Podcast Season 1 Ep. 4 - Self Care and Mental Health for Teachers

In this episode, Claire shares her knowledge and experience of mental health and wellness from the perspective of a teacher. She has a Bachelors of Education and a Masters in Counselling Psychology. She provides ​support services to students, parents, and school staff and helps students build resilience and improve their social and emotional wellbeing. She has also worked at the local college as the healthy campus coordinator where she promoted and integrated health and wellness into day-to-day operations, practices, services and educational programming.

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Podcast Transcript

Hi, my name is Blue. And I'm the host of this new podcast, the 21st-century teacher with Live It Earth. And my job is to ensure that our teachers and students get the most out of our programs. This new podcast series is just one of the ways I'm going to be supporting our community of educators, with a monthly conversation with a special guest educator discussing a different aspect of 21st-century teaching and learning.

Hello, and today I'm talking with Claire Hewson. Claire is a school counsellor and teacher. She has a bachelor's of education and a Master's of counselling psychology. She provides support services to students, parents, and school staff, and helps students build resilience and improve their social and emotional well-being. She also has worked at the local college as the healthy campus coordinator, where she promoted and integrated health and wellness in day-to-day operations, practices, services, and educational programming.

So Hi, Claire, thank you so much for taking the time today to answer some questions around health and wellness as a teacher and explained some deeper thoughts around stress and how to cope in schools. So let's dive in with question number one that I have, which is what are the signs and symptoms of stress? And what does it do to the mind and body?

So stress is a normal reaction and everyone experiences it, it can, it can have some positive side effects. So I'm, I'm going to put you on the spot here. And let's say tomorrow, you have to do a podcast or a presentation for 500 teachers about why podcasting is beneficial for educators. And I want you to tell me what's going on through your body in your mind the night before the morning of?

Oh, that's good. Um, my mind would probably be jumping around just with all the different bits of information they've got to remember. Yeah, so that's probably what's going on. I'm kind of busy in my head, I'm probably going to struggle to sleep a little bit. And so, yeah, I'll probably have to try and stop drinking caffeine tonight. But yeah, so sleep will probably be interrupted, busy in the head. And then, you know, sort of like in the pit of my stomach, I'd probably feel that slight bit of anxiety. It's not an uncomfortable thing for me to do a task like that. But I definitely would be very full, I would feel full.

So you're mentioning a pit in your stomach? Are there any other physical symptoms you've experienced?

Probably right before or the morning of, I guess just the anxiety piece? Just getting anxious, and I wouldn't be able to settle? Yeah, easily. I would just, I kind of feel like I'm buzzing in a way. Yeah. Yes, the sort of energy that I would have.

Yeah. And so as unpleasant as those feelings are, they're normal. And if we think about it, from a biological standpoint, they're all really helpful. So the reason why there's a pit in your stomach is that your digestion is slowing down because digestion is something secondary to this. So the stress that you're experiencing, you're not going to be digesting your food, you're going to be which, which gives your body more energy to be aware of what's going on in that moment. And you mentioned the sleep. So you're going to be having stress hormones surging through your body. epinephrine, cortisol, epinephrine is also known as adrenaline, and it kind of gives you that jittery, alert, awake feeling. And again, that's good because it keeps you awake so that you can be alert, you can be thinking about your presentation, you're not going to be going in drowsy. Even if you haven't slept, you're going to be all jittery. And that's the reason why a student can stay up all night studying for an exam and not fall asleep and why myself who's on maternity leave cannot stay up past nine o'clock. Um, other physical symptoms would maybe be your I know you mentioned that anxiety could be your heart racing. And so your heart is beating faster so that there's more blood going into your body so that you're stronger. Your hands this I always find this one interesting. Sometimes people's hands get clammy or sweaty. And that's the biological pieces so that you have a better grip for moving or grabbing on to things. So it's fascinating. And I think normalizing that right reaction makes us say okay, this is okay. And so it's healthy when let's say After you're done your presentation, how would you feel after you're done your presentation

I immediately would feel more relaxed. And just calmer, I would feel much calmer. I know that my mind would stop racing so much, feeling more grounded and able to move on to another project. Sometimes it's hard for me to think about other projects if I have this one task, this sort of overtaking everything else.

