Podcast Season 2 Ep. 2 - Avoiding Burnout as a Teacher with Morgane Michael

Morgane is a primary educator, an author, a speaker, a mother of two young children and the creator of the small act big impact 21 day challenge, and in her free time enjoys making big impact through small daily acts. Morgane believes that we are all responsible for the cultures in which we learn, work, and live.

She is the author of From Burnt Out to Fired Up: Reigniting your passion for teaching. Morgane is also the producer and host of KindSight 101, a leading educational podcast with game-changing guests.

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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. 

Today, I'm talking to Morgane who is a primary educator, an author, a speaker, a mother of two young children and the creator of the Small Act, Big Impact 21 Day Challenge, and in her free time, enjoys making big impact through small daily acts. Morgane believes that we are all responsible for the cultures in which we learn, work and live. She is the author of “From Burnout to Fired Up: Reigniting Your Aassion for Teaching”. Morgane is also the producer and host of KindSight 101, a leading educational podcast with game-changing guests.

So Morgane, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. I really appreciate it.

Well, I'm so glad to be here, Blue. It's such a pleasure. And I'm really excited to just dig into this really important topic.

Well, great, let me jump in straight away with the fact that it's been a really busy and stressful year for many teachers. Or two years, particularly with the pandemic, many are getting burnt out. So I'm wondering, in your experience, what does burnout look like to you? And why does it happen?

Okay, so burnout…they talk about burnout in lots of different ways. But there are symptoms, and then there's sort of a definition. And I'd say, the loose definition of burnout is sort of where you're feeling, it doesn't have to be that you're falling apart, you know, on the bathroom floor, or, you know, you seem like you can't put the pieces together. It can be really subtle and really tough to put your finger on. And essentially, it comes down to are you feeling satisfied in your life? Are you feeling a sense of restlessness? Is it hard for you to make it to work? Are you wanting to call in sick a lot? Are you feeling sort of general malaise, when you look forward at the future going like, oh my gosh, I don't know if I can make it through this day, this week, this month, this year, I'm not super excited about the point A to point B journey. 

So there's kind of that general feeling. And I think some of it is situational. And then I think some of it is sometimes just, that's just our makeup, right? And so we have to work within the confines of that, and I want to be really clear about that, too. If this is something, you know, if some of these symptoms kind of aligned with anxiety or depression, that definitely it's super important to go and seek help for that, because that is outside of the definition of burnout. But burnout is really when you get to that point where it just really tired, and you're having a hard time getting that same fired up energy that you may want to have had as a teacher, parent, or as a friend, or in any area of your life and the the reason for it. And what I've kind of looked into is generally about unprocessed emotions largely. And so there's a few different other ways that it kind of manifests. But essentially, it's about if you picture this like tunnel in a funhouse, and it's spinning around and you're walking through that tunnel, and you can't quite seem to get to the other side, that's sort of the visual of the unprocessed emotions, like the messy emotions, the ones like grief and sadness, and fear and anger, and resentment, and even that feeling of missing out. And I think this pandemic has sort of brought us to this point where many of us are feeling that way. We’re feeling kind of ripped off for the last two years, or we press pause, and we're tired. And it's been hard. And we haven't been able to kind of live up to the life that we want to live. And so that can lead us to that unprocessed place where we don't work through those emotions. And so really, that's a big piece of it.

So, in your experience, how can we thrive again? So we're coming to the end, hopefully, of the pandemic, things seem to be winding down and opening up. So what kind of strategies could you suggest that could help us?

Yeah, so I mean, essentially, it comes down to, I have this framework where I really talk about these five steps that you can take, and it can be a linear process, but it doesn't have to be. And this is really just a kind of a loose definition, or a loose sort of roadmap for how you could kind of get back to yourself. Especially if you know yourself as someone who is generally pretty passionate and generally pretty optimistic and you've kind of fallen off that general mindset. And so essentially, there are five steps. So the first is to tune in and sort of check in on “where am I at right now? Where do I feel that emotion in my body?” and then “what do I need right now?” which is a really big piece of reflecting, and that can take two minutes a day. It really is about getting clear about where you're at and taking the temperature. Because I think so often, in our lives, we walk through the motions of our day without really taking stock, and especially if we're struggling. And so if we're struggling, it's really important to acknowledge those feelings first. Otherwise, we can't even process them, right? So name them to tame them. 

