Reclaiming Joy Amongst Burnout: Empowering Teachers to Rediscover Happiness in the Classroom

When you feel overwhelmed, stressed to the max, and just to the point of no return in burnout, joy is probably the furthest thing from your mind. But what if I told you reclaiming joy is the key to breaking free from this burnout trap.

Now, I get it. You might be thinking, "Here comes another dose of toxic positivity, brushing off my struggles." But hold on a second. Reclaiming joy is not about slapping on a fake smile or pretending that everything is rainbows and unicorns. It's about recognizing the immense challenges you face as a teacher and still finding moments of genuine happiness because YOU DESERVE IT.

Strategies for Teacher Well-being: Cultivating Joy and Overcoming Burnout

That's why in this episode we chat with Maddy Fry, as she shares her insights into finding joy even during those really crappy seasons, finding motivation when life gives you lemons, the power of summer for achieving your goals, and why community is the key for fostering joy.

Maddy Fry is a Joyful Living coach & mentor who works with women and female entrepreneurs to grow their mindsets so they can live a joyful life that they are obsessed with. Maddy believes that when you make small, intentional changes in life, you will see greater results than trying to make the big leaps all at once. She has worked as a Joyful Living mentor for two years and one-on-one with business owners and budding entrepreneurs for over a year. Maddy has helped hundreds of women take the action needed in order to live a joyful life of intention and purpose through her podcast and online presence as @LivingnSunshine on Instagram.

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Journey of Trials and Errors to Becoming a Joyful Living Coach

[2:18] Podcasting, all of these different things to finally get me to where I am now, as a joyful living coach, just having that experience of knowing what doesn't bring me joy and seeing what that does to your life and experiencing what that does to your mindset, in other parts of your life too, your relationship, how you treat yourself, how you view yourself, all of those different things to where I'm at the space where I am now doing things that literally light me up.

I like wake up out of, like, I get up out of bed at like 5.30 in the morning.

I'm like, I'm ready to get started. Like, let's start today, let's go.

And that's because I've gone through all of these trial and errors of trying to figure out, what it was that I wanted to do.

And that's where it's landed me now. And the reason I'm here now is because, Me being me and me being a part of the generation that kind of lived through the technology boom I have shared my journey along the way every step of the way on Instagram and people have asked me, What did you do to get here? You seem so happy you're doing all of these things like what are you doing to live this way?

And First and foremost, it's just experiencing life, but it's also certain things that I'm doing And so that's kind of how I've landed Where I've landed is getting up falling down getting back on the bike falling off again Yeah, I'm going to figure it out a long way, Yeah I can I can relate to a lot of those things like I was just thinking about what.

Finding Joy in Daily Life and Letting Go of Expectations

[3:41] Led me to the point where I'm actually living a life that I'm proud of yeah, well, it was me making the mistakes of trying to be what other people thought I should be or or making decisions or being in relationships with people who didn't light me up, who I wanted to fix or whatever it might be. And so I think a lot of teachers, like specifically because teachers are listening to this podcast, you, know, I think a lot of teachers deal with that.

And so.

Even if they might be living their best life during the summer, right? They're like, yes, this is the way I want to live all the time. You know, they have those tough or crazy seasons, especially in back to school. So how can they end up finding joy on the daily during that times?

Yeah. So I want to just touch on the point that you brought up quick, and then we'll go back to finding joy when things are literally on fire, right? Or they feel like they're on fire. That.

[4:38] That point of doing what other people expect of you.

And I have worked with educators and teachers and people who work in the realm of education for years now.

And I love you teachers. I bow down to everything that you do, but you've got to let this expectation and this living up to other people's expectations.

[4:55] Or even the expectations you had for yourself years ago, you've got to let it go.

And I say that because I had to do the very same thing and I decided to not pursue teaching in the classroom.

It was a very tough decision. There were lots of tears.

And I remember almost mourning and grieving that journey that I set out for myself.

I had that expectation of, I'm gonna be a teacher. I had family members who were very much against me going into education because it's expensive. It's a waste of time.

It's not, it's all of the things, right? All the things you're talking about.

I had family members who told me this is a bad idea, but me being me, I was like, I'm gonna do it anyway.

You tell me I'm not gonna do it, watch me. And so I want to just encourage those of you listening that if you feel like you're living up to other people's expectations, or you're living up to expectations that you've set for yourself, it's okay for you to let those things go.

And so much healing and so much growth will come from doing that hard work.

So I just, I wanna give that permission slip to anyone who currently needs it.

And it's okay to do that. And if you wanna chat more about it, let me know.

I'm happy to talk about that because it's not always easy to come to terms from that.

But how can we find joy when we're in a crazy chaotic season of life?

