Elena Aguilar - Emotional Resilience and Equity in Education
Resumo
TLDRThe interview features a seasoned educator discussing her mission to combat teacher burnout by fostering resilience. She highlights the heartbreak of seeing talented educators exit the profession due to burnout and aims to address this through her work. She authored 'Onward', a guide structured around 12 habits for educators to build resilience by aligning strategies with the academic yearβs rhythm. The pandemic has disrupted traditional rhythms, demanding a reevaluation of resilience-building approaches. The speaker emphasizes understanding emotions, suggesting resilience isn't just enduring difficulties but thriving through them. Systems should support the whole being of educators, recognizing their physical, emotional, and intellectual aspects. Structural changes are necessary to counter burnout, ensuring educators' needs are met and allowing for adequate professional and personal time. On mindfulness, she advises creating space between tasks to reflect on actions and emotions. Communities of educators are essential, and finding oneβs community requires self-assessment and active engagement. Her upcoming program aims to support individuals in transitioning out of the pandemic by understanding their emotional landscapes. The conversation concludes with a call for self-compassion.
ConclusΓ΅es
- π Importance of addressing teacher burnout to retain great educators.
- π Introduction to 'Onward', a book providing resilience strategies for teachers.
- π Aligning resilience strategies with the school year's rhythm.
- πͺ Resilience means thriving, not just surviving adversity.
- π§ββοΈ Mindfulness involves pausing to assess emotions and actions.
- π« Systems should support the whole human being, not just students.
- π The pandemic caused shifts in educational rhythms, necessitating new approaches.
- π€ Building community is vital for educators' support and growth.
- π§ There's a need to differentiate between thoughts and emotions for better understanding.
- π‘ Self-compassion is crucial in healing and moving forward.
Linha do tempo
- 00:00:00 - 00:05:00
The interview begins with a discussion on the significance of preventing teacher burnout, with the guest being introduced as a teacher, writer, and coach dedicated to supporting educators. She shares her background and emphasizes the emotional toll of seeing talented educators leave due to burnout, and the impact this has on communities.
- 00:05:00 - 00:10:00
The conversation shifts to the book "Onward," focusing on monthly-focused resilience strategies for teachers based on the school year cycle. The author explains the natural emotional and energy fluctuations teachers experience throughout the year and how her book helps address these.
- 00:10:00 - 00:15:00
The discussion reflects on whether the pandemic has altered educational rhythms. The guest highlights the drastic changes, emphasizing that the past year was about survival and adaptation, with rhythms disrupted by the constant shifts between in-person and distance learning. She stresses the need for redefining resilience in these contexts.
- 00:15:00 - 00:20:00
The guest outlines a framework from the book "Onward" that focuses on building resilience through 12 habits. She distinguishes between survival and resilience, emphasizing resilience as thriving through adversity. She highlights the importance of understanding emotions as a key habit for educators.
- 00:20:00 - 00:25:00
A detailed explanation of the cycle of emotions is given, illustrating how interpretation of events influences resilience. The guest describes how shifting perspectives can either deplete or enhance personal resilience, using examples from classroom interactions.
- 00:25:00 - 00:30:00
The discussion moves to mindfulness, the necessity of creating space in busy schedules, and the role of institutions in providing supports. The guest advocates for systemic changes to encourage reflection and mindfulness, emphasizing that these contribute to effective teaching and resilience.
- 00:30:00 - 00:35:00
Emphasis is placed on the need for systemic change to combat teacher burnout. The guest calls for a focus on holistic support for both educators and students, confronting outdated educational structures that neglect the full humanity of teachers.
- 00:35:00 - 00:40:00
The importance of community support for educators is discussed. The guest offers advice for individuals to identify and build their community while also suggesting broader systemic changes to facilitate communal support within schools and districts.
- 00:40:00 - 00:45:00
The concept of self-care is unpacked, addressing three gaps - knowledge, skills, and emotional intelligence. The guest argues that understanding and addressing these gaps can empower educators to prioritize self-care effectively, which is crucial for resilience.
- 00:45:00 - 00:54:48
The conversation ends with an encouragement for educators to practice self-compassion and reflection, particularly in the wake of the pandemic. The guest advises writing a self-love letter to acknowledge one's achievements and challenges, fostering a sense of personal resilience and worthiness.
Mapa mental
VΓdeo de perguntas e respostas
Who is the guest speaking in the interview?
The guest is a teacher, writer, coach, podcast host, and mother who is focused on addressing teacher burnout and resilience.
What book does the guest mention in the interview?
The book mentioned is 'Onward' which is about habits that cultivate resilience among educators.
What is a key theme of the interview?
The key theme revolves around developing resilience for educators, understanding emotions, and managing burnout.
What impact has the pandemic had on teachers according to the interview?
The pandemic changed rhythms and increased uncertainty and exhaustion among teachers.
What does the guest suggest about changing school systems?
The guest suggests systems need to be designed to support the full humanity of educators and students.
What is resilience according to the guest?
Resilience is about thriving in the face of adversity, not just surviving.
How does the guest suggest teachers find community?
Teachers are encouraged to assess what they need and actively engage with their community to fulfill those needs.
What role does mindfulness play according to the guest?
Mindfulness helps teachers pause, assess their emotions, and align actions with values.
What problems are associated with teacher burnout?
Burnout is linked to systemic issues, lack of time, and inadequate support structures.
Ver mais resumos de vΓdeos
- 00:00:00[Music]
- 00:00:04as i told you as we were talking earlier
- 00:00:07i am incredibly honored to have you here
- 00:00:09one of the you know as a former teacher
- 00:00:11myself and then overseeing
- 00:00:12numbers of teachers burnout was a very
- 00:00:15real
- 00:00:16thing of teachers and it always broke my
- 00:00:17heart when people were leaving the
- 00:00:19profession
- 00:00:20and it feels like for me you spent
- 00:00:23all if not most of your career focused
- 00:00:25on fighting that so before we start
- 00:00:27talking about your advice and your
- 00:00:28wisdom
- 00:00:29can you just tell us who you are a
- 00:00:31little bit about who you are and
- 00:00:33why you love what you do
- 00:00:36sure who am i
- 00:00:40i'm a teacher a writer
- 00:00:43a coach a podcast host a mother
- 00:00:47a partner a daughter i
- 00:00:50see myself as a part of many communities
- 00:00:54that i love
- 00:00:56it's interesting when you said the
- 00:00:59heartbreak
- 00:01:00of seeing burnout and i think that
- 00:01:02heartbreak is worth unpacking for me the
- 00:01:05heartbreak
- 00:01:07has implications of not being able to
- 00:01:10serve the communities that i love
- 00:01:12that i'm a part of and so when i
- 00:01:15see teachers leave when i
- 00:01:19see just potentially incredible
- 00:01:21educators leaving the profession as i
- 00:01:23have for
- 00:01:2427 years now the heartbreak has to do
- 00:01:27with the way
- 00:01:28that our communities will continue to be
- 00:01:30underserved with the loss and potential
- 00:01:33with the loss of possibility
- 00:01:36i live in oakland california on the
- 00:01:39occupied and unseated land of the alone
- 00:01:42people and i love what i do because
- 00:01:46every day feels like there's a way for
- 00:01:49me to fulfill
- 00:01:50my purpose for being alive every day
- 00:01:53feels
- 00:01:53meaningful every day feels like i have
- 00:01:56opportunities to do what i do best
- 00:01:59to fulfill my own need for joy
- 00:02:02and satisfaction and meaning and to
- 00:02:04serve
- 00:02:05well there's people who don't know who
- 00:02:07you are i mean besides going to look at
- 00:02:09the books
- 00:02:09you've written or go to your online
- 00:02:11resources to help people immediately who
- 00:02:13are trying to
