The Principal's Handbook

Episode #27
[00:00:00] In today's episode, I'm going to share insider secrets on how to protect your mental energy throughout the school day.
Welcome to the Principal's Handbook, your go to resource for principals looking to revamp their leadership approach and prioritize self care. I'm Barb Flowers, a certified life coach with eight years of experience as an elementary principal. Tune in each week as we delve into strategies for boosting mental resilience, managing time effectively, and nurturing overall wellness.
From tackling daily challenges to maintaining a healthy work life balance, I'm Barb Flowers. We'll navigate the complexities of school leadership together. Join me in fostering your sense of purpose as a principal and reigniting your passion for the job. Welcome to a podcast where your wellbeing is the top priority.
Welcome back .
Principals face the daily challenge of addressing urgent issues that come up all the time.
And sometimes these issues are urgent because they actually are, and sometimes other people [00:01:00] think they're urgent. So they bring them to you all panicked and stressed out. And so it is up to the principal to make the decision on how to handle these situations. And When you have people coming to you with a stressed out energy, or they think everything is a big problem,
it takes a lot of mental energy. And principals have to move at such a fast pace making decisions. And they feel mentally drained by the end of the day. I don't know about you, but I have little energy at the end of the day, just because I'm mentally drained, not physically, but mentally. I'm so tired from making decisions and dealing with situations and having to have all the answers all day.
That I'm really tired and I have less mental energy when I go home for my family. And so it's really important that principles are safeguarding that mental energy. We don't always talk about how much energy it takes to think and make so many decisions throughout the day, but we know as [00:02:00] principals that it does because there could be days that I'm barely moving around the building because I'm in meetings or I'm handling situations as they come to my office.
And even in those days, I am so physically tired. From all of the mental decisions that I make. So it's really important that we're protecting our mental energy throughout the day, and that's going to help you maintain focus and actually be more productive and be able to get more things done. So today I'm going to give you three strategies for self care during the demanding school day, so that you're able to protect your mental energy.
And I'm going to give you some practical steps to improve your mental well being and handle the daily pressures of being a principal more effectively. Because what happens if we don't handle these daily pressures effectively protect our mental energy and well being, we have a higher potential for burnout.
It could lead to illness, it could lead to disengagement from your work. It's important that we build up our resilience. So that we're [00:03:00] better at bouncing back from stressful situations because we are dealing with stressful situations all the time as a principal
Your effectiveness relies on your ability to maintain your own mental health and energy and your own emotions. So to support teachers, students and parents effectively. You need to prioritize yourself and you need to prioritize your own mental health and well being. So that's what we're going to talk about today.
I'm going to give you three strategies. We're going to go ahead and dive into what those three strategies are to protect your mental energy throughout the school day. Strategy number one is implement regular breaks throughout the day. And having mental breaks, it's going to allow you to step back from your decision making and all of the thinking you have to do, and it's going to enhance your productivity.
I didn't know this, but if you actually are working and you take 10 minutes after 50 minutes and take a mental break, it's going to make you more productive. So making sure that you're not just [00:04:00] trying to power through the day without any break is really important because it'll help save your mental energy.
It'll help you from feeling so drained at the end of the day that you can't even make a decision. Continuous work without breaks, it leads to less productivity and less effectiveness. Taking a break after a really challenging or stressful situation is also a good idea to reset, gain that mental energy, and get clarity on what happened.
So even short periods and short breaks are really important and you could do this by shutting your office door for just a couple of minutes.
Go for a walk around the building and just walk by yourself and just have that minute to regain your focus and get clarity on your thoughts so that you're feeling less overwhelmed and you can just gather yourself. Strategy number two is incorporate mindfulness and meditation techniques.
So we think about mindfulness and meditation as something that we do in the morning. I know I always think about that. It's a great way to [00:05:00] start your day where you start with breathing exercises and center yourself. But just doing a minute of mindfulness throughout the day can really be helpful in resetting yourself and getting you back to a place where your brain is ready to make decisions.
