Thank you to Sarah from Happy Students Happy Teacher for this guest blog post! Claire

My name is Sarah Walsh and I run the Instagram page @happystudentshappyteacher. I have been teaching for 13 years and work in a senior school. I also taught for 2 years in South Korea, teaching English in a Public Elementary School. My passion is promoting wellbeing both inside and outside of the classroom. This blog will be about the various ways we can protect our mental health and wellbeing as teachers.

In our profession, we are amazing at both helping and making time for others but we often neglect ourselves. We are the most important resource in our classroom make ourselves a priority, not only for our own benefit but also for the benefit of our pupils.

So many teachers in modern society reach burnout. We shouldn’t have to get to that point to realise that we need to start carving out time for ourselves. I have struggled with my mental health over the last decade and it has highlighted to me the importance of finding ways to take care of myself physically and mentally. It took me quite a while to find what works for me but it has been worth the time and effort.

Self-care is paramount as teachers. Self-care looks different for everyone. People often think self-care is all spa days, face masks and bubble baths – it can be if that is what floats your boat but self-care can be so many things. Some of the things that are part of my self-care routine are:

• Monthly Aroma oil massages
• Nature- I spend as much time as possible immersing myself in nature-walking, hiking and my new love- sound bathing.
• Sea- dipping
• Gratitude practise
• Journaling
• Meditation.
• Exercise- weightlifting

I had to play around with lots of different things to find what works for me. Establishing your non-negotiables is vital. Non-negotiables are a set of self-care practises that you decide upon and carry out daily or regularly without exception. My gratitude practice is one of my non-negotiables and it is one of the most helpful tools that I employ to maintain my wellbeing.

Self-care doesn’t have to be ground-breaking or require a lot of planning. It can be as simple as:

• having a cup of tea in the garden before or after work, no distractions, no phone, just you and nature.
• making a commitment to walking a few times a week to clear your head.
• getting up a bit earlier so that you don’t have to rush and get flustered.

Setting aside an evening off extra school work was another lovely idea that @ciarasclassroom shared with me in an interview I did with her.

You could set a cut off time from work in the evenings as well.

Another thing we often forget as adults is the importance of Flow activities and learning how to get into a state of flow. It has been proven that the more time we engage with Flow activities, the happier we are. You are in a state of flow when you are completely absorbed in a task and don’t notice the passing time. For me, I am in flow when I am reading or when I am hiking. Finding your flow activities and doing more of what you love will make you a happier and often healthier person. Children regularly find themselves in flow states but as adults, we enter into flow less and less because work and responsibilities get in the way.

Of course, minding our mental health sometimes means asking for help. If we were having issues with our physical health we go to the doctor and it is no different with our mental health. Counselling, therapy and visiting our GPs are some of the avenues we can explore when self-care isn’t doing the trick.

There are so many organisations that offer great supports but one that we as teachers can avail of is Spectrum Life. They have a helpline teachers are entitled to a number of free counselling sessions each year. I have used their counselling services in the past and found them very helpful and non-judgemental. They also have a fantastic website with an online gym, webinars, articles and so many more resources to help us maintain our mental health. You can create a free account and avail of all of this on https://www.spectrum.life/.

I speak a lot about mental health and wellbeing on my page and I have a series of interviews with a wide variety of people on my Instagram around the topic of wellbeing. The aim behind my page is to start conversations, promote wellbeing and mental health and to share my story so that hopefully it will inspire others to do the same. Make this the year that you mind your mind!

Thank you to Sarah for this open and honest blog post. I’d love to know what your favourite self-care practice is, let me know in the comments below! You can find more information about self-care on Sarah’s Instagram page @happystudentshappyteacher. Claire X