Help A Teacher Live - Ep 12 With Kristin Mckeown [Interview]

Tune in to this Help a Teacher Live podcast interview where Hal Bowman from Teach Like a Rockstar talks with Kristin about her work of bringing mindfulness to educators. Highlights include how much more mainstream secular meditation has become, a reminder of Stephen Covey's habit of "sharpening your saw," as well as how profoundly supportive it can be for educators both inside and outside of the classroom.

Transcript

Alright,

We are live on the Help a Teacher Facebook page every Monday night at 7 PM Central and listen man,

Last week,

We had the amazing,

Talented,

Wonderful Pamela Davis on and we chatted about all things nutrition and exercise and that crazy just mental and psychological and physical transformation she has had and all that is done with her in her life and her personal life and her professional life in the classroom and her home and that is amazing and today man,

We're gonna stay with that same thought like getting ourselves healthy and this week,

What I thought we'd do is,

I guess it's emotional health and self-care,

I'm not sure how to talk about it but here's what I know,

Is like teaching is one of the most incredibly stressful and exhausting professions on the planet and here's the crazy part about it,

It is,

It's the only profession I know of where a first day,

A first day teacher,

It's their first day on the job,

A first day teacher has the same expectations put upon them as like a 35-year veteran and like that alone man,

Like just the stress of that,

We got some kid in the classroom and they don't know what they're trying to control the class,

There's classroom management issues and behavior and there's all kind of stuff and by the way,

They're supposed to teach somebody something and that alone right there,

Just the stress of that is so much to handle and that's just the first year,

Not like those who's been in this business for decades and here's the other thing,

You know,

This,

In this profession,

We lose,

I think the research is somewhere between 40 and 50% of teachers every five years,

Like they burn out,

They quit,

Every,

And I'm not saying that's a bad thing for all of them,

Look man,

This ain't for everybody but for lots of them,

We've lost some amazing talented,

Wonderfully,

Just brilliant teachers along the way simply because of just it's a lack of ability to manage the exhaustion and the stress and the anxiety and all that goes along with this thing and all right,

I'm getting on a rant now but here,

Look man,

Here's the other thing,

In addition to that,

You know,

You know who's drawn to this profession are people that just like on a DNA level,

They're emotional people like a lot of us,

Like I don't think all that logically,

Like I'm an emotionally based guy and then when you take on that emotion and the emotions of others and all the stuff and the trauma that these kids go through and now you accept that into your life,

It just compounds upon itself day after day,

Year after year,

It gets harder and harder and harder and this might be,

I don't know man,

This might be the single profession in kind of a social service world where I don't think anybody's offered any kind of training for that.

You know,

I know like for if you're an EMT or a firefighter or a police officer or a nurse,

You know,

And there's trauma,

You sit down,

You talk with somebody before you go on but in teaching,

Something happens every day in the classroom and oftentimes we don't know how to do it.

What happens is we'll go to the teacher workroom or sit down at lunch with your lunch bunch and there's your crew and you say,

Oh my god,

You're not gonna believe what happened in my class today and then kind of the therapy is the processing of it all as everybody starts piling on with what happened in their classroom and now we're in this downward spiral of anxiety and like I know you need to talk about it but I'm not sure how beneficial that is.

So,

Here's what we're gonna do.

We are going to speak with an expert,

An expert thought leader in in the world of teacher self care and Kristen McKeown is she's amazing.

I I you know,

We we we found each other online and we chatted the other day and she's got a lot of this stuff figured out.

She's been in the classroom for decades like I think like a quarter century and and and and now she's she's really she's dedicated her life to making a difference in the lives of teachers and helping them stay healthy and connected and grounded with with with with a passion that they have for making difference in the lives of kids.

Alright,

So here we go.

Kristen,

You are,

If I remember right,

You are,

Is it Colorado?

I am.

I'm in Denver.

Yes.

Denver.

Alright.

Alright.