The second piece is about resiliency. And so often in our lives, we get, you know, to this place where we create these narratives about our lives, or ourselves or whatever. And sometimes they're not helpful, they're maladaptive. So we create narratives that kind of hold us down or keep us living small lives, or whatever it is. And so this is about reframing. So we know where we're coming from reflect. And now we're reframing the unhelpful or maladaptive narratives. And we can do that in a number of ways. But one of them is sort of just checking that inner voice and going “is that actually true? Is that narrative that I've spun about myself, or my efficacy at work? Or my success as a parent, or whatever it is? Is that actually true? Or is this something that I'm making up for self sabotage that sort of thing” then you get into now that you've kind of you know, where you're coming from, you've had a chance to check your story. Now you can focus to the future. 

So the next, the third section is really about refocusing. And it's really around goal setting. And I've had a few people say “Oh, that's interesting, I wouldn't really connect goal setting with a way to get out of burnout”. But at the end of the day, a lot of the burnout is about feeling stuck. And so to get unstuck, it's really helpful, you know, once you do take stock to kind of look forward to the future and go “What kind of a life do I want to imagine for myself” and to define that with clarity to write it down, to talk about and identify the values that connect to that future goal, and you don't even have to do anything significant. I think it's about making 1% small degree shifts in your life that can, in the end, make a tremendous, tremendous difference. So you know, you think about an airplane, when they're changing position or direction, they make a very, very small degree shift, and that will land them in an entirely different city. And so that's kind of like goal setting, right? You have the possibility to imagine and craft a life that you want to live. And it does not have to be completely transformational, and you do not have to blow your life up to do that. So I think that's really what it is. 

Yeah, I really like that analogy. The idea of the plane taking off and just a slight deviation. So on that idea of goal setting, do you have any goal setting technique, tips and tricks that you've used over the past? Like a whiteboard, or post-it, or calendaring? Or what does it look like for you?

Yeah, okay. So there's, I have a lot of strategies in the book. And the reason I did that is because people are different. What I love to do is I think about my goals as buckets. So sometimes I only have two buckets, I might have like, my personal life bucket, I might have my health bucket that I want to sort of address. But sometimes it's like, okay, I want to nail like some things that I need to do in my house. So I'll have like the house bucket, I'll have the family, maybe family time sort of fallen off the wayside. And I want to, you know, to attend more wholly to that. I have my friendship or my social bucket, the health piece really falls into the fitness as well. But sometimes they're two separate goals. And so it really depends on what are the areas of your life that you want to focus on. And sometimes those are short term goals, and sometimes they’re long term goals. And what I find is having these different buckets kind of categorizes it in my head in such a way that I can, I can wrap my head around, like, I don't have to do absolutely everything on my list. It's kind of like maybe I want to focus on the health bucket for right now. Or maybe I want to really put some time and intention into my social circle. Because I feel like that's a really important goal, because I want you know, that's an important aspect of my life for me right now. And I'm maybe not feeling like I'm putting enough time in. And the helpful thing I think about that, again, is chunking it which we know as educators, that's a really helpful way to tackle any task is by chunking it into smaller bits. Because if you're, you know, like how I used to be was I just write this big, long list and I'd have these high expectations that I needed to plow through the whole thing. And instead, not everything is so time sensitive or urgent. And so doing those short term/long term goals, and then the buckets really helps just chunk it so that it doesn't feel so overwhelming. 

Yeah, that's great. That's a really good tip. So on to number four. What's number four on the list?

