAWs, which is an Attitude Adjustment Walk. And, the reason why is because I always, always feel better when I take a walk.
I've had a really, really busy season of sacrifice over the last few weeks. My, my busy time is in the summer. And, what has kept me grounded above all else, is taking walks. In fact, I'm thinking of a couple weeks in particular where my travel was, was brutal, and the days were long, and I just felt like I couldn't keep up with all of the emails and the planning and the all of it. Just all of it. And, while I felt like I did not have time to stop and take a walk, I knew that that was a lie that I was telling myself, and so I just paused and went for a walk. For me, if I can walk outside, that is the game changer, and so I did. I would put my tennis shoes on. I would head out, take a walk around my hotel, walk around the local neighborhood, see if I could find a park nearby that I could go walk around. And, every single time I felt better, I slept better, I had a clearer mind. I felt more at ease. And, as I think about last week's invitation of how do we wanna feel this upcoming school year, I know for most of us, we wanna feel calm, and we wanna feel centered, and we want to feel relaxed and not stressed and overwhelmed.
And, for me one of the keys to that is just walking. I know we think about walking as physical wellness and it absolutely is. But, for me it's about much more than that. It's actually about my own mental wellness, and so I'm committing to that as we move into September, and I offer that up to you. If you are someone who already walks, yay, yay, fantastic! Keep doing it. Feel this is validation, and if this is something that you haven't really implemented, see if this week you can get started. Experiment with walking into different times of the day. I know it's really hard, but maybe some of you can take a walk in the morning. I love, love, love when my schedule allows for me to take a walk in the morning, it just sets me up for a really good day. Maybe you take a walk at lunch. Maybe you allow yourself to take a quick loop around the building or you can get out to the track or a walk outside around the outside of the building. And, maybe this is one of my favorites, you take a walk at the end of the school day before you even go home as a way to kind of close out that day of work and get your mind in maybe a different place before you go home to your family, to your pets, to yourself, to just kind of allow yourself to be done with the day. Or, maybe it's in the evening. I do love an evening walk as well, especially let's take advantage ... Hopefully our weather is still nice enough that we're able to do this.
It doesn't have to be long. It doesn't have to be far. It certainly can be. Maybe you experiment with, sometimes you just walk. No headphones. No nothing. Just do on your own. Maybe this is your time to listen to this podcast or an audio book or to catch up with a friend. Maybe you listen to music. Try different, different things on your walk, and maybe it varies, just kinda depending on the day you've had. I know sometimes, oftentimes I like to listen to music. Oftentimes I like to listen to podcasts. Oftentimes I like to have a walk and talk with a friend, and then oftentimes I like to walk by myself. Sometimes I walk with my husband and my dog. It all depends, and it's all good. So, that's what I want you to do. I actually want you to go for a walk every single day this week and keep track of how you feel before you go for the walk. And, while you're on the walk, and then when you're done with your walk, and see if it makes a difference. See if there's like a magic amount of time for you. Or, maybe not. Maybe it's just even just a couple minutes to just whew, take off on your own two feet and go get outside or get around that building and see, see how that makes you feel.
So, that's it. That's what I want you to do this week. I want you to take a walk, commit every single day to taking a walk and see how it makes you feel. 'Cause my guess is like me, who, it's a tiny thing that we can do, that can really help us feel better. Feel my hand on your back as you're walking this week.
As always, a huge, huge thank you to Brooke for making this happen. Thank you so much, Marzano Resources and Solution Tree for this job that I get to do. And to all of you, my bad-ass Self-Care Squad. I'm so grateful for you. Ah, I'll be thinking of you on my walks this week and hoping you have an amazing, amazing week. I'm cheering so hard for you.
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