- 00:02:15work in education i would say follow you
- 00:02:17on instagram because you do have
- 00:02:19you do balance the gamut of you know the
- 00:02:22the deep thoughts as well as encouraging
- 00:02:24folks to
- 00:02:25to have fun and bring joy to their life
- 00:02:27and so
- 00:02:28can you tell us a little bit i mean i
- 00:02:29want to focus more today on
- 00:02:32uh hot topics in education that people
- 00:02:34are struggling with right now
- 00:02:35but also your your amazing book onward
- 00:02:38and
- 00:02:38the thing that i really appreciated
- 00:02:40about it first glance
- 00:02:41when i was opening it was um
- 00:02:44everybody who's ever been an educator or
- 00:02:46works with educators
- 00:02:48know there's a life cycle of the year
- 00:02:50right and you
- 00:02:51started off just owning it saying here's
- 00:02:53a focus for every month
- 00:02:56how did you land on that what was the
- 00:02:57the wisdom behind giving us a thought or
- 00:03:00an action for every month
- 00:03:03sure i feel like with very few
- 00:03:06exceptions
- 00:03:06every year of my life has been so tied
- 00:03:09to the school calendar that i know the
- 00:03:11rhythm of the school year more than
- 00:03:13any other rhythm i think and so when i
- 00:03:16thought about the need for resilience
- 00:03:19i really started mapping that onto what
- 00:03:22i've experienced and witnessed as far as
- 00:03:25sort of
- 00:03:26the cycle of energy for a teacher
- 00:03:30through a school year and i mean the
- 00:03:31sort of
- 00:03:32emotional energy that allows us to
- 00:03:35respond to the dozens and dozens
- 00:03:39of challenges and changes that happen
- 00:03:42every day for a teacher and so as i
- 00:03:45thought about
- 00:03:46what we need immediately i started
- 00:03:48thinking about well there's a difference
- 00:03:49what we need in
- 00:03:50august versus right before thanksgiving
- 00:03:53break
- 00:03:54or what we need when we're coming back
- 00:03:56from winter break or what we need
- 00:03:58in may when there have been all these
- 00:04:00changes some of which maybe we wanted
- 00:04:02some of which we didn't
- 00:04:03and so it just felt like i had to make
- 00:04:06that immediate connection
- 00:04:08between the strategy the habit you can
- 00:04:11cultivate
- 00:04:12and the time of year context is
- 00:04:15everything in some ways so yeah
- 00:04:18absolutely i mean the the wisdom you
- 00:04:19have of you know
- 00:04:20getting to know yourself uh in kind of
- 00:04:23june
- 00:04:23july uh coming back trying to build
- 00:04:26community at the start of the year
- 00:04:28to every educator knows that november
- 00:04:31time frame
- 00:04:31is uh sometimes the lowest point uh
- 00:04:35where
- 00:04:35you're struggling maybe a little
- 00:04:36february as well but um
- 00:04:38it's just really cool that you just
- 00:04:40framed your entire
- 00:04:42book around understanding that rhythm so
- 00:04:45a question i have for you you know
- 00:04:46coming
- 00:04:47out of a year or a little bit more of a
- 00:04:49pandemic
- 00:04:51as you look back at this year and you've
- 00:04:52been working with educators all across
- 00:04:54the nation
- 00:04:55have you noticed that the rhythms have
- 00:04:56changed at all in terms of the months
- 00:04:58and how people are feeling or do you
- 00:05:00feel like
- 00:05:00it's kind of groundhog day and stuck on
- 00:05:02the same emotions for more than one
- 00:05:04month
- 00:05:06i think that's a great question and
- 00:05:08really
- 00:05:09merits unpacking in terms of so what
- 00:05:12have we been through in this last year
- 00:05:15so many of us
- 00:05:17as educators professionals
- 00:05:20parents partners and whatever our role
- 00:05:23so many of us have been
- 00:05:25in a state of survival so first
- 00:05:29shock and then survival and maybe a
- 00:05:32little bit of adaptation
- 00:05:33i think everything has changed in the
- 00:05:35last year and nothing will be the same
- 00:05:37as it was before but
- 00:05:38our rhythms of the last year have been
- 00:05:40completely different nothing
- 00:05:42there was no rhythm of the year there
- 00:05:44was no
- 00:05:46may june end of the school year
- 00:05:48beginning of the school year
- 00:05:49and so yes we definitely need to rethink
- 00:05:53how we cultivate resilience right now
- 00:05:55based on what we've been through in the
- 00:05:56last year and i think the first thing we
- 00:05:58have to do
- 00:05:59is actually pause and say okay so what
- 00:06:02have we been through
- 00:06:03what what was this experience
- 00:06:07what are we perhaps hopefully emerging
- 00:06:10from
- 00:06:10i think you know it's clear that we are
- 00:06:12emerging however
- 00:06:14the near future still holds a lot of
- 00:06:17uncertainty
- 00:06:18and a lot of people are exhausted
- 00:06:21there's sort of a whiplash
- 00:06:22of now we're in distance learning now
- 00:06:25we're in some hybrid
- 00:06:26no now we're back in distance learning
- 00:06:27because too many infections and death so
- 00:06:30oh
- 00:06:30now we're back because now there's
- 00:06:32vaccinations
- 00:06:34however it's going to take a while for
- 00:06:36us to read reach herd immunity
- 00:06:38and there can well be more waves when
- 00:06:41school might be closed again
- 00:06:42when there will be again so we're facing
- 00:06:44all this uncertainty and we're tired
- 00:06:46and so there's a need for us to look at
- 00:06:50how we are building resilience
- 00:06:52with um perhaps a different lens
- 00:06:56so i mean you you spent last several
- 00:06:59years especially i think pack
- 00:07:01passionately going after helping
- 00:07:03teachers develop
- 00:07:04resiliency what i know you have a
- 00:07:07framework per se
- 00:07:09can you just give us a little idea of
- 00:07:10the framework that helps you
- 00:07:12support teachers or you advise educators
- 00:07:15to use to start developing resiliency at
- 00:07:17any time in their career or any stage or
- 00:07:19facing any challenge sure
- 00:07:22so onward is the book that is structured
- 00:07:26around the 12
- 00:07:27habits that educators can cultivate to
- 00:07:30refine their resilience to build it to
- 00:07:33hone it to refine it
- 00:07:35we are all born with some resilience and
- 00:07:37we can increase it and that's what's
- 00:07:39really
- 00:07:40hopeful and exciting there are things
- 00:07:42that we can do every day dozens of
- 00:07:44things we can do
- 00:07:45every day actions we can take as well
- 00:07:48as dispositions we can orient
- 00:07:51towards that will help us build our
- 00:07:54resilience
- 00:07:55and resilience i should say is not
- 00:07:58just about surviving it's actually about
- 00:08:01thriving in the face of adversity or in
- 00:08:04response to adversity
- 00:08:05so resilience is not just let's grit our
- 00:08:08teeth and
- 00:08:09drag ourselves through it and sort of
- 00:08:11prop ourselves up and say
- 00:08:12we survived that's not resilience that's
- 00:08:15survival
- 00:08:16resilience is when you experience a
- 00:08:19challenge and adversity
- 00:08:20even from something as small as uh
- 00:08:24you know an altercation with a student's
- 00:08:26parent to a global pandemic
- 00:08:28anything um and you come out of it
- 00:08:32recognizing you learned something
- 00:08:35you cultivated deeper relationships with
- 00:08:39some folks
- 00:08:40you feel stronger than before that's
- 00:08:42resilience and so we want to really
- 00:08:44think about
- 00:08:45how do we boost that resilience so the
- 00:08:4812
- 00:08:48habits in onward that again you can
- 00:08:51start working on one habit a month
- 00:08:53or you can also pick and choose and say
- 00:08:55this is the one i need to work on now
- 00:08:58there is a habit around understanding
- 00:09:00emotions
- 00:09:01which i think might be the most
- 00:09:03important for any time and the most
- 00:09:05important right now
- 00:09:06and most of us you know myself included
- 00:09:09are
- 00:09:09pretty illiterate when it comes to our
- 00:09:11emotions we just didn't
- 00:09:13get that kind of instruction growing up
- 00:09:16we didn't get social emotional learning
- 00:09:18in the way that some kids in some
- 00:09:20schools are getting now and we
- 00:09:22need it and we deserve it and it's so
- 00:09:26liberating to understand our emotions
- 00:09:29because again we're human beings
- 00:09:31and we have emotions and yet we are
- 00:09:34rarely taught about how to recognize
- 00:09:37them
- 00:09:37understand them engage with them make
- 00:09:40peace with them make friends with them
- 00:09:41learn from them and actually
- 00:09:44use them to thrive so that's the chapter
- 00:09:47that's the section i think right now
- 00:09:49every we could just spend
- 00:09:50so much time on well the part that i
- 00:09:52liked about
- 00:09:53you know you took me back throughout