So,

We always have to anytime I hear Denver like I'm I'm assuming you're in the middle of a snowstorm or there's an avalanche but you know,

It did snow yesterday but it was beautifully beautiful and sunny and it's not working.

Alright.

So,

Here's here's what I want to know like here's here's what I have found is I have found like we talked about.

It's somewhere close to 50% of teachers burn out every 5 years and you know what it's worse.

Here's here's worse.

It's worse in really high poverty schools.

I know there it's 20% of teachers turnover every year in those schools and but here's those teachers that are in this game for decades,

30,

40 years.

Mm hmm.

No,

Listen,

Some some are burnout but they stay in the classroom like we've seen those but isn't it true like you've walked down the hallway and you've looked in classroom and there's a veteran teacher who's been in this game for decades and they're and they have the same amount of passion and excitement and joy and they're just immersed.

You can tell that like they're lost in the moment of teaching and here's like I know like for some of that group,

Some of that population,

I know that it is just like a DNA thing.

That's kinda how they show up on a planet.

Mm hmm.

But for me,

I know for sure that there's another part of that population.

They have learned some strategies over time.

Mm hmm.

Maybe by chance.

But what I'm hoping is,

I mean,

There's gotta be a recipe.

There's gotta be something,

Some sort of set of skills and strategies that we can learn to keep to keep to keep us healthy and centered and excited and connected to the passion that we have for making a difference in the lives of kids.

Yeah,

Absolutely.

Well,

I would say for me,

It's funny,

When it comes to this whole idea of teacher self-care and all the things relating to that.

Yeah.

For,

I created the business that,

You know,

My my online business teaching balance for the purpose of really helping to support my colleagues in education and hopefully to manage their stress and for a long time,

It was more about mindfulness and it was more about self-care and all of that's really important but I noticed that I was really dancing around the fact that really what it comes down to,

In my opinion,

In my opinion,

What I really think can be the special sauce for people when it comes to sustainable self-care is meditation.

Now,

I know a lot of people think like,

Oh,

That's not me.

I'm too like,

You know,

Jittery or I tried and it didn't work for me or whatever it might be but I think the problem with that is that people have this like idea in their head of what it's supposed to be or how it's supposed to look or feel and most of the time,

That's actually really,

You know,

A misunderstanding or you know,

Not really what it can be and so they think like,

Oh,

It's not for me.

That doesn't work or it has to be,

You know,

20 minutes with chimes and incense,

You know,

All of that kind of stuff and so,

I've just recently finally come around to the realization for myself which I think is helpful when I communicate with,

You know,

Other people in education that from my perspective,

Meditation is really what makes the difference and when it comes to that,

I really think that it will just help you to keep going with your self-care which I think is really the key.

So,

That's sort of my like baseline perspective when it comes to that.

Yeah,

You know,

Here's what I,

Alright,

Listen,

Like anytime somebody says… Do you meditate?

Just wait a second.

Don't put me on the spot,

Man.

I thought we were friends.

Alright,

So here's what I,

First of all,

I can't,

The first thing I think of is like the meditation is there's a group of people sitting,

You know,

Cross-legged on crisscross applesauce style and first of all,

I'm too old,

I'm too limber,

I can't even get in that position.

Right,

Right,

Right.

That's my first problem but here's what it is,

I have checked it out and when I,

Like the picture I have in my mind isn't reality because when I start looking at who I know that uses meditation in their life,

I mean like the first,

Like the one on the opposite end of the spectrum is like Howard Stern never misses a day.

Oh yeah,

I'm a big fan actually,

Yeah.

There's multiple UFC fighters that do that and they're like the most,

The most violent sport on the planet and the most aggressive alpha type business leaders,

Like it's a who's who of that list that uses meditation.

So I think like if it's,

Like it doesn't have to be like the hippie thing and I can't grow a beard that long because it starts to itch,

You know.

Right,

Right,

Right.

I don't have any crystals in my house either.

