Our students are on the edge of their seats, waiting for us to make a move. They’re looking up to us, expecting us to give them the guidance they’re craving. This can be a lot of pressure to handle.
These moments, though seemingly fleeting, hold the potential to rejuvenate and rekindle the passion for teaching. In this blog, we explore an array of calming activities tailored to teachers—simple yet effective ways to find respite, regain focus, and nourish the spirit amid the whirlwind of the educational journey.
Whether you’re an educator in search of a moment of solace or someone intrigued by the world of teaching, join us as we embark on this journey of rediscovering the importance of self-care in the life of a teacher.
Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash
I speak for one. Quite a fact. We need to relax and recharge. Raise your hand if you’ve ever experienced a dreadful, really bad, absolutely terrible day!
We get stressed.
We speak with one voice as we manage stress. We need to rejuvenate and unwind to maintain our efficiency and uphold quality student learning. We need to calm our minds and relax our senses.
But, what are some calming activities for teachers?
Want to feel better?
Each one of us needs some calming activities to feel better and to fight stress. Most importantly, we need to remain calm to establish favorable behavior in front of our students.
Our profession embodies a real scenario of hard work coupled with a lot of challenges. When students get upset, we tend to get anxious too. When the deadline for reports casts a shadow over our work, we get perturbed. Consequently, we need to calm down.
Nevertheless, the teaching profession creates a perfect story about the successes of students. And behind every student’s success is a great teacher. But that achievement is never easy.
As teachers, we have been through a lot from grading papers, making interactive instructional materials, crafting lesson plans, engaging students, and many more. Hence, we need to calm down sometimes to sustain quality performance.
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<<<Are you looking for fidget toys to calm your mind and body? We suggest the 19 most popular fidget toys that can help.
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In this article, we will talk about some calming activities for us teachers so we’ll shine even brighter. Mainly, we need relaxation to respond to the dramatic changes in the educational setting due to coping with the present situation in education.
In an effort to help our teachers create a more relaxed learning environment, we scoured the web for 10 calming strategies for teachers to help manage stress in the classroom. We found that a calm environment can go a long way toward reducing stress in teachers and therefore in students, too
What Are Some Calming Activities for Teachers?
Take the benefits of knowing the best strategies to calm down and regain your balance
1. Fidget
Relaxing gains are more conspicuous when your hands are busy pressing and stretching fidget toys to overcome restlessness. But, do you fidget?
Even if you haven’t tried the squishy toys, you might have found yourself biting your nails and spinning anything on your table. Well, that’s it. They are habits that show your inner disturbances.
And we usually do it when we’re bored, uptight, or anxious. For that, we need an activity to calm us down.
Press the stress-relieving sensory toys and release all the negative thoughts and discomforts. Extreme anxiety impacts our performance.
Fidget or sensory toys are small companions that are available in the best variety of packs. We can also add them to our collections of school supplies so we can share them with our students too.
Fidgets are a great way to release tensions and negative thrusts of the day. If it has been a long day, why not spend a moment in your chair and calm your nerves? Those stretchy strings and stress balls can help.
2. Experience aromatherapy
A study reveals that aromatherapy is a non-intrusive means of relieving stress and anxiety. Inhaling lavender essential oil has reduced stress among nurses as indicated in the said research.
Very well, then, my choice of essential oil turns out to be so perfect to calm my mind and body.
One of my favorites is a lavender essential oil which is known to help relieve stress and to lessen anxiety. Its scent has calming effects that make me feel better and rejuvenated.
I have my diffuser in my room, and when I want to relax, I enjoy the lavender scent and I feel its soothing effects on my nerves.
Now, you’ve got to experience the calming scent of essential oils. A tiring day in school exhausts energy and drains your thoughts. Scents are great stress relievers. Dilute 3 to 7 drops of lavender or chamomile and inhale the calming scent you most needed.
Essentially, aromatherapy is a great way to relieve stress and calm your senses. There are available essential oils that help you unwind your mind and calm you down.
Since we are exposed to various forms of stressors every day, we should practice aromatherapy as one of our calming activities. It’s super convenient to prepare and use.
3. Read a book
Not just to make you smarter, reading is another great way to calm your mind and de-stress. Open a book and unwind.
In particular, immerse in the thoughts of brilliant minds to unravel your calmness. Venture out with calming books and relax.
In fact, more and more studies reveal how reading can help reduce stress levels and improve mental health for both adults and children.
When you’re most stressed out, don’t allow yourself to plunge into teacher burnout. With the demands of the teaching profession, especially during this trying time in education, you owe yourself the finest form of calming activity.
Engage your mind while at the same time managing stress by reading a good book. Help yourself to escape from the stressful world and indulge yourself in the world of fiction or on any subject that interests you. It can be about gardening, a cookbook, or a novel.
Pick something you enjoy the most and relax your brain. Just read for pleasure. Good books are limitless. You just have to capture the best in reading.
