Ever caught yourself in that late-night teacher's trance, just you and the ceiling after a long day, wondering why your tank feels empty? 🤔 If you're nodding along, know that you're in good company. Teacher burnout has this sneaky way of creeping up on us, even when we're pouring our hearts into what we love. It's like one minute you're on fire, full of passion, and the next, you're questioning if all the effort is worth it. But here's a little secret: burnout doesn't discriminate. It can hit us even when we're in the midst of our teaching passion.

So, what's up with that? 🧠 In today's episode, we're diving deep into our brains during burnout. Why do our brains trick us into feeling all doom and gloom? How do our internal chemical cocktails—dopamine and epinephrine—play into our feelings of fulfillment and motivation (or the lack thereof)? And the real kicker: how can we, as dedicated educators, hack our brain's reward system to reignite that teaching spark?

This isn't your average pep talk. It's a science-backed, actionable guide to flipping the script on burnout. From setting micro-goals that make us feel like champions 🏆 to finding joy in the little wins that keep our teaching flame alive, we're here to unpack how to make teaching sustainable and joyful again.

Ready to hack your way to a happier teaching life? Then this episode is for you!

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[0:00] If you've ever been in burnout before, you know it can really seem like everything's just going downhill quick, like nosedive, and you've probably stared a hole into your ceiling just like completely exhausted at the end of your day.

Burnout has this uncanny ability to make us feel as though all of our efforts just aren't even worth it anymore, as if our energy and our passion are just being drained away with no end in sight.

The thing is that most people don't realize that burnout just doesn't happen to people when they hate their jobs.

It actually can happen to the things that we love the most, but there's just this delicate balance that needs to be achieved.

That's why in today's episode, we are diving into the mysteries of our brain during burnout.

Why does our brain play this trick on us? How does it shift our perception and dampen our drive, making every task feel as if it can never be completed?

Most importantly, we're going to explore how we as educators can hack our brains.

We'll dive into the science of the reward systems, the balancing act of dopamine and epinephrine, and most importantly, how we can reframe our efforts and accomplishments to reignite our passion for teaching.

So whether you're feeling the weight of burnout or just looking for ways to stay energized in this demanding profession, this episode is here to help you take some action. So let's jump right in.

[1:20] Before we get into this episode, I want to give a community shout out to Mandy who inspired this episode because we actually got to talking in my DMs on Insta about this.

And she shared that she always loved teaching.

It was something that always lit her up. Yet it felt like it was this constant cycle of effort with little to no reward.

So thanks, Mandy, for listening in and for chatting with me and sharing your story because it leads to some really, really good conversation and clearly, you know, inspiration for these episodes.

[1:50] If you're a weekly listener of the podcast, I do wanna let you know that I love talking with you guys in the DMs, emails, especially like reading your reviews because not only does it let me know that what I'm bringing you as far as content is something that you like and need, but also like sharing and leaving the reviews helps more teachers find this content and start their journey towards, you know, living their best lives inside and outside of the classroom.

So if you haven't already, please leave a review, send me a message.

I would love to talk with you guys more.

But like I told Mandy, I know that I have felt like the effort was more than the reward before.

Let us know that we're not alone in that feeling too. I told her it's almost like parenting sometimes, right?

Like being a parent and a teacher, that's a whole nother ball of wax, but we give our all.

And sometimes the reward is so delayed to the effort.

[2:41] That's where burnout kind of stems from.

Burnout often stems from a lack of balance between our effort and our reward.

So when the scales tip too heavily towards effort without adequate recognition or reward, it leads to our feelings of exhaustion, cynicism, reduced professional efficacy.

Let's be real for a second, right? We are often experiencing this imbalance because we aren't getting recognized for being amazing.

We aren't receiving that reward consistently.

We put all this effort in, and then it appears as if our students, they don't care. They're apathetic. We talked about that a little bit in last week's episode.

So if you have some apathetic students or you feel that way, head back, check that one out too.

[3:24] There is a need for a reward system, whether it's external or internal.

This can kind of help us rebalance this equation. But I want you to think about it.

What might intrinsically motivate us?

[3:39] Our students, right? We might see their growth, but if we're experiencing less positive interactions with our students, as some teachers are, we may not receive that reward.

And it's exacerbating our problem.