No,

Well you're missing out there but no,

It doesn't have to look like that,

It's funny what I appreciate about the fact that mindfulness as a term has become so much more mainstream in the past few years is I don't really have to overcome that hump as much as you know it used to be but in the past it's almost like where yoga is today,

It's so much more mainstream and you know not considered to be very fringe or you know too metaphysical.

It's very much the same way with mindfulness and I'm kind of coming into it in a good time when I first started,

I had to really explain things a little bit more but the idea behind it is and you know you've probably seen this,

It's not as you just said,

It's like athletes,

It's these high performing people,

It's broad,

You know,

It's at Google,

It's you know,

It's just one of those things where it's not just you know the traditional perception of what meditation is and I think that's great because there really is nothing but positivity you know for all intents and purposes that can come from it and if we can let go of those,

Not only those stereotypes but also just this idea that it has to look a certain way or that it doesn't count if you're lying down or it doesn't count if it's only five minutes,

It totally does and even when you're sitting and you're thinking like this isn't working,

Your mind is just all over the place all the time,

It's a very common misconception that meditation is supposed to be like quieting your mind or stopping thinking because that's actually not possible,

At least it's not possible for me and so instead what you're doing and this is probably the best way for me to summarize it,

At least when it comes to mindfulness meditation is you're just being profoundly aware and observant of whatever is going on in your mind and you're doing that in a very accepting and non-judgmental and curious way and so it's not about trying to be like stop thinking,

I have to stop thinking,

You just notice that your mind has wandered and then you bring it back and you do that over and over and over again and so it's not only an exercise in focus and it's that moment when you notice that your mind has wandered to like thinking about your list of to-dos or replaying something that happened in the classroom that day,

When you notice that's the magic moment when then you are actually building up your mindfulness muscle so to speak and increasing your attentiveness,

Increasing your focus,

Increasing your self-awareness and so as crazy as it sounds,

The more your mind is all over the place when you're meditating,

The more you're actually benefiting which sounds like completely counterintuitive but there is something to be said for that and it's not always peaceful but it's still beneficial even if you don't necessarily have this ideal peaceful moment,

You know what I mean?

Yeah,

Something maybe that might be analogous to the consistency of exercise,

You're just going to the gym or whatever exercise,

Even when you're sore and you're tired and you don't want to do it,

It's those days that really matter the most.

Yeah,

I agree and it's funny because there's really two things I could say about that.

One is I'm a big fan of encouraging people to do it first thing in the morning.

I know we get up so early,

It's so messed up,

Like I resisted it for the longest time because like I just wanted to be in my warm covers until that final moment,

That final snooze until I had to like jet into the shower and start my day but if you can just one less snooze,

Get up and allow yourself just to have that five minutes or if you have more time,

10 minutes and just sit first thing,

You're actually more attuned to having it be a little bit calmer because you haven't already had all the things happen to you that you have to think about and it's just ideal but if that doesn't work for you,

I actually have four particular times that I think are the best.

If that's the best before you go to bed at night,

If a lot of people love to do that,

I'm not as much a fan because I like to read because I'm a former English teacher and a former librarian and so I have to have my go to bed reading time but the other two times which I think this hopefully will resonate with the audience is in your car either as soon as you get to school in the morning,

Just park your car,

Lots of people do it,

They're listening to podcasts,

They're listening to NPR,

They're listening to audiobook or whatever,

Nobody's going to think it's weird if you sit in your car for an extra five minutes.

Don't go in the building because you're not going to get it done if you go into the building,

You'll get interrupted if something will come up and then the other one,

The final one that I would offer is in your car before you actually get home.

So just pull over in a place that feels safe and just sit and do your meditation for five minutes because whomever might be waiting for you at home doesn't know that you're only a block away except maybe your dog,

Your dog will probably know that you're a few minutes away but other than that,

It's just a really good time because one of the big things that's an issue is carving out the time and it's so hard and so a lot of what I do interestingly is more about habit building,

Helping people build the habit and the meditation part but it's the habit building that people have the hardest time with and so I would say first thing in the morning,

Last thing before you go to sleep,

In your car,

When you get to school,

In your car just before you get home.

