Spring break is over! Can I make it the rest of the school year??

by Cheryl Fuller, MEd

One of the challenges of choosing to work in a service industry (and in case you need to remind some of your colleagues – education is not an employment agency for adults; we are a service agency for children and families), is finding that hard fought for balance of work and personal life. In today’s blog, we will explore how stress in a service industry profession such as education has a different impact on our brains and bodies and therefore requires a different response beyond the traditional & important self-care elements of eating right, exercising and getting plenty of rest.

Cheryl Fuller, MEd

To completely understand stress and its impact on our lives, we must embrace the realization that stress is not a consequence of external experiences. As much as we would like to place the blame on morning traffic, a toddler refusing to get dressed, a teenager who only wants to have contact with peers, a boss who seems to think you have extra time in your day for another meeting, a colleague who appears to forget everything we already discussed in yesterday’s meeting or a parent who believes you should be available for one to one counseling of their child on a daily basis, in reality none of those things (or the ones going through your head right now) are the cause of stress in your life. Stress is actually an internal experience that arises from a concept of “perceived threat.”

Our brains are a wonderful tool for learning, but the primary job of the brain is to keep our body happy, healthy, and functioning throughout our lives. The brain logs distressful moments via our senses. What we hear, see, taste, smell, and feel in the moment of distress is recorded by our brains and later when something similar occurs, the brain remembers and reacts. This stress reaction is the source of our compassion fatigue and burnout.

Imagine going to the parking lot and turning on your car, putting one foot on the brake pedal, but using the other foot to floor the gas pedal. Keeping the gas pedal pushed to the floor for hours is going to negatively impact the engine (likely to burn out or blow up). In a similar fashion, when our brain perceives a threat it “pushes the gas pedal to the floor” causing our autonomic nervous system (everything our body does automatically such as breathing, digesting, blood circulating, thinking, etc.) to overreact. It is this constant overreaction throughout the day that stresses us and wears us down.

Fortunately, when we show up in schools every day, 99.9% of the time our lives are not in any danger, however, the majority of “perceived threat” is not about a physical danger to our lives, but rather more often a threat to our ego. Our concerns about others’ thoughts (will they be mad at me, will they think I am not competent, do they like me, will they be disappointed, etc.) will often be perceived by the brain as a threat and thus create a neurological stress reaction in our bodies just as it would a physical threat to us.

What then is the solution? Building resilience skills! Teaching ourselves how not to push the gas pedal to the floor or removing our foot faster so less damage is done if we have pushed it to the floor. Resilience skills are quite simple, but they do require a great deal of practice for them to become habits throughout our day.

One such resilience skill is learning how to keep our bodies in a “relaxed body state.” Neurologically stress requires tension to exist. When we remove the tension, we remove the stress. For example, doing a quick scan of your body from head to toe while simultaneously relaxing all the muscles of your body. With practice, this can be done in a matter of seconds and is proven to reduce the impact of stress by removing the tension stress requires. A second strategy with a similar impact is a deep breath from the diaphragm. The challenge here is to be sure the breath is from the diaphragm and not the lungs (which is where we normally take our breaths). There is a nerve that exists in the diaphragm and when activated it will send a message to the brain to relax the entire body. A breath from your lungs does not activate that nerve so be sure your breath is from the diaphragm. (to ensure the breath is from the diaphragm try this: clasp your fingers together and place your hands on the back of your head with the palms resting against your head, push your elbows/arms out as far as possible and then lean back as far as you can in the chair, take a really deep breath and you are likely to feel your diaphragm)

Staying in a relaxed body state removes stress and its negative impact on our bodies. It will not take away our emotions. We will still feel frustrated, sad, angry, disappointed, etc., but the consequences to our body which lead to burnout will be significantly reduced.  The natural question then becomes – how often do I need to be in a relaxed body state in order to keep compassion fatigue at bay? Relax your body before you hear this answer! Because of the demands and weight of our service industry work, our bodies need to be put into a relaxed body state about every 10 minutes. That sounds impossible, but on the contrary, we can train ourselves to relax our bodies regularly. I used a silent timer on my phone when I was in training. It still took many months before it became a natural experience, but I can assure you that it works! I no longer need a timer and usually don’t even wait 10 minutes, but instead put myself in a relaxed body state every 2 to 4 minutes.

In our book, Forward Facing for Educators: A Journey to Professional Resilience and Compassion Restoration, Dr. Gentry and I discuss a relaxed body state in greater detail as well as introducing several other research-based strategies to support people who work in education so they can avoid burnout. However, whether you use that book or other resources, please do learn how to properly care for yourself because of the added stressors you incur in doing the wonderful work you do in our schools and districts every day. The children and families in your care need you to be able to keep doing your impactful work and we want you to do it while also experiencing personal joy, physical wellbeing and emotional peace.

The cost of saving lives every day does not mean you have to sacrifice your own life. Helping others does not have to hurt you!

Author Biography

With over 41 years in education, Cheryl Fuller has been engaged in many aspects of researching and implementing learning for children and adults. With a Bachelor’s in Child Development, a Master’s in Counseling and a Master’s in Leadership, she has been able to enjoy her work as a classroom teacher, counselor, and school principal. As a consultant, she has presented material to over 450,000 people across the United States.  She offers workshops and keynote/breakout sessions at major conferences. Additionally, she has certifications in Trauma Informed Practices & Social/Emotional Learning and Building Professional Resilience (avoiding compassion fatigue). She has authored two books: Peace by Piece and Forward Facing for Educators. She offers in person and virtual book studies to support helping people live their best personal and professional lives and can be contacted at cfuller62@gmail.com or via her website at www.cherylfuller.org