Thrive in 2025- Prioritize Yourself While Transforming Your Teaching [#161] Educate & Rejuvenate

Click below to listen to episode 161,Thrive in 2025- Prioritize Yourself While Transforming Your Teaching:

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Key themes from Thrive in 2025- Prioritize Yourself While Transforming Your Teaching [#161]:

Prioritizing Self-Care in Education: The importance of educators prioritizing their well-being to break free from burnout and create a sustainable, fulfilling teaching career is a central theme. Self-care is positioned not as selfish but as essential for thriving both personally and professionally.
Mindset Shifts for Growth: The post emphasizes the power of shifting mindset and challenging limiting beliefs, particularly the idea that teachers must sacrifice themselves for their students. This transformation allows educators to align their actions with their values and goals.
Practical Framework for Thriving: The three-step framework—Observe Yourself, Choose Your Direction, and Align Yourself—provides actionable steps for educators to create meaningful change in their teaching and personal lives.
Community and Resources for Support: The Educate & Rejuvenate event, app, and associated resources highlight the value of community, tools, and professional development to help educators navigate challenges and achieve their goals in a supportive environment.

Make 2025 Your Year: Transform Your Teaching with One Mindset Shift

2025 is your year to thrive—inside and outside the classroom. It starts with one powerful mindset shift that puts your well-being first without sacrificing your impact. This mindset is the cornerstone of my three-step framework.

Whether you’re a classroom teacher, a homeschool parent, or an administrator, this approach helps you break free from burnout and rediscover balance, fulfillment, and joy in your teaching journey. Ready to start thriving? Let’s dive in.

The New Way to Thrive in Education

For decades, educators hear the message to pour from an empty cup—to sacrifice their well-being for the sake of their students. The result? Burnout, overwhelm, and feelings of inadequacy. The statistics don’t lie: educators have the highest burnout rates among U.S. workers, surpassing even healthcare professionals.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

During the Winter Educate & Rejuvenate conference, we will explore how educators thrive by prioritizing themselves. It’s not about doing less for your students—it’s about doing more for yourself so you can show up as your best self for your students, colleagues, and family.

Step 1: Observe Yourself

The first step in the framework focuses on awareness. Think of yourself as a student in your own classroom. Observe your thoughts, feelings, and actions with curiosity and compassion.

For example, consider Miss Ramirez, a dedicated special education teacher, on her first day back from winter break. Her classroom is chaotic, her thoughts spiral with self-doubt, and her actions reflect her feelings of discouragement. By separating the facts (the circumstances) from her interpretations (her thoughts), she starts to understand the root of her burnout.

Questions to ask yourself:

What thoughts run through my mind during stressful moments?
How do those thoughts make me feel?
What actions do I take (or avoid) because of those feelings?

Step 2: Choose Your Direction

Once you observe your current patterns, you decide what you want. What kind of educator—and person—do you want to be in 2025?

Instead of accepting every expectation or thought as truth, challenge them. Align your actions with your values and goals, rather than external pressures.

Key insight: Small, intentional shifts in your thoughts lead to significant changes in your actions and results.

Step 3: Align Yourself

This final step focuses on follow-through. It’s not enough to set goals—you need to check in with yourself regularly, reassess your progress, and realign as needed. This is where the magic happens. You transform your goals into sustainable habits that allow you to thrive long-term.

During the conference, we explore tools like the self-coaching model, which helps you understand how your thoughts drive your feelings, actions, and results. This tool is a game-changer for making intentional choices that align with the life you want.

Why It Matters

Taking care of yourself isn’t selfish—it’s essential. When you prioritize your mental, emotional, and physical well-being, you create a ripple effect that benefits your students, colleagues, and family. As I often say, you can’t pour from an empty cup. By filling your own, you have even more to give.

Join Us and Make 2025 Your Best Year Yet

If this resonates with you, there’s still time to dive deeper into these concepts. The Winter Educate & Rejuvenate conference sessions are available for free until January 10th in the Educate & Rejuvenate app. Whether you join live or catch the replays, this event is packed with actionable insights, expert sessions, and a supportive community to help you thrive.

Ready to take the next step? Download the Educate & Rejuvenate app today and explore all the tools and resources waiting for you.

