Mental self-care for teachers is an imperative facet of sustaining a productive teaching environment, wherein clarity, focus, and the safeguarding of one’s mindset are paramount. The incessant demands of the teaching profession can engender a plethora of mental clutter, which, if left unaddressed, may precipitate overwhelming stress and diminish overall effectiveness. I expound upon various strategies designed to alleviate this mental disarray, including the practice of journaling, prioritization of tasks, and the judicious allocation of time for mental recuperation. Furthermore, I emphasize the importance of cultivating mental resilience to protect against negativity and fostering a nurturing atmosphere for both oneself and one's students. Ultimately, by adopting these practices, we can enhance our mental wellness, thereby ensuring that we remain at our most effective for the benefit of those we educate.

In the latest episode of the Be a Funky Teacher Podcast, the focus is on the essential yet often neglected aspect of self-care for educators: nurturing mental well-being. Nicholas Kleve, known as Mr. Funky Teacher, engages listeners in a critical examination of the mental strain that teachers endure as they navigate their multifaceted roles. He highlights the constant barrage of choices and responsibilities that can lead to a state of mental overwhelm, ultimately detracting from both the educator's effectiveness and personal satisfaction. To remedy this, he shares a plethora of strategies aimed at fostering mental clarity, including the practice of brain dumping to alleviate cognitive overload and the importance of setting clear priorities in one’s daily tasks.

Beyond mere organizational tactics, Nicholas emphasizes the importance of cultivating a resilient mindset. He candidly discusses the impacts of negativity and gossip prevalent in educational settings, encouraging educators to consciously distance themselves from such toxic interactions. He offers insights into reframing challenges as growth opportunities, which not only benefits the individual teacher but also sets a positive example for students. The episode serves as a poignant reminder that mental self-care is imperative for sustained effectiveness in teaching, and advocates for educators to prioritize their mental health in order to better serve their students.

Takeaways:

• Mental self-care for teachers necessitates the prioritization of mental clarity and focus, which is essential for effective teaching.
• Establishing a routine of brain dump journaling can significantly alleviate mental clutter and improve decision-making capabilities.
• To safeguard one’s mindset, it is imperative to consciously avoid engaging in gossip and negativity within the educational environment.
• Implementing micro breaks throughout the day is vital for maintaining mental well-being and preventing burnout among educators.
• Prioritizing adequate sleep serves as a fundamental pillar for enhancing cognitive function and overall mental health for teachers.
• Reframing challenging situations into growth opportunities can foster resilience and a positive mindset within the educational context.

Links referenced in this episode:

• beafunkteacher.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Be a Funky Teacher

Yeah, he's Mr. Funky.

He's Mr. Funky Teacher.

Mr. Funky Teacher inspires greatness, makes you feel good.

Like your favorite playlist.

Keeping that fresh and funky.

Yes, he does.

He got some funky cool ideas to share for all you teachers.

He can empower others, students and teachers.

It's all about hard work and creativity.

He brings out the kindness in everyone.

He's got the passion to teach.

You hear it when he speaks.

He knows how to build strong relationships.

If you're seeking the best, funkiest, he is it.

He will empower you to improve.

You'll be helping others and loving it too.

He's Mr. Funky Teacher.

Yeah, he's Mr. Funky Teacher.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

This is Mr. Funky Teacher with Be a Funky Teacher dot com.

I'm coming to you with another Be a Funky Teacher podcast.

Welcome back, everyone.

Today's episode is mental self care for teachers.

Clarity, focus, and protecting your mindset.

That's what we're going to be focusing on.

But before we get into it, let's talk about three things I'm thankful for.

First thing, I'm thankful for getting to watch my son at his football game.

It was actually the older of my two sons, I watched him at his football game.

I am thankful for that chance to cheer him on, to watch him, to see him grow and thrive playing a sport he loves.

These moments remind me to slow down and enjoy the experiences that really matter.

Second thing, I'm thankful for comforting my other son.

Now, my wife and I had to kind of divide and conquer last night because both sons had football games.

I went to my oldest son's football game.

My wife went to my younger son's football game.

And he was upset about something that happened at that football game.

And so I was grateful that I had the chance to comfort him.

When he came home, he was upset and I was able to provide comfort to him.

It's a reminder that parenting is about presence more than perfection.

Third thing, I'm thankful for a beautiful evening.

I'm.

I'm so thankful for the gift of calm, beautiful evenings.

Last night was one of those evenings.

Those simple moments of stillness bring balance.

So sometimes the chaos of a crazy day.

All right, well, now let's get into it.

The meat and potatoes of this episode, which is mental self care for teachers, clarity, focus, and protecting your mindset.