[6:15] We do this by gaining clarity on what matters to us, right? So if you're in the season where it's currently summer, you're listening to this, it's July or whatever.

And you're like, I love my life. I get to spend all the time doing what I wanna do, going for a walk or spending time with my best friend reading or or I don't know binge watching my favorite show on Hulu whatever it might be those things that matter to you.

Deserve to be prioritized, even when life is so crazy, you feel like you don't know which direction you're going next. And the way that you do this, is by making space for them in your daily schedule.

So no matter how busy you are, no matter how many things you need to cut, color, glue, paste, prep, whatever, you build in time, you create time in your schedule.

[7:06] For 15 minutes of something that brings you joy.

A 15-minute walk, 15 minutes of reading. Maybe you need 15 minutes of quiet time during back-to-school season so you take lunch into your car once a week, or you take a walk on recess when your kids are, you know, at specials and it's your plan or whatever it might be, you go for a walk.

We can do this when we think about it. But the issue is, is we so rarely give ourselves space, that mental bandwidth to think, how can I inject joy, even in the smallest way, right, into my daily life?

Because life, especially as a teacher, and this is really specific for teachers, life is not only meant to be lived on the weekends, and life is not only meant to be lived over the summer.

Amen. You deserve to live your life seven days a week, 365 days a year, and the way that you can do that is by making space during your work week, during those busy seasons, in whatever way you can figure out, and it's gonna look different for everyone, to feel that sense of joy each day, right?

And I know the question is, Well, I don't have time for that.

I don't have time either, right? No one has time, right? We're all busy. Right, we're all.

[8:30] The way we do this is by taking mental notes or even physically writing it out on a piece of paper.

How much time are you doing things that don't actually serve you?

Scrolling on TikTok, being on Instagram, checking your email 45 million times a day, even after school hours, right? These things don't serve us.

How can we instead take those things that don't really serve us, that are really just coping and numbing skills that we use to sort of check out from life. Cause sometimes we do that and I honor that.

Swapping habits for more joy and energy

[9:01] And instead use that time intentionally to do the things that bring us joy.

So that's how you do it.

And it's not always easy to do because sometimes you've got to give yourself a gut check to be like, Oh, staying up until two in the morning scrolling TikTok actually drains my mental batteries and my emotional bandwidth and my energy for the next day.

Instead, I'm going to swap that nightly scroll with 30 minutes of reading on my Kindle and I'm going to take my phone and I'm going to put it in a different room and I'm going to buy myself an old school OG alarm clock, $11 at Target.

It's going to be the best $11 and you're going to use an alarm clock to wake up in the morning instead of your phone. That's how you do it. Small changes, huge impact.

[9:42] Yes, I love that. I love the way you said that, too. Small changes, huge impact. Like, that is like the golden ticket right there. I mean, and I'm, and I'm thinking about this, like, because when I first started, really, I was in terrible burnout. I really just could not, I didn't feel well. I didn't feel well physically, mentally, emotionally. I didn't have the bandwidth to spend with my kids. I, we have a bunch of kids. I also was teaching. I didn't have any of that. And I could have sat there. I could have been like, You know what? I, this is just my life. It's just chaotic, and there's nothing I can do. I don't have the time to do what makes me happy, because I'm just a mom. I'm just a teacher. And I think that's a lot of the excuses that people make is, I'm just a mom, or I'm just a teacher.

Or this is just how it is. This is how it is for everyone. Yeah Yeah, and and I felt like no, no, I don't like that. I don't like that and I want to see what.

Manifesting a joyful life through small daily changes

And it's something I say every morning. I'm like, I wake up and I'm like.

Yeah, and it's one of those things. If you think about it, if you need a different way to think about it, I want you to think about building a savings account, right? Rarely do people suddenly have 50 60,000s of dollars in a savings account because it is one big deposit, right? What it is, is small daily deposits over time that get you to where you want to be in your savings account, whatever that is, right? Yeah. Same thing with joy. It's those small daily deposits that over time, when you focus on either implementing joy or implementing a gratitude practice, even for using your daily mantra, which I'm obsessed with also, I love that so much. Um, over time you'll look back and you'll And you'll be like, oh my gosh, I literally am living my dream.

I'm doing exactly what I've always wanted to do. And it's because I found one small moment of joy or practiced gratitude for just three to five things every single day.

Or I gave myself a mantra, a grounding point in my day.

Yes. I love that analogy, too. that, oh, that just gives me, that gives me joy. So like, when, when we're thinking about teachers over the summer, you know, I always think that this is the time of the year to really take in and work on the things so that you can go back to school in the fall and have it all together. But the majority of teachers have these extreme stress responses that linger into the summer.

The importance of summer for working on personal goals

Yeah, so I think.