Your Next Steps

Observe Yourself: Spend 24 hours paying attention to your thoughts, feelings, and actions. Journal what you notice.
Join the Conference: Register for free and access the live sessions and replays in the Educate & Rejuvenate app.
Dive Deeper: Ready for more support? Upgrade to the Platinum Pass for extended access, exclusive bonuses, and coaching sessions.
Grab the Book: My book, Educate & Rejuvenate: A 3-Step Guide to Revitalize Your Teaching, takes these concepts even further. It’s available on Amazon.

Let’s make 2025 the year you stop surviving and start thriving—in teaching and in life.

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Read the transcript for Thrive in 2025- Prioritize Yourself While Transforming Your Teaching [#161] below:

2025 is your year inside and outside of teaching. It all starts with one crucial mindset shift. In this podcast today, which is actually my full session for winter educate and rejuvenate 2024 2025 virtual conference, we’ll uncover the 3 step framework that will help you thrive in teaching in life by putting your well-being first without sacrificing your impact. You’ll discover the key to breaking free from burnout and stepping into a version of teaching that’s fulfilling, balanced, and aligned with the life that you truly want. Ready to start thriving? Let’s do this. Welcome to educate and rejuvenate, the podcast to help you revitalize your teaching, renew your spirit, and reignite your passion for life. I’m your host, Kelsey Sorensen, a former teacher, current homeschool mom, published author, and certified life coach. Whether you are a teacher in a traditional classroom, homeschool from your kitchen table, or anywhere in between, I am on a mission to help you not only survive as an educator, but thrive.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:01:02 – 00:02:03

Get ready to up level your skills with incredible insights from guest experts and discover the missing piece, rejuvenating yourself. Are you ready to both educate and rejuvenate? Let’s go. I am so thrilled to be airing this session I recorded for our winter educate and rejuvenate event on the podcast today. Now, this session is already packed full of info and it’s already 49 minutes long, and it took some cutting to even get it to that. So I’m not going to chat too long in this intro, but I want to make sure that you know how to get into the educate and rejuvenate event if you’re listening to this as this airs. So you enjoy not only this session here on the podcast, but all the incredible prerecorded sessions you can start watching for free this week on January 3rd if you’re listening live. In case you are new, or it’s been a while, or you just missed it, our winter educate and rejuvenate event is just about to start for general admission. All the sessions will drop in the educate and rejuvenate app for everybody for free on January 3rd.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:02:04 – 00:02:39

That’s this Friday. And it’s always been a paid event up until now. We’ve had thousands of teachers, I think about 10,000 purchase tickets to this event in the past. And we could have totally charged for it again, but we decided to make it free. As our gift to you this winter, this holiday season, we want every teacher to be able to have the Educate and Rejuvenate experience, whether you teach in a classroom, whether you’re homeschooling, whether you’re an admin. Whatever type of educator you are, there’s something here for you. And all of our attendees have loved it in the past, but we, again, decided to make it free, so we can also show off our mobile app. We’re really excited about our app.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:02:39 – 00:03:12

It’s the first time we’re having it in there. So we thought what better way to do our first event in the app than just by making it free and letting everyone come in and see what we’ve created. It’s so much fun. But what it is, basically, it’s like the best PD ever. You can do it in your jammies. And I know there are a lot of virtual conferences, but this one is also different because it’s a combination of live and prerecorded. And the lives are just so unmatched, really. The camaraderie, the type of people we attract into the educate and rejuvenate events, people who are wanting to be uplifted and uplift themselves, uplift others, like, it it’s unprecedented.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:03:12 – 00:03:47

Like, you just have to experience it to see it. The people, the camaraderie and connection that happens between presenters and attendees, it’s not just us talking at you, it’s all of us getting together and learning from each other. And that’s what I love about it. And for this event specifically, we’re going to be setting goals for the new year. And if you actually attend these sessions, you’re gonna even if you come in having no clue what you want for 2025, you will leave if you, come to my sessions, even just mine, you will be leaving with clarity on your goals for 2025. So it’s gonna be a great time. Basically, you wanna be here. We’ve got so many great sessions, custom organization, style, fitness.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:03:47 – 00:04:15