- 00:09:55your book of going back to that first
- 00:09:57year of teacher when i was
- 00:09:58ready to quit or feeling like a failure
- 00:10:01or you know again i didn't understand
- 00:10:03all these emotions
- 00:10:04uh and especially as i advanced in my
- 00:10:05career uh can you talk i really enjoyed
- 00:10:08the
- 00:10:09the cycle of emotions you know from
- 00:10:11prompting to interpretation it just kind
- 00:10:13of gave us a good framework
- 00:10:15to help me recognize what is what is
- 00:10:17happening right now can you tell us a
- 00:10:18little bit about that
- 00:10:21sure i think what's most important to
- 00:10:23understand about that
- 00:10:25is that in this when we understand the
- 00:10:27cycle of an emotion we can understand
- 00:10:29precisely
- 00:10:30where and how we can cultivate our
- 00:10:32resilience and that precise
- 00:10:35spot is in between
- 00:10:38what happens and how you make sense of
- 00:10:41what happens
- 00:10:42and so let's say a student rolls her
- 00:10:46eyes at you that's what happens how you
- 00:10:49make
- 00:10:50sense of what happens the story you tell
- 00:10:52yourself
- 00:10:54is what will ultimately
- 00:10:57allow you to build your resilience
- 00:11:01or perhaps deplete it so a student rolls
- 00:11:04her
- 00:11:05eyes and there's a story you can tell an
- 00:11:08interpretation you can make
- 00:11:09which is she's so disrespectful
- 00:11:12she constantly disrespects me teachers
- 00:11:16are not respected
- 00:11:17this profession is just i can't be in it
- 00:11:22that's one interpretation right and i'm
- 00:11:24sure you can
- 00:11:25hear okay that's going to drain your
- 00:11:26resilience the other one is
- 00:11:29[Music]
- 00:11:32she must be having some emotions i
- 00:11:35wonder what she's feeling
- 00:11:36maybe she's feeling annoyed or irritated
- 00:11:40she is a 12 year old girl this is
- 00:11:43actually a good sign that she's helping
- 00:11:44me see what she's feeling
- 00:11:47i could let it go maybe i could ask her
- 00:11:49about this i have some choice right now
- 00:11:52i wonder what might make most sense
- 00:11:54given the time of day and what else i've
- 00:11:56got my plate
- 00:11:57so that interpretation that second one
- 00:12:00is what
- 00:12:00one which ultimately can boost your
- 00:12:02resilience
- 00:12:04because it allows you to feel more
- 00:12:06agency more empowered it connects you to
- 00:12:09compassion
- 00:12:10perhaps it leads you to a door or
- 00:12:13connects you to curiosity which may lead
- 00:12:15you to a door of compassion
- 00:12:17empathy so we have options right there
- 00:12:21this is in the cycle of an emotion we
- 00:12:23can pinpoint the spot
- 00:12:25where we have options for how we respond
- 00:12:28and then for whether our resilience goes
- 00:12:30up or down that's super empowering
- 00:12:33yeah i think you know part of again a
- 00:12:35consistent theme that i felt throughout
- 00:12:37your
- 00:12:37your book and i'm sure this is across a
- 00:12:39lot of your teaching
- 00:12:40is the ability to to be mindful so to
- 00:12:44make space
- 00:12:45uh to really think about your emotions
- 00:12:48but you know i think about my world
- 00:12:50you go from this meeting you feel the
- 00:12:51emotion then you have another meeting
- 00:12:53then another meeting this this first
- 00:12:54you know meeting or class is still very
- 00:12:56much on my mind but at the end of the
- 00:12:57day instead of pausing and trying to get
- 00:12:59mindful
- 00:13:00i'm listening to music or i'm talking to
- 00:13:03someone on the phone
- 00:13:04i'm never you know i'm watching tv i'm
- 00:13:06never
- 00:13:07pausing long enough can you can you
- 00:13:09describe uh
- 00:13:11what mindfulness means to you and give
- 00:13:13us some ideas of
- 00:13:15how do we pause along enough to really
- 00:13:16understand our cycle of emotions
- 00:13:20yeah great question so the first thing i
- 00:13:23want to say
- 00:13:24is there are a lot of individual actions
- 00:13:28we can take
- 00:13:29and at the same time the systems and
- 00:13:32structures and institutions in which
- 00:13:34we work also need to change and so this
- 00:13:37book is not just saying to teachers you
- 00:13:39know get a better attitude
- 00:13:40like teaching is hard and schools are
- 00:13:43rough places and there's a lot of
- 00:13:47burnout for reasons
- 00:13:48which i'm not gonna just say well that's
- 00:13:50because the teacher didn't do these
- 00:13:51habits right these are
- 00:13:53they're real things that need to change
- 00:13:55in our structures and organizations and
- 00:13:57our institutions and it is a problem
- 00:13:59if we if you are running from meeting to
- 00:14:02meeting to meeting without five minutes
- 00:14:04in between
- 00:14:04that's a problem that's unsustainable
- 00:14:07and you know i could
- 00:14:08ask you from a coaching stance how's
- 00:14:10that working for you and yet i've asked
- 00:14:12so many people that i know it's not
- 00:14:13working this is one of the reasons we
- 00:14:15see so much turnover we see less
- 00:14:18satisfaction in jobs we don't see the
- 00:14:20kind of
- 00:14:21impact that we want to have as
- 00:14:24organizations or businesses we don't
- 00:14:26necessarily meet all of our goals
- 00:14:27because
- 00:14:28that reflection time if you had five or
- 00:14:30ten minutes in between those meetings
- 00:14:32i know you would be more effective more
- 00:14:35productive
- 00:14:36happier have better relationships with
- 00:14:38others i know this this is 25 years of
- 00:14:40research in watching how people work
- 00:14:42so i want to just you know keep an eye
- 00:14:45on the context we're in and say
- 00:14:47that needs to change and how that
- 00:14:49changes is a conversation
- 00:14:51change usually happens real
- 00:14:53transformative change happens for
- 00:14:55sort of from the bottom up when folks
- 00:14:57say you know and this could be we set
- 00:15:00our own calendar so we could start
- 00:15:01saying to ourselves
- 00:15:02i gotta schedule five or ten minutes
- 00:15:04fifteen even that would be wild
- 00:15:06in between meetings i have to have a
- 00:15:07limit on how many i have a day
- 00:15:09because you need to what i don't want
- 00:15:12people to hear
- 00:15:13is that i'm saying do this do this do
- 00:15:16this add this to your plate add this add
- 00:15:18this
- 00:15:18that in itself starts feeling like i
- 00:15:20can't do anymore you know i'm gonna be
- 00:15:22getting up at three in the morning
- 00:15:23because elena's telling me
- 00:15:25i need to meditate and then exercise and
- 00:15:28then do something creative
- 00:15:29and then have a good breakfast and then
- 00:15:31it you know it's not
- 00:15:32we can't do that we have to figure out
- 00:15:34how are we
- 00:15:35taking things off our plate how are we
- 00:15:37prioritizing what are we prioritizing
- 00:15:40what is the decision-making criteria
- 00:15:42that we're using to figure out how we
- 00:15:44spend our time
- 00:15:45and not just keep doing and doing and
- 00:15:48doing and running
- 00:15:48and now that we are in this pandemic
- 00:15:52phase where we're all working from home
- 00:15:54and it's a zoom meeting
- 00:15:55so many of us aren't even giving
- 00:15:57ourselves one minute between meetings
- 00:15:59it's like this ends at eight
- 00:16:00this starts at nine you know this is or
- 00:16:02ends at nine starts at nine
- 00:16:04and so gotta just say we have to keep an
- 00:16:07eye on context
- 00:16:08and then what
- 00:16:12what is mindfulness and how do we do it
- 00:16:14i mean mindfulness
- 00:16:16could be practiced in the five or ten
- 00:16:19minutes you have in between meetings
- 00:16:21when you simply do nothing
- 00:16:24other than sit back in your chair lie on
- 00:16:28your floor
- 00:16:28stand up stand outside get some fresh
- 00:16:30air and just say okay so what happened
- 00:16:34how did i show up in that meeting was i
- 00:16:37showing up in the way that i want to be
- 00:16:39as the person i want to be
- 00:16:41how did what i did and how i
- 00:16:45showed up in that meeting aligned to my
- 00:16:47values to my vision for myself to my
- 00:16:50sense of purpose in life
- 00:16:52it's asking yourself those questions
- 00:16:56what happened who was i how did it go
- 00:16:59if i could rewind that hour what would i
- 00:17:02do differently
- 00:17:04those kinds of questions so it's really
- 00:17:06creating the space
- 00:17:08and then figuring out
- 00:17:11which of the prompts or practices works
- 00:17:14best for me
- 00:17:16to feel more grounded more
- 00:17:19centered clearer that's
- 00:17:23you know there's the slowing down
- 00:17:26in and of itself would be a tremendous
- 00:17:29boost
- 00:17:30to our energy which again is all about
- 00:17:32our resilience
- 00:17:33yeah i think uh a couple of thoughts i