A lot of teachers, unfortunately, are in pure survival mode during the school year.

That's how, and I don't say that's how it is because I'm like, okay with it.

It's just the unfortunate truth, right? Yeah.

But we also are humans outside of what we do.

And I hope whoever needs to hear this, Just as another reminder, you are more than what you do for a living.

If you are a teacher and over the summer, all of the things that you're doing all revolve around your career, please, please, please, with so much tender love and care, find something else, get a hobby, start reading something, right?

That doesn't have to do with your job, right? Because we're so much more than our professions.

But how do we start to intentionally work on our goals when we just feel like we got through a marathon, right?

That is the school year, right?

So we start by resetting emotionally and mentally and physically right at the beginning of summer, right?

So as you listen to this, it's getting towards the end of the summer, but this is definitely something that you can still do as you work into the new school year or even duplicate next summer.

So you have to start by resetting yourself, right?

You just left a season of your life, the school year and the life of a teacher is very kind of easily chunked into seasons or chapters of a book, right?

You just closed a chapter or a season of your life, right? The school year just ended.

Let's reflect on that, right? Like let's take a few days, a few weeks, depending on how much time you have over the summer and really talk and think through and talk through with other teachers or people that you know and trust and love And ask yourself, what went well?

What did I love?

The reason we need to reflect on it is because we can't fully close a chapter unless we think about how it made us feel, how it made us grow, or what it made us consider.

If you are a social creature, and obviously we all are in some way, shape or form, share it with other people, but you start there, right?

And once you kind of reflect and you kind of officially close that chapter of that school year, you then move into self-preservation, self-management mode, right?

How can I do better? How can I get better?

Not just in the sense of your profession, right? Like this is you personally as an individual human, how can I improve in my relationships, in my own personal health maybe, in my mental health, in the goals that I have, maybe you are a teacher-preneur, you have a side hustle or a business that kind of falls to the wayside during the school year, right, that makes sense.

How can you improve? What things can you focus on this summer now that you have reflected and closed the chapter of that school year, right?

So this might look like implementing a meditation practice. This might look like committing to a daily walk with your spouse.

This might look like opening up your side hustle, your business, your email, and like getting through all of those things, right?

So what's gonna be a focus?

What's going to be a priority for me? And where do I want to focus my time and energy this summer?

And if that's on your teacher profession, more power to you, go for it.

But if you are someone who is looking to kind of take a full mental break away from teaching, pick something in that realm so you can do that.

And there's a few ways that you can kind of map out those goals where you contain them to the summer months, or you can say, I'm gonna use from July to December to get these goals done.

Mapping out goals and considering current and future responsibilities

But whatever it is, as you map out those goals, I always want you to consider what's currently on your plate over the summer, which for a lot of teachers isn't that much, right? All right.

Or if it is a lot, how can you make that happen? And then I also want you to consider what's coming down the pipeline. So what things are going to be added back to your to-do list once school starts, again, so you can prioritize these goals, that you've just set for yourself. Because they matter, right? Our goals matter. We wouldn't call them a goal if they didn't matter to us.

And that's kind of what you have to do is reflect, kind of focusing on where you want to get better, and then map out that game plan. And the reason this is great to do over the summer is because you have that mental bandwidth and clarity and capacity to think about them, because you're not also thinking about 27 first graders or your administration or parent emails or all of those other things, right?

You kind of have more brain space to focus in on yourself and say, this is where I'm, this is where I'm at.

Yes, love it. I love it so much. I love that you really mapped that out too, like these steps, because I think so many teachers get stuck on the, either the third step or the second step, but they don't really focus on the reflection part of it, because that's hard. Especially, especially when you're thinking about, like, What can you do? What did you like? What did you not like? And you're like, I don't even want to think about what I didn't like last year. You know, they often skip that part. But it's so crucial in creating a really unique plan to you and what's best for you so that you can move forward and live your best life. So yeah, I love that. Then when, we go into the new school year, back-to-school season, they've gained this momentum. They're feeling good. They're all great. All right. But how do they maintain that summer motivation through that time period?

Maintaining motivation throughout the school year

You don't find motivation, right? It's not a penny that you find out on the playground and your kid, it's not like a weed, a little dandelion that a kid brings you and be like, I found this for you.

That's not what motivation is, right?

It's always within you. You just need to learn how to pull it out of you when you need it, right?

And it goes back to the idea of what are your priorities.

The truth of the matter is, every single person out there, if something matters to them, they will figure out how to either have it, buy it, or make it happen, right?

People who have no money, if buying a new car matters to them, they will figure out how to make the money to buy a new car.

Someone who is severely overweight, if losing 150 pounds before their sister's wedding, if that matters enough to them, they will make it happen.

