9 Stress Management Strategies Every Teacher Needs To Know

 9 Stress Management Strategies Every Teacher Needs To Know

As we settle into the groove of our school year, it is important to keep safeguards in place to manage your stress and maintain positive mental health. Below are nine strategies every teacher can incorporate into their daily routines to be successful.

Breathe Properly

The classroom can cause sensory overload. Before you know it, your heart rate starts to climb, you break out into a sweat, and your mind races. In these situations, the most effective first step you can take is to breathe deeply. A "4 x 4" technique, which helps them lower physical stress response and regain control. When you're experiencing intense levels of stress, breathe in deeply (put your hands on your stomach and feel it expand out), for four seconds, then exhale evenly for four seconds. Keep this up for 2-3 minutes for maximum effect.

Embrace The Stress

Whether you think stress is positive, or you think it's negative, you're right. Viewing your stress in constructive ways will actually cause your body to respond to it differently and prevent long-lasting physical damage. By contrast, those who express negative attitudes toward stress face a range of negative health outcomes similar to those caused by smoking. 

Be Imperfect

Teachers are often prone to professionalism and its ill effects: they often feel that they aren't doing enough, or that their mistakes are magnified because of the importance of their job. If you find yourself feeling this way, fight back. The fact is, you're already "enough" and you deserve love and credit. Don't forget that.

Practice Emotional First Aid

Do you beat yourself up when you experience failure or make a mistake? Psychologist Guy Winch has an analogy for this: it would be like getting a cut and finding ways to make the wound worse. We don't do that when we experience physical pain, so why do we ruminate on mistakes and deepen the wound when the pain is emotional? If you find yourself overwhelmed with your work, try taking a break from negative patterns of thought. A two-minute distraction is sometimes all that is needed to avoid digging yourself into an emotional rut.

Be Grateful

Gratefulness is the determination to see the opportunity present in each moment to move in a new direction. The "Stop, Look, and Go" method is a good formula to use to practice gratefulness. "Stop," allows us to quiet our minds and create little reminders of things that we should be grateful for everyday. "Look" allows us to open our senses and enjoy life simply. "Go" means moving forward and taking advantage of what life offers you moment by moment. 

Limit "Grass Is Greener" Thinking

"The grass is greenest where it is watered."--Robert Fulgham. It's not always what you want to hear when you're having a tough day, but the reality is that you will have challenges anywhere you go.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

It's easy to confuse feelings of exhaustion and burn-out with hard work. Working hard, and doing good work, does NOT have to leave you feeling depleted and on-edge. Find ways to delegate some of your work, or invest in tools or technologies that will make your life easier.

Ask For Help

No matter how long you've been teaching, or how brilliant you are, there will be times when you need help, plain and simple. Asking for help doesn't make you weaker, it makes you better at your job. 

Make A Connection

When you connect with another person or reach out to help someone, your body produces oxytocin, which is a chemical that helps repair the heart. Teachers already devote a great deal of their time to this practice in their work, but it is important to cultivate relationships with colleagues, neighbors, and friends as well. Research shows that major stressful life events are generally strongly linked with negative outcomes, except for those who reported caring for others, who experienced no such effects, If you help your neighbors, family, etc., you're much less likely to experience the negative effects of stress.