Right. Well, speaking of social things, it's about reconnecting. And there's so much research that says that our overall longevity as human beings, our success, the top sort of things that we reflect on when we're in old age, or we're sort of on the quote deathbed or whatever, that we're, you know, we're in that place is that attending to the people in our lives in ways that we wish we had, you know, that's where the deepest regrets come from. And I think in terms of longevity, there's research around people who have deep connections, and it doesn't have to be surface level acquaintances, and, you know, having 400 Friends, like, that's not really what it's about, it's about, do you have people in your life who know who you are? Who care about you? Is it a reciprocal kind of relationship? Do you have that? And if you do, are you putting the time and energy into it and prioritizing it? Sometimes our lives are super busy. So one of the things that I do, and it actually connects to goal setting, but I do this TGIM with my best friend, Jody, and TGI Mondays, right, so every Monday morning at 6am or 630. Sometimes if we need to stretch, she's got three boys, she's really busy. But we've committed to this for more than a year now. And it's been wonderful is that we check in for 10 to 15 minutes max. And we just, we start off with just our goals and just say okay, and she's not really like she and I were not really like that was not the definition of our friendship for anything. It kind of just came about organically, which I think is part of why it works so well. Well, we just talked about our goals for the week, like what are you focusing on? Why is that important to you, inevitably, we check in and we have a visit. And we know what's going on in each other's lives, which is a really important sidebar, but it just gives us a focus. And it's kind of like a non negotiable date we have with each other. And I know that a lot of people that I know who are in successful positions who are really, really busy, have that kind of like a standing date with somebody that you know, it's not a romantic, like, it's just sort of like that deep friendship time because it's important to you. And every time we leave that conversation, I feel better, she feels better. So I think it can be as simple as that. And another one actually, which ties into wellness is a text challenge that you can do for seven days. Offer or invite a friend to do this chat text challenge where you note throughout your day, one thing that you're grateful for, and at first, it seems kind of like hokey or kind of weird to be like, oh, do you want to do this with me, but it's really nice, because number one, you're connecting with that person. Number two, there's not this pressure of like, oh my gosh, I haven't talked to them for so long. I need to set aside three hours. And like it can be a three second text that you send. And then at the end of the seven days, you're going to be, you're going to train your brain to look for the good stuff, which we know with gratitude researchers, so much good stuff. So that's an easy way to connect as well. And I bet your friend would be into it, too.

Yeah, I love that. I really like this, what a great way to start the week on a Monday. Yeah, when of course you've got it looks like an uphill battle sometimes. But if you've got support behind you. Yeah, that's fantastic.

Thank you. And it just feels so you know, what it is too, is it just feel it like rebrands Monday, right? Where it's exactly like you kind of slog through and you're like, oh, here we go. It was Sunday scaries and all that. But instead you're like, oh, I get to talk to my bestie on Monday. That's exciting. Yeah.

Yeah, the gratitude. Absolutely. I think it's so important. And that's another great way to start on Monday too, is to find those gratitudes. So what about number five? On the list?

Yeah, so this piece is kind of unorthodox. And I, you know, because my book really falls into line with a lot of the self help kind of stuff. But it's different, because it's geared at educators specifically. And this piece is what I get so excited about, it's about creativity. So it's the last chapter is called Earth, the fifth chapter is called Reveal. And this piece is about once you've had a chance to reflect, you've honed in on your future kind of goals, you've got your support network around you, now you get to express yourself. And I think people kind of have this like, almost like an allergic reaction to the idea of creativity, maybe not everybody, but there's sort of this, like, oh, I'm not creative, that's not in line with who I am. And what I always kind of urge people is, is that, to accept the fact that actually, as human beings, it's our most human way of expressing ourselves is through the things that we make, the way that we move through the world, the way that we you know, put together our dinner, or we decide how to lay out a plot of a garden, or the way that we design our homes, like all of that is creativity. And I think it's not just about you know, capital ART like it's not, that isn't creativity necessarily. It's great if you like dabble with painting and stuff like that for sure, photography. But at the end of the day, it's like how are you moving through the world with intentionality? And how are you bringing your spirit into that? And I think that's where we get to be our happiest, that's when you know, flow comes into it. And there's research around flow. Flow is this, you know, it's almost like time melts away, and you lose yourself in an activity and that can be the classroom itself, that can be planning that, can be anything that we do really, where we are using our hands or our brains or you know, whatever it is, singing, all of that stuff. And there are many ways to sort of prime the pump and access that, that if you're not used to being creative that you can, you can do that. So that's an important piece of this. 