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
4. Shut off your screen
Forbid yourself from social media for a while and see how it can improve your well-being. Updating your FB status and leering into your FB friends’ posts on social media can be very stressful.
Anyway, you won’t lose anything if you quit social media for some time.
Also, constant checking of how many likes and hearts you gain on your Facebook posts will hinder your on-time accomplishments. Just don’t let social media put off your moments of relaxation.
In truth, a survey published by the American Psychiatric Association shows that Americans view social media usage as harmful to mental health and only 5% of the respondents believe the other way around.
Shut off your screen and don’t get interrupted. Sit still and think of good memories.
Spend a certain time each day without updating your status or checking notifications.
5. Engage in deep breathing
When things don’t go your way, inhale and exhale. To calm yourself down, you need to execute breathing exercises. You can do it anywhere.
When one of my students really tested my patience one day, I went over to my table and took deep breaths to maintain my composure.
Breathe in. Breathe out. Gaze and smile!
When you feel so drained or when you are in a stressful situation, take a deep breath and exhale. It’s the simplest thing you can do when anxiety hits the hardest.
For this strategy, you need to master breathing exercises to keep you calm and feel better. Clear your mind from anything negative. Focus on the smooth side of the coin.
However, in this strategy, we are not talking about the many short breaths we make. For this to be effective, you have to inhale and exhale correctly which pampers the lower lungs instead of the upper. Just do it slowly and relax.
6. Listen to your favorite tunes
Listening to music can calm our minds and can elevate our thoughts. Try the power of music to calm down. Interestingly, music has a direct connection to our emotions.
So, when we listen to our favorite tunes, we feel tremendously its relaxing effect on our brains.
When we listen to music our mind stops wandering and we calm down. Hence, music has become great stress management means that people embrace it.
As we know, we become more productive when we feel better and when stress is relieved. To do this, I have Spotify installed on my phone and I listen to ’80s and 90’s love songs.
Anyway, your tunes will depend on your musical preference.
Another great option is to save my favorite tunes on a flash drive and play them on my very portable Bluetooth speaker. This way makes me enjoy music anytime, anywhere.
7. Do yoga and meditate
Have you thought about yoga and meditation? Try to find calmness through yoga and meditation. Quite a great activity for your brain. It may help to regain your balance and calm your mind.
Different postures don’t just improve your physical strength but also reduce stress and anxiety. Being in a terrible situation isn’t healthy and it has a negative impact on our overall well-being.
Hence to help us out, we should try incorporating yoga and meditation into our calming activities.
Photo by Jared Rice on Unsplash
8. Navigate Netflix
Have you already subscribed to Netflix? If so, then yes, you have gained one of the best activities to calm down. Well, that’s great! The present situation in education is indeed very stressful we need to divert our attention to something we enjoy doing.
Indulge in binge-watching Netflix and delve into comforting and exciting episodes of your favorite movies and let go of the stressors of the day.
Although it’s quite temporary, at least you freed yourself from worries and anxieties.
Binge-watching Netflix doesn’t make you a couch potato at all. In fact, a study proved that watching TV can do good in maintaining self-control.
As long as you know exactly how much time you should spend on this calming activity.
9. Sing
When you’re exhausted, try singing your favorite tunes. Sing your favorite tunes and who cares if you got a perfect voice or not.
For as long as you enjoy what you’re doing and you’re not disturbing anyone, then, go for it.
Well, I love singing in the showers. It calms my thoughts and gives me energy.
Singing frequently, studies explain, can help alleviate stress as the activity helps release the hormone oxytocin.
Sing a tune and improve your mood. It’s a very sensible stress reliever that remarkably helps to keep you calm and pacify your downtrodden emotions.
Catch the power of singing and avoid feeling weary.
10. Take a nap
Are you a regular napper? How do you spend your free time in the afternoon?
Close your eyes and relax. It’s a simple way to calm yourself down.
Taking a nap can help improve our mental health. A study reveals that taking a brief sleep, approximately 5-15 minutes, helps improve your concentration and cognitive capability. Accordingly, it’s preferable to take a nap in the afternoon and those regular nappers obtain more benefits than those who rarely do it.
Quick Tips!
- Visualization
- Writing in a journal
- Stretching and exercising
- Taking a walk
- Talking with friends or family members outside of school
Keep Calm. Relax.
As Remez Sasson shared, “Learn to calm down the winds of your mind, and you will enjoy great inner peace.” Hence, the above-mentioned tips are shared to help you perform your roles with a calm bearing and a smiling face. The calmer you are, the more effective you are as a teacher.
Getting tired at times is normal. And losing patience is customary too. We should not allow the test of patience to drastically change our attitude and mood.
Conclusion
While these activities might seem inconsequential, they can significantly help you relax, reduce your stress levels, and make you feel better prepared to handle a stressful classroom situation or student.
This will also benefit your student’s learning experience because teachers who are calm and confident tend to be more effective educators.
Do you have proven ways not to lose your cool in the classroom? Perhaps this is a great place to share so we can teach even more effectively. Share your thoughts in the comments below.