So rewards serve as this positive reinforcement, acknowledging the effort and making our work feel more worthwhile.

That's why we can almost hack our systems to create more of that.

Especially if we're wanting to reignite our passion and sustain our careers, we may need to do this.

So if you've listened to this podcast for any amount of time, you know that I love me some some brain science.

And so before we can really get into some action steps, let's explain why this works and how we can hack our systems.

[4:23] So dopamine is the chemical in our brains that acts on areas to give us feelings of pleasure, satisfaction, and motivation.

So dopamine also has a role in playing some controlling of our memory, of our mood, sleep, learning, concentration, other bodily functions.

But if we want to experience more reward for our effort, then we essentially need to create more dopamine.

We need to fuel that chemical.

The thing about dopamine as a reward system chemical is it's subjectively controlled.

It means our perception or our interpretation influences its secretion.

So not only does dopamine reward us, but it also is a motivator and a driver.

It's like the jet that propels us forward. It keeps us going. So if it's subjective.

[5:12] Then that tells us that we have more control than we think we do to feeling more accomplished and more successful.

And unfortunately, it's a little bit easier said than done.

In a study featured in the journal Cell, researchers explained how our brain responds to repeated efforts.

So every time that we engage in a task, whether it's grading papers, planning lessons, managing our classroom dynamics, our body releases epinephrine.

And epinephrine is often associated with adrenaline. So it acts like a catalyst for energy and for focus.

It drives us to tackle the challenges at hand.

However, it's not a limitless process.

So imagine we have an epinephrine account in our brain.

[5:55] Every task that we accomplish, we're making a withdrawal from that account.

So initially, the system works kind of well. It gives us a boost when we need to be productive.

But as we continue to expend effort without sufficient recovery, our account balance starts to dwindle.

This study shows that when our epinephrine levels get too high, if it's not being balanced by rewards or rest, we hit this threshold that makes us feel overwhelmed and inclined to give up.

It's like receiving a notification that your account is overdrawn.

That physiological response can lead to burnout where there's the mere thought of expending any effort feels daunting.

But the study also points to the role of dopamine.

So dopamine acts as a counterbalance to epinephrine. And so it deposits a sense of reward into our account, making us feel capable and motivated to continue our efforts. This isn't just about...

[6:47] External rewards, but it's about how we perceive and internally reward our efforts.

By acknowledging and valuing the work that we do, we can actually increase our dopamine levels, which in turn helps us manage that epinephrine level and prevent that feeling of being overdrawn, right?

This balance between epinephrine and dopamine is really crucial for sustaining effort over time without burning out.

It kind of suggests that by finding ways to reward ourselves and perceive our efforts positively, we can maintain our motivation, our energy, even in the face of demanding teaching responsibilities.

Cool. So epinephrine is released when we work or when we continue to receive additional tasks, more expectations, job creep, and we can overspend that epinephrine account.

Got it. So what do we do to hack our systems to create more dopamine?

Well, first, there are some unhealthy ways to increase dopamine?

Drugs? That's not the answer, okay?

Instead, we want to subjectively influence ourselves to release that dopamine.

So here are some practical ways that we can naturally boost our dopamine levels in our classrooms.

[7:57] Number one, set small achievable goals.

You have probably heard me say this before, but sometimes it just takes a few times of hearing something to actually get it to like click and to take some action.

We want to break down those those overwhelming tasks of teaching into smaller, more manageable goals to significantly enhance our sense of accomplishment.

Breaking down daunting tasks into bite-sized pieces not only makes them more manageable, but it also plays this clever trick on our brain to boost our dopamine levels every time we tick off a task from our list.

It's like giving ourselves a series of high fives for each small win.

It keeps us motivated. It keeps us on track.

[8:40] For instance, instead of aiming to grade all essays in one sitting, set a goal to grade a certain number each day.

Maybe you have 120 students, 120 essays.

Maybe you'll grade 12 each day for 10 days. Or maybe you only grade for one piece of the essay.

That gives you that kind of more bite-sized, manageable chunk.

Or better yet, use AI or automation to help you grade. I've shared a couple of those videos and different types of ways to do this on TikTok and Reels, so I won't go into a lot of detail here.

But when we start to automate this process or use an AI tool for instant feedback, that immediate response triggers that dopamine release.