- 00:17:35have that first thanks for
- 00:17:37backing up long enough to say let's
- 00:17:40frame this that it's not just about
- 00:17:41teachers do better
- 00:17:43right i was just very much in the
- 00:17:44framework there's a system that we have
- 00:17:46to work on i want to revisit that in a
- 00:17:47second
- 00:17:48i think when it comes to uh mindfulness
- 00:17:52you know one of the things i've been
- 00:17:53working with my team on recently is
- 00:17:55being intentional about your mornings
- 00:17:56right so having some quiet time and
- 00:17:59really visualize your day
- 00:18:00but as you've already experienced you
- 00:18:02can tell you're
- 00:18:04you're teaching me a lot because i know
- 00:18:06i have my meetings back to back to back
- 00:18:08and that complete over but also
- 00:18:10it doesn't allow you to the the mantra
- 00:18:12we're trying to work on is to show up
- 00:18:14and be present so show up to the meeting
- 00:18:16right on time
- 00:18:17uh and be fully present and in the
- 00:18:19moment and if
- 00:18:21you don't give yourself that time it's
- 00:18:23gonna be really difficult and so that's
- 00:18:25that's really strong encouragement i
- 00:18:26appreciate that i do want to revisit
- 00:18:30the harsh reality of our systems need to
- 00:18:32change so when i'm thinking about
- 00:18:34a school system or a district
- 00:18:38what are those systems right now that
- 00:18:40you're seeing that you're very
- 00:18:41passionate about
- 00:18:43uh seeing change soon in those systems
- 00:18:49to fight burnout we'll say that just to
- 00:18:51fight burnout because i know that's a
- 00:18:52big question so
- 00:18:53i mean it still may be still a big
- 00:18:55question but what are those systems that
- 00:18:57we need to work on to fight burnout for
- 00:18:59our educators
- 00:19:01i think we need to start by saying
- 00:19:06what you know perhaps by articulating or
- 00:19:09aligning on a vision
- 00:19:11what is the system what do we want this
- 00:19:13system to
- 00:19:14result in or to produce for everyone
- 00:19:17involved in it
- 00:19:19when i think about that i think about
- 00:19:21how
- 00:19:22a system could be designed to
- 00:19:26tend to and be responsive to
- 00:19:29the whole human being so we talk about
- 00:19:31the whole child
- 00:19:33but we don't talk about the whole adult
- 00:19:35as well so the whole human being
- 00:19:37could we recognize that people
- 00:19:41exist physically like we have bodies
- 00:19:44we have emotions we have minds
- 00:19:48that think and want to think in
- 00:19:50different ways we have spirits that need
- 00:19:53tending to and we have a will that is
- 00:19:56part of our spirit that wants to fulfill
- 00:19:58a purpose however we think about that
- 00:20:00agnostically we all
- 00:20:01have a sense of a purpose in life and so
- 00:20:04how do we think about
- 00:20:05systems that recognize our full humanity
- 00:20:09and then the next question is okay so
- 00:20:11this system that we
- 00:20:12work in today this education system what
- 00:20:14is that designed to do
- 00:20:16what was it designed to do when it was
- 00:20:18created
- 00:20:19in the 1800s what was it designed to do
- 00:20:22who was it designed for and how is
- 00:20:23it working who is it working for i don't
- 00:20:27see you know to make some blanket
- 00:20:29statements the overwhelming majority of
- 00:20:31schools that i go into i don't see a
- 00:20:32whole lot of joy
- 00:20:35or intellectual vibrancy
- 00:20:39or healthy response to the fact that we
- 00:20:42all have bodies i think about things
- 00:20:44like
- 00:20:44i remember when i was a newish teacher
- 00:20:46and i learned this is a silly anecdote
- 00:20:48but i learned that
- 00:20:49teachers have the highest rates of any
- 00:20:52group of professionals for bladder
- 00:20:54infections because we never have time to
- 00:20:55go to the bathroom
- 00:20:57i was like oh okay that's true with my
- 00:21:00schedule you know the way it's like okay
- 00:21:01it's been four hours now i'm dashing
- 00:21:03down the hallway like don't run kids
- 00:21:05i gotta run you know like it's that's
- 00:21:07crazy
- 00:21:08that's ridiculous how is it that we
- 00:21:10don't we have professions where like we
- 00:21:12can't take care of our very basic bodily
- 00:21:14needs
- 00:21:15but children sitting all day
- 00:21:18five-year-olds
- 00:21:19sitting sitting sitting sitting all day
- 00:21:22that's just
- 00:21:23not what bodies that are 5
- 00:21:26or 11 or 12 or even 30 are supposed to
- 00:21:29be doing
- 00:21:30so we really have to look at i mean we
- 00:21:33really have to look at just about
- 00:21:34everything
- 00:21:35yeah i think one
- 00:21:38comment you made that crystallized in my
- 00:21:41head pretty quickly is you know for a
- 00:21:43long time especially work in urban
- 00:21:44education like i have and i believe you
- 00:21:46have spent your
- 00:21:47most of your career i feel like uh we
- 00:21:49often
- 00:21:51from the system are always talking about
- 00:21:52student student students
- 00:21:54and it's basically encouraging our
- 00:21:57educators to burn out i mean they're
- 00:22:00going above and beyond it's kind of
- 00:22:01going past them
- 00:22:02and often i thought of uh you know the
- 00:22:04southwest airlines model which is
- 00:22:06about serving the their employees first
- 00:22:09and because they're doing that well
- 00:22:10they're sort of their clients better
- 00:22:12what can we do to create that kind of
- 00:22:14system or what are ideas that you
- 00:22:16thought about
- 00:22:17of how do we have school districts who
- 00:22:20are
- 00:22:20really focused on taking care of their
- 00:22:23most precious resources their they're
- 00:22:25educators and frontline teachers
- 00:22:28yeah i mean the first thing that i wish
- 00:22:30we could do is drop the false binary
- 00:22:32it's not this first or that first like
- 00:22:35we're so interconnected we can't
- 00:22:36separate this out but
- 00:22:38the binary mindset is so problematic and
- 00:22:41shows up in so many places in our
- 00:22:43education system and in our world so
- 00:22:45i just got a name again that like
- 00:22:47underlying beliefs
- 00:22:49need to be interrogated and a belief
- 00:22:51that we can't do both
- 00:22:52is faulty we can serve kids and teachers
- 00:22:56we can do both we we can we're
- 00:22:58incredibly resourceful brilliant human
- 00:23:00beings i mean look at what human beings
- 00:23:02have been able to do i'm like constantly
- 00:23:03astounded
- 00:23:04and we can we can figure out how to
- 00:23:06serve children and adults
- 00:23:08i mean where to start there's
- 00:23:12there are so many possible entry points
- 00:23:15that in any school or community
- 00:23:19and any team folks could just literally
- 00:23:21start by saying
- 00:23:22how do we how do you want to start this
- 00:23:23conversation where do you want to start
- 00:23:25what would make i think a lot about
- 00:23:27what is the one easy change we could
- 00:23:30make
- 00:23:31that would make that would sort of
- 00:23:35light us up to what could be possible
- 00:23:38and help us charge up the energy
- 00:23:41to make more changes sometimes the you
- 00:23:44know what we're veering into right now
- 00:23:45is a
- 00:23:46sort of a conversation about how do you
- 00:23:48lead and facilitate
- 00:23:49change and so sometimes i think we want
- 00:23:51to get people fired up like what's
- 00:23:52one little thing that could have a big
- 00:23:55impact that could have everybody saying
- 00:23:58whoa if we did these other things
- 00:24:03so it's figuring out collectively
- 00:24:05collaboratively
- 00:24:06with students and their
- 00:24:09parents and the community and teachers
- 00:24:12and
- 00:24:13custodial workers and everyone like
- 00:24:15what's what's a couple of changes we can
- 00:24:16make what's one thing we could try
- 00:24:18well one thing that i was really poor at
- 00:24:22as an educator and really poor at as a
- 00:24:24district leader
- 00:24:25and maybe struggle still sometimes today
- 00:24:27is
- 00:24:29recognizing and acting on the value
- 00:24:32of community and the importance of
- 00:24:34community to helping
- 00:24:35fight burnout and enhance our
- 00:24:37performance and to your point thrive not
- 00:24:39survive
- 00:24:41my question is twofold when it comes to
- 00:24:42community
- 00:24:44one you know when you're advising
- 00:24:46schools or districts
- 00:24:47uh what are systems that you've seen put
- 00:24:49in place
- 00:24:50that help naturally facilitate community
- 00:24:53for the educators
- 00:24:54and then two what's advice that you give
- 00:24:56to individual educators to
- 00:24:58to find their own community
- 00:25:02great questions so
- 00:25:07i'll start with actually your second
- 00:25:09question
- 00:25:11how do i coach communities to find