That's what we're going to be focusing on.

So the big focus here is, I want to say, to try to focus on clearing mental clutter.

Teachers are juggle hundreds of small decisions every single day.

Hundreds if not even more than hundreds.

The, the mental clutter leads to stress and sometimes missed focus.

I'm guilty of it.

I know you're guilty of it.

Sometimes those are those things that slip through the cracks because there's just so much mental clutter that's going on.

And so I encourage you to have some brain dump journaling that you do, some to do lists, some prioritization.

I do a lot of if there's some key things that I need to get done for that day, I make sure I get them down on a post it or a piece of paper.

So that way I can kind of focus my energy and things aren't just bouncing around in my head where when I have so much brain clutter and I know certain things need to get done, sometimes nothing gets done or nothing gets done well, because there's so much, so many things that are bouncing around in my head and I don't really have a good clear focus.

So it's so important that we try to prioritize some of that mental clutter that's going on.

Oh.

Cause I think we all can agree that, hey, there's certain things that we gotta get done each day, right?

There's certain things and it might just be just daily things that happen, but then there are certain things that just are on like a week weekly to do list or a monthly to do list that, hey, we gotta have a plan for when we get those done, right?

But if they're just bouncing around in our heads, I find that I'm much more productive.

I have a to do list at school, I have a to do list at home.

And I really try to work on those lists of prioritizing and I update those lists too.

And I rework those lists to too as, as things get added to them and as things get removed.

Now actually a physical to do list works better for me.

Maybe some sort of app or online to do list would work better for you.

I mean, it's, it's whatever.

But just make sure you get those things down to help with some of that brain clutter.

So then you can kind of free up your brain from some of the, the clutter.

But then sometimes a brain dump, journaling too can be good.

If you got so much floating around in your head, maybe just you want to process something, just write stuff down.

It doesn't have to be fancy complete sentences.

If you're working through something or if there's something that happened, maybe you had a really tough encounter with a parent or a really tough situation with A student journal it down, brain dump it down in writing or brain dump it down in an audio form maybe, but brain dump it down, get it out so that way things aren't just like cluttering up your brain and getting you bogged down by that.

You know, I, I had mentioned in, in a prior episode about, you know, organizing your space for being practical and organizing space when I had a chance to organize my garage.

Well, organizing our mind can give us the same relief that's so important to do is not only organize our physical space, as I mentioned in a prior episode, but we've got to organize our mind.

And a part of that is by clearing out that glitter, y'.

All.

Second thing that I want to talk about here with, with mental self care is to protect your mindset.

Gotta be doing some protecting of our mindset.

Teaching requires mental resilience.

Boy, does it ever.

Boy, doggy, I'm, I, I.

There's so much mental resilience that comes with being an effective teacher.

We have to guard against negativity from gossip, y'.

All, Right?

Like I'm gonna tell you there, we know this.

Like, man, teachers can gossip with the best of all, can't they though, right?

Like, I remember when, when I had announced I was switching school districts this year, there was, and, and when I had put my letter of resignation in, there was so much gossip around that, in fact, I mean, there was talk going on, people, why is he leaving?

And I tried to be very upfront and very clear about why I was leaving.

And I think with how I came forward, publicly with how I was leaving, I tried to be strategic about it, but it's not going to eliminate some of the gossiping.

People are going to talk.

But what I would say.

And that's when that made me realize, like, man, people are just going to gossip.

But what I would, I would challenge you to think about is try to be careful not feeding into gossip.

Be very careful about the energy and time you put into talking trash about people.

I'm very careful about that.

So, yeah, I, I try not to engage in talking trash about people.

It's just, you know, now there, there might be some challenges we face or some frustrations that, that need to be addressed with certain situations that we see.

But for outright gossip, boy, do I. I try not.

And have I gotten involved in gossip before?

Yes, I have.

I think if all of us are going to be realistic, most people do.

In some ways.

It's human nature.

You could get sucked into gossip.

But I don't feel good after it, I don't feel good about if I'm involved in gossiping.

I also don't feel good when I'm involved with talking negative.

So what I try to do as a teacher leader is try to bring a lot of positivity into what I do.

Even I think about in meetings if I bring in negativity or gossip, those make meetings unproductive or if there's like consistent like comparisons that can get very negative and unproductive as well.

And as a, as someone who I believe is a teacher leader, I view myself as a teacher leader and I know there's others who view me as a teacher leader.

I try not to engage in that.

But I'll do some, some playful self deprecating humor.

Not, not too much.

Right, Because I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna be someone who just tears myself down because that, that's but, but you know, some playful joking about myself more than anything and then I move on because I don't want to sit in that space either where I'm just.