It's the same for you. It's the same for all of us.

If something matters enough to you, you will figure out a way to make it happen.

Now this is not me tapping into toxic hustle culture.

I am not about that at all. This is me simply stating that if something is truly a priority to you, you'll figure out how to make it happen within your life.

And again, this might look like waking up a little bit early before school to do 30 minutes of work or exercise or meal planning or packing your lunch. If you're on a financial journey, you don't wanna have to buy lunches anymore and doing it then.

This might look like swapping out your four hours of TikTok scrolling after school for doing only two and using the other two hours to do whatever it is that you've set the goal for yourself over the summer.

And again, discipline and motivation are very closely tied. I always say that they're like best friends whenever I'm talking about this with people.

Discipline and motivation are best friends. When you are disciplined, you are motivated, okay?

But here's something that I wanna give you if you are someone who's like, I am disciplined, I do show up for whatever it is that I wanna work for, right?

Like I do get up early, I do all these things, I'm just not motivated to do it because I'm tired or I'm overwhelmed.

I wonder, and I want to encourage you to think about, are you celebrating the successes that you're having, big and small, along the way?

Because celebration, most often, is the missing key for people to stay motivated.

When you celebrate those small steps, Let's say that you are wanting to.

Yeah. When you deposit, you take $50 from your paycheck and you do an auto deposit into your savings account.

You just, you never see that $50. It immediately goes into your savings account.

Maybe it's sharing that auto deposit with your partner.

Maybe that is writing yourself a love note on a sticky note and saying, I'm so proud of you and sticking it to your mirror.

Maybe that is grabbing a coffee on the way to work. Doesn't really go hand in hand with the financial goal, but I don't care. Spending money should be something that brings you joy, in my opinion.

How can you celebrate as you work towards your goals?

Big or small, okay? Because celebration breeds motivation.

When you celebrate yourself along the way, you will more naturally be motivated to do so, right?

Think of if you were ever a high school athlete, or if you had kids in dance, or if you have students who feel really good and suddenly they're super motivated to be on task because you noticed them and you celebrated them in some way.

The same thing for you. We are no different than our students.

Grownups are just oversized kids.

So if it works for your small kids, it's going to work for you.

So if motivation is something that is hard for you during the school year, I wonder if you're celebrating yourself enough and those small action steps that you're actually taking order to get to where you want to go. Yes. You know, I was just thinking about this. I see, I see my students, I see people in general who really, really struggle with the constant, it's never good enough. And they're not doing that.

Understanding and Adapting to Your Love Language

So I am telling everybody what I am doing and I just want to hear them say, wow, that's really cool. Or I just gas myself up. I'm like, I am a freaking genius.

Yes, I do that too.

Everyone is so appreciative. And my husband will come up and he's like, who are you talking to? I'm like, literally myself.

Leave me alone. Thank you. My husband, I'll tell myself, like, I'll, be telling him something that he doesn't really understand, especially if it has to do with websites or something like that, anything technological.

He does not get it whatsoever.

But I will be like, I'm a freaking genius. And he was like, and you're very humble, too. Yes, I am.

Yeah, I am. Yeah, I am. So really just kind of going back to that, you are going to be one of the.

Introduction to the Presentation on Building Community

Yes. So I am so excited to share and get the opportunity to talk about how community actually leads to a more joyful life, right? As an educator, as a teacher, nothing, almost nothing, is more important than being connected to a community. Both you as the teacher, connected to other people within your school system, or within your classroom, or within your school itself, and the community that you breed with your students, right? Community is a direct impact to how we go through our day-to-day lives, how we view ourselves, and our overall emotional state. And so we dig into three ways that you can build a successful community within your school and within your life outside of school too. And we talk about why community matters, what that word actually means, and how to build it both in and out of the classroom. Because when you have a community as a human on a biological need, we have that social need to feel connected with other people. And so we dig into that.

Action Steps to Build a Successful Community

Free Access to the Sunshine Squad Monthly Membership

Yeah, so you can find me on Instagram. I am a millennial who is not on TikTok, that is on purpose, but you can come hit me up on Instagram. My handle is at living, the letter N, sunshine.

You can also find me at livingandsunshine.com.

Instagram is definitely the best place to check me out. I also have my own podcast, so if you're vibing with these vibes on this podcast, it's called literally, the Living in Sunshine podcast.

Everything's very connected.

Yes, and I will put all the links to all of those things and more down in the show notes so that you can go and hang out with Maddie and learn more from her.

I absolutely just love your energy. Thank you so much for coming onto the podcast, being a part of the Summer Self-Care Conference and all of that, it's just, it's a joy to hang out with you today.

You are so welcome. Thank you so much for having me.

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I wanted to put the blast.