- 00:25:13educators to find their communities
- 00:25:16in part i want to name this up front
- 00:25:17because
- 00:25:20in all of the work i do one
- 00:25:23of the sort of ultimate goals north
- 00:25:27stars is empowering folks
- 00:25:29helping folks build their capacity to do
- 00:25:32something
- 00:25:34sometimes when i've consulted with
- 00:25:36districts i tell them
- 00:25:37my goal is for you to not need me next
- 00:25:40year
- 00:25:41i hope you won't need me i don't want
- 00:25:42your business i want to help you build
- 00:25:44the capacities
- 00:25:46to take on this challenge you know or
- 00:25:48you may need me for some other challenge
- 00:25:50but for this challenge i want you to not
- 00:25:52need me
- 00:25:52so i want similarly i want folks that i
- 00:25:56coach or teach
- 00:25:59to feel like they can acquire the tools
- 00:26:02so one of the first i want them to see
- 00:26:05sort of the framework
- 00:26:06that i'm almost using to guide them one
- 00:26:07of the first things i'll start with is
- 00:26:09just
- 00:26:09almost like a needs assessment again
- 00:26:12what
- 00:26:13what do you need what what's not being
- 00:26:16fulfilled in your life
- 00:26:18and then what might be some ways to go
- 00:26:22about this
- 00:26:23what might your journey look like for
- 00:26:26you to figure
- 00:26:27out how you might go about getting this
- 00:26:29need met
- 00:26:31who might you talk to or ask or watch or
- 00:26:33observe or listen to to get ideas
- 00:26:36right and so many i mean human beings
- 00:26:40are very similar in some ways and we're
- 00:26:41also really different
- 00:26:43so if i for example i'm coaching an
- 00:26:46introverted teacher
- 00:26:48they're going to need different things
- 00:26:49that an extroverted teacher will need
- 00:26:51when it comes to building community
- 00:26:53and i want them to go through the
- 00:26:56thinking the inquiry process to figure
- 00:26:59out
- 00:27:00what they need and how they can get that
- 00:27:01need met
- 00:27:03so you know there's there's and then
- 00:27:06there's people who are new to a
- 00:27:08community there are folks who are in a
- 00:27:09community but have shifted positions
- 00:27:11they have different relationships there
- 00:27:13are um i'm
- 00:27:16you know i really believe in people
- 00:27:19being able to solve their own problems
- 00:27:22if they have a safe enough space
- 00:27:25if someone is holding space for them and
- 00:27:28asking them some
- 00:27:29provocative questions or probing
- 00:27:31questions and so that's the approach i
- 00:27:33take to folks what is it that you need
- 00:27:35so you know i can give you a couple of
- 00:27:37examples really just from my own
- 00:27:38experience um
- 00:27:42i mean when i moved to oakland and i was
- 00:27:44new to
- 00:27:46to teaching to the school that i was
- 00:27:48working
- 00:27:49and i was really active
- 00:27:52i recognized now i wasn't super
- 00:27:54intentional or clear about it then but i
- 00:27:55was really active in those
- 00:27:57in that first year about going to
- 00:28:00different you know things like there's a
- 00:28:04friday night science thing for how to
- 00:28:07teach astronomy
- 00:28:08at the observatory like okay i'm gonna
- 00:28:10go to that
- 00:28:11i mean those are kind of things that
- 00:28:12this is not rocket science to build on
- 00:28:15that
- 00:28:16reference um but you know doing that or
- 00:28:18going to the teacher's lunchroom
- 00:28:20that didn't work for me so then i
- 00:28:22started different approaches to make
- 00:28:23connections with folks in school
- 00:28:25stopping in asking teachers
- 00:28:28in my grade level for resources
- 00:28:30information idea like it's it does feel
- 00:28:32like work and it is
- 00:28:33you got to do it um i
- 00:28:37had a child after i've been teaching for
- 00:28:39about eight years
- 00:28:40and i don't have family in the area
- 00:28:42neither my husband or i did
- 00:28:44and all of a sudden i had this new
- 00:28:46learning area like
- 00:28:47what do you do with a baby basically and
- 00:28:50i
- 00:28:52um i reached out to the parents of my
- 00:28:54students
- 00:28:55i saw them before after school i was
- 00:28:57like what are your tricks for getting a
- 00:28:59baby to stop crying in the middle of the
- 00:29:00night
- 00:29:01and i just you know this is this is the
- 00:29:03way i'm oriented i reach out to people
- 00:29:05all over the place i see
- 00:29:06like i'm the kind of person who will
- 00:29:08send you an email knock on your door say
- 00:29:10hey do you have a minute like
- 00:29:12i need help so um
- 00:29:15but people go about this differently
- 00:29:18you have to sort of figure out your
- 00:29:20recipe your journey
- 00:29:22and and then sometimes what i do as a
- 00:29:25coach or a consultant or something is
- 00:29:26nudge people okay you also asked about
- 00:29:30systems
- 00:29:31i think that's good sorry i i think
- 00:29:34where it came up from is that one i'm
- 00:29:35glad you started with the individual
- 00:29:37because i think about
- 00:29:38when i was a new teacher i was teaching
- 00:29:40high school so i felt like i could talk
- 00:29:42to the students as i develop
- 00:29:43relationships with them
- 00:29:44and ask them who have been their most
- 00:29:46influential teachers
- 00:29:48in the building and i just try to try to
- 00:29:50get to know them because to your point
- 00:29:52going to the break room for lunch you
- 00:29:54know the teacher lounge
- 00:29:56didn't do it for me and so trying to
- 00:29:58find community then i thought all right
- 00:30:00well
- 00:30:01how could my principal or when i was
- 00:30:04leaving schools or helping lead schools
- 00:30:06how could we have created some sort of
- 00:30:08systems that encourage
- 00:30:10community didn't force it to your point
- 00:30:12because everybody has their own
- 00:30:12individual needs
- 00:30:14but encouraged it so i didn't know if
- 00:30:16you had any opinions on that
- 00:30:19i mean i think there's a there's some
- 00:30:20interesting questions to unpack about
- 00:30:22like what are
- 00:30:23systems what is it teachers need so one
- 00:30:25of the things i
- 00:30:26i think about for example for new
- 00:30:28teachers one of the
- 00:30:30top complaints is going to be i don't
- 00:30:32have time i'm
- 00:30:33so overwhelmed i don't have time to do
- 00:30:35that and that's i remember when i was
- 00:30:37like i'm going to go to this i'm going
- 00:30:38to go to that and
- 00:30:39you know the observatory thing was on a
- 00:30:42friday night and i remember i was
- 00:30:43so exhausted i just thought i can't
- 00:30:46do this and i did end up going and i
- 00:30:49actually
- 00:30:50i remember because i made a really good
- 00:30:52friend or someone who became a really
- 00:30:53good friend
- 00:30:54and who i collaborated with who
- 00:30:58um and i often think if i hadn't gone
- 00:31:00it's funny because i
- 00:31:02this friend is the reason basically that
- 00:31:04i met my husband so i often think about
- 00:31:06that friday night i'm like if i hadn't
- 00:31:08gone would i have met my husband
- 00:31:11um but you know i think about teachers
- 00:31:13just being exhausted and so could a
- 00:31:15principal provide release time
- 00:31:18could a this is a system it you know
- 00:31:20essentially
- 00:31:21is perhaps for a first-year teacher
- 00:31:24in a secondary school they're teaching
- 00:31:26you know six
- 00:31:27preps rather than seven or maybe three
- 00:31:30rather than
- 00:31:31seven i mean there's all kinds of
- 00:31:32implications there but maybe they've got
- 00:31:34an
- 00:31:34extra release period or two per week
- 00:31:36when it's like
- 00:31:37this is the time when you build
- 00:31:39community or you take that time and you
- 00:31:41go do your laundry do what you need to
- 00:31:43do so friday night you can go to the
- 00:31:44thing at the observatory
- 00:31:46right so what are the how does
- 00:31:49a teacher's capacity get get stretched
- 00:31:53beginning teachers it's going to be time
- 00:31:55it's going to be finances in many places
- 00:31:57so maybe it's also
- 00:31:59you know here's a stipend for
- 00:32:03for pd to go to or other programs to go
- 00:32:06to or maybe you just realize you need to
- 00:32:08do something like go to a regular yoga
- 00:32:10class
- 00:32:10and as a first year teacher i was not
- 00:32:14able to afford on my teacher salary in
- 00:32:17oakland
- 00:32:17public schools i was not able to afford
- 00:32:19a yoga class i was
- 00:32:20barely paying the rent each month let
- 00:32:23alone like trying to buy one or two
- 00:32:24books for my classroom every month so if
- 00:32:26my principal had said
- 00:32:28you know here's a monthly stipend so you
- 00:32:29can go to yoga once a month i would have
- 00:32:31been able to take care of myself
- 00:32:33maybe make some new friends in oakland