So it satisfies our, and possibly our students as well, desire for instant gratification and acknowledgement for our effort.

So it reduces the amount of effort and makes each small victory a release, a burst of dopamine kind of fueling our motivation to continue.

[9:38] Number two, take a moment just to recognize and celebrate each accomplishment, no matter how small it is.

Like, did you finish preparing a lesson plan? Whoop, whoop, you know, do a little dance. Take a brief moment. Just savor that achievement.

I know it sounds silly, but that's why I like to like write things down just to cross them off sometimes. times.

My husband thinks I'm crazy because I play these games with normal day activities.

Like I hate dishes. It overspends my epinephrine account, if you will.

So I made it into a game where I'll make my coffee some mornings and I race to put the dishes away before the coffee finishes.

And so I'm hacking my system to find accomplishment when I do things like that.

So finding a method for doing this, for recognizing what you do daily, is going to change your perception to be more positive and create more dopamine.

One way that I've seen teachers do this, and they probably don't even realize that this is what they've done, is they create a notebook or a scrapbook of memories, like teaching notes, drawings, pictures, they can kind of look back and they see the impact they've made over the years of teaching on those days when maybe it's not that evident, right?

And I don't know what it's called, like other than a scrapbook.

Maybe I've seen it where people say why I teach book, but it kind of allows you to see and perceive your accomplishments as a teacher, even on those super rough days.

Finding ways to recognize those little moments of accomplishment makes a huge difference in your epinephrine and dopamine account.

Number three, incorporate some joyful activities.

I used to use my planning time to take a walk outside just for like five minutes just to get a little fresh fresh air, some sunshine sometimes.

And these activities can act as little dopamine boosts, enhancing your overall mood and your energy levels.

So if you need some help with this, I recommend going back and listening to episode 75 with Jed Derryberry, where we talk about harnessing play to teach with joy.

This is a great way to give a little boost of dopamine.

Number four is to connect with colleagues and students.

We want to take time to engage in meaningful conversations with our colleagues, with our students.

That's going to provide some sense of belonging and support, vital for that emotional and motivational resilience.

Number five, learn and try new things. The process of learning and incorporating new teaching methods or tools can be incredibly rewarding. The novelty factor is a strong trigger for dopamine release.

So providing that sense of excitement and anticipation.

And that's why I'm obsessed with automation and AI. So if you need something new to try, I can help you out with that.

While dopamine hacks can be useful for improving productivity and motivation, it is important to remember that relying too heavily on them can have negative consequences.

So don't just be walking around trying to hack your dopamine so you feel great all the time.

It's truly about balance.

Overstimulation of the dopamine system can lead to addiction and constantly seeking out dopamine hits can lead to burnout and exhaustion.

So it's a true delicate balance.

The key is to find or create a sense of reward, not just in the outcomes, but in the effort process itself.

That's why we love a good growth mindset, right? Right.

This kind of involves shifting the focus from the end result to the value of the journey towards that result.

When we start to appreciate the effort process, it can lead to a more positive mindset.

So this shift helps in reducing the feelings of being overwhelmed and undervalued.

Rewarding your effort, especially in the situation of job creep, can give us a sense of control and accomplishment.

It's about changing that narrative from, I have so much to do, to I'm capable and making a difference through my efforts.

And what I do is good enough, right?

Accomplishment reflecting and mindfulness practices those help us recognize and appreciate our daily efforts it fosters that sense of inner reward peer recognition and support within our educational community can also serve as a form of reward where it provides us that validation and encouragement that's why we're here so if you're looking for more support i i highly recommend heading over to the resilient teacher community and making a post talking to us let's talk let's Give us some validation and recognition when you need it.

You can join us over there for free at teachingmindbodyandsoul.com slash support squad. I'll also put the link in the show notes as well.

But in essence, just finding and creating rewards within the effort process, we're building a more positive and sustainable approach to our work.

We're countering the effects of job creep and reducing the risk of burnout.

If you have a friend who's struggling with burnout or might just need a little pick me up, send them this episode.

Put it in your stories or something. We want to get this info into the ear holes of more teachers so that they can sustain a career doing what they love.

Until next time, remember, you are a resilient teacher. We're in this together. You got this.