You know what I found is the hardest part I think for lots of people is it's like taking the five minutes to do that instead of scrolling on the phone.

I have my phone with me.

I used to have this library case on it.

Now I just have a regular green case.

I love my phone more than is really probably in my best interest so I so get it but what I would say is if it's possible to do a meditation before you engage with your phone in any other way so it could be something that you listen to on your phone or some other way of doing that even if it's just a timer or your watch or whatever but it really,

I mean so many things that I've read around when people get up,

The first thing they do is they get on their phones,

They look at emails,

Social media and it's just not a great way to start your day unfortunately because it already kind of like agitates you when really it's so much better for you to ease into your day and I would say ideally by meditating.

Hey,

You know,

Here's what's interesting is one of the things I do is chat about the tiniest tiny things that make the biggest profound difference in your professional life as an educator and one of those things is really getting connected with what you want for your kids.

Like digging down deep,

Like what's the real lesson of your classroom?

If you could have anything for your kids as a result of them spending their lives with you,

The lesson I'm going to be talking about like 40 years from now at the reunion,

Gathered around the table and they're reflecting on your class,

They're not going to remember the content,

They're not going to remember the Pythagorean theorem or the periodic table.

Parts of speech.

Yeah,

All that stuff for you and your library.

What do we have?

When I was in high school I had the Dewey Decimal System.

We still have that.

Yeah,

Okay.

And so here's the thing,

Man,

Like what is that lesson for you?

If you have anything for those kids,

What would it be?

And in addition to that is like why?

Like why are you here?

Why are you in your class?

What's the real purpose?

Like why this school?

Why this class?

Why these kids?

And to dig down into that and write and journal and think and reflect.

And once we're there,

What I ask of teachers is every day before class,

Before school starts,

It takes less than a minute to read through that.

Just take a moment and go inside and think and be with it and consider it,

Reflect upon it,

Maybe even edit it.

Did it change?

Is there another word you could add?

And I know,

Like I know that one minute results in a sustainable kind of passion and excitement for this career that is unmatched in any other,

But to get people to do 60 seconds.

Yeah.

I mean,

You think I'm asking for like an hour.

Right.

60 seconds,

Man.

Yeah.

And so,

And so I'm wondering like with,

With your work with teachers and what you do in your career,

Like a lot of your work has to be somehow selling the five minutes.

Like getting them just to do,

Like do the time.

Yeah.

You know,

It's funny.

There's a lot of irony.

I think to the fact that basically by transitioning from being a public school teacher and you know,

English teacher and teacher librarian into now being a mindfulness coach and helping to support my educators is I've basically signed myself up to get people to do something that they kind of don't want to take the time to do.

So there's,

There's something really sort of funny to me about that.

But here's what I would say to that.

I would say in two different ways.

One is when you talk about like just going back to what you said a minute ago about inviting people to think about what's the most important thing that they want to bring to their students,

The thing that their students are going to remember at this time,

More than any other time in the age of social media and this barrage of information and this constant distraction that we all know.

I don't have to belabor that point.

But what I would say is for me,

When you were asking that question,

The first thing that came to my mind was this idea of being deeply present with my students.

So having that quality of presence and attention.

And I know,

Of course,

Like you're going to give them your attention,

Your teaching.

But I know we've all had that moment where,

You know,

Maybe the student is asking for help and they're not saying it fast enough and all of those things contribute.

The fact that we have so much to do and not enough time to do it,

Whether it's our lessons or a workload.

I mean,

The story goes on and on.

But because we're so trained,

I think,

To be hyper efficient because it's a survival strategy,

We tend to rush everything when it comes to what we're communicating and certainly our interactions with our students.

