6 Effective Stress Management Techniques for Teacher Well-Being

As teachers, you have a lot of responsibilities to shoulder daily. Teaching well, classroom management, ensuring that your students grasp all that you are trying to teach, tracking their progress, and the list goes on. The massive baggage of all these responsibilities often exposes you to a lot of stress. But, as regular exposures to stress are not suitable for our health, we need to do something in this regard. Although getting completely rid of stress is impossible, it is possible to manage it. By working on stress management, you can ensure that stress doesn’t negatively impact your well-being.

So, dear teachers, today you have to take a pledge to start working hard to ensure your well-being in the same way as you always work hard for your students’ to ensure a bright future. There is no procrastination, no delays; you have to start working for your good health today and that too with immense enthusiasm. Now that you have taken the pledge, let’s proceed to discuss six effective stress management techniques to help ensure your well-being.

1. Take a walk in the class:

According to the National Center for Biotechnological Information, brisk walking for at least 30 minutes a day can bring a significant reduction in our stress levels. The good news is that you don’t even have to walk for 30 minutes in one go. Three 10-minute walks are considered equally beneficial as a continuous 30-minute one. This implies that you can keep your stress levels managed with walking exercise. You don’t even have to devote any extra time to this exercise as you can also take short walks in the classroom itself. Now, given below are some examples of opportunities when you can take short walks in your classroom:

• When your students are noting things down from the board
• When you have assigned some reading work to your students
• When your students are attempting a class test

These are just a few examples. You can try to find many more opportunities to walk for your well-being.

2. Deep breathing:

Deep breathing is an effective technique to bring an immediate reduction in your stress levels. When you inhale deeply, more oxygen gets supplied to your brain, which induces a calming effect. So, whenever you are overwhelmed by stress or even when you are not, you may try practicing deep breathing for some time to keep your stress levels managed. Further, you can follow the following count to practice deep breathing efficiently:

• Inhale a deep breath while counting up to 4 in your mind
• Hold your breath and count up to 4 in your mind again
• Exhale while counting up to 6 in your mind
• Hold your breath and count up to 2 before inhaling a deep breath again on the count of 4
• You can easily practice this deep breathing exercise for just 5 minutes whenever you are free and feel relaxed.

3. Getting some exposure to sunlight:

Exposures to sunlight trigger the brain to release a happy hormone known as Serotonin. This happy hormone acts as an antidote to the stress hormone cortisol. So, its secretion reduces Cortisol levels and thus helps with stress management. This gives you an effortless technique to keep excessive stress at bay, and it is to get some exposure to sunlight. Just 15 minutes of direct exposure to sunlight are enough to serve the purpose.

4. Connecting with your students on a deep level:

As teachers, you spend most of your time with your students. If you are emotionally connected with them, their presence will make you feel good, and your stress levels will remain lower. Undoubtedly, your students will often engage in mischief and make you feel angry, but you are likely to get less mad at them if you are emotionally connected with them. You’ll be able to scold them a little without doing any harm to your health because of stress and anger. So, to keep your stress levels managed, you can try to connect with your students on a deep level. For this, you can have regular interactions with your students and play some games with them once or twice a week. Further, these activities will also bring your students closer to you. As a result, they’ll start heeding your advice more and try not to do the things which can make you feel angry. This way, connecting with your students emotionally can help you with stress management.

5. Listening to soft calming music:

Music has a therapeutic effect. According to neurological researchers, the music changes the brain. Listening to music triggers the brain to release important neurochemicals, which play vital roles in improving our mental health, such as reducing anxiety, stress, and depression. So, in between lectures, you can try listening to soft, calming music whenever you get some time. It will help you bring positive changes in your mood and reduce your stress levels.

6. Meditation:

Meditation is regarded as one of the best techniques for stress management. It helps our mind relax, induces a deep state of inner peace, and lowers our stress levels, and Regular meditation is also known to enhance our resilience against stress. One of the most attractive things about this effective technique of stress reduction is that you can practice it anywhere and at any time of the day. There is no setup needed, nothing! You just have to close your eyes wherever you sit and focus subtle attention on your breath. As you do so, you’ll find various kinds of thoughts hovering in your mind. All you have to do is watch them from a distance as if you are watching a movie, without meddling with them. You may get drifted into thinking at times, but you can come out of the thought cycle and start watching your thoughts again as soon as you realize that. Easy, isn’t it? Even 7 to 10 minutes of meditation can make you feel immensely relaxed and boost your mood.

Constant exposures to stress can lead to various health problems over time. So, dear teachers, it’s time to start putting your efforts to manage your stress levels and ensure your good health in the future. The different stress management techniques mentioned above will help you with the same. They are easy to implement and don’t require much time to practice. Now, wishing you all the very best and a happy time teaching!

How do you manage stress? Share in the comments.

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Jessica Robinson finds her peace in penning down intriguing and captivating blogs for her readers. So, she has been creating the finest pieces of content for over a decade while working at ‘The Speaking Polymath’.

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