Description: This week, the Self-Care Squad revisits the art of crafting a morning routine that better prepares you to master your day.
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Transcription: Hi, welcome to Self-Care for Educators. I'm your host, Tina Boogren. This is our third season in our 29th episode. This week's invitation is to revisit your morning routine. Revisit your morning routine. You already have a routine, right? And, I want you to just revisit that. Reflect on that. How is it working for you? Is it working for you? Could you make some changes as we think about finishing this school year strong as we move into these final weeks? And, I know everyone ends at different time. Some of you're like, Tina, I got quite a few weeks to go. I know, but we're getting there. Standing your tippy toes, you can see the end of the school year is starting to approach, and as we think about how we wanna show up for our students, for our colleagues, for ourselves in these last few weeks of school, I think it starts with having a really solid morning routine. Which actually starts with a really solid evening routine. But today, let's focus on the morning routine.
So, I just want you to pause and really reflect on what your morning looks like. Maybe you pull out a piece of paper, and you write down every single thing that you do, what time you do it, how much time you give yourself, and how that's making you feel. And, as you take an objective look at what your morning looks like, decide is this something I wanna do? I need more time here? Could I let this go? Could I adjust this in some way? What I particularly want you to think about is how do you get yourself in that positive state of mind before you show up at school? We know we have a job where we don't get to show up and just kind of ease into our day. Now you are on ... I used to say you were on the minute, you hit the door, but you're actually on before that. You are on when you turn down the street to your school, and you're already waving to colleagues or parents or students, right? You're on when you're in the parking lot. Like, you are on. So, the minute that you leave your house, I want you to be in as positive estate as you possibly can.
And, I know this is a big ask, because a lot of you have a lot of really hard stuff. You're in a hard season. It's hard to get in that positive state. And so, I know this is a big ask, and I'm not asking you to engage in the toxic positivity of pretending things are fine when it's not. No, we know in terms of emotional wellness, we have got to have an awareness of our emotions. We have to understand where they're coming from. We have to engage in mindfulness practices that help us deal with some of those more challenging emotions. In particular, what I'm sharing here is how do we think about this job that we do? How can we show up as our very best selves? How can we be the teacher? Or, the coach or the administrator or the paraprofessional or the nurse, whatever your job title is that we want to be? When I think about that quote about, would you want to be a student in your own classroom, and again, insert, would you want to be a teacher in your own school? Would you want to be a teacher being coached by you? I think I might have messed that up, but I think ... But yeah, I think you understand what I'm saying here. When you consider that, see how that changes how you engage in your morning?
Maybe you don't hit snooze that one final time and instead you get up, you 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, get up, and you allow yourself that extra seven minutes to slow down to have those first couple sips of coffee by yourself. Maybe you take that coffee, and you go outside, and you put your face in that sunshine, or it's probably not sunny yet. I know most of us get up in the dark, but you put your face out in the fresh air. Maybe you listen to music. Maybe you download an audible book, and you are listening to that while you're getting ready. Maybe you just allow yourself to get ready a little bit more slowly. Instead of feeling rushed, maybe because you've thought about your evening routine, you put some things in place so that you don't have to rush so much in the morning. You've got your clothes laid out, you've got your lunch packed, you've got your bag ready to go, you know where your keys are so you don't run around all morning trying to find your keys. You've got everything lined up so that you can start the day.
Remember our energy that we bring to our classroom, to our students, to our colleagues. That's what we get back. And, when I think about how we want to approach the day, I want you to ask yourself, how do I want my students to feel today? How do I want my teachers to feel today? How do I want my staff to feel today, whatever role it is, and then ask yourself, how can I bring that energy to them so that it oozes off of me? And, they start to feel that. And to me, that all happens in the morning before we get ourselves to work. We have to consciously think about this. We have to set that intention. We have to decide how we want our day to go. We have to get our time back. We've got to be aware of our emotions and see what it is that we need to do to bring our best selves on this particular day to this job that we have. I know it's hard in the spring. I know it's exciting in so many ways, and you're also exhausted, and so when we're exhausted, it's harder to do this, which is why it's even more important to do.
So, I really want you to spend a little time, maybe you spend the first few days just doing your normal morning routine and just jot down what does that look like. Is it the same every day? And, then spend a little time reflecting on it. Does that schedule that you have set up, that routine that you set up for you, for yourself? Is it working for you? And, if not, you have the chance to make some changes. You don't have to make big, huge sweeping changes. You don't have to get up two hours earlier. Just what teeny, tiny, little thing might you be able to change. And, think about how that impacts the rest of your day. Maybe this is something you wanna talk about as a family to brainstorm ideas. Maybe this is something that you talk about with someone at school. Go take a walk. Share your morning routine. See if you can swap ideas with one another. I just want you to really think about your morning. Ask yourself how it's working for you. P.S. if it's working--great. Yay! Keep going, keep going, keep going.
But, I think for a lot of us, there's probably a teeny, tiny, little tweak that we can make that might make a huge difference. I'm cheering so hard for you.
As always, Brooke makes this all happen, and we are so grateful for her. Solution Tree and Marzano Resources allows me the opportunity to do this job that I love so, so much. And, you, my bad-ass Self-Care Squad. I love you so, so much. I'm cheering so hard for you. It's been a little while since I've asked you to do this, but if you haven't yet, if you wouldn't mind just rating the podcast. It helps other people find us, especially if you're enjoying the podcast, and maybe share it with a friend. I love when our audience grows, when we follow the advice of Glennon Doyle, and we make sure we're standing in horseshoes rather than circles, so we can bring more people into our Bad-ass Squad. I love you guys. Have a great week.