Because there I've met some people who, who they, they talk negative about themselves and they cut themselves down over and over and over again.

And I always find that interesting.

But, and, and, and surprising that some people kind of puke out their negative self talk.

It's very, it's, it's a very off putting thing when you have someone who just says nothing but negative things about themselves or talk trash or, and say only negative things about other people.

I really try to deflect that or to try to bring him back to some lightheartedness or playfulness.

Once again, if you get a concern about somebody or a situation and you can talk about it in a productive way, that's a little bit, I think we all can agree that's just a little bit different.

So I think about, you know, protecting.

Oh, one thing I want to say too that, to know I, I think it's important too to practice reframing situations.

So like I think about like talking to my son last night who was upset, you know, I, I'm big on reframing things.

Reframing for myself and teaching others to reframe.

And so talking to my son last night, you know, I could have told myself hey, I can't handle this.

It's been a busy day, it's been a long day.

Instead of telling myself hey, I can't handle this.

He's upset, but I just can't handle this right now.

I told myself, you know what, I'm going to I'm going to sit down and I'm going to listen to him and I'm going to support my son.

And then from, how do I reframe it for someone else?

Using my own, like, mental fortitude, I guess I was able to help him reframe the situation too, and say, hey, this.

I know this is a challenge, and here's.

Here's how it'll help you grow from this situation.

I didn't want to dismiss how he felt.

I affirmed how he was feeling.

Instead of saying, oh, this is awful, and it was all, you're, you know, and blaming the situation, I said, you know, this is.

This is.

This has to be hard.

I know you're struggling with this.

And so I was trying to be affirming to him while giving him some guidance too.

But more unfortunately than anything else, I think he just wanted me to listen to him and affirm that I was listening to him and that that was more important.

And then when he was in a place where he was ready, then I tried to reframe it in a way that, hey, you got this.

I didn't feed into that same mindset that he was in.

I tried to kind of reframe his mindset in a way that, hey, he can do tough things.

He's going to face challenges, but he's got this.

So that as a teacher working with my own children and as a teacher working with students, we sometimes have to reframe stuff for ourselves and restructure things, but we also have to do it.

So we have to do it sometimes for ourselves, but we also have to do it for other people, right, the young people that we're entrusted to work with.

So reframing is really unfortunate thing, something that I've leaned into.

We have to be careful, though, because sometimes people aren't ready for.

It comes off as advice where they're not ready for advice, where sometimes they just want to be heard.

And so we have to kind of use our professional judgment in terms of, hey, I'm going to give support, or if they want advice, how can I reframe it in a way that is meaningful to the situation, meaningful to the person, and will help the situation versus just assign blame or.

Or turn it into a gossiping situation or a negative feed into the negativity, which.

Which is it good for anybody?

And that's.

And that goes back to, like, that resilience, right?

Like, that's what makes this hard sometimes, is teaching requires mental resilience.

Because doing this type of work, doing this type of Reframing is sometimes tough where we have to reframe ourselves first or reframe our thinking first and then we got to help others in that, in that supportive way.

That's tough.

And so that mental resilience for us as individuals, as teachers is so important.

All right, so the, the next big thing is rest and recovery for the brain.

Mental self care, y', all means giving your, your brain breaks just like your body.

There's sometimes, there's sometimes.

I've been working at my dad's where I'm just working till exhaustion, working in his yard with I, I think we had a day off last week where I ground some, some tree stumps out of the ground and I was exhausted.

I worked till exhaustion and then I had worked a few other follow up days, but I just was tired and I just had to be done.

My body was saying I need a break.

Well, I think we all can also agree that there's been times in our, where our brains are done and our brains need a break.

And that's where it's so important that we give ourselves rest.

It's it.

Mental self care is about giving our own brain breaks just like our body.

We.

Sometimes we have to use micro breaks during the day, right?

Like sometimes we just need to walk down the hallway or do some stretching or to sit in silence.

To be honest, that's one of the things that I enjoy doing the most over my lunch break is sometimes just sitting in silence.

Sometimes I just want to sit with my thoughts in silence or sit and eat my sandwich and not think about anything at all.

Sometimes it's funny because, you know, sometimes another teacher will walk in while I'm just sitting there staring at the wall, eating.

And literally I'm not thinking about anything.

I'm just, I'm just kind of, I'm zoning out, not thinking about anything and just, just it's, it's a mental break.

I'm giving my brain a break.

That's so important for us to do that sometimes y', all, because if we're on all the time, if we're going, if, if we're running on high intensity all the time, we, we, we are at such risk of burning out, y'.

All.

And so I just want to caution you on that.

Use micro breaks.

Use times during the day where you take a walk or you stretch or you have some silence.