Like, we got look good, feel good too. We’ve got classroom management. We got STEM. We’ve got math. Like, Canva, everything you can think of is going to be such a great time. So go to the link in our show notes to officially register so you get all the reminders, the PD certificate, etcetera. So you’re officially on the list for the event, so you get that certificate and all the links and everything. But to actually access the event, whether you have already registered for the event or not, you need to download the educate and rejuvenate mobile app for the best experience.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:04:15 – 00:04:46

And also, we have some questions like, what if I don’t have a phone to use? You can you access it on a desktop. The mobile app is just the most convenient, the most sleek and fun experience. But there’s a link to visit the app on your desktop, so we’ll give you that link as well. But essentially, you’re going to want to download that, most likely, download that on App Store or Google Play. And then you’ll find it right on January 3rd. The prerecorded sessions will drop in there. And right now, you’re already going to be be able to find the event schedule for the lives. This session that you’re already listening to on the podcast is also already live in the app.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:04:46 – 00:05:21

But you’ll see everything drop on January 3rd. But right now, download the app so you have it ready. And, again, if you wanna watch on a bigger screen, we’ll put the link for the web version in the show notes as well. You’ll use the same app login as you would on a mobile device. If you haven’t purchased anything from us before, you can just download the app and it’ll arrive there for you and everything. If you have purchased the Clubber Platinum Pass and you need your upgrade, you need to make sure that because if if it’s, like, paid content, you need to make sure it’s connected to the account you made your purchase with. So you’ll need to make sure you log in with the same email you made to use the purchase on our website. Now, the important thing to note is, it doesn’t it transfers the email, but it does not transfer your password.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:05:21 – 00:05:54

So if it’s your first time logging in, look for an email that helps you to create your password for your account. If you need help, just email us at educate hello at educate and rejuvenate.com, and we will help you out. And anybody, if you have issues getting to the event or even figuring it out or you’re confused about everything I just shared, email us at hello at educate andrejuvenate.com because you are going to wanna be in on this event. You’re not going to want to miss it. I don’t want you missing out. And if you’re listening to this later and the event is already over, stay tuned. We’re gonna have another something coming. So just still make sure you download the app because then you’ll see whatever we have.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:05:55 – 00:06:43

Alright. Let’s get to the podcast. Hello and welcome to educate and rejuvenate, our winter conference 2024 2025. I’m so thrilled to be here with you for your first session, and the host of the educate and rejuvenate event. I am honored that we were able to gather so many incredible speakers to come to you and bring you this event for free to help you refresh, to help you set your goals for the new year, to help you improve in key areas that are critical for you as an educator, and to just come together and learn and grow together. So I am thrilled for this event. Thank you for being here. Make sure to not only watch this session, but all the other incredible sessions, and to engage in the chats inside the app as well.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:06:43 – 00:07:28

We are going to have such a great time. So for my first session, I’m going to be teaching you how to thrive in 2025 by prioritizing yourself as a way to transform your teaching. And we’re going to dive into why that’s going to work. So, first off, we know it’s no secret that teachers of all kinds are burned out. For decades, we’ve been told to pour from an empty cup, to do it for the income and not the outcome, to, you know, do it for the kids, but what about us too? So today we are saying no more. We still care about the kids. We still care about teaching just as much as ever, but if we’re feeling burned out, can we even keep doing this? That’s the question. And this is what we’re seeing.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:07:28 – 00:08:01

This is the result. Right? I pulled articles that are I tried to pull some articles about burnout with that were within just the last 2 months. So it didn’t like, I was I’ve been writing my book, started my book over 2 years ago, and now, 2 years later, we’re still seeing it. We’re seeing November of 24. Teacher burnout on low salaries lead to increased shortages in Arizona. So what’s happening? Teachers are leaving the profession, right, because we’re so burned out. And then what does that do? Leave the teachers who are still in the classroom more burned out than ever. Feeling afraid to take their sick days, like it’s a huge systemic problem and I’m not denying that.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:08:01 – 00:08:41