So that being said, do you have any good tips that could help teachers? Many have been struggling just because it’s, you know, been so much during the pandemic. How can we reignite the love of teaching?

Yeah, I think sometimes we need to go out to come back in with that energy. So I think my philosophy around this, as you know, and I want to be really clear that it's not an easy time as a teacher, and I am not going to rose colored glasses, this, I'm not going to toxic positivity this and say, oh, we're all great. Like, no, some of us are really not great. And so the idea of just and I've seen this on Twitter, and I've seen kind of a bit of a lash back against self care stuff, because it's like, well, no, there are some really problematic systemic issues in education right now. And so I want to acknowledge that, first of all, however, I think that within the context of what we can control, our own mindset, the things that light us up, the interests that we pursue outside of the classroom, and the curriculum is really important. Because I think what it does is it fuels our passion and our creativity, and our ability and capacity to connect with the little people in our class, and the parents that, you know, in their families and our colleagues, and that is everything. I think that social connection is absolutely everything, the relationship that we have. And if we don't have the capacity to connect with those people in a really meaningful way, then it's really tough to be an effective teacher and to feel like we are fired up. So what I would say is, I think tune in number one, like make tuning in a really important goal and you don't have to do it all the time, you can put it in your phone, however, reflection once or twice, or even three times a day and go “how am I feeling? Where do I feel it in my body? What do I need?” Then you can kind of check your story and go, oh, man, you know, I got an email and it made me feel like a really rotten teacher and check that story and go, you know, what, are you really? Is that the truth? Or is that just a story that I'm telling myself? Then you kind of go forward? Like, what is something that would bring me joy for the week, like think about that refocusing? What's one little thing I could do for myself, or that would put a smile on my face and do that thing. And then I think the whole idea of like, connecting, make sure that once a week, you're making a connection with a friend, or a family member who loves you unconditionally and cares about you. And then I think if you have the capacity, go try something new. Try, you know, I'm not even thinking like skydiving, like, go try soapmaking or, or pull up YouTube and do a Bob Ross painting or like, you know, do something that you maybe been interested to do. And just like just dip your toe in that general direction and see where it takes you without sort of an expectation of anything from that creativity. And do that for a week or two and just see how your mindset shifts away from, oh my gosh, the slog of every day to oh, that was kind of fun. And that kind of reignited me a little bit. And now I've got this social connection, I've got something to look forward to outside of the timetable. And what do you know, maybe the soapmaking is, there's an element to that, that you bring back to the classroom, and that fires your kids up. And it's kind of this like positive feedback loop so that you never know where these opportunities will lead. That's the truth. But I think that nothing bad comes of working on yourself and putting yourself first in terms of, you know, putting that attention on what it is that lights you up? 

And is that really the same idea when it comes to trying to sustain the passion for teaching over a stretch of time and avoiding burnout?

Yeah, I guess I'm not really super rigid about process. And I think when we need it, we use it. Am I a journaler every single day? No, not really. But there are times where I'm like, oh man, I'm having a hard time making a decision or I'm really struggling. Oh, here we go, I'm at the school. I think for me, it just I'm not really rigid, about a routine. I think we need to be intuitive about what it is, what we need at any given time. If journaling seems like a good option for you, because it's going to help you sort through your emotions and some of the events in your life in such a way that you can make a clear decision about something, great. And I do that sometimes, but I'm not, I don't really believe that we necessarily have to adopt a practice just for the sake of it. And so I think the same goes for meditation for me like I sometimes I use it and sometimes I don't. And when I'm really, really needing it, then I sink in, do that for a couple months, and it feels great. And then I can find another way to connect with nature, find that same kind of energy through other conduits. And maybe part of that flexibility helps me to feel balanced when I'm juggling a lot of balls, like if I have this rigidity, and these rules that I make up for myself, and I can't escape that, then that adds another layer of pressure, and then that can feed the burnout. And then you're just like, screw it all, you know. And so the all or nothing thinking can be really problematic. So that's why we say like, just do a toe dip. And, and don't be too hard on yourself with expectations. And I don't mean that in like, just kind of an easy, you know, just be too easy on yourself, I really think if we can be a little gentle, that it's, it's easier to sustain these things, and to weave in and out of it as you need it.

