Description: This week, Dr. Boogren gives the Self-Care Squad the skinny on the 15-Minute Challenge. Please inspire other educators by sharing what this week's challenge looks like for you.
Resources:
1. Read more about Dr. Chatterjee's inspiring work here, including the following books:
2. Give Dr. Chatterjee's podcast, Feel Better. Live More. a listen here!
Listen Now:
The Self-Care for Educators team cares about the content-accessibility for all educators. If you have trouble accessing the audio for the podcast, the transcription has been provided below.
Transcription: Hi, and welcome to episode 23 of Self-Care for Educators. I am your host, Tina Boogren, and this week, I'm going to invite you to experiment with what I'm calling a 15-Minute Challenge. Oh, this one's so good. Okay. I probably say that every week, but I really ... I really love this one, especially during this crazy time of year.
So, I'm almost positive that I got this idea from Dr. Chatterjee. I'm not sure I'm pronouncing that correctly. I'm going to spell it for you. His last name is C-H-A-T-T-E-R-J-E-E, and I've mentioned him before. So, he has a couple of great books. One is called The Four Pillar Plan, and the other one is called Feel Better in Five. He also has a podcast, and I've heard him as a guest on other people's podcasts. He's just really down to earth, and I love so much of what he has to say. And, I'm pretty sure that I picked this idea up from him. So, I want to definitely give credit where credit is due. Here's the gist of the 15-Minute Challenge. Okay. In one sentence, the bumper sticker version of this is: every single day, for at least 15 minutes, I want you to enjoy time that's just for you. Let me say that again, because it's that simple and that hard! Here's the challenge: every single day this week, every single day I want you to find 15 minutes where you enjoy some time just for you. Let's put a little bit of guidance around this.
So number one, let's really work to make sure that this is something that's for you. I don't want you to find loopholes here and find something that's really for your child, or for your partner, or for someone else in any way. I want this really ... gosh ... to be yours ... to really own this.
Number two. I think it would be amazing if we could experiment with leaving screens out of the 15 minutes.
And, number three. This one's the most important. You can't have any guilt about this.
Okay. So let me go over those three kinds of parameters first. So number one, it really needs to be something that, that feels juicy for you ... not for someone else, but for you. Number two, I'm going to really push you to see if you can find something that does not involve a screen. And, number three. No guilt. 15 minutes is all I'm asking. Now, I know everyone's kind of at different seasons in our lives, and this year in particular, boy ... is really challenging. And, what I know is that for some of you that are listening to this, 15 minutes a day feels impossible. And, so let's talk about how maybe we could just take a baby step.
So if 15 minutes feels impossible, my guess is it feels impossible because you are caring for a gazillion, trillion, other people. And, I get that. And, I want to honor that, and I don't want to add more to your plate. So maybe, maybe it's just like five minutes. Could you find five minutes? Oftentimes people find that five minutes, maybe waking up just five minutes early ... And, during that five minutes, maybe it's something as simple as drinking your coffee, sitting down, being still ... Maybe it's five minutes during lunch where you close the door, you turn the lights off, and you just eat without distractions. Maybe you take the long way home, which gives you five extra minutes to listen to that podcast or that song on your way home. I just want you to find some time for you. It's a little breathing space, a little room guys ... to do something that feels like a treat. It doesn't need to cost money. It could, but it doesn't need to cost money. Just something that you could look forward to that you build into your day.
You might combine this with what we talked about a couple of weeks ago on the podcast of completing the stress cycle. So maybe you ... you take your 15 minutes, and you go for a walk. Maybe you take your 15 minutes, and you reach out to a friend you haven't talked to in awhile. Maybe you're gonna bump your 15 minutes to 22 minutes and watch a sitcom episode without commercials. Okay. And again, if this feels really hard for you, I want you to just not give it up completely, but figure out how can you make this work for you? And, on the other end of the spectrum, if this feels really easy to you, yay! Like if this feels like something you've got down, first of all, a huge kudos. Oh my gosh. That's incredible. And, maybe an invitation ... could you think about the people in your life that maybe 15 minutes a day feels like a real struggle to them? Could you offer to help in some ways, so they could have their 15 minutes. Right? We're all better when we're all better. Is there ... is there an overworked parent ... that's a colleague or a friend or a neighbor that you could offe,r and it doesn't have to be every single day, but maybe you could offer to do something with their kids and give them just 15 minutes. Maybe you could offer to share making ... you know, maybe you make extra food at dinnertime, and you offer to share it. So, you can take that off their plate and give them the push ... that, let me make dinner for you so that you can take 15 minutes for yourself. I just love the idea of reaching out and ... and, you know, lending that hand to someone else in times that we need it.
And, I know as we move into the holiday season and things are hard right now ... Gosh, we could all use a little help and support. So, check in on each other. See what you need. Maybe you do this with someone else again. Remember the importance of that loving accountability checking in, and maybe you spend that 15 minutes, you know, with someone else where you guys commit to doing something, but you ... you both have to have to enjoy doing it.
Right? And, I said, number two, that I'd like for it to not involve a screen, but I mentioned maybe watching a sitcom or something. So, I could ... I could, you know, be a little bit flexible there. Here's the main piece. Let's try to resist using that 15 minutes to just scroll. Let's use that 15 minutes to do something that really actually makes us feel good. And again, you do you. If you feel like, Nope, Tina, I am craving time to scroll. Sweetheart, scroll. Scroll ahead. Whatever you need to do ... whatever you need to do.
But let me go over those. Okay. So here's the invitation. Here's ... And, I want you to block it on your calendar, so that you don't miss this and maybe play around. Try 15 minutes in the morning versus 15 minutes at lunchtime versus 15 minutes in the evening. Like what seems to work? Play around with that. You know, consider this action research. 15 minutes every single day just for you. I want it to be something that really feels good that perhaps doesn't involve a screen and that you let the guilt go. And, let's jump over into the Facebook group and share what are you doing with your 15 minutes. I love, love, love to gather ideas and hear ... hear what everyone's experimenting with. Okay. Go to it. Happy 15 minutes.
As always a huge, huge, huge, thank you to Brooke for making this happen. Gosh, we are so grateful for you. Special shout out to Marzano Resources and Solution Tree for this job that I get to do every day, and above all you, my sweet listeners. My bad-ass Self-Care Squad. My goodness. I am so grateful for you.