Stress Management Tips For Teachers
Overwhelming stress is an inevitable hurdle that everyone encounters at some point in their career. Unfortunately, that includes teachers. It can be hard to remain calm and maintain a sense of control when papers stack up and students act out. Continue reading to learn some stress relief tips for teachers to prevent burnout, keep your cool and balance your daily responsibilities as a professional.
The best stress management strategies for teachers
Acceptance - Accept that you cannot always completely control what’s happening in general, accept the fact that you only have limited amount of influence on things that happen and on other people. Once you fully accept it, you’ll notice that you instantly feel better and lighter, you won’t stress yourself out so much anymore.
Changing your Mindset - Get a mindset in which you are ready to take control over your way of handling things or other people. Come to realize that you are the only one who determines what you think and how long you let negative things bother you. You might not have complete power over things or people, you might not be able to change others, but you are certainly able to make your own decisions about how you react to others and handle things.
Setting Goals - Set yourself realistic goals, put in words what’s important for you, only work on one goal at a time and put your heart and soul in it. For example, improving your reactions in a stressful conversation with parents or better bearing annoying people around you.
Analyzing Effect of Emotions - Learn to consider your emotions and let yourself be the boss of what’s bothering you and what doesn’t. Of course, if someone tells you “don’t be mad” it doesn’t work automatically, but what does work is you allowing yourself to be mad at first and then turning your thoughts around towards a positive direction. What automatically follows is the change of your emotions towards a positive direction, too. And there you go!
Controlling your Actions – Realize how emotions, thoughts and actions are tied to each other, one determines the other. Find the right area for you to intervene and deliberately make changes. Have you ever asked yourself why you apparently engage in actions which are clearly not good for you but you still stick to them? If yes, you are not alone, this is what we humans do. Although our mind knows better, we behave in a somehow destructive way. Our behavior is triggered by our thoughts and emotions, but becoming aware of that relationship enables us to make better decisions and control our actions in the end.
Most important: Being honest with yourself
It may sound easy but it can actually be quite challenging. Complete honesty with yourself is really the most important thing when it comes to personal stress management. You need to know and be aware about your weaknesses and your strengths in detail, otherwise my tips for stress management might not be successful at all.
If you plan to build up your very own personal stress management, the best advice is to observe yourself for a while so you know what and where to work on. Make notes about what you notice, because putting it in words makes it not only concrete but also makes you be more committed.
Being brave enough to try out new approaches which may seem strange to you at first is important, too – if you never try new stress management ideas you’ll never know if they work for you. For example, working with your thoughts by actively changing them might be a new thing to try.
Have patience with yourself and wait long enough for the new methods to show results. Nothing will work overnight but if you are patient enough, you’ll definitely benefit in the long run.
Work with your thoughts and let time work for you
Don’t worry, working with your thoughts sounds more complicated than it is actually, anybody can do that!
A big part of stress management has to do with the way you make up your mind about something or someone. You alone determine what you think, you can change your thoughts whenever you want to. You’ll be impressed by the effect of changing a negative thought into a positive one. So analyze your thoughts, check and adapt your attitude towards something or someone. That instantly has an impact on your reactions! Try to turn the meaning of a tough situation around by seeing it as a challenge instead of a threat. That alone can do wonders sometimes. Care for a nice side effect? Your stress hormones will go down!
Although we often feel as if time is running too fast, we are mostly impatient when it comes to awaiting positive outcomes of changes. With stress management strategies for teachers, time works for you instead of against you. Whatever you plan to do or try out, don’t expect changes right away. The more often and the more consistent you incorporate new behaviors or methods in your life, the more things will improve, the better your life will become.
Where to begin with own stress management
First, define the area you want to improve, think of typical, repeating situations which are negative for you and provide a chance for you to change things to the better.
Second, define what exactly you want to improve or change, for example that can be the way how you prepare yourself for uncertain outcomes, how you manage to relax after work or how you won’t let negative emotions control your behavior anymore – set accurate goals which are challenging but doable for you.
Third, make yourself familiar with effective stress management tips for teachers, like for example
> stopping stressful thoughts from swirling around in your head by saying out loud STOP and using this very second of interruption to distract your mind with beautiful, relaxing thoughts.
> handling unpleasant, uncertain events by thinking them through in all possible details, positive and negative ones. Prepare yourself for various scenarios and come up with a plan for each one.
> starting a nice routine every day that makes you feel good and look forward to, like taking a short walk, listening to calming music or just enjoying me-time no matter what you do.
Try different teacher stress management tips and find out what works best for you over time, incorporate the most effective methods which are doable for you time-wise in your everyday life. Make a personal plan how to handle specific situations or areas in your life, be concrete, stick to your plan and enjoy your new life style!
Does stress management really work or does it just sound good on paper?
Very Clear answer here: it does work, but comes with a price. What price?
Well, it is the same principle as a weight loss journey, it takes time, willingness and above all, consistency. The effect is about changing your habits from destructive, stressful habits to healthy, stress-reducing or stress-avoiding habits. That can’t be done overnight.
Let’s look at an example. Let’s say the focus of your personal stress management is learning how to relax faster and better after work to enjoy your free time even more, then you could choose to engage in breathing techniques or to take a walk every day at the same time to calm your mind. If you only do that like once or twice and then stop out of any reason, it won’t work of course.
To change habits, you need everything I mentioned - time, willingness, consistency. The human brain works slow when it comes to changing habits but you will get there eventually.
It is totally worth trying it because it comes in such a variety of methods to choose from for various stress situations. It does definitely no harm, you can only benefit!
Always remember: Really everybody can learn to handle stress, even inevitable stress!
Think of stress management not as a wonder pill that takes all of your stress away or that helps change others around you so they don’t annoy you so much anymore, think of it more like a certain life style that changes the way you handle stressful things and annoying people in a better, healthier way, that changes the way you think, feel and act in an overall more healthier direction.
It’s not a rocket science, everybody is able to make real changes for the better. The best thing is that once you put your mind on it, you will always find ways to sneak methods for your own stress management into your busy everyday life.
If you’re looking for more tips for stress management, check out my stress management course designed to combat the daily challenges educators face.
As a subscriber you gain access to video tutorials like...
- Avoid stress by using smart communication strategies
- Be aware of specific impact of stress on body and mind caused by the autonomic nervous system
- Calm down quickly by using simple breathing techniques
- Ease your mind and be prepared with upcoming disaster-like situations
- Get organized and prioritize any duties the smart way
- Get ready for using the power of your mind against stress
- Include more enjoyment in a busy lifestyle
- Instantly feel better by using the power of your thoughts
- Make dealing with stressful thoughts easier by turning them into facts
- Manage time by building up your own self-management
- Master even very tough situations by changing the meaning for you
- Organize your personal stress management tools
- Overcome time traps and practice self-leadership
- Reduce stress with only two simple questions
- Release tension of body and mind by practicing an easy relaxation technique
- Solve any problems properly and effectively
- Start managing stress by learning about specific sources and general effects of stress
- Start your new life by creating your individual stress management plan
- Stop any stressful thought and motivate yourself successfully
- Work on any stressful thought pattern to live more relaxed
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