I actually really agree with that. Because what I found is that I'm not someone that can do meditation every day, or do yoga every Tuesday or you know, whatever it might be, I'm a climber. So climbing, you know, training is happening on a Thursday or a Friday, we'll have that looks, I've realized this is a recent thing is that letting go but having that list of things that you know that to call on, and it could be just going for a walk in the woods. And it could be bouncing on the trampoline for 10 minutes, or skipping for 30 seconds, because anything after that it's quite hard on skipping rope. Yeah, so yeah, I think the letting go is huge, actually. Because I've found myself becoming more relaxed by just having these things that I can dip into, but not really exactly feeling too rigid. I think it's a really, really good point.

Yeah. And I think that whole, that tightening is part of the maladaptive coping mechanisms that we that we take on when, especially as educators, I think many of us are quite a type or like to be in control. And so the more rules and lists and things that we have at our disposal makes us feel that way. But it can also add that pressure. And so allowing ourselves to surrender a bit to the process to life. I think it takes that urgency and the fear away a little bit, which is kind of funny. But I do think that's the side effect, which is a positive one, kind of going with the flow a little bit more. 

Yeah, absolutely agree. And so your book, obviously the listeners can dip into your book and find out more detail, your story and the things that you have to share on this stuff. But I really wanted to end with a question about your Small Act, Big Impact initiative, because it really interests me and I would love to hear more about that.

Yeah, so basically, I was reading Simon Sinek’s book, way back, like I think it was 2014. And I think that's when it came out. Leaders eat last and he had a section in there where it talked about the the kindness hormones that like when you exhibit kindness to somebody else, or like an act of generosity, that there are hormones that kind of fire in not only the receivers brain, so you get oxytocin and serotonin and dopamine and endorphins, which are all for like this happiness cocktail. But also the giver gets the same endorphin boost. And oxytocin, which is that love bonding hormone. And there was interesting research around this the witness or as well. So as an elementary school teacher, it sort of dawned on me like, well, this is amazing, this could change, like the whole school culture to really bring kindness to the forefront. And so I decided to kind of do a bit more digging into that and started the 21 day kindness challenge. And that's kind of manifested in different ways, since that point, and it's been really fun. You know, I think just bringing general attention to meaningful, authentic kindness is huge. What is really interesting as well about that cocktail of happiness hormones is that there's also a stress hormone called cortisol, which runs through our bodies whenever we're stressed out. And so when we're stressed or we're feeling burnt out, or any of those things, we kind of disconnect from our prefrontal cortex. That's the part of our brain that's responsible for empathy, language, communication, you know, conscious and logical thought, that sort of thing. And we kind of go into our reptilian figh, flight or freeze or fun brain. And the cool thing about kindness is that oxytocin specifically will counteract and block cortisol. So essentially, cortisol, the stress hormone can be basically totally eradicated by kindness and generosity and so teach. I know, it's pretty cool. So I think when you're able to access that, sort of the kind regard for other people, compassion, empathy, that it kind of can disconnect you from your own stressors, which is really cool. So we've done all sorts of different projects. We've done kindness rocks, we've done, you know, bring kindness projects around service in the community. Lots and lots of different things. And then just on a smaller scale, we do kindness ninjas in my classroom, which is really fun. And they like have these little headbands. And we do, you know, we swear them in, and they think up a bunch of things that they want to do to sort of help our school be a kind, helpful place. But I think at the end of the day, it's just shining a light of intention on just treating each other with kindness and really in an intentional, meaningful way. So that's what it's about. 

Yeah. That is a great way to yeah, I think as a parent as well, I think that's a really good thing to teach. Yes, and introduce them to you. That's wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing today. And I'm really excited to dip into your book, and your podcast as well. So we'll make sure that we share that in the show notes so that listeners can check in with your podcasts, find out more about you.

Thank you, Blue. It's been such a pleasure. So much fun.

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.