But also, we need to take a look at what can we do. What can we do to refresh, to rejuvenate, to make the best of a situation that we have no control over? Right? Let’s look at what else. So the Tolan Board of Education restores Friday before holiday break as a half day citing teacher burnout. Right? So much burnout. I mean, great for an extra half day, but that’s not gonna cut it alone. Right? You’re we would love some extra time off, but we need to make some changes overall, so we’re not burning out all the time. And parents too, I know we have some homeschool parents in our community. I’m currently a homeschool parent as well, former teacher, And a lot of the people in our community, they are working and they’re also parents.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:08:41 – 00:09:06

Right? You’re also a mom. You’re also a dad. So 81% of working mom is space burnout while trying to manage it all. Right? So it’s not just in your classroom. You bring your classroom worries home, you bring your home worries to the classroom, and it’s just this vicious cycle of taking care of everybody else. New research finds that parents are burnt out. Do we need headlines for any of this? Right? But the headlines just verify that it’s true. Right? US facing epidemic of parental burnout.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:09:06 – 00:09:58

And you’ll see here that it says for a parent, it feels as if there’s a lot of pressure to be perfect. We see this as teachers in the classroom too on Instagram and Pinterest and TikTok, all the places. But according to new research, this expectation not only leads to parental burnout, it also negatively impacts the mental health of the child. And as a teacher, that could be the children in your classroom too. Right? So this is so important for us so we can enjoy our lives, so we can enjoy our careers, so we can enjoy our time with our children, but also for the kids that we teach. We need to get to the bottom of this, and we should all be looking for issues to help us in the system too. But also, we need to look at what we can control and that’s what we’re going to talk about today. So a Gallup panel I found while researching for my book, educate and rejuvenate, shows that Kate to Schwab education is the top burnout rate of all US workers.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:09:58 – 00:10:34

Like, you can even see healthcare is lower. Like, they’re so burned out. They’re working like 12 hour shifts, but again, us as educators, we rank higher. College or university professional services, you’ll see, like, we outrank all the other professions feeling burned out at work. Again, we didn’t need headlines to know this. Right? We know this because we are experiencing it. So when I asked on our Instagram account at educate and rejuvenate, just did a little poll in the stories, and we had over 300 teachers respond in less than 24 hours. I asked, do you feel like you put your job ahead of taking care yourself? And this is the stat we ended up with at educate and rejuvenate.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:10:34 – 00:11:14

We had yes way too often, 78%. 20% says sometimes. Only 2% said they rarely put their job ahead of taking care of themselves, meaning they put taking care of themselves first. Right? So that means 98% are not rarely doing that. They’re more regularly putting their job ahead of their own needs. Now I see that as an issue, so we’re going to talk about that today, but it’s no wonder. Right? It’s no wonder this is going on. With all the things going on in the classroom, even in the classroom, the expectations of parents, expectations of admins, everybody, and even quotes like this, well meaning, well intended, but awful quotes when you really think about it.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:11:14 – 00:11:45

So a good teacher is like a candle. It consumes itself to light the way for others. Think about what consume means. It means to literally burn out until there’s nothing left for you to even give to the students, to your spouse or partner, to your children, to everybody else around us. And, again, this is a problem. Right? We should pick a candle burning ourselves out. And when I talked about this on Instagram, somebody was like, I like the idea of a lantern, where we can light it, but it can also turn off, and it can, or something with a battery that can recharge. But again, we are expected to be the candle.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:11:45 – 00:12:33

We’re expected to just keep burning out, and we are gonna say no more. After today, after you watch this session, I hope you feel inspired to say no more because we do literally burn ourselves out until there’s nothing left, like the candle, by staying up late every day to organize and prep. And I want you to think about whether these examples apply to you or maybe what your version of this is as we go through this. Maybe you’re skipping meals because you’re too busy with the kids, and then because you haven’t eaten all day, then you binge eat a bunch of Oreos or Pringles or whatever from your pantry when you finally have a spare moment. And you stress eat, and you don’t even enjoy all those billions of calories. Maybe you are at the last car in the parking lot, and it’s dark when you get there and dark when you leave, and you just feel like you never get sunlight. You never get time for you. It’s just like, you know, you’re living for the weekend.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:12:33 – 00:12:58