And that's what's so great about myself as a teacher, I've run the capstones, and so I know most of the audience of teachers. But if you're doing Elementary, you don't know what a capstone is it's a final culminating project that grade 12 students do to graduate. It's a passion project, which generally finishes with a presentation of their projects so there's so much nerves or so much stress. And some so many students say, I don't want to do it, I present to one person and me, I do push the students hard, because that feeling afterwards of the relief and the sense of accomplishment is amazing. And I've even filmed that after, and they're just buzzing, and they're so excited. And so you know, that stress sometimes pushes, it can push you over the edge where you shut down. But when it's something short-term, I encourage students to push through that stress, because that's the normal reaction is feeling elated afterwards, not feeling those physical symptoms, and where it can be damaging or dysfunctional is if those symptoms don't subside. So if a teacher is, let's say, stressed out about lesson planning, well, your lesson planning every single night, so you're going to be stressed out every single night.

You know, it's really interesting to hear about this, because, of course, you've had the pandemic, and I'm wondering how that's affected the teacher's mental health.

So everyone has been struggling with a pandemic. And there are so many pieces that are challenging for people, the sense of isolation, the sense of loneliness, the inability to even just go to the grocery store and hug your friend and not feel do the awkward dance of should we hug should we not hug a sense of doom and gloom of what the future looks like, which I think is compounded with all the climate stuff that's happening right now. But I think on top of that, a lot of people forget about teachers' sense of responsibility and safety they have over their students. And yes, we can't control what our students do in their off time or what they're doing at soccer practice. But we have this sense of responsibility in our classroom that we need to keep them safe. And I work at Mount Sentinel. And I feel like our school is just this special little community of the valley. And we're this family and we're super close. And so you have this feeling of guilt. And I know that some teachers even talk to me about what are the legal repercussions of let's say this outbreak in my classroom. Also. What I have found challenging is all the extracurricular things that I love so much, I run the mountain bike team there I run the ski trip when we go to Revelstoke. The whole school goes to Silverwood at the end of the year. And yes, those are amazing activities for student's mental health and their enjoyment of school. But for myself as a teacher, that's also one of my most loved things about being a teacher is getting to spend time in the outdoors with students getting to see them outside of that regular classroom and giving them these opportunities that they might not normally have. And so if we're bringing it back to the nervous system, what often happens is that teachers are getting into this state of fight-flight, which is the sympathetic nervous system. So this might be repetition, but our nervous system, we have the parasympathetic nervous system, which is that rest, relax, calm phase, that's where the digestion happens. Sleep happens. That's why I'm a big advocate for good sleep. And the sympathetic nervous system is that fight or flight reaction where we're getting all those stress hormones, the cortisol, and overexposure to cortisol and adrenaline can lead to things like anxiety, depression, that's why you mentioned that anxiety feeling is that it's that the cortisol that's surging through your body, high blood pressures, sleep problems, there's a whole lack of long term issues. So that's why it's really important. I think there are so many coping strategies for bringing teachers back into their sympathetic nervous system. A lot of that breathwork, the resting the relaxing, is really important.

Yeah, so what are some more coping strategies for teachers?

So I always refer to, and I bring it back to mental health because that's just the lens that I look through his legs of a table. And I say this to students all the time that I can't even begin to support them in their mental health until they have their sleep, and their nutrition, physical activity and social support. And I'm sure it's the same things that get repeated over and over again. But when I think of it as a table, I think, well, this table isn't even going to stand until I have those foundational things. And so I think personally, it's really important to the two pieces that I strongly believe in are boundaries and goals. And so not everyone's brain functions like mine, but I have a little agenda. It's called a Passion Planner. I'm not sponsored by them. I just love them so much. And it helps me set up. When do I want to do my mindfulness? When do I want to do my outdoor activities, especially being a mom, I have to plan even more and have those firm boundaries saying like, No, I'm not going to cook dinner tonight. This is my time to go to yoga or set an alarm clock. When you're at work, saying, okay, four o'clock, I need to leave whether I'm done marking the tests, or I'm not. That's great.

