Description: Recently, Dr. Boogren had to make a challenging decision--go with the crowd or be defiantly joyful. Now, the Self-Care Squad is put to the test!
Listen Now:
Transcription: Hi, and welcome to Self-Care for Educators. I'm your host, Tina Boogren. This is season three and episode 24. This week's invitation is one we've talked about before. And, you know what, I'm totally okay with talking about things more than once. You know, all of us as humans, work on something for a little while, and I don't know, life gets in the way. And, then we look back and realize we've, we've lost maybe some of those good habits. You know, it's a ... It's ... Nothing's wrong with us. It's just we're a continual work in progress. And so, I really actually love the idea of revisiting things that we've talked about before, to just bring them back, whether we are starting over from scratch or tightening up the habit, or gosh, maybe it's a validation that, you know what, that is a habit that's stuck. Yay! So, it should feel really good. Anyway, the habit that I want us to revisit is the invitation where I invite you to write on your wrist L Y B L. Which stands for Live Your Best Life.
For those of you that have maybe been in workshops with me, we do this every once in a while. It's, it's one of my go-to favorite strategies. What I ask folks to do is to, to pull out a pen or a marker and just write L Y B L on the wrist. And, first there's this feeling of like, Oh no, I can't do that. My mom told me not to write on my own skin. And, we, we laugh about that, and then we say it will come off, but we just write it on our wrist. And, this stems from just a habit that I've created for myself. This started, gosh, years ago, a few years ago now when, when Tim and I were working on the book Educator Wellness, and we had decided that our tagline was going to be Live Your Best Life. Because what we really wanted was for all of us to think about how we can live our best life every single day, not just waiting for those moments where we really are living our best lives on vacation or during the summer or on a Saturday. Instead, we kind of wanted to, what I always say is like take that hashtag back, right? The hashtag L Y B L and figure out how do we live our best lives every single day? You know, even on a random Monday in the middle of March or, you know, whatever it is.
And, and I had that A-Ha moment one day. I was sitting in an airport, and we were working, I was, I was sitting there working on the book, and it was one of those disastrous travel days where there had been a fistfight, fights ... The fight was canceled at one point, and I don't even know. Just things had been shifting here and there, and no one was happy. And, it was, it was one of those moments, those A-Ha moments where I just kind of laughed out loud, because I was writing about, you know, living your best life and thinking, Oof this is so not me living my best life right now sitting here in this airport. And, it was one of those lightning bolt moments of like, well, that's a choice that I'm making. Actually, no, I wouldn't choose to be sitting here in this exact situation, but I can choose how I respond. And, I just took my pen and I wrote L Y B L on my wrist as just a reminder.
I oftentimes write things on my wrist to remind myself of certain things, and it was the idea that when I looked down to think, you know what? Make a different choice in this moment. And, at that moment I did. I got up, and I went for a walk, and I got some stupid water, and I called a friend, and just realized that I could, I could make a few changes. And, I do this every once in a while. I write L Y B L on my wrist, especially on days that I know are going to be hard. You know, when I know I've got a long travel day or just a lot going on. It's in the morning, I just kind of pull my pen out, write L Y B L on my wrist, and it just serves as my reminder that every time I see that, to think about what choice can I make in this moment, and I just did it again yesterday.
So, it was another airport adventure. I flew from Denver to Phoenix and oh gosh, I don't know. The lines at my home airport were out of control. People were so angry. They're trying to do the self-checkout in a lot of the stores, and it wasn't working, and people were mad. And then, we got on the plane, and the door wouldn't shut. It was just like, death by a thousand paper cuts, and I pulled my pen out, and I wrote L Y B L on my wrist. And, it was a reminder that, you know what, I could get swept up in the anxiety of this moment. And, up until that point, I had been. Right? I was furiously texting my husband about, this stinks and I hate this and blah, blah, blah. And, the people around me were all getting upset, and we were all like, Yeah! You know where you just kind of feed into each other's emotions. That emotional contagion is real. And then, I had that just pause for a second and realize, You know what? I'm choosing this. I'm choosing this anxiety in this moment. I cannot control any of this. At the end of the day, it's really not a huge deal. I had plenty of time. I knew I was gonna get to my destination.
I decided that in that moment, You know what? I can make a different choice. I can choose differently. And, I did. I just kind of laughed about the ridiculousness of the situation. I put my headphones in as I oftentimes do to put music on, get myself out of that noise and environment, and when I put that, that music out of my headphones, I always feel like I'm in a movie. Just kind of watching scenes unfold and pulled out my journal and did some writing and took a couple of really, really deep breaths, those big belly breaths, and recentered myself and decided I can make a different. And, that I could live the best possible life in that situation that I could. Again, not ideal, it's not, not a vacation. You know, it was one of those tough days, but I could bring, I could bring myself to that situation in a different way, and I chose to do that. So, that's the invitation for this week. I would love for you every single morning to get up and write L Y B L on your wrist, and see if it nudges you towards making different decisions as you move throughout your day.
And, you know what? If your students ask you what that is, go ahead and tell them and explain how you are choosing different choices. How you're making different choices as you move through your day, and talk about what it is for you to live your best life and to share with them that part of living your best life is showing up for them, for your students, and just see the ripple effect that it has. The idea of writing it on your wrist is just to serve as that visual reminder. Of course, you could put this on a sticky note and put that sticky, you know, on your computer. You ... There's a thousand different ways to do it, but for me, there's just something about writing it on my wrist, writing it on my wrist, because it forces me to just pause. And, every time I glance down and see that, it's that nudge and that reminder which seems to serve me pretty well. So, that's it. That's what I want you to do this week. I want you to live your best life. I want you to remind yourself to live your best life, and I want you to really lean into that and just see what it feels like to decide to make that conscious choice that you are going to make decisions to bring your very best self to every single situation. Oh, I'm cheering so hard for you, you guys.
As always, a huge thank you to Brooke for making this happen. Thank you, Solution Tree and Marzano Resources for this job I get to do. I'm actually recording this from my hotel room in Phoenix as I get ready to present the PLC summit tomorrow, which I'm so excited and grateful for the opportunity. And, as always, to you, my bad-ass Self-Care Squad. Thank you for helping me to live my very best life in service of all of you. Have an amazing week.