And so in many ways,

It's just slowing down,

Even though it sounds like,

Oh,

God,

You know,

I have so much to get done and so much,

You know,

So much content,

Et cetera.

But if you can just slow down and really give every student the attention that they need to have that presence,

I think that it will have such a profound impact on your students and their perception of you and also your stress level.

I mean,

We all know what it's like when we're rushing,

Rushing,

Rushing and you forget something or you mess it up or whatever it might be.

So if we can slow it down and really just do the best that we can to tune in and be present.

And when it comes to this idea of trying to get people to meditate for five minutes,

It goes back to the old Stephen Covey.

You know,

There's a lot of metaphors,

You know,

Put your oxygen mask on first.

You can't pour from an empty cup.

But the one I really like is from Stephen Covey,

Where you have to stop and sharpen your saw.

And the whole idea is,

I mean,

If you guys are familiar with it,

The idea is that you have this bunch of trees and you have your saw that you have and you have to cut them down first.

At the beginning,

You're going great,

No problem.

But then the blade starts to dull.

And so the problem is it requires more effort on your part to cut down as many trees.

And now you're going slower and it's harder.

And now your hands are getting blistered and all of that.

Whereas if you could actually just stop to sharpen the saw,

You would have been able to be more effective in cutting down all of these trees.

And that sharpening of the saw is self-care strategies like meditation.

And that's not the only one.

But the thing that I think is really important is a lot of people are talking about self-care,

But in many ways what they're talking about is like self- soothing.

So like a Netflix binge or,

You know,

Just sort of zoning out or bubble bath or the wine or whatever.

And not that there's anything wrong with any of those things,

But to me,

Self-care is more about systematic changes in your life where you really are establishing healthy boundaries.

You know,

You're meditating,

You're doing things that help to sustain you,

Not just to calm you down and make you feel a little bit better.

Yeah.

Yeah,

Man,

Like a weekend retreat at the spa,

Like that's amazing.

But,

You know,

This really sounds like we're talking more along the lines of like preventative care,

Like preventative medicine,

Maintenance for ourselves.

Yeah,

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

As you're talking about,

I haven't thought about this a long time,

But I was in a school and I was just visiting and just hanging out and watching teachers teach and watching and see how teachers do the thing.

And there was a really loud class.

So I thought,

Let me see what's going on here.

And I kind of,

And it's out of control.

Like I was hoping it was gonna be like engaging and awesome,

But it was far from that.

And I mean,

Kids are on the desk and phones are everywhere.

It was just,

And I thought,

Well,

Let me provide,

See if I can provide some feedback.

And the bell rings and that teacher leaves.

This is at a middle school and I think there's eighth graders and another teacher comes in for another class and they're floating around.

Teachers are moving class to class.

The same group of kids come in and a teacher,

And this is a brand new teacher,

And this gentleman gets to the front of the room.

And as soon as the kids come in,

First of all,

The craziest part,

They all go to the door and put their phone in the phone hotel,

Which is the new thing at the hang,

You know?

Yeah,

Yeah,

The shoe thing.

Right.

And so they,

And all the kids put their phone away.

And then the first thing he says is he walked into the kids to our class and then like already the language is different.

He's talking about our class and talks about the family.

And he says,

Let's all just have a minute together,

Everybody deep breath in and the kids,

And it's absolute silence.

He doesn't,

All the kids' eyes close.

They breathe in deep,

They breathe out deep,

And they sit in silence for 60 minutes.

These kids are still sweating from all the animal behavior that was happening like eight minutes ago.

And eight minutes later,

They're just totally immersed in this moment of being together and taking a moment of quietness.

And it was powerful to watch and just to see a whole different environment just on being still and thinking and breathing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And you know,

My friend Rhonda Turner,

She was just posted on here.

She was talking about like the,

Just like that discipline alone.

Like that's really what is like teaching life balance and discipline to kids when we model what it looks like to take a moment in our own lives.

Yeah.

And they can see that and participate in that as well.

Yeah.

