Why You Need To Practice Self-Care

     Many people in the education field are now taking notice of the need for self-care. We love our students, Of course, we do. However, sometimes the burdens these little people bring to our classrooms are even too much for us to believe, much less understand, and we being to internalize how to best serve these children who have been subjected to so much in their short little lives. This is when it becomes time to find some healthy ways to take care of ourselves or the burden of teaching, maintaining a household, and having some form of social life with break you.

     The book, “Balance Like a Pirate,” by authors Jessica Cabeen, Jessica Johnson, and Sarah Johnson will give you some great ideas on just how to do that. They break down your time into four quadrants: Personal, Professional, Positional, and Passion. Personal balances are the responsibilities you have outside of your job and what you do to maintain and grow them. Positional balances is all about your real job and it's demands on your time. Professional balance is how you are going about learning more and moving forward. Passion balance is about the things that set your soul on fire. Finding and maintaining a balance between these four quadrants is tough!

     This is my “why” about the importance of self-care in my life. A year ago, I switched school districts for a wide number of reasons. I was, and am, still teaching preschool. Just in a neighboring district. To say that the transition was smooth sailing would be a boldfaced lie! There were some things I was not aware of going in. The biggest of which was that there was a Memorandum of Understanding in place between the school district and another entity. For the sake of the length of this blog, let's just say the outside entity didn't play well in the sandbox with others. It was to be their way or the highway. There was nothing collaborative about it. To make matters worse, everything I did in the classroom was being reported back to the outside entity. Friends! I ended up being put on high blood pressure medication. I was trying so hard to keep cool on the outside, for the sake of my sweet children, that it was eating me up on the inside. I hated going to work. I wondered what fresh hell awaited me each day. If it weren't for my students, I probably would have ended up in the looney bin!

     By October, my body, mind, and soul were done! If I wasn't going to take notice, my body decided to do it for me. I had a full-blown, knock-you-on-your- butt migraine. I thought my head was going to explode!! I couldn't even get to the car so my husband could take me to the ER without throwing up. We had to call 911. When I got to the hospital, not even the “migraine cocktail” would take the edge off. It was that bad. The doctor even ordered a CAT scan to see if I had a brain bleed (I didn't. Praise the Lord!). That's was what it took! I decided then and there that I was going to start listening to my body.

     I no longer apologize for coming home after school and taking a nap or going to bed before 9 pm. I started journaling and documenting the things that were happening in my classroom. Just getting it out there, even if no one saw it, was huge. I called on my tribe of friends both at work and outside of work, even my Twitter PLN, to reinforce, that in my teaching methods, I was doing the right thing. I thought that I was, but with all of the negativity around me, I had begun to doubt myself and my teaching abilities. The problems in my classroom worked themselves out and we completed the year strong and, best of all, happy!

     One of the things that was mentioned in “Balance Like a Pirate” was getting back to your passions. I've gone back to playing my grandma's piano that's been sitting idly in our living room. I've been doing “closet karaoke” when it's just me and the dogs at home during the day. They aren't quite sure what to think! Ha!

I just want all of you that took the time to read this that self-care should not be looked at as a luxury. I learned the hard way that it is vital to your every day functioning and your health. Please think about carving out some “me time” before your body does it for you.