Healthy Habits to Practice Emotional Resilience (Online Reflection 3)

“When talking about a profession that loses 50 percent of its workforce in the first five years of their careers, it would be an understatement to say teaching is challenging”. This is the first sentence of an article published by Cult of Pedagogy, an educational blog created for teachers. This particular blog post touches on the burnout that inevitably touches many of the teachers in the workforce. Author Elena Aguilar, a guest on the blog, talks about her book Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Teacherswhich addresses the ways that teachers can practice resilience in a field that often does not always support teachers in their emotional health. Elena touches on twelve habits that all teachers should engage in to maintain a healthy professional life. The first habit that I want to touch on is the third habit listed in the post: Telling Empowering Stories. Aguilar explains that in order to practice resilience, we must engage in emotional regulation in regard to how we interpret the way that people/students treat us. She uses the example of a student rolling their eyes. Instead of becoming angry over the typical action of a teenager, think about how that student is “exploring their own sense of power, and they are actually self-regulating because they are not cursing at me”. This was a very eye-opening point to me. Not every “negative” action a student does is born out of anger and disrespect, most times there are underlying motives. Part of practicing emotional resilience is telling empowering stories, and in this case, telling the story of a negative experience with a student over an example of when we were able to understand our students can affect us and our colleagues. When we choose to make the best of situations that could have a negative connotation, we are choosing to see the best, not the worst. This is a huge part of choosing to engage in emotional recharging and building up not only ourselves, but those we work with as well. 

The second habit I want to touch on is the fifth habit listed in the list of twelve. This habit is titled, “Be Here Now”, and it is all about how to be present in the moment. This habit builds strong resolve for all who practice it which allows a path to a clear head when making decisions. Through her research on how to cope with the stress that comes along with the job, Aguilar found that practicing mindfulness enables an appropriate response of humor to relieve stress. Humor is usually the last coping strategy I think of, but it is always one that I respond well to. When I can incorporate humor into my daily life is when I am at my best, so I am excited to try this strategy.  

No matter where I am, professionally or personally, I know that these habits will serve me well. I am excited to implement them into my daily life, as well as the other 10 habits listed in the article. I highly recommend the article to anyone looking for actionable ways to better themselves personally and professionally, especially in an effort to prevent burnout!