3 Mindfulness Practices Every Stressed Teacher Needs.

We’ve all had that class that’s taken every ounce of strength to hold it together.

Afterwards, all you want to do is shut yourself away in a dark room to recover for a couple of hours! But instead you head straight into another lesson… then to lunch duty… and before you know it it’s home time and you’re hanging onto your sanity by a thread.

You’re stressed. You’re exhausted. And everything just feels hard.

So what do you do when your body’s screaming out for you to take time out to regulate, but you have a packed timetable and a never ending to-do list?

The good news is, you don’t need hours of free time to reset. A few mindful minutes can make all the difference.

I’m going to share 3 short, simple mindfulness practices that you can weave into your day to help you to regularly regain a sense of balance.

1. Take 2 minutes to do a quick breathing exercise.

This is a really great thing to do if you have just had a really difficult class that has triggered your fight/ fight / freeze response as it’ll help you to move back into a calm, regulated state.

A super simple yet powerful one that I love is called Golden Thread Breath. Just set a timer on your phone and for 2 minutes do the following:

Breathe in slowly and fully through your nose, directing the breath deep down into your belly.

When you reach the top of your breath, gently purse your lips and slowly breathe out through your mouth. Trying to make the exhale longer than the inhale.

To keep your mind engaged, repeat in your mind ‘1 in… 1 out… 2 in… 2 out … and so on, as you breathe.

2. Try a 3-minute mindfulness meditation.

This is brilliant if you're feeling overwhelmed by your to-do list and your mind is going a million miles an hour.

By taking just a few minutes to redirect your attention to your body, you’ll find your mind starts to calm as you’re giving yourself something else to focus on.

It can really help to have an audio downloaded onto your phone so it’s ready exactly when you need it. I love doing this because it means I don’t have to search through apps when I’m already feeling overwhelmed.

3. This last one is a lovely way to end your day…

Whether it’s sitting down with a cup of tea, an apple, or a piece of your favourite chocolate (I love the Lindor milk chocolate truffles for this!) give yourself 5 minutes to eat or drink mindfully.

Focus your full attention on what you’re doing - get all your senses involved. Before you put your food/ drink to your mouth, really look at it - notice all the little details. If there’s a wrapper, listen to the noise as you peel it off. Breathe in its aroma. Then as you begin to eat/ drink, do it slowly, notice the flavours. Notice how it feels in your mouth.

When you start weaving these little moments of mindfulness into your day, you’ll start to notice a shift quite quickly.

You’ll feel calmer, more present, and more in control.

We all know how easy it is to be pulled into a dysregulated state by other dysregulated people! When you’re able to be that model of calm, even when things are tough, you’ll be able to support pupils to regulate too.

Before long, you’ll find that you get to the end of the school day with more energy. That’s when you’ll know you’ve found your rhythm again.

If you'd like to start incorporating these simple practices into your day, you can download my free Beautiful Mindfulness Practices pack here, it contains guided audios of all the exercises in this blog.