ME Time - Mindful Educator

  Schools have become a place that families, staff and students are highly concerned over safety. Rightfully so, there are so many accounts of individuals seeking out schools to cause harm. I was a senior in high school when the Columbine shootings occurred, at that point in time no one thought that could happen in a school. We were naive to believe that threats were only from the outside. However, as a seventeen year old kid, I felt very far removed from what was happening in Colorado. I still believed that nothing like that could happen at my school. However, now with the almost weekly account of violence against our schools and the horrific happenings we see on the news constantly, we can never truly feel safe or trust the world around us.  I think children and teenagers feel invincible. I see that with my own children; they argue about where I allow them to go, how late I'll let them stay out or who I allow them to be with. They will yell at me, saying that I don't trust t...

  As educators and administrators we experience so many other peoples emotions, be it the children we work with, colleagues or families. Taking in everyone's feelings, trying to be supportive, limiting our own reactions, and processing each persons needs along with keeping ourselves positive and productive, sometimes can all get a little too much!!! On Friday's I use to be a zombie. When my children were younger, it was so hard for me to jump from school care-giver to mom care-giver. I would yell at the littlest thing and couldn't even stand them sitting next to me on the couch, because I was so over stimulated myself. I never went out or socialized on Friday's because I couldn't stand listening to another persons issues or concerns. I was totally empty, I had nothing else to give.  Now I've realized that on weekends I need to focus on ways to fill my own bucket and revitalize my sense of self to allow myself to be ready for the week. I decided that I needed to ...

  I have not weighed below 200 pounds in ten years. My weight gain really got out of control when I became an administrator. I kept putting the lives of my students and staff before my own needs. Which led to me not taking care of my self, being extra irritable and not able to appropriately manage stress from day to day work. I thought I was thriving, but I really was just surviving. My life was out of balance and I needed to make a change.  I've tried so many different nutrition and weight loss strategies and nothing seemed to work. In October last year, I got to point that I felt incredibly horrible. I had no energy, I was constantly having stomach issues and I hated the way I looked. I didn't know how to change. I was in an insanity loop; continuing to do that same things over and over and expecting something different to happen.  I realized that I needed help. I couldn't continue to try to get healthier on my own. Previously, I tried Weight Watchers, Curves, Shakeolog...

I do not know how to relax. My mind is constantly going with my to do list, ideas, solutions, or thinking about what I could have, should have or will do. I have to actively choose to rest and relax. Otherwise, I feel like I always have to be "doing". I have to plan for rest in my life to make sure that I'm not burning out.  I think this behavior stems from my father. I was extremely poor as a child. My dad worked several jobs, just for us to have our home, food & clothes. He would get up before we were awake for school to go to his first job at Pace (suburban bus transportation). Then he'd come home, make sure that he had all his tools and head off to his "side job" landscaping or home improvement for others. Sometimes he would have two to three houses he'd be working on. In the summer and on the weekends I would go along and help put up retention walls, hold drywall, dig fence posts, whatever was needed. I wasn't the kid that was on sports team...