Maybe you’re saying no to social plans, to finish tasks, or just because you have no mental energy left. You have no energy left to go be with those you love because you’re just so drained, or maybe you just even feel guilty for taking a break. You’re like, well, it’s not all done, so we need to do this thing, or I need to help this person with that. I need to help this person with their bulletin board. What whatever might be going on. Burning ourselves out. And it leaves so many teachers feeling hopeless. I took these screenshots.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:12:59 – 00:13:29

Most All the Instagram ones are from our Instagram, and I also just saw this post in the Facebook group recently, and it just broke my heart. Like, anyone else feel like they’re just existing and not living. Anxiety is off the charts. And, again, I post a lot of things on my Educate Meridian Instagram to inspire teachers and help you feel like you’ve got this and, like, you can create these better habits. And we’re going to talk about the how today, because on Instagram, I can’t really get into the how. Right? So a lot of people are, like, literally can’t do our jobs if we take care of advice. Impossible. And it is impossible as long as we’re telling ourselves that.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:13:29 – 00:14:08

Right? Mental health before lesson plans, they’d have my head on a platter first thing. You know, there’s no hope. Right? Whatever I do isn’t enough. I’ve always been asked for more. And I’m sure all of us can relate to this, and I’m not denying anybody’s experience, but the hopelessness I see in these comments is just not the way we want to live. It is not why we went into education in the 1st place. So now that you’re here, we’re going to call this the old way, and we’re going to start shifting, not overnight, but we’re going to start shifting to a new way, because this old way has teachers feeling burned out, left and right, or getting out of the profession altogether. So it’s not serving us as educators.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:14:08 – 00:14:34

It’s not helping the kids, who are what we ultimately got into this for. So we do not have to accept this. Despite all of this, there are teachers out there who are thriving, and I can tell you this because they know them. I know some people are like, you’re not currently in the classroom, and I’m not. I’m upfront about that. I’m homeschooling my kids right now, but I’m working with teachers. I’m coaching teachers every single week, and I see teachers who are making progress, who are thriving currently in the classroom. It is possible.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:14:34 – 00:15:11

But why is it? Why is it that some of us are able to bounce back from stress so much quicker than others? And again, we’re never going to get rid of the stress. Right? It’s part of being human. But it’s that come back rate that how quickly do I go from that stress back to a regulated state or back to shifting to what we want to think, what we want to believe. Right? Why do some teachers leave consistently closer to contract time every day? Maybe they don’t leave that contract time, but maybe they leave before it’s dark, or maybe they’re not the last car in the parking lot. Like that’s a rare situation, and every day you find yourself, where is everybody? I’m still here. Right? And maybe not. Maybe that’s not you, but I’m just whatever it is for you. Maybe some teachers, like, are so afraid to use their sick days.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:15:11 – 00:16:25

Right? Because, oh, there’s not a sub, or I just don’t wanna make that call, or it’s gonna be inconvenient for everyone else, but another teacher, literally in the same building with the same number of subs will still call in sick. Right? And maybe sometimes you think other things about teachers, like, oh, why are they doing that? Why are they doing that? But it’s because. Right? It’s because the stories we tell ourselves, and they’re probably thinking something different about you. Right? It’s kind of funny that way because everybody’s stressed out in their own different ways. And why is it some teachers feel like their career is fulfilling, while so many others don’t, like many others, as we see from the poll? And the reason for that is not because there’s anything wrong with anybody. I feel like most of us have been the teacher at one time or another, or just some just more often than others, where we’re feeling hopeless in our career, but the new way is where we don’t need to feel that way all the time. We’re not accepting every expectation offered to you. We’re not thinking that every single thing that comes into our brain, or that our admin says, or that society says, or that the parents say, or that your parents say, or that your children say without questioning it, without tuning in to ourselves, and seeing what feels right, what feels like actually is necessary, what’s urgent, what’s important, what’s not, what can maybe be delegated, what can maybe just be deleted altogether.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:16:26 – 00:17:10

And these are all things that we work on here at Educate and Rejuvenate. Because it’s checking in and taking care of ourselves, so we can create a meaningful and sustainable impact with our students without feeling chronically overwhelmed. And now, when I say chronically overwhelmed, I mean, like, all the time, To the point where it’s impacting your ability to function. To the point where you’re feeling it more consistently than feelings of fulfillment. Right? I’m not saying we’re never gonna feel overwhelmed, or never going to feel stressed, because we are. But it’s how can we handle it? How can we make it so we can navigate it much better than ever? And I wanted to wanted to show you here a quote from our t shirts that show that this is possible. These all come from either our Instagram or our educate and rejuvenate club community. So we see here we And I’m not going to read all these.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:17:10 – 00:17:57