- 00:32:35that would have been amazing
- 00:32:37so i guess when i think about systems
- 00:32:39i'm also thinking about resources
- 00:32:42i like that a lot actually um my wife
- 00:32:44taught in the bronx i taught in st
- 00:32:46louis and as you can imagine the cost of
- 00:32:48living difference is
- 00:32:49definitely different so when she tells
- 00:32:51me stories like yours of well i couldn't
- 00:32:53afford this or that it just it blows my
- 00:32:55mind and so to your point
- 00:32:56how can our our schools and our
- 00:32:58districts help support that and offset
- 00:33:00that
- 00:33:01um at you you talked a little bit about
- 00:33:04how to uh you know self-care
- 00:33:06uh you know with the yoga part and i
- 00:33:08think
- 00:33:09when so our organization you know we're
- 00:33:12most known for the seven habits and our
- 00:33:13seventh habit is sharpen the saw which
- 00:33:15is take care of yourself and we have
- 00:33:17examples of how to do that i think that
- 00:33:19refreshing
- 00:33:20a piece of thought that you gave to me
- 00:33:24as i was going through your book was the
- 00:33:26gaps that people
- 00:33:28have in being able to practice self-care
- 00:33:31and i think you identified three the
- 00:33:32three graphs that i took notes on were
- 00:33:34you know kind of a skills gap a will gap
- 00:33:36and emotional intelligence gap
- 00:33:38so keep holding us back from being you
- 00:33:40know
- 00:33:41practicing self-care can you talk a
- 00:33:42little bit about that
- 00:33:44yeah i'm glad you brought that up
- 00:33:46there's so much talk about self-care
- 00:33:48right
- 00:33:48in in the last year with pandemics like
- 00:33:51self-care self-care but what is
- 00:33:53self-care
- 00:33:54needs to be unpacked and then why is it
- 00:33:56that we don't do these things that so
- 00:33:58many of us
- 00:33:59know we need to do and so
- 00:34:02you know there so i think about it as
- 00:34:05well we could have a knowledge gap
- 00:34:07for example i recently maybe in the last
- 00:34:12year found out that i'm super low
- 00:34:15on vitamin b12 and i started taking
- 00:34:17supplements i feel so much better
- 00:34:19i just didn't know that that was a
- 00:34:21knowledge gap about my own body
- 00:34:23and the role of b12 i was like oh my god
- 00:34:26it's just missing b12 i could have
- 00:34:27written six books last year
- 00:34:29you know like okay somehow so sometimes
- 00:34:32we just have these knowledge gaps
- 00:34:33so we can have a knowledge gap about our
- 00:34:36physiology and i think a lot of people
- 00:34:39do
- 00:34:39i'm blown away by i mean that's i said
- 00:34:42you know we don't
- 00:34:43know a lot about our emotions i also
- 00:34:44think we really don't know much about
- 00:34:46what our body needs in order to feel
- 00:34:48good for example sleep
- 00:34:50and and i do i can kind of geek out for
- 00:34:52a little bit on the science or the
- 00:34:53neuroscience of a lot of this i'm like
- 00:34:55oh
- 00:34:55the endorphins and the you know what
- 00:34:57happens when you're sleeping
- 00:34:59and how critical that is and we try to
- 00:35:02so then here's the thing now we may have
- 00:35:04the knowledge
- 00:35:06but um i'm not sure if this will
- 00:35:09continue
- 00:35:10working if we think about what's this
- 00:35:12skill gap i mean we could
- 00:35:13talk about different kinds of exercise
- 00:35:16and the skill we need to know like we
- 00:35:18may know
- 00:35:19that cardio is good for us and so we
- 00:35:21might start running
- 00:35:23and then after three days we might find
- 00:35:25that we've pulled something and we're in
- 00:35:26a lot of pain and we're like i'm not
- 00:35:28gonna run anymore
- 00:35:29because we actually didn't know some of
- 00:35:31the things that we need to know about
- 00:35:32how to move your body when you're
- 00:35:34running so you don't injure yourself
- 00:35:36right so there can be that kind of skill
- 00:35:39which is kind of skill plus knowledge
- 00:35:40but you know sometimes
- 00:35:41like no you actually need to watch or
- 00:35:44work with a trainer or something to find
- 00:35:46to figure out like what's going on here
- 00:35:48but i think the
- 00:35:49the the gap that people have more than
- 00:35:52any other
- 00:35:53is this sort of emotional intelligence
- 00:35:55gap which sometimes
- 00:35:56also has to do which is connected to why
- 00:35:59it's hard for us to prioritize self-care
- 00:36:02why we may feel like
- 00:36:05oh i just you know i'm gonna keep
- 00:36:06working rather than taking that hour to
- 00:36:08go for a walk
- 00:36:10why we feel a a an
- 00:36:13unceasing need
- 00:36:16to produce and do and be busy and prove
- 00:36:19ourselves
- 00:36:20and be efficient that's again a belief
- 00:36:23system or mindset to unpack
- 00:36:25but that is connected to emotional
- 00:36:26intelligence it's connected to some
- 00:36:28emotion that we are experiencing
- 00:36:30consciously or not
- 00:36:31which is helping us make a decision
- 00:36:32about how we spend our time so that's
- 00:36:34the one that i really unpack with people
- 00:36:36which gets to our
- 00:36:38our sense of worthiness and our
- 00:36:41our sense of um deserving
- 00:36:45well-being physical emotional
- 00:36:48cognitive spiritual well-being yeah do
- 00:36:51you have i mean you've got so many good
- 00:36:52resources on your
- 00:36:54website do you have something that as
- 00:36:57someone's
- 00:36:57listening right now they're thinking how
- 00:36:59do i unpack my emotional intelligence is
- 00:37:00there something you can point to them to
- 00:37:02or
- 00:37:02the first step or two other than just
- 00:37:04pausing and to think about it long
- 00:37:06enough
- 00:37:06how can we help folks because i do think
- 00:37:08to your point that impact unworthiness
- 00:37:10so many folks are just keep working work
- 00:37:12and work and
- 00:37:14trying to figure out their worthiness
- 00:37:15that we don't we don't pause recognize
- 00:37:17that we are worthy just
- 00:37:18because and so what's your advice for
- 00:37:21those folks right now
- 00:37:22well i'd love to direct people to a
- 00:37:25brand new
- 00:37:26program that i've created which is
- 00:37:28starting on march 22nd and it'll go for
- 00:37:31four weeks and folks can pick up the
- 00:37:33content anytime
- 00:37:34and the content will be released through
- 00:37:37my podcast
- 00:37:38as well as it's free we're just
- 00:37:42all you have to do is sign up on my
- 00:37:43website and you get four weeks of
- 00:37:45content
- 00:37:46for how to feel better and the first two
- 00:37:49weeks
- 00:37:50are all about looking at your emotional
- 00:37:53landscape and understanding what is
- 00:37:56there this is content that is actually
- 00:37:58relevant for anyone
- 00:38:00in any field any profession actually of
- 00:38:03any age it can be done with
- 00:38:04kids it can be done with your partner
- 00:38:08and that's available through my website
- 00:38:11um and that's a great place to start it
- 00:38:14can be
- 00:38:15i'm i've designed it thinking
- 00:38:17specifically
- 00:38:18about the transition out of the pandemic
- 00:38:21that we're in
- 00:38:22and wanting to support people to take a
- 00:38:24step back
- 00:38:25process the trauma of the last year
- 00:38:29um you know hold those minutes that
- 00:38:31moment to say what just
- 00:38:33happened and also to think about going
- 00:38:36forward and changes that
- 00:38:38they may want to make in their lives and
- 00:38:40their in their professions
- 00:38:42as we emerge that's great we'll make
- 00:38:45sure
- 00:38:46that uh we point out how folks can get
- 00:38:48to that because i do think it's really
- 00:38:49important
- 00:38:50and to kind of expound upon that uh
- 00:38:53you spend a little bit of time talking
- 00:38:55about the importance of play
- 00:38:56and as a former athlete and uh
- 00:39:00fortunately or unfortunately probably
- 00:39:02unfortunately in this case like a hyper
- 00:39:03competitive person
- 00:39:04you kind of attacked my view of play
- 00:39:07which i appreciated again unpacking
- 00:39:09biases unpacking our own thoughts
- 00:39:11can you tell us you know the importance
- 00:39:12of play as well as
- 00:39:14uh walk us through kind of the
- 00:39:15definition of what play is and what it
- 00:39:17isn't
- 00:39:19sure okay that one's really hard for me
- 00:39:21to that's the hardest thing for me to do
- 00:39:23in this whole
- 00:39:24i uh it's something i've really
- 00:39:26struggled with but you know and it's
- 00:39:27funny because i'm like i'm gonna work on
- 00:39:29playing i'm gonna be more playful which
- 00:39:32is obviously not the energy to bring to
- 00:39:34play
- 00:39:35um yeah i did a lot of research for this
- 00:39:39book
- 00:39:40and this was the research i think was
- 00:39:44most surprising
- 00:39:46was the many benefits