Because if we don't take that break, we really are in overload and we are going to get tired. But if you just do a quick meditation or quick session where you're focused on breathing, it's going to allow you to center yourself. And one thing you can do is practice breathing exercises where you're inhaling shorter than you're exhaling.
So for example, if you inhale for four seconds and exhale for eight seconds that's going to tap into the calming effects that you get from taking breaths. longer because the exhale is where everything starts to slow down in your body.
And so if you do that longer than the inhale, it's going to help you calm down. Also use guided meditations. There's a lot of guided meditations that are free on YouTube I type in one minute [00:06:00] meditations or two minute meditations and
it allows you to have a structured practice where you can just take a minute to reset your focus and reset so that you're ready for the next thing you need to deal with. And strategy number three is
enhance your self awareness through reflection on your thoughts and feelings. If you are able to acknowledge and observe your own thoughts, that's such a powerful tool when you're feeling stressed or overwhelmed. Because if you can acknowledge those thoughts, then you know what's going on in your mind and you know how to change your thinking to fix that.
I coach on something called the T cycle, and that's your thoughts create your emotions or feelings, which create your actions. And then those actions are going to create new thoughts, emotions, and actions. And so this is just a cycle that keeps going. And when you become aware of what your thoughts are, and you get that connection between your thoughts, your feelings, and your action, then you're really going to be able to manage your reactions and the decisions you [00:07:00] make.
You're going to be able to be more intentional about the thoughts that you choose that are going to control your emotions, which then controls your actions. So understanding that connection will really help.
Also making sure that you're reflecting on your reactions throughout the day. If we don't stop and reflect on our actions and really acknowledge how we're addressing situations, then we might react out of emotion. And we never want to do that.
As the leader in the building, we want to react out of a place of intention. And knowing exactly what we want that result to be from whatever conversation or situation that we're handling. So knowing what your own personal stressors are and what can trigger you is really helpful and being able to not be so impulsive with your emotions.
But instead, just knowing that if there is something that's going to trigger you, You need to handle it in a different way. So for me, I know that if I'm dealing with discipline back to back to back, it's really helpful if I take a break, if I take just a minute to take a [00:08:00] breath, because sometimes when I'm dealing with too much discipline at one time, I make decisions based on the previous Situation that I handled, which is out of emotion.
It's not out of the facts that I know about that situation and what I know about those students and what I think would be the best disciplinary method for them, it's more out of emotion with what happened previously. And am I upset about that situation or am I bringing something into this current situation?
So making sure that you recognize what those stressors are. Also, it could be even. Something that's like a pet peeve for you and you go really harsh on that compared to what somebody else might, because, you know, that is a trigger for you. That triggers your emotions. So it's really helpful that you know what your thoughts and feelings are, and that you can be reflective and be self aware so that when you deal with situations, you know, exactly the angle you're coming at it and you're not coming at it from a place of just [00:09:00] emotion.
So. Knowing what these three strategies are can really be helpful for protecting your mental energy. So strategy number one again, implement regular breaks. Strategy number one, implement regular breaks throughout the day. Strategy number two, incorporate mindfulness and meditation techniques. Strategy number three, enhance self awareness through reflection on thoughts and feelings.
These three strategies can really be helpful when you use them together to protect your mental energy and to help you navigate difficult situations throughout the day.
If you're interested in one on one coaching, I would love the opportunity to work with you.
You can reach out to me at Barb Flowers Coaching or through my website at barbflowerscoaching. com. And in one on one coaching, I help educators create goals and decide what areas they want to work on to be better in their careers. And then we work on that to make you better.
Also, if you love the show, if you're listening on Apple, scroll down in your app and leave a review.
Keep in [00:10:00] mind you have the power to shape your life according to the mindset you choose.
I hope you have a great week and I'll see you back here next time.