Do You Often Leave Your Mind at School? Three Scripts to Break the Burnout Loop.

“I used to love teaching, but now I feel drained.” Does this sound familiar?

Have you noticed an increase in second guessing, rehashing, milling on decisions?

Emotional turmoil and internal suffering are just a few ways to describe this state of being.

“Maybe if I had tried this strategy, the student wouldn’t have reacted that way.”

“If I had only waited to respond.”

“I wish I didn’t yell today.”

This mental replay loop is one of the most common forms of teacher burnout.

Are you holding on too tight to these thoughts, that you don’t have balance, can’t enjoy life outside of school and your mind is continuously ruminating?

This is one of the hidden costs of caring deeply about your work.

BUT you do not have to suffer this way.

You can have balance.

You can leave school and not think about it for the rest of the day.

You can feel relief and be present for the rest of your life!

Teachers did not become educators to suffer, they became educators to make a difference, to help students and to inspire.

And you can still do all of this!

The key is interrupting the loop, the moment you notice it is happening. Awareness. Here are three practical scripts you can say to yourself:

1. “Pause, I am the source of peace.” Repeat the phrase several times, identifying you control your peace. Take a few deep breaths. Notice how your body and mind feel afterwards. Do this throughout the day, when you notice your mind wandering.
2. “Stop, this is a thought, not a fact.” Repeat the phrase several times creating space between the thought and reality. Realize you are not your thoughts. Do this when you notice you are judging yourself or others.
3. “I can handle this.” Repeat the phrase several times, return to the present moment, notice what’s around you. Become more grounded in this moment, feel your feet on the floor. Do this when you notice escalated signals in your body, e.g. hand sweating, heart racing, overwhelm.

And always, remember to be kind to yourself. Give yourself grace. You are doing the best you can at that moment.

If you are an educator with multiple students with challenging behaviors in your classroom, who is responsible for managing behavior and delivering instruction, and encounter frequent disruptions throughout the day, then you already know that how you respond IMPACTS how the students respond.

You are responsible to regulate your own emotions.

You can take control of your emotions, you can regulate and slowly chip away at stopping that cycle of internal suffering until all of a sudden, it disappears.

You can engage in practical, in-the-moment exercises to regulate your emotions, bring yourself back to the present moment and have energy at the end of the day.

This struggle is why I created this free 4 part video mini-series (normally costs $49) at https://www.kristybanks.com/calm. Video 2: Staff Resilience & Behavior discusses how to regulate your emotions.

This isn’t extra work, this is saying scripts in the moment when you realize you are living in your mind and not present.

The goal isn’t to eliminate stress.

The goal is to stop suffering unnecessarily.

You don’t have to be alone in this work. Please reach out if this connects with you and your needs OR let me know what more you are looking for.

I am here to help.

Thanks for reading.