And I guess it's hard maybe for a teacher to have a morning routine because the morning mornings are so early. So I guess it becomes just finding time in the day, outside maybe in the morning, especially if you've got kids.

Absolutely. Yeah, at Mount Sentinel, we're so lucky that we're right on the rail trail, we have short lunch breaks, but I would even just go outside, eat my lunch by the gym and then just go for a 10-minute walk on the rail trail. And any time that you can squeeze it in, I think it's so important.

Yeah, that's great advice. And so are there some helpful resources out there for teachers or any exercises you could think of doing that might help teachers?

Yeah, so something I'd like to share is, and I do this with students, quite often, it's called mindfulness, self-compassion. So this was developed by Dr. Kristin Neff. And she believes that there's a sense of interconnectedness that's central to self-compassion and that all humans fail. We make mistakes, we experience hardship. And it honours the fact that life involves suffering. So I know sometimes people say, Oh, it's first world problems, first world problems. And yes, that's true. But that still is a problem in your life and your lens. I mean, if you're complaining about the kombucha flavours at Safeway, then maybe not, but we all have to recognize that we are experiencing suffering like humans and that self-compassion is giving ourselves, I say it like it's a great big hug. It's giving yourself the same kindness and respect that you would treat a friend, especially teenagers, that's who I mostly work with. When they come in, and they're beating themselves up or saying really cruel things about themselves. I asked them, what they would say to a friend going through the same thing. And they treat their friends with so much more kindness than they would treat themselves. And so I'm a big advocate for mindfulness, self-compassion because it's doing mindfulness breathwork through a self-compassion lens. And so instead of criticizing, and judging ourselves, recognizing that we are not perfect, and so I would love for you to follow along. And this will be about a four-minute let's keep it super short, four-minute five-minute exercise, and I would love our listeners to follow along, if you're driving, maybe not do the close your eyes part. Um, and just so that you know what you're in for. So you can decide whether you want to participate or not. It's a three-step process. So the first step, you're going to bring up a little bit of suffering. So I want you to think of a problem in your life, not necessarily something huge, but something small that's maybe causing you a bit of pain. And then what we're going to do is, we're going to recognize that suffering is a part of being human and that yes, the flavour might be different than what people are experiencing elsewhere in the world, but you are hurting. And then the last step is giving yourself that self-compassion, giving yourself that empathy. I would suggest teachers do not use this in the classroom. This exercise is for you. It's transcribed from Kristin Neff's website, which will be in the notes at the bottom of this podcast. I think it's a self dash compassion. dot org and she has a whole bunch of exercises. And this one's called the self-compassion break. Sounds great. Let's do it. Okay, so I just want you to ground yourself, close your eyes. And just start focusing on the breath. And whatever thoughts are going through your mind about the day, just breathe them out through your out-breath, and have a sense of heaviness in your body, grounding in your feet, on your seat. And so I'd invite you to think about a situation in your life right now that's difficult for you. Maybe you're feeling stressed, or you're having a relationship problem. Or you're worried that something might happen. And invite you to think of something difficult, but not overwhelmingly difficult. So finding a situation and getting in touch with it, what's going on what happened, or what might happen? who said what, and bring the situation to life in your mind's eye. And then I'm going to be saying a series of three phrases that are designed to help us remember the three components of self-compassion. So the first phrase is, this is a moment of suffering. We are bringing mindfulness awareness to the fact that suffering is present. And I invite you to find some language that speaks to you something like this is hard right now. Or, I'm struggling. We're turning toward our difficulty acknowledging it, naming it. This is a moment of suffering. The second phrase is suffering as a part of life. We are reminding ourselves of our common humanity and suffering as a part of life.