You can pause and read them if you want. But you’ll see that we have somebody who had a migraine. And you know what? She just put her mental health and went into the calming room instead of her meeting, because she put her mental health first. And again, I’m not saying you should do that all the time, but we can put ourselves first. Right? We have a member of our Educate and Rejuvenate Club community. As she’s utilizing the self coaching model that I’m going to be teaching you today, she’s seeing how it can help her in situations with her students, with her selves, and she loves referring back to the book and the concepts that we teach here today over and over again. We have another teacher who said she started to do these habits, and what this post was that most of these comments are on is a post about the habits we wanted to ghost as teachers and get rid of. And and what I love that she says here is, I still do the occasional work from home, but she has no guilt staying after school.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:17:57 – 00:18:23

So it’s not about doing everything perfectly. It’s about, like, picking and choosing. Like, okay, she feels okay working through lunch. You’re doing occasional work from home, but the key is occasional. And then she doesn’t stay long after school. Right? So she finds what works for her, and you’re gonna find what works for you, and it might look different than it does for her. The other one I loved here is just, like, one of the friends tagging her friend and saying, we got this, even though sometimes it seems like barely. Right? Like community, that helps us.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:18:23 – 00:19:09

Right? When we come together, camaraderie, and realizing that we’re not in any of this alone, and that’s why you’re here. You’re watching this, and I know this session is prerecorded, but make sure you come to the live ones. There’s so much community here, and engage in the chats right here inside the app. And we have another teacher who said, she’s never And this shows that again, so much of it is the way we interpret things. Right? Because we have another teacher here who said, I’ve never been this kind of teacher who doesn’t set boundaries, or who doesn’t do these things, or who doesn’t stay after school, but she’s felt guilty for not being 1, because of the messaging of you should be like this. So again, it shows that we are all teaching, but we are perspective of it. Our feelings, our thoughts about it are different. Right? And we see from another one, I’ve started setting boundaries this year.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:19:09 – 00:19:31

Amazing. Right? She’s able to set some boundaries with her admin, or with the parents. Again, that is a tool that you can utilize too. So what is the difference between those teachers, and the ones who are saying, like, this is impossible. I can’t do it. There’s no way I could take your advice. And we have other teachers here who are saying, oh, I’ve started taking some of that advice, or I do those things, or I’ve actually never done those things, but I feel bad for not doing them. None of them are morally better than the others.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:19:31 – 00:20:17

Right? But one is less likely to develop burnout, or even potential health issues from it, because when we don’t process our emotions, they live in our bodies, and can turn into physical symptoms. And most of us have and, again, I’m going to share a very personal experience where that happened to me later on in this session. Like our mental health, our emotional health impacts our physical health. It is all connected. So if you are just burying those emotions inside, they’re going to come out in uglier ways at some point, Unless, you use right now, this event as an opportunity to start to shift, to start to make a change. So hopefully, you don’t end up in the ER like I did, like I’m going to share shortly. And most of us have been the first teacher at some point. Like I said, myself included.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:20:17 – 00:20:37

So those those thriving teachers, what do they do? They take care of themselves. They’re practicing those better habits, and making a conscious effort. That’s the key. It’s not unconscious. Right? You have to be very conscious about it, because we’re going with the status quo. That is burn yourself out like the candle. That’s what, like, society wants for us. But if Elphaba and, again, I had to have a Wicked reference.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:20:37 – 00:21:21

Apologies. Sorry, not sorry, though. I love Wicked. I love musicals. But, again, if Elphaba can defy gravity, honestly, is I was watching this movie, and I’ve seen the musical several times before, too, but as I was watching the movie version recently, it just reminded me of my own personal development journey, and the journeys I’ve seen so many teachers go through. Because we have these expectations, these limiting beliefs, these pressures that we and society put on us. But when we take the chance to define what it is we want, how it is we want to feel