As a teacher, it’s easy to work so much that we forget to live. Unless you intentionally turn off thinking about school, plan fun events to do after work and make sure to care for yourself, it’s easy to work, work, work and before you know it you have missed out on life. I’d LOVE to help you easily take care of yourself with some simple self care ideas that you can do during the school year or even during the summer to turn off that teacher brain.
Self Care Tip #1
Plan a date night. If you’re married, dating, or single – you can still plan a date night. The date might be with your spouse, sibling, best friend, or even with your child. It’s a day away from home and all the chores that you usually come home to after you’re already tired from school. If this is something that’s easily doable for you and the other person, plan one a month. It gives you something to look forward to. You get to chat, laugh, and most importantly have fun. Grab some movie tickets and see a movie.
Self Care Tip #2
Use your imagination more. If you’re a big tv show or movie watcher, plan it so you make sure you catch up on your shows or watch a movie. If you like Netflix, find a series to start watching. This will temporarily turn off your teacher brain and get you into the thoughts of what’s happening on the show. This is one of my favorite ways to simply enjoy the day without thinking of school. Some of my favorite series that I could probably rewatch are Scandal, Gossip Girl, Money Heist, Sons of Anarchy, and probably Bridgerton. The crazy thing, I can’t get into a lot of the shows that most people like.
Self Care Tip #3
Use those sick and personal days! Use them! During the school year, teachers really need mental health days. Let me tell you, once my friends and I started using our days to just have a day to ourselves, we were so much happier. Especially those months in the school year when there are ZERO off days. Ours usually is the month of April when we have zero holidays, zero teacher workdays, and zero reasons why we do not go to school. That’s mentally a long time to be “on” every single day. No one else will know the internal struggle that you may be having.
Self Care Tip #4
If you can’t find a moment to yourself, save up a little money (doesn’t have to be much) and book a nice hotel room for one night. Check in right after school. Order some room service or have food delivered. Enjoy the comforts of a clean room, with nice bedding and no one talking to you. This does wonders for me. I am all the way single with no children, but sometimes the 4 walls at my home get old. I need new scenery and a hotel usually brings back the energy that I need. If you’re married, this is also perfect to ask your spouse for a present.
Self Care Tip #5
Provide your boundaries. This includes admin, parents, and co-workers. When school is over, school is over. Take the email off your phone. Nothing is so important after school that parents or even admin would contact you about. If something from school is so important, they will call you. If you have group chats with your grade level or your admin likes to text at all hours of the evening, put that Do Not Disturb on. You will see whatever was discussed the next day. When you’re ready to mentally deal with it, you can easily take it back off.
Self Care Bingo
To help you throughout your work with self-care ideas, you can print off this Self Care Bingo. In a week, try to get a Bingo. If a week is too short, play Bingo twice a month. You can focus on Bingo for two weeks at a time. Print it, laminate it, and put it on your fridge. Then use a dry-erase marker to mark off what you’ve done. Once you get a Bingo, erase and start over. I’ve created a few different ones to give you options. Try to stick with it and practice some teacher self care.