- 00:39:50so it's so hard for me even to talk
- 00:39:52about this without immediately starting
- 00:39:54to think about the
- 00:39:56impact that is you know that will
- 00:39:58contribute to me fulfilling my purpose
- 00:40:00or to me being productive or creating
- 00:40:02right which is like okay so i think pat
- 00:40:04is like if i play
- 00:40:05i'm gonna have more energy it's gonna
- 00:40:07free up more ideas and then i will be
- 00:40:09able to which is ironically
- 00:40:11not the way that researchers so play
- 00:40:14true play is supposed to have no purpose
- 00:40:17it's just play for the sake of play
- 00:40:20so what does that look like you know we
- 00:40:22can get an idea if we look at
- 00:40:24three four five year olds really let's
- 00:40:26look at how little kids play
- 00:40:28are they trying to like be better you
- 00:40:31know writers by doing this
- 00:40:32or be more creative or be problems no
- 00:40:34they're just playing
- 00:40:37it's good to be around little kids so
- 00:40:40it's you know that for me the moment i
- 00:40:42had that was like a breakthrough i was
- 00:40:44like okay this is playing was
- 00:40:46oh how old was my son i don't know he
- 00:40:48was still a kid
- 00:40:50and he kept sort of wanting me to play
- 00:40:53with him come on play and i
- 00:40:54have to admit i think it was like a
- 00:40:55sunday afternoon i was like oh i'm busy
- 00:40:58i'm doing this i'm doing that i'm always
- 00:40:59busy
- 00:41:00and he was like play i finally said okay
- 00:41:03i'm gonna play
- 00:41:04okay i gotta admit because the research
- 00:41:05was like you need to play so
- 00:41:07he wanted to he we had water toys and he
- 00:41:10wanted it was a warm afternoon he wanted
- 00:41:11to run around and squirt each other
- 00:41:13and i said okay let's do that we ran
- 00:41:15around we squared each other
- 00:41:17it was really fun i forgot what i was
- 00:41:19doing i forgot that i
- 00:41:21even had you know an alternative purpose
- 00:41:24i forgot that you know i wasn't thinking
- 00:41:25about how am i going to translate this
- 00:41:27into a blog how am i going to tell peop
- 00:41:28i was just running around chasing him
- 00:41:30and getting squirted
- 00:41:31screaming wanting not to scare my
- 00:41:33neighbors you know falling down on the
- 00:41:35floor and like letting him
- 00:41:37drench me in water and laughing and
- 00:41:39going oh this is fun
- 00:41:41and this is really oh i'm playing i'm
- 00:41:44doing it to check
- 00:41:45no don't do that so you know so yeah
- 00:41:48to your point i mean again i i my wife
- 00:41:50and i are both my wife was really a
- 00:41:52college athlete i was a pretend college
- 00:41:54athlete more of like a water boy and
- 00:41:55then realized i didn't have the talent
- 00:41:56for it but i was aspiring anyways
- 00:41:58uh and so play for me with with my kids
- 00:42:01is
- 00:42:02we'll go play basketball or baseball or
- 00:42:05golf or
- 00:42:06and there's a score that we're keeping
- 00:42:08right or play for me individually is
- 00:42:10i'll go run i'll do a workout i'll do
- 00:42:12something
- 00:42:13you were clear at least i felt as i was
- 00:42:16thinking through like what play
- 00:42:17is and isn't that that's not technically
- 00:42:20play
- 00:42:21and so that was a real interesting take
- 00:42:23that
- 00:42:24caused me to pause and reflect on
- 00:42:27what's happening with my mind and body
- 00:42:29during the times that i would call play
- 00:42:31if you would just ask me in a
- 00:42:32conversation about how do i play
- 00:42:35yeah i mean you're so conditioned into
- 00:42:39how you are engaging in and
- 00:42:41participating
- 00:42:42in you know any kind of sport activity
- 00:42:45that that
- 00:42:48will be really hard for you to actually
- 00:42:49play in and so
- 00:42:51for you if i was like coaching you or
- 00:42:53directing you i'd probably be like
- 00:42:54you need a finger paint you know you
- 00:42:57need to
- 00:42:58do something that is a completely
- 00:43:00different realm
- 00:43:02for which you have no comparative
- 00:43:06model because you are always going to
- 00:43:08have that no matter how hard you try to
- 00:43:10extricate it from yourself as a as an
- 00:43:12athlete
- 00:43:12so something for which you have you know
- 00:43:14you're only like
- 00:43:16yes you probably go into comparative
- 00:43:18mind because that's what humans do
- 00:43:20but it's not going to have the same kind
- 00:43:22of emotional triggers
- 00:43:23or responses from you it's not going to
- 00:43:24be like i'm better i'm worse what's
- 00:43:26happening to me what's you know
- 00:43:28to your point so i think that's really
- 00:43:29healthy because i probably spend way too
- 00:43:31much of my
- 00:43:32mind there but it's something that my
- 00:43:34seven-year-old and five-year-old it's
- 00:43:35really hit me or soon to be five
- 00:43:37uh hit me a lot recently we had a
- 00:43:41daddy sunday with the two oldest of me
- 00:43:43and we went to
- 00:43:44a restaurant where we could be way
- 00:43:46socially distanced with mastodon and
- 00:43:47everything but
- 00:43:48we had coloring books tables whatever
- 00:43:52and they're coloring i'm loving watching
- 00:43:55what they're coloring but then they
- 00:43:55would look at me and say
- 00:43:57dad is this a 9 out of 10 10 out of 10
- 00:43:5911 out of 10 or a thousand out of 10
- 00:44:01and i'm thinking like guys let's just
- 00:44:04color it a color and i i know for a fact
- 00:44:06i've never tried to to
- 00:44:09have that rating system while they're
- 00:44:10doing some sort of art but then i think
- 00:44:13what am i doing or not doing that's
- 00:44:15causing that to be a norm
- 00:44:17because i do want us just to be in the
- 00:44:19moment and enjoy beauty for beauty
- 00:44:20what kind of advice do you have for me
- 00:44:22heck you keep giving advice for for me
- 00:44:24in this i'll take it
- 00:44:25of how do i continue to level set
- 00:44:28my kids and our family dynamic on not
- 00:44:31being so comparative
- 00:44:33all right so let's let's really unpack
- 00:44:36this a little bit
- 00:44:37um when you recognize that
- 00:44:41in that moment or even now thinking back
- 00:44:43to it what
- 00:44:44emotions arise for you um
- 00:44:48uh it's kind of a balance right it's
- 00:44:51always i feel like emotions for me are
- 00:44:52always
- 00:44:53not good and bad per se but there's like
- 00:44:55a positive aspect to it it feels like a
- 00:44:56negative aspect so positive is
- 00:44:59i i do believe you know some of my
- 00:45:02competitive traits have allowed me to be
- 00:45:04successful but
- 00:45:06there's also a detrimental side of that
- 00:45:07like what is that done to certain
- 00:45:08relationships what is that done to let
- 00:45:10me pause and really enjoy the moment
- 00:45:12right versus working on the next and as
- 00:45:15a dad
- 00:45:16i want to obviously learn things
- 00:45:19throughout my life and have my kids grow
- 00:45:21and evolve in a way that i
- 00:45:23hadn't at their age and so that's
- 00:45:24probably where i go to the deepest of
- 00:45:27man how do i how do i live differently
- 00:45:30so that they can not have the same frame
- 00:45:33of mind of this comparative
- 00:45:35uh cloud over their head all the time
- 00:45:39so you invited my coaching or advice
- 00:45:42so what i'm gonna say is you actually
- 00:45:44didn't talk about emotions at all just
- 00:45:45now
- 00:45:47you talked about thoughts okay and
- 00:45:49there's
- 00:45:50and so this is i said like this is
- 00:45:52learning for all of us
- 00:45:53so when we talk about emotions that can
- 00:45:55sound like
- 00:45:56when i heard my
- 00:46:00kids asking this i felt
- 00:46:03conflicted confused sad
- 00:46:07proud uncomfortable
- 00:46:10it's really interesting the way that you
- 00:46:13responded to me
- 00:46:14is the way i'd say 95 percent of people
- 00:46:16respond
- 00:46:18and what that what that tells me is
- 00:46:22we are you know we are
- 00:46:25not it's harder for us to access
- 00:46:28emotions than it is
- 00:46:29thoughts because we live in the world of
- 00:46:30thoughts and in our head all the time
- 00:46:32right we're always in our heads and and
- 00:46:35so
- 00:46:36to you know you could think about it as
- 00:46:37to balance out our skill set
- 00:46:40or to be able to draw on different
- 00:46:41resources particularly in hard moments
- 00:46:44because that
- 00:46:45you know that wasn't like a super hard
- 00:46:47moment but when we hit the super hard
- 00:46:48moments
- 00:46:49how do we access the knowledge and
- 00:46:53wisdom in our minds and in our emotions
- 00:46:56and and there's and this is the thing
- 00:46:58emotions have been
- 00:47:00dismissed downplayed discredited
- 00:47:04emotions are considered to be
- 00:47:06unprofessional
- 00:47:08a waste of time even your framing is