But then make sure you get some time either before when you wake up in the morning or at night or sometime too where you can give your sprain some breaks while you're awake, not just with sleep.

Sleep is important to give your brain a break.

But while you're waking hours, you gotta give your brain some breaks, y'.

All.

You do.

I would also caution you on multitasking.

I would encourage you to limit multitasking and focus on one thing fully, then move on.

And I don't know if that's, you know, sometimes the old adage is a, you know, you know, men are able to.

Men do better with single tasks.

Women do better with.

They can do a variety of things all at once.

I don't know.

I know my wife can do, it seems like multiple things at once and get things done.

Or me, I like to focus on individual tasks.

I know there's also been some research that has come out that says that multitasking is kind of like a false type of narrative, that as humans we are better to focus on individual tasks.

I don't know.

I just.

For me, I try to limit multitasking when I'm trying to get stuff done.

And maybe you have to do what, what, what works for you and still helps you preserve your peace.

I just know that I can't.

That's where it goes back to that list making.

Making a list of things that I need to get done.

And then I can really then prioritize individual things on that list if I got a chunk of time where I can work on some stuff, try some stuff.

But I think, I don't know, like, multitasking, I think is really hard on the brain.

Multitasking is hard on the brain where you can really, you can really, I think, weaken what you're able to accomplish.

But try it out.

See, maybe try out, hey, you're going to multitask one morning.

If you got an hour, let's save you an hour to work on something, do some multitasking during that and see how you get done and how you're mentally, how you feel.

And then the next day, try to single prioritize things.

If you got a chunk of time working through a list and see how it goes, I think what you're probably going to find is that the multitasking is a lot harder in the brain.

And maybe the tasks that you did do don't get done quite as well, but try it.

I'm, I just, I'm challenging us to be aware of things that are more of a mental load on the brain.

I'm, I'm going to sit here and argue that multitasking is harder of a load on the brain.

And so we, because of that multitasking being so hard on the brain.

Ah.

I am always talking about to other educators, like doing things that, that protect the brain in person.

And, and now on, on this podcast, we've got to protect our brains.

And, and, and then, oh, and I had mentioned too, not only those, you know, we talked about some, some breaks, mental breaks while you're awake journaling, decluttering.

But then you've got to protect your sleep as mental fuel.

Sleep is like rocket fuel for your brain, y'.

All.

It is.

It's not caffeine, it's sleep.

You want to take care of your brain, you want to take care of your mental health.

Get sleep.

This is not something I've always prioritized as, as I'm now in my 40s here, I'm prioritizing even more.

I can't just.

There's some days that I've taught and I've run on adrenaline because I've burned at work at both ends and then I'm, I'm feel like garbage all day.

Y' all been there, you've been there before where it's like you, you, you just feel like, just like how are you going to get through the day because you feel so awful?

Maybe because you didn't sleep well or because, you know, I know sometimes when you have young children at home that, that were up sick or just young children that just didn't sleep themselves and that affects your sleep or, or just because you're up working, grading papers late into the night and then you got up early.

Oh my goodness.

And then you're just.

You sacrifice sleep.

When we sacrifice sleep, we rock.

We sacrifice that rocket fuel for the brain.

Sleep is rocket fuel for the brain and we cannot sacrifice that.

We've got to be really protective of that.

So I encourage you.

It's not sustainable.

I know sometimes we have to, but it's not sustainable to sacrifice sleep truly long term.

So I think about like last night, getting to watch a football game or enjoying a quiet evening.

That, that was mental rest for me.

That was mental rest.

Watching my, my 15 year old play in a football game.

It's, I mean, I was engaged in it, but it was restful for my brain.

Where I sat up in the stands, I clapped for him.

I just was, was happy to be in the moment.

That was restful.

I didn't overwork it.

I didn't get all hyped up about, about it is.

And of course I cheered for him.

Of course I wanted them to win.

But I, they, they ended up losing.

It's kind of a nail biter but it was still mental rest for me.

So think about your mental rest.

Well as we bring this episode to a close, some takeaway reflections here is that mental health care is about clarity and mindset, not just working harder.

Clear the clutter, protect your thinking and give your mind space to rest, y'.

All.

So key takeaways when you're, when your mind is cared for, your teaching is sharper, calmer and more sustainable, y'.

All.

Well, that brings our episode to a close.

If you found value in this episode, please jump on Apple Podcasts and give me a five star and let me know what you thought of this episode and this podcast.

And of course I want to remind you to remember to inspire greatness in young people and don't forget to be a funky teacher.

Bye now.

He's Mr. Funky Teacher, yeah.

He's Mr. Funky teacher yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sam.