Description: Sometimes it can feel like we're running 1,000 miles an hour. This week, Dr. Boogren discusses the importance of giving your body and your brain a little breather.
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Transcription: Hi, and welcome to episode 38 of Self-Care for Educators. I am your host, Tina Boogren, and this week the invitation that I'm going to offer up is simply this slow down. Whew. I say that as I try to slow down my voice. Even I have been reminded again, and again, and again, of the importance of slowing down. I'll share with you how this showed up in my life.
So, I mentioned on the last podcast, I believe, I am a little bit crazy right now with a whole lot of work and a whole lot of deadlines and all stuff. I'm super grateful for it, but I feel like I'm running about a thousand miles an hour, and I have no doubt that you are feeling that same way yourself. And, what happened last weekend was my husband and I took a really quick getaway. Just ... It's about an hour and a half from Denver. We went to Estes park, home of Rocky Mountain National Park, where we rented just a little Airbnb. We literally ... I had a workshop on Friday. We left the minute the workshop was done. So, we had just Friday evening, Saturday, and we came home Sunday morning. And that was it. That was all I needed to catch my breath again.
I can't believe how much of a difference that made to just slow down. I committed to not working, which means not responding to emails, not trying to talk too much about work. I have a tendency to talk about work a lot, ask any of my friends, and they'll vouch for that. And, I tried to really just let go and sink into the moment, and it was glorious. Gosh, it was glorious. In fact, to the point that on Saturday, we went for a little hike, and we had either another hike, or we were going to go walk around downtown. Anyway ... we had some things that were on our to-do list, and my husband and I looked at each other and decided that really what I needed in that moment was to not do any of that. I needed to sit on that couch with my husband and my dog, and just talk about life. We actually sat outside in the sunshine, and it was glorious, and it felt enough to just ...
I almost got bored for a minute, and I haven't been bored in a long time. 'Cause the to-do list is long. And so, it reminded me ... In fact, the conversation that we had on our way home was just the importance of slowing down how good it feels to slow down. And, that it actually, it didn't take long for me to feel different. In other words, I don't need a week long vacation to do that. Although, don't get me wrong. A week's long vacation sounds like heaven right about now. But, even just a respite, just hitting the pause button ... And so, I committed to thinking about how I can incorporate the concept of slowing down into my week, into even my busiest weeks. And, that might be even just sitting and drinking coffee and doing nothing else.
It might be doing an actual meditation. I love the Calm app and the Headspace app and making time to do those, huge. Even just thinking about slowing down can be even in terms of our exercise and workout. So, I'm someone that really likes to exercise, and I can get on a kick where I really try to like ... I'll do this intense cardio and each workout is harder than the last one. And, I think actually that's why I've loved my walk so much because. It slows me down. I love a good workout. I love a good, hard workout, but incorporating just some walks into my week where we actually pause, and we stop, and we look at nature, and my husband points out birds, and he pulls up the binoculars. 'Cause that's the nerds that we are ... And, we stare at the birds on our walk, and it just feels slow, and it feels lovely in the middle of the chaos. I encourage you to think about how you can slow down.
Let's jump over into the Facebook page and share what slowing down means to us, especially those of you, you know ... You're crazy at work. You've had a lot going on at home. The thought of slowing down might sound just delicious and delightful, but we're not even sure where to start. This is where the group comes in and we can really help each other out. What does slowing down look like? Especially during this time of the school year, where we feel like we're ramping up. I know many of you are having to think about state tests and changing the format of your learning environment again. And, while the school year ... end of the school year is on the horizon, it can feel really far away right about now. This is when we need to think about slowing down, taking a beat, catching our breath ... So, what does that look like for you? Please, please, please jump in and share. Think about, as you move through the week, if you're feeling just crazed and being pulled a thousand different directions. How can you create an opportunity to slow down? Maybe, maybe it's during the week. That would be fantastic. Or, maybe it's looking forward to something this weekend. Just the chance to catch our breath can be so essential for our own self-care. I know that I walked into this Monday feeling like an entirely different person than I did when I was just at my wit's end last Friday. It just took a ... it just took a little break, a little bit of slowing down, giving myself permission to do that. And, I want to offer that same invitation for you. Let's slow down.
As always a huge, huge thank you to Brooke for making this happen. Huge thank you to Solution Tree and Marzano Resources for this job I get to do. And, as always, I'm so grateful for you, my bad-ass Self-Care Squad. Give yourself the permission to slow down this week.