Well,

It's funny that you say that actually,

Because one of the things that happens to me a lot when I do presentations to teachers,

And this is just how we're wired,

Is they start thinking,

Oh,

I could use that with my class or,

Oh,

I might be able to introduce that as something we do like once a week.

And so everybody,

Because that's what we are and how,

You know,

Whenever we attend something,

We figure here's another little something I could put in my toolbox and help my students.

And I think that's amazing and fantastic.

And when that happens,

When someone will raise their head,

Like,

Oh,

How do you think this would work for this age group and that sort of thing?

And I stopped it.

I'm like,

I think it's great that you're thinking about that.

But what I really need you to do is realize that for this time that we're together,

I want you to just think about yourself.

Because,

Of course,

You know,

We've all seen that mindfulness curriculum is being introduced in schools,

Particularly in the elementary schools,

And that's fantastic.

Sometimes it's outside providers.

Sometimes it's a curriculum that's taught to the teachers and then they actually facilitate it.

But what I think is really important is even if a teacher,

No matter what grade level,

Never actually teaches a mindfulness practice to their students,

But they themselves still practice mindfulness,

I.

E.

Meditation,

It will have an impact on their students.

It will just happen because that teacher,

Him or herself,

Will be more grounded,

More present,

More responsive as opposed to reactive.

There's just that space that happens through practice that allows you to just be so much more there.

And so as wonderful it is for people to teach it,

What often happens that I've noticed is that the teachers will get a curriculum and they'll facilitate it and bring it to their kids and that's cool,

They like it,

But they're actually not doing it themselves.

And so whether you do or don't bring it to the kids,

I think it's just going to make such a difference for anyone who's willing to dip a toe into that practice.

Yeah.

And Tony Holt,

Dr.

Tony Holt,

You guys should be besties for the rest of you,

Man.

She's awesome.

Just like you,

She's amazing.

She's in Las Cruces,

New Mexico,

And she's right that we found that we needed to be purposeful and scheduling.

That's the thing,

Like making it intentional.

Like if we're just going to,

Hey,

Let's try to make that happen,

It's never going to happen.

It really has to be,

You know,

To make it a part of the culture,

You have to first make it a part of the schedule.

And then the other thing I was thinking about is,

There it is,

I knew she's,

I knew it.

So Tricia,

She has Mindfulness Monday in her class we've talked about.

Yeah,

I know.

And yeah,

Like that's the thing is to talk about it,

Make it intentional.

And here's what I've always said is,

If you want to be really,

Really good at something,

Like go teach a bunch of other people how to do that thing and you're going to be amazing at it.

And when you're talking about making it a habit and you're teaching other people how to make it a habit,

Like your kids and your students and your classes,

Then it becomes a habit in your own life.

And now we have that exponential impact of making a difference.

Well,

I would say one of the things that's so important,

Because I'm very realistic,

You have to be realistic about it and not think like,

Oh,

I'm going to do it for 20 minutes and with all the pomp and circumstance.

And really,

To me,

It's all about reducing the friction points,

Which is why I say first thing in the morning before it's about all the rest of your day,

In the car when no one can interrupt you unless some like,

You know,

Disturbing individual comes up and knocks on your window.

But you know,

In your car or at home because everything is pulling us every which way.

And it's really difficult to make this promise to yourself like,

Oh,

I'm going to do this.

But yet you're setting yourself up for it to not be as successful as you'd like because you have to get the friction points out of the way.

So I would say,

Just like I was talking to you a little bit before that I'm trying to help people to build a daily meditation practice through this like the 21-day daily meditation challenge.

And one of the things that we talk about is like pick a time and try to stick with that time so that you know that's what you do.

And there's other tips that come over in that whole challenge like,

You know,

If you need a visual prompt to remind you to do that.

It's a post-it note.

It's some other,

You know,

Some sort of object or whatever it might be.

There's all these different strategies to help reinforce the habit.

And that's really what it's about.

