Dear Readers,
As educators, we know that the classroom can cause sensory and emotional overload. Before we know it, our heart rate starts to climb and our mind races. The question is, can we properly assess what is going on? Are we experiencing positive, tolerable, or toxic stress? And what can we do to alleviate that stress?
Positive stress can improve our motivation, increase our wellness, and boost our overall performance. It builds our drive and resilience. Tolerable stress involves a time-limited or even recurring stressor, which can be regulated or resolved with proper intervention and support. Toxic stress implies a continued and exhaustive response from the body that is hard to fully recover from, as we remain in an alarm state. According to health psychologist Kelly McGonigal, “viewing your stress in constructive ways will actually cause our body to respond to it differently and prevent long-lasting physical damage.”
Of course we want to be excellent at everything we do, but the more tasks we take on, the smaller the odds of doing all of them at an excellent level. With this in mind, let us move the less urgent, less important tasks to the back burners and focus on the things that matter most and must be taken care of first. Delegating some of our work or investing in technologies may be strategies that will make our lives much easier. Remember that working hard and doing our best does not have to leave us feeling overwhelmed and on-edge. And above all, let’s be kind to ourselves!
Julie, Micheline
for the AGE Network Team
