Wellness

3 Breathing Exercises to Help with Emotional Regulation I’m already burned out and don’t have a lot of time. Why should I practice breathing exercises? Breathing exercises help you step back from stressors so you can step forward with strength, prepared to give your greater yes both to yourself and to those you serve.  This doesn’t seem to work the same way for me as it does for others. Is it really worth my time? Different strategies work in different ways for different people. It’s ok if it takes some time for you to adjust to integrating these exercises into your schedule. Give yourself time. Give yourself the same grace you show to your students when you’re at your best.  My schedule changes. Can I still practice breathing exercises? Or, do I have to do them at the same time everyday? It can be helpful to do these exercises at the same time every day when you’re just getting started, so that you can keep track of your practice and build the habit. But the great thing about breathing exercises is that you don’t have to carry equipment around with you. This means that they can be done anywhere and at any time that works for you and your schedule.  Breathing exercises help you step back from stressors so you can step forward with strength, prepared to give your greater yes both to yourself and to those you serve.  Different strategies work in different ways for different people. It’s ok if it takes some time for you to adjust to integrating these exercises into your schedule. Give yourself time. Give yourself the same grace you show to your students when you’re at your best.  It can be helpful to do these exercises at the same time every day when you’re just getting started, so that you can keep track of your practice and build the habit. But the great thing about breathing exercises is that you don’t have to carry equipment around with you. This means that they can be done anywhere and at any time that works for you and your schedule.  You’ve heard of mindfulness. It sounds like a nice idea, but in the rush of expectations from emails to meetings to conferences, is this something that can work for your life? This article covers 3 breathing exercises that you can bring into your schedule to help you take a couple of steps back from the noise, and retreat, recharge, and re-engage so you can approach your role from a position of emotional regulation and authenticity. How Are Breathing Exercises Not a Waste of My Time? Who you are is just as important, if not more important, than what you do. But this can be difficult to believe when the 24 hours in a day and mounting expectations and responsibilities leave you asking, “Am I enough?” That question is a key sign that you might be experiencing burnout. Your sense of emotional regulation might be tilting off-center because of central questions of identity and worth. It’s also why mindfulness, or practicing presence, might be more important for you than you realize. Breathing exercises help you to step back from the stresses of your current responsibilities so you can bring your best self into them. It’s stepping back to step forward. Here are 3 strategies that can help you do it. Breathing exercises help you to step back from the stresses of your current responsibilities so you can bring your best self into them. Diaphragmatic Breathing When stress results in shallower breathing, deeper breathing can counter the messages this shallower breathing sends to the brain and send alternate messages that help you to feel like you will be ok. Slow and controlled breaths first in through the nose and then out through the mouth also encourage relaxation by allowing you to mentally step away from stressors, even if only for a few moments. Diaphragmatic breathing is able to do this because it interrupts the fight-or-flight reflex that happens as a result of stress. Find out more about this relationship and see more of a deep dive into the benefits of diaphragmatic breathing. Click here to open a new tab and explore this article about the subject, published by Springer Nature and found in the National Library of Medicine. Showing Yourself Grace While Practicing Diaphragmatic Breathing You need to be prepared for two things when you’re first starting to integrate diaphragmatic breathing into your lifestyle. The first is that you might feel bored at first. The second is that you might feel more stressed the first few times you practice. This is because you might not be experiencing what you feel like you should be or making the kind of progress you feel like you should. Identity and autonomy aren’t talked about enough when it comes to breathwork. Experiencing stress to the point where you want to do something about it can mean that you’re at a point where you’re questioning your sense of agency, that what you can do in terms of emotional regulation might not be enough, forgetting about challenges like burnout that can complicate things. You try something different. Something that might even be outside of your comfort zone. It’s different, so it might make you feel out of control, especially when you’re used to not giving yourself the space to process thoughts and feelings in this way. Here you are. And, if you know from the outset that something could take time to work through, you might question whether it could work. You might question if there’s something wrong with you because breathing exercises seem to work for others so easily. Different strategies work in different ways and at different times for different people. Remember to give yourself the same grace you give your students when you’re at your best. Allow yourself the grace to be a student, a continual learner with a growth mindset. Walking as a Tool to Facilitate Diaphragmatic Breathing Practicing mindful,