- 00:47:11you know your reference to like good and
- 00:47:12bad there's you know that
- 00:47:14i look at emotions as like this is an
- 00:47:16incredible untapped resource
- 00:47:19it's crazy that we're walking around the
- 00:47:21world like not tapping into this
- 00:47:23resource
- 00:47:23not understanding we've got a gold mine
- 00:47:25that we never draw from
- 00:47:27in terms of knowledge and wisdom and
- 00:47:31insight and guidance and direction and
- 00:47:33energy
- 00:47:34and so really this is again like for
- 00:47:38you to be able to perhaps to play in the
- 00:47:41way that you might want to play
- 00:47:43with your kids or to give them that
- 00:47:45space and opportunity
- 00:47:47you've got to start with understanding
- 00:47:48your emotions and even understanding
- 00:47:51why it is that it's hard to access them
- 00:47:53or to connect or recognize them
- 00:47:55it's totally normal like i can't say
- 00:47:57that enough this is my mission
- 00:47:59if there's one thing that i want to say
- 00:48:01until i die it's emotions are normal
- 00:48:03we've got them
- 00:48:04and they can be our friends like let's
- 00:48:06shift our relationship with them
- 00:48:08i i think uh what's crazy is
- 00:48:12when you ask the question i mean i
- 00:48:14genuinely was trying to answer
- 00:48:16right like i wasn't trying to like put
- 00:48:18on a face i wasn't i mean again i know
- 00:48:20we're on a podcast but i really don't
- 00:48:21care we're all
- 00:48:22our goal this podcast is change is messy
- 00:48:24and so we got to come with our whole
- 00:48:25self so i
- 00:48:26i actually thought and i think my team
- 00:48:28that works with me a lot would say i am
- 00:48:30uh incredibly transparent probably too
- 00:48:33much to where i will share my
- 00:48:34what i think are emotions now you've
- 00:48:36blown my mind and i'm
- 00:48:38gonna have to figure this out good thing
- 00:48:39i got spring break next week to figure
- 00:48:41out what the difference is that i think
- 00:48:42i'm sharing emotions but i'm actually
- 00:48:44not tapping into them
- 00:48:47this is great i really appreciate it
- 00:48:49it's super common i mean this is a i was
- 00:48:51just a knowledge gap right it's like
- 00:48:53it's a knowledge of perhaps a skill gap
- 00:48:55and what is the difference between a
- 00:48:56thought and an emotion and how do we
- 00:48:58know if we're talking about thoughts or
- 00:49:00emotions
- 00:49:01where is the overlap there is an overlap
- 00:49:04you know what does it sound like to talk
- 00:49:06about emotions what are the
- 00:49:08literally like what are the words what's
- 00:49:09the syntax this is where i go i'm like
- 00:49:11okay tell me what it sounds like you
- 00:49:12know what does it look what does it look
- 00:49:13like what does it sound like
- 00:49:15um you know and how there's a whole
- 00:49:18sort of direction that we don't need to
- 00:49:20go in but the way that our body is
- 00:49:21connected to our emotions and how do we
- 00:49:23actually
- 00:49:25building a better relationship with our
- 00:49:26emotions includes building a better
- 00:49:29relationship
- 00:49:30with our bodies a deeper one a one
- 00:49:32that's um
- 00:49:33much gentler and and deeper
- 00:49:36than what most of us have had and then
- 00:49:39again like i just want to point to
- 00:49:40the context or the water that we swim in
- 00:49:44in our world which is one that does not
- 00:49:47value emotions
- 00:49:49that that doesn't actually value the
- 00:49:52body
- 00:49:52in the way that i think that um that i'm
- 00:49:54referencing or that we need to that sees
- 00:49:56the body as a
- 00:49:57as a machine through which we can be
- 00:50:00more productive and more efficient and
- 00:50:02create
- 00:50:02more but that doesn't really work for
- 00:50:05many of us
- 00:50:06yeah well i think i mean for me i'm
- 00:50:08perfectly okay being a rebel with you of
- 00:50:11first recognizing it like before this
- 00:50:13before this conversation lina i would
- 00:50:15probably say
- 00:50:16totally understand it i'm with you let's
- 00:50:17talk emotions and now you've rocked my
- 00:50:19world at the end of it saying
- 00:50:21that was an emotion which is so no it's
- 00:50:23so helpful
- 00:50:24it's incredibly helpful so thank you for
- 00:50:27helping me
- 00:50:28personally um my question before we go
- 00:50:30is
- 00:50:31um last question we asked everybody is
- 00:50:34if you have advice for anybody out there
- 00:50:36who's listening uh particularly
- 00:50:38educators right so whether district
- 00:50:40officials school officials or teachers
- 00:50:42or parents even
- 00:50:43what's one piece of advice that you have
- 00:50:45that you it's on your heart right now to
- 00:50:47help them take
- 00:50:48one step forward and the change that you
- 00:50:51want to see in this world
- 00:50:53hmm
- 00:50:56let's see okay
- 00:50:59i'm going to give that like the
- 00:51:01challenge okay
- 00:51:02advice in other words if you really want
- 00:51:06to challenge yourself
- 00:51:07this is what i tell you to do write
- 00:51:10yourself
- 00:51:11a love letter and
- 00:51:16pile on the love
- 00:51:19for how you have been and what you've
- 00:51:22done
- 00:51:23since march of 2020
- 00:51:28getting through this pandemic right
- 00:51:31along love letter by hand
- 00:51:34detail then there was that moment
- 00:51:37when you lost your temper and you
- 00:51:39screamed at your kids and then
- 00:51:40afterwards
- 00:51:41you went and apologized to them and
- 00:51:47recognized that you needed to take a day
- 00:51:49off like detail that love letter
- 00:51:52in other words look at
- 00:51:57look at yourself with love and kindness
- 00:52:03tell yourself appreciate yourself for
- 00:52:05everything you've done over the last
- 00:52:07year plus as we've experienced this
- 00:52:09global trauma
- 00:52:11yeah i think when you're saying uh
- 00:52:13yelling at your kids and apologizing to
- 00:52:14him later i'm thinking did you talk to
- 00:52:16my wife before we got on this call
- 00:52:17that may have happened a couple times
- 00:52:19during the pandemic i can't believe i'm
- 00:52:20the only one
- 00:52:21um but that's that's really helpful so
- 00:52:24that exercise can you just tell us a
- 00:52:26little bit when you've seen someone do
- 00:52:27that before what have you noticed
- 00:52:29uh it's kind of happened in people's
- 00:52:31hearts when they've done something like
- 00:52:33this
- 00:52:33yeah so this is an exercise in
- 00:52:35self-compassion and so this is one of
- 00:52:37the habits and onward is compassion
- 00:52:40which includes self-compassion or even
- 00:52:43which you could say
- 00:52:45a true compassion begins with
- 00:52:46self-compassion you can't
- 00:52:48extend kindness and love and compassion
- 00:52:50to others without giving it to yourself
- 00:52:52first many people are in a state of
- 00:52:56exhaustion physical emotional exhaustion
- 00:52:58and
- 00:52:59being able to recognize okay this is why
- 00:53:03and i've done so much and we've all
- 00:53:06screamed at our kids we probably all
- 00:53:07screamed at our partners we probably all
- 00:53:09heaped criticism on ourselves and
- 00:53:13we heal by bringing a little kindness to
- 00:53:16those achy points
- 00:53:18um and so just beginning
- 00:53:21the the by reconnecting with ourselves i
- 00:53:24mean i'm telling you it is a
- 00:53:25hard thing to do to write it really
- 00:53:28passionately and
- 00:53:29honestly and fully and genuinely it
- 00:53:32takes a lot of courage
- 00:53:34and and it's essential if we want to
- 00:53:37care for other people and love other
- 00:53:38people and create a world characterized
- 00:53:40by kindness and compassion and beauty
- 00:53:43we've
- 00:53:44got to be able to give it to ourselves
- 00:53:46yeah absolutely
- 00:53:47well i i appreciate you coming here
- 00:53:50today and
- 00:53:50bringing your whole head and whole heart
- 00:53:52to us especially
- 00:53:54when you took a couple minutes to
- 00:53:56challenge me but also give me some
- 00:53:57really good coaching it's clear
- 00:53:59that you are passionate about supporting
- 00:54:01educators and
- 00:54:02helping them develop resilience and
- 00:54:04mindfulness uh and you're passionate for
- 00:54:06just
- 00:54:06serving people and communities in
- 00:54:08general so i'm gonna encourage as many
- 00:54:10people as possible who don't know of
- 00:54:11your work or have only spent a little
- 00:54:13time in your work to dive deeper
- 00:54:15um just because i think they can help
- 00:54:17all of us so thank you so much for
- 00:54:18taking time to be here with us today and
- 00:54:21i look forward to reconnect with you
- 00:54:22again in the future thank you so much i
- 00:54:25really enjoyed this conversation
- 00:54:26yeah i appreciate it
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