It's sort of about hacking your resistance because it is,

You know,

It's boring.

It's a boring five minutes and it's okay that it's boring but it still is helpful even if it doesn't feel relaxing at the time.

You know,

Here's the other thing is and I want to talk more about the 21-day challenge because I'm up for this.

Yeah.

And I'm going to just dive in.

I'm not just playing along.

I'm medical in it.

Right on.

Excellent.

And but here's what I need to do is what I've decided.

This is my,

I don't really do resolutions because I'm always doing that anyway.

Like I'm already have goals.

I'm always focused.

But this year,

One thing I really want to do different is I want to come up with a better morning routine.

Like a better first thing in the morning,

You know,

Like,

You know,

Specifically like I want to do the same thing day in and day out for my morning routine because like the worst thing you can do is like wake up and pick up the phone and start looking at whatever happened overnight on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter or whatever.

Right.

And I think getting that out of my morning and more of this,

Like these moments where you take care of yourself and be mindful and meditate.

Like I'm just,

I've just have too much evidence of the power of that to not do it.

Yeah.

Well,

One suggestion I would make actually if it's helpful.

So I am a big fan.

I'm a convert to not having my regular phone next to my bed.

I actually charge it outside of the bedroom.

And there are a lot of people who are really really big enthusiasts for that.

And I've loved it.

But what I do have is I have a very old phone.

So the old phone,

It doesn't all it gives me some Wi-Fi and I just have like my timer app on there.

And I do like to look at my,

You know,

My horoscope every day.

It makes me happy.

But other than that,

I don't have any social media.

I don't have any text.

I don't have anything on there.

So what I would encourage people to do,

We all have so many sort of like older used devices floating around.

Put the one by your bed that you can just delete all the other stuff off of.

And then it's really just about the alarm.

Because I do like the whole smartphone alarm thing.

It's just about the alarm and some sort of a timer.

And if you want to listen to,

You know,

Meditations from me or meditations that you get from some other app,

Then that's all you leave on that extra device.

But that would be something that I would invite people to consider as a possibility as we head into the new year of trying to do distance themselves from having the phone in the bedroom.

All right.

Here we go.

I want to,

All right,

Tony Hall says she's down for it too.

She's game.

That was on the 21 Day Challenge.

All right.

So now walk me through this.

So this is a 21 Day Challenge.

This is free,

Of course.

And this is a service you're providing for educators.

And we're kicking it off the first of the year.

All right.

Now tell me how this thing works.

So basically,

If you are interested in checking it out,

You just go to my website,

Which is teachingbalance.

Com.

I have one of those annoying pop-ups.

But if you want to go directly to the page to sign up,

It's teachingbalance.

Com slash 21 dash day.

So just 21 dash d-a-y.

And you'll see there that there's a little bit of information about it.

There's not a lot to read.

And then you just click on there to sign up.

There's no obligation.

If you kind of give it a shot and then you're not feeling it,

You can drop out at any time.

But really,

The whole idea behind it is,

Is it's much,

It is as much about habit building as it is about meditation.

So for people who are super new to it,

I think this is a really nice kind of entry point to dip a toe in.

It's only five minutes.

It's attainable.

Even if you only do like three minutes,

That's fine too.

But the idea is that because so many people are already in this like resolution headspace,

Which I like you kind of feel ambivalent about,

To be honest with you.

It's just a good time,

Particularly for us as educators,

Because we have that extra little bit of time before we go back to school after the new year.

So it's nice to kind of get it going and then see how it can fit into your school workday routine.

But it's the meditation itself.

It'll start off,

It's just audio.

You'll sign up.

You get an email each day.

That email brings you to the link for that day's practice.

It's just five minutes.

And there's three different kinds.

It's either focus on your breath,

Focus on sounds or focus on the body.

Very quick,

Very straightforward.

And there's a little intro to give you more information.

And I'm always available to answer any questions if people want to email me as well.

Perfect.

Yeah.

All right.

