10 Steps to Rebuilding after Teacher Burnout
So you survived this year? Now what?
Many many teachers have ‘survived’ the most difficult year yet, but at what cost?
Do you feel like a fragment of your former self?
Do you feel like only an ember of your teaching fire still glows?
Now what?
Most teachers I speak to are showing several signs and symptoms of teacher burnout.
Teacher Burnout: A syndrome resulting from prolonged stress due to increasing demands over time. A teacher's capacity to protect themselves against threats to their self-esteem and wellbeing is disrupted or strained. The coping mechanisms activated to deal with demands fail, increasing stress and threatening mental and physical wellbeing.
Use this checklist to identify signs of burnout and note how many you relate to:
Emotional Symptoms
- Anxiety and depression
- Cynicism or pessimism
- Apathy or hopelessness
- Dread
- Lack of motivation
- Anger
- Emotional turbulence
Physical Symptoms
- Headaches or migraines
- Body aches
- Tension
- Fatigue
- Changes in appetite
- Weight gain or loss
- Difficulty sleeping
Behavioural Symptoms
- Decline in productivity
- Difficulty focussing
- Poor performance
- Social withdrawal
- Calling in sick more frequently
- Emotional outbursts
We can’t heal what we can’t see. Identifying your burnout is a great first step to healing.
I do have great news for you; it doesn’t have to stay this way forever, you don’t need to leave your job and there is a proven pathway to healing.
What I will share with you here is a tried tested formula to heal your teacher burnout...This is the formula I used for my own healing, and what I have been coaching teachers all around the world to do to heal theirs - even this year!
1- Connect to the body to allow healing to begin
Commit to your self-care habits and begin to create small, daily, sustainable changes that make you feel good. Start with your basic needs such as sleep and nutrition and then add on to pleasurable activities that bring you joy. For ideas on self-care check out this blog post.
2- Establish your new paradigm
Identify your core values and restore integrity with anything that doesn’t align with them. It’s likely been a long time since you contemplated these and it’s also likely that your values have shifted over the past year. Your life goals should align with your core values. Allow these to be your guidance system for how you make decisions going forward.
3 - Determine your limiting beliefs
Limiting beliefs are almost always under any behaviour pattern we want to change. Do you believe you have to hustle to prove yourself? Do you believe you have to do it all? Do you believe that rest is a waste of time? Identify and shift any distorted thinking that is sucking so much of your valuable energy and keeps you stuck.
- Feel your feelings
By becoming more aware of how you feel on a moment to moment basis you can more easily respond appropriately to triggers and anticipate them. Burn anger that has come up this year, allows sadness and grief to flow through you, literally shake out the fear. All of your feelings have a right to be here. Meet them with compassion.
- Establish boundaries with your Time
You get to decide how to keep yourself safe and feeling protected moving forward. Once you are clear on your values and goals, you get to decide where your time goes and what you want to spend your time on. We make time for what we value. Establish boundaries around how you spend your time. It is your most important resource.
- Establish Boundaries in Relationships
How is it you want to be treated by others? How do you want to treat them? What would it mean to stop pleasing others or enduring and instead prioritize yourself? What needs to be said or done to keep yourself safe in relationships with all the stakeholders in teacher life? Is it not reading emails after 5pm? Is it telling your students not to ask ‘did you mark my assignment yet?’ Is it saying no to the next request? You get to decide!
- Determine your Locus of Control
One of the most important parts of teaching is being able to take on any challenge that comes our way. While change is inevitable, many teachers remain firmly rooted in the security of our routines and what we know. You have lived through one of the most uncertain years of your life - what lessons have you learned about dealing with uncertainty with confidence rather than anxiety and fear? For support dealing with uncertainty, check out this blog post.
- Establish Support and Accountability
Burnout thrives in isolation. One of the worst things we can do when we are burnt out is to pull away from loved ones and community and it’s totally biologically appropriate behaviour. If you are lacking community and support, make one. If nothing exists in your school - find one elsewhere. There is so much support and community out there. What you seek is seeking you! You are always welcome here.
- Build your future vision
It’s only after you have moved out of the survival brain back into the learning brain that you can move forward and ignite your passion again. Once you’ve got these basics in place you can build your future vision and feel a sense of purpose and clarity going forward. By getting clear on your mission, the rest of life can begin to fall into place. The feeling of being in the flow with your purpose, that is the true meaning of fulfillment.
- Think outside the box!
Have you ever considered a post overseas? My 11 years of international teaching were some of my most rewarding - both personally and professionally. I would recommend it to anyone who has ever considered it. If your interest is peaked….Byron Recruitment has jobs for (www.byronrecruitment.com/open-roles/) for Canadian teachers interested in exploring International School jobs.
And the light at the end is worth it all. At the end of the tunnel there is clarity, calm, courage and connection. It is available to you and you are on your way there.
What I’ve walked you through here is exactly how I support teachers in my program called The Burnout Prevention Formula. The program is for stressed and tired teachers who want more time and energy without adding more to their plate. In this 3 month journey, I help you heal your burnout and help you to feel more resilient and more like yourself again. If you are ready to make your summer one of healing and rebuilding, get in touch [email protected]. I can not wait to get to know you and support you on your journey to healing your own burnout and creating your own conscious classroom.