Teachers Worry

I can remember my favourite teacher that encouraged me through difficult assignments, advocated for my future and inspired me to never give up. Albert Einstein said: “Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty.” This quote has me look back and see how valuable a gift many of my teachers were to me. Teachers provide so much value to our lives and we have no idea what a teacher goes through because they can make it look so easy. Yet inside they are often filled with worry.

It is not easy to be a teacher especially when you are responsible for 20 plus students in a classroom, all with different personalities, needs and goals. A teacher must customize their approach with each student in mind so that everyone in the class can develop themselves in new skills. But guess what? TEACHERS WORRY! They worry because they care so much about their students’ mindset, academic performance, well-being, and readiness for the future. Most teachers enter the profession because they want to help students learn, and become healthy, happy adults.

They see each student that comes to their classroom as a unique opportunity to help them overcome their challenges and thrive in their individual talents and skills. For this reason, many teachers use a variety of teaching methods to reach all their students to try and find what will work best for them. All the tips and tools in the world can never remove 100% of the worry a teacher will have because it is natural to doubt yourself when you are so committed to giving kids all the support, they need to train their brains so they can live their best life.

Everyone worries and today’s focus is on our great Teachers. We encourage you to LET GO OF WORRY and LET LOVE IN!

Let us first begin with a brief understanding of what worrying is and how it happens. Worry is fearful thoughts based on things that:

• Could happen
• Have happened or
• Are happening

Worry often comes from fear. For example, a teacher could fear that if they do not find a way for their student to understand something they are challenged with, then they will disappoint that student. It is natural when you are passionate about what you do, to have a fear of disappointing others. Worry is a habit and a style of thinking that is designed to suppress you.  There is nothing to gain from being worried and often it is misunderstood as someone who is skeptical or a logical thinker. Worry is very distinct in how it impacts your mind, and the great news is that you CAN learn new ways to think and conquer the worry habit.

So, let’s begin the process of shifting how you think when it comes to things you worry about. It is not an instant remedy, but with enough practice, you can begin to turn that worry habit around.

Tips to break the worry habit:

1. ALLOW YOURSELF TO WORRY: Yes, that seems to contradict what we are talking about, yet when you can understand how the brain functions when it comes to your thinking, you will realize that what you resist persists and that includes thoughts of worry.  Rather than trying to stop or get rid of an anxious thought, give yourself permission to have it. It is just a thought and that thought will pass.
2.  CREATE SAFE WORRY TIME: Creating safe worry time is giving yourself permission to have a moment where you can allow your brain to worry about whatever it is that is bothering you. By doing this you let go of the resistance, and it is the resistance that increases the anxiety of what you are worrying about. Your brain needs to process the thought from the beginning to the end and not experience that process like something is wrong.
3.  LET THE WORRY PASS-THROUGH YOU: Visualize the worry in a bubble. With your mind envision that bubble just passing across your head. Move the bubble from left to right. So, starting from the side of your mind, take the worry out of your mind, place it in the bubble above your head and visualize it moving to the right side. Keep it parked there.
4.     CREATE A WORRY JOURNAL: Step 1 is writing out in detail what you are worried about and why you are worried. Allow yourself to write it all out.
5.     PRACTICE INSPECTING YOUR WORRY THOUGHTS: After you did the above steps you may experience less of the physical reaction that happens when you worry, and your energy may seem lighter.
6.   READ, REFLECT and REPEAT: Once you feel that worry in your thoughts again, read what you wrote about that worry in your journal. Repeat this until the worry goes away again. PS. IT IS IMPORTANT TO REPEAT STEP 2 AS SOON AS THAT WORRY SHOWS UP IN YOUR THOUGHTS.

As you practice letting GO of WORRY it is important to remind yourself how amazing you are. Without you teaching kids, those kids would not be able to GROW into amazing adults.  We know that you must LET A TREMENDOUS amount of LOVE IN so that you can keep doing what you love.

Whether you are a teacher that teaches in a classroom for children and teenagers, or a homeschool mom who teaches your kids by day and parent or guardian by night, or a teacher who teaches adults how to advance their personal and professional skills; YOU ARE a testimony that your courage and love and passion to teach is the tug we all need to lead us to our goals and dreams.  On behalf of our family at IDareU2Bee.com, we thank you for who you are!

Visit us again soon for more FREE tips, tools, and resources to transform your teaching experience and build kind classrooms and develop our kids to be kind.