12 Mindset Shifts to Help You Overcome the Symptoms of Burnout How can I tell if I’m burned out or just tired? Being tired is one thing. You need to rest. You take a couple of days off, maybe a vacation. You come back, and you’re refreshed. You’re fine. When you’re burned out, it’s something that’s affected you not just to the point where you’re tired. Tiredness can lead to exhaustion and that continuous exhaustion can eventually lead to burnout. But once you hit burnout, you’ve been tired. You’ve put yourself aside and relationships aside and everything else aside. You basically become someone who is not yourself in service to your work, to the point where you’re not just tired. You’re worn out. In a sense, your “self” has been burned out of the frame of your life and of the role that you stepped into, even with what may have started out with the best of intentions.  Ok. I’m burned out. What do I do now? This is kind of cheesy. But we’re talking about being burned out, so it fits. If you’re on fire, what’s the first thing you do? You stop. Then, you drop and roll. When you’re burned out, it’s the same thing. You stop. You drop the things that you can. And then you roll. You reassess the situation. You take a look at things. You seek out counseling. You find people who can be your community and your accountability partners. Stop, drop, and roll.  If I’m burned out, do I have to say no? Why’s that important? Saying no to new tasks and commitments when you’re burnt out means you’re making a commitment to yourself and to those you’re serving. You’re choosing to give only your best to yourself and to those outside of yourself who you’re called to serve. Your no isn’t laziness. It’s your greatest yes. It’s yes to yourself and yes to authentic service to others.  Being tired is one thing. You need to rest. You take a couple of days off, maybe a vacation. You come back, and you’re refreshed. You’re fine. When you’re burned out, it’s something that’s affected you not just to the point where you’re tired. Tiredness can lead to exhaustion and that continuous exhaustion can eventually lead to burnout. But once you hit burnout, you’ve been tired. You’ve put yourself aside and relationships aside and everything else aside. You basically become someone who is not yourself in service to your work, to the point where you’re not just tired. You’re worn out. In a sense, your “self” has been burned out of the frame of your life and of the role that you stepped into, even with what may have started out with the best of intentions.  This is kind of cheesy. But we’re talking about being burned out, so it fits. If you’re on fire, what’s the first thing you do? You stop. Then, you drop and roll. When you’re burned out, it’s the same thing. You stop. You drop the things that you can. And then you roll. You reassess the situation. You take a look at things. You seek out counseling. You find people who can be your community and your accountability partners. Stop, drop, and roll.  Saying no to new tasks and commitments when you’re burnt out means you’re making a commitment to yourself and to those you’re serving. You’re choosing to give only your best to yourself and to those outside of yourself who you’re called to serve. Your no isn’t laziness. It’s your greatest yes. It’s yes to yourself and yes to authentic service to others.  The secret to recovering from burnout starts with saying no. Before burnout becomes wiped out, here are 12 mindset shifts you can make to help you reverse course and say yes to a healthier you. That was the day I almost got kicked off of a mission trip. The reason? Challenging this advice. It was one of those situations where a student doesn’t have any knowledge of cultural competence because their learning environment doesn’t foster it. They hadn’t received that training from their learning experience. And, as far as their community (including their leadership) outside of that direct experience with teacher training, those with influence had similar backgrounds and also lacked that training. Because they didn’t have it, they didn’t recognize its importance. As a result, any challenge to that worldview was seen as a threat and a challenge. The only reaction they could think of to this perceived attack was to remove the threat to this comfort zone. What are the Symptoms of Burnout? Burnout is defined as what happens when repeated stress leads to exhaustion. This exhaustion stretches into physical, mental, and emotional aspects of the self. The term burnout was coined by German-American psychologist Herbert Freundberger back in the 1970s and has become popularized in conversations about work and work environment, even resulting in the coining of the phrase occupational burnout. There are 12 stages, Freundberger identifies as symptoms of burnout: Burnout is defined as what happens when repeated stress leads to exhaustion. Motivation, the First Step into Burnout You start out at this stage with the best of intentions. You’re driven and dedicated. The problem? The problem is when you start to believe that you are what you do and base your assessment of who you are on what you think are failures. The Lie: You Are What You Do The Shift: Your Identity Isn’t Locked into What You are, but Instead It’s Who You Are. Stop. Take an inventory of yourself. Look at your failures and challenges as opportunities to grow and to build on your strengths. Before we even recorded the first episode of The Ruth and Scott Podcast, this inventory was something that we did. We knew that there was a task ahead of us, and that we each have different strengths. We knew that there would be other areas for both of us where we’d