Description: These last few weeks of the school year, as Spring rolls in, and we think about finishing the school year strong, we want to remind ourselves of the importance of seeking out UPEs.
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Transcription: Hi, welcome to Self-Care for Educators. I am your host, Tina Boogren. This is episode 30 of our third season, and this week's invitation is: I want you to be on the lookout for UPEs. For UPEs. What are those? Those are unexpected positive experiences. Unexpected positive experiences. I like to think of these as delights. So, I came across this terminology. I'm currently working on certification in helping to coach women through Girls Gone Strong, and in my textbook, one of the sections that I was reading talked about helping your clients to identify and find and savor these UPEs. And, I love this so much. So, I wanted to pass it along to you right away.
So, the idea of these unexpected positive experiences and the textbook, it was described as this. So, let me just read it to you. It says, don't you love those moments of unanticipated pleasure or simple contentment in life? Someone holding a door for you when you're carrying packages. Someone waving you to go ahead and traffic. A cute dog that wants to say hello to you. Winning free lunch from a fundraising raffle. These unexpected positive experiences or UPEs could be something that made you feel connected or grateful and just like a delicious meal, we can savor those pleasant and positive aspects of life. Oh, I love this so much. So, if you follow me on social media, you might notice that I tend to post pictures and the heading is delight. And, what I mean is this is just something that brought me ... Maybe it's something I'm grateful for. Maybe it's a way that I felt connected. Maybe it's something that made me happy. They're just those small little moments or events or people that bring me delight that I want to stop and savor and recognize in the moment. And, that's exactly what a UPE is--unexpected positive experience.
And, I think if we can set an intention to look for these, we're more apt to find them and then savor them, which I love. So, that's what I want you to do this week. I want you to be on the lookout for these UPEs, and I want you to record them. I think it's really powerful to record them. You can jot them down. You can take a photo of them. You can post them on social media. You can share them in a text with someone. No right or wrong way to do this, but I think in the capturing of it, we hold onto it, and we make that memory even more powerful. And then, we also have that list or that photo or that text to look back on, which gives us that added bonus and second moment of unexpected delight. Maybe your mission this week is every single day you are going to be on the hunt for one UPE. If you get more than that, fantastic, but at the very least you find one of these and then record it in some way.
This is a great thing to do with students. It's a great thing to challenge your family and friends to do with you. It's a great thing to post on social media. You know, as educators, we love acronyms, so there's something about the UPE, which feels like kind of a secret code or a secret language that feels kind of fun to call it looking for a UPE. I almost feel like we need to animate what would a ... What would a UPE look like if we were to draw that? Maybe one of you could get creative and and design what a UPE might look like, but that's it. That's what I want you to do this week. I want us to really, as we think about these last kind of few weeks of the school year as we're starting to feel Spring come in, and we're thinking about really wanting to finish the school year strong. We wanna remind ourselves of the importance of those positive emotions, and we wanna purposely seek out and find ways to bring those positive emotions to us, and I think that unexpected positive experiences or UPEs is a really fantastic way to do that. I'd love if you would jump on over to the Facebook group and maybe share what your ups are for the day.
The, the question that I've been asked, asking in the Facebook group this month is all about where did you find beauty? And, I think of course when we find those moments of beauty, that would be considered a UPE. So maybe, we wanna label it that way, if that's helpful. Oh, I just, I think this is gonna make for a really incredible week when we set our intention to find these. I think by setting an intention to find one, we're gonna find that we, we actually recognize and identify a whole lot more than just one. Circle back and think about, hmm, by doing this, by engaging in this, how did it impact our mood, our energy, our relationships, our connections with others? Did it seem to help?
And if so, maybe this is one of those strategies that we wanna really take and make into a full-blown habit that goes beyond just one week's time. I can't wait for us to play with this.
As always, a huge, huge, huge thank you to Brooke, our girl who makes this happen for us. Thank you to Solution Tree and Marzano Resources for this incredible job that I get to do, which brings me so much delight. And, to you, my bad-ass Self-Care Squad. Talk about unexpected positive people. We could call you UPEs. You guys bring me so much joy and delight, and I'm so grateful for you, and I'm so grateful that you are here. I'm cheering so hard for you. Have a wonderful, wonderful week.