And again, find some language that speaks to you. And maybe something like it's normal to feel this way. Many people are going through similar situations. The degree of Suffering may be different, the flavour of Suffering may be different. But suffering is a part of life. A part of being human. And the third phase may be kind to me at this moment. And to support being kind to yourself, I'd invite you to perhaps put your hands over your heart, or some other place in your body that feels soothing and comforting. feeling the warmth of your hands, the gentle touch, and letting those feelings of care stream through your body. May I be kind to me? And using any language that supports that sense of kindness, perhaps language you would use with a good friend who cared about that was going through a very similar situation. You know, and maybe something like I'm here for you, it's going to be okay. I care about you. You can say anything that feels natural to express your deep wish that you'd be well, and happy and free from suffering.

And then coming back to your breath. Breathing out that suffering, breathing in fresh, cool air. And let goes of the practice and noticing how your body feels right now. allowing any sensations to be just as they are allowing yourself to be just as you are in this moment. And then slowly opening your eyes and becoming more aware of the room around you. How was that?

That was great, Claire. Thank you. You know, it's a good reminder, how just breath, how important breathwork is. And sometimes just taking a few quiet moments. And that wasn't very long to just be present with yourself and what's going on, as opposed to running from it. And trying to hide, which is often the way right?

Yeah, I had this app on my phone for a while not when I'm at work, but in the summers. I think it was called the Zen app where a bell would date and that's all it would. It was just a bell I think I had it twice a day there was one at 10 in the morning and then one at four o'clock and all it would remind us to breathe in and breathe out. Just once. That's it, just one pause. And it was, it was funny because I remember biking with friends and then thinking this bell will go and they're like, what is that? And I'm like, Okay, everyone, Zen Bell, everyone breathes and it became this big joke. But that's all you need is just to take that one breath to bring you back to that present moment.

That's fantastic. And, in some situations, that could be a great thing for a class, just to maybe have that moment, you know, in within the hour or whatever, just for everybody to take, you know, maybe three big deep breaths in and just have that stillness.

Absolutely. Yeah. So I'm Kristin Neff, the mindfulness self-compassion is a great resource for teachers for their self-care. I'm a huge advocate of the calm app. And I know there are so many apps out there, there's headspace. There are all these mindfulness apps. But the calm app is amazing. It's it is a paid app. But as an educator or a student, you get it for free. You simply just go to the website and contact them through your work email. And there are some amazing resources for teachers, there's a self-care, self-care guide for teachers. There's another resource that is called 30 days of mindfulness in the classroom. So if you're a new teacher, and you're overwhelmed, or you don't even know how to begin, it's a really good starting guide for putting mindfulness in the classroom. And then an app or part of the app that I use in my personal life. It's called the daily calm, and it's 10-minute mindfulness meditation. And the theme changes every day. So it's not for me, I need to focus on something, I can just say, Okay, I'm going to breathe for 10 minutes, that doesn't work with my mind. And so some of the themes could be noticing, or grounding, or gratitude or forgiveness. And it brings in perspective, what's going on in my life? Well, I'm doing the breathwork, and it's just an incredible app. And then the last piece, just because I know that it's a lot of teachers that are listening to this is our E fab services. So the emergency family assistant program changed, I believe, July 2021. So now we are with LifeWorks. And they also have an app, they have a website. There are resources for teachers. There's counselling support. So 24/7 There's someone that answers the phone. You can do it through video, you can do it through phone, as well as you can get connected to a community counsellor. So yeah, it's a pretty amazing resource.

That's brilliant. Thank you so much for sharing all of this great information today, Claire, but I know that many teachers will be able to take something from this.

Great and thank you so much for having me on.

No, it's awesome. Thank you so much. Bye.

Thanks for joining us on the 21st-century teacher, and we look forward to seeing you next time. Please do subscribe so you don't miss out on the next show. And also don't forget to check out our fantastic online learning platform, which is liveit.earth. Thanks again, and we'll see you soon.