Last question.

Yes,

I'm ready.

Because I got it,

Man.

You clearly,

I mean,

It works for you.

I mean,

Like it's obvious that it works.

But here's the last thing I want to know.

When you first started the teaching thing back,

You know,

Whatever it was,

A quarter century ago.

Yes.

Yes.

Like were you just frazzled?

And was there chaos in your life and just was it complete?

Gosh.

For me it was a mess,

Man.

Yeah.

My husband tells me,

Because we've been together for that long,

He tells me that I cried a lot.

I don't remember.

I think I've locked it out.

But you know,

It's just,

You know,

We,

It's difficult.

If you ain't crying,

You ain't trying.

That's what I always say about a first-year teacher.

Yeah.

It's funny.

Yeah.

I totally agree.

And I had a good first year and I've been fortunate.

But I would say,

You know,

As I look back,

The thought of having had the support of a meditation practice back then would have been huge because the other thing,

Honestly,

Really after the whole self-awareness and emotional self-regulation and sort of resilience,

The other thing that has really profoundly impacted me when it comes to my meditation practice is being so much more gentle with myself.

I am hard on myself.

I always have been.

I'm working on it constantly and not in this,

You know,

It's all about not beating yourself up.

So the self-compassion piece is a huge part of all of the things that I teach.

You know,

Really just being gentle with yourself,

Not putting pressure on yourself.

I know a lot of people kind of pick an intention for a new year.

And honestly,

The one I thought I was going to do,

What did I think of?

I was going to do something else.

I forget.

But I changed my mind because I fell right into that beating myself up trap again.

And I was like,

You know what I really need?

I need grace.

Like,

I need to give myself some grace like I do for other people.

And I need to do it all the time because,

You know,

It's,

I can't do this work and nor can any of our educator colleagues do the work that we need to do if we're expending all this negative energy,

Beating the crap out of ourselves.

It's just like a waste of mental,

Our precious mental energy.

And,

You know,

I just have to constantly remind myself to let that go.

And that's why it's so much about the types of things that I write about and my meditations and things,

Because it's just,

It just needs to be something that we're reminded of all the time.

Yeah.

I agree.

We're hard on ourselves.

I know.

I know.

But I'm gonna do a better job.

All right.

Here's the deal.

I'm down.

Tony Hall is down.

Maybe Tricia,

I think she might get after it.

Oh,

Yeah.

There's the link.

Nice.

Yeah,

Rachel.

She's all right.

So,

Here's the deal.

21 Day starts on January 1,

Right?

2020.

Here we go.

Teachingbalance.

Com slash 21-Day,

21-Day.

And that's where we're gonna find all the info.

Exactly.

And I would say for anybody that's interested in doing that,

When you sign up,

Get a friend to join with you because it's so much more fun.

You know,

When you do stuff like this with somebody else,

It keeps it playful.

It keeps you feeling crappy if you missed a day.

You know,

It's not a big deal.

And hopefully people are getting my vibe that like,

It's okay.

If you miss a day.

And you know,

The question,

Is it normal if?

Yes.

But the whole idea is to just keep this light and keep it playful.

Try it.

If you don't,

You know,

It's not working,

That's okay.

But at least you're gonna know,

You know,

Whether it helps you or not.

And the whole doing it with a buddy also helps you guys like encourage each other and cheer each other on,

Which is fun too.

Yeah.

All right,

Chris.

And thank you so much,

Man.

Sure.

I really appreciate you and all the,

Just all that you're doing,

All that you're investing in the lives of teachers to make them,

Just to support them and help them refuel and reconnect and stay grounded and healthy.

It's the work is so,

So important.

And man,

I appreciate you deeply.

Thank you.

And thank you so much for having me here and allowing me to share more about this with everyone out there.

I really appreciate it.

All right.

Teaching balance dot com.

Go check it out,

Man.

Let's start this year right.

All right.

Have a good year,

Buddy.

Thank you so much.