Week 1 | What is Yoga? Mindfulness? Resilience?

Bring it home: What this means for you

As an educator, there are often a lot of things thrown at you – from new learning tools, to programming, to meeting the growing and changing needs of your student population. When you add a pandemic, additional student needs, academic pressure, and learning loss, not to mention social and behavioral challenges in your student community, – it’s no wonder that teachers are reporting burnout, exhaustion at record rates. Many teachers are feeling the impossible pressures they are under to meet the academic, social, and emotional needs of this time. 

We recognize that you’re human too. And even though you came to this work with a heart-led desire to inspire learning and education in your students, you probably also have stuff happening in your personal life. And, let’s be real, in normal times there just isn’t enough space in the day for you to process and support your own needs. In pandemic times, as testing and absences make it especially challenging to track and manage your student’s work, it can feel impossible. 

I often describe yoga and mindfulness as a set of tools for UN-doing. Un-doing the stress. Un-doing the pressure. Un-doing the self-imposed habitual thoughts and pressures that compound the stress that we feel, the pressures that we’re under, and the weight of the burdens we face.

This is where we begin: taking a moment each morning to check in with yourself, breathe, and just recognize where you’re at. That is mindfulness. And sometimes, that’s all you need to shift the tide in your favor.