Teacher Stress: How do you deal with it?

As a teacher, have you ever considered how much your stress really affects you? If you were honest with yourself, does it sometimes feel as though stress has invaded your life but you keep pushing it away in the hope it will just disappear but really behind it all, you feel that you just can’t find a solution that works sustainably?

Is it often the case that by Friday afternoon when the final bell goes, you are so worn out and burned out, that all you can do is sit on your couch and begin the two days recuperation until you have to do it all over again next week?! If this sounds familiar, then it is pretty safe to say that stress and burnout are affecting your overall well-being. That’s the bad news!

The good news is that there are actually simple ways of alleviating this pressure and they are not strategies that you will be adding onto an already packed schedule; they are strategies you can practice whilst you are working and well, living!

Burnout is a common enough complaint amongst the teaching population and yet so many teachers are simply suffering through it, rather than acknowledging it fully and looking for solutions. We as teachers so often say ‘sure I’m grand!’ or ‘I will keep going’ and in many cases, these teachers end up being worn out to the point of illness.

The stressors commonly listed amongst teachers I work with in well-being training are: work overload, staff relations, pupil conflicts, parent interactions, planning concerns, lack of job satisfaction and the big one; teacher guilt! This is the feeling of never ever getting ‘all of the boxes ticked’ and never getting ‘everything done!’ But as long as there are pupils to teach, these issues will exist. These stressors are real and are not going anywhere.

Okay, so then what are the solutions?

Self-care for teachers is a term that is not used often enough. We cannot teach, encourage and nurture the well-being of our pupils if we are working from a ‘dry well.’ We need to engage in self-care first so that we can ‘fill our own well’ and then work from this surplus.

Below are some really simple self-care tips to help you to deal with your stress in a healthier way.

• Identify your stressors – what is it that is actually bothering you? Grab a pen and paper right now and write them down. You will surprise yourself at how much this will help and how much clarity you will gain from this simple exercise. Once you have identified them, put them in order of severity – the top stressor being the one that causes you the most anxiety and so on. Your top three stressors are the ones to tackle first. Beside each stressor, write down possible solutions e.g. if it is a conflict with another member of staff, then consider speaking to this person or even simply seeking advice from a trusted colleague or friend on how to deal with this. Identification and acknowledgement of the stressor is crucial.
• Acceptance! The reality is that we will never get all of those ‘boxes ticked’ but this question is to you as you read this – can you accept that? Can you allow all of your insecurities and guilt around this to dissipate once and for all or will you live in a perpetual cycle of feeling nothing is ever really finished? Keep it simple. Tomorrow evening when you leave school, list three things that you did accomplish (including things like that friendly smile you gave to a child or a colleague you supported that day), instead of the twenty things you didn’t get done! Give yourself the acknowledgement and credit for what you have achieved.
• If something is bothering you, communicate this to someone and talk it through. Situations and thoughts around them can often grow much larger in our minds than they actually are and talking about it can really help.
• We all think we do not have time to pause and breathe but we do. So as often as you think of it during the day, pause, notice how you are feeling and breathe. Do this before you bring your class in from the line or before you go to the staff room! If this becomes common practice for you, it can change interactions between you and your pupils and similarly, between you and your colleagues too.
• Do one thing at a time – let the multi-tasking worshipping cease. As a teacher, we are trained to multi-task. It is often the case that we just don’t feel we have a choice, but in truth we do. Focus on one activity at a time and be present in the moment as you do it, even if it means having someone wait for you, including the pupils. You will be surprised at how much more energy you will have at the end of your day if you make this simple decision as many times in the day as you can.
• Spend as much time as you can in the present moment. When you catch yourself worrying about the future or mulling over the past; be it 20 years ago, last week or earlier that day, pause and bring your attention into the present moment through your breath or through your senses or simply by noticing your feet on the floor or the weight of your body on the chair.

Finally, one last thought for all teachers out there who believe that they are not ‘ticking the boxes’. Remember that you do enough and you are enough! Let that be your new philosophy and mindset. Take control of your own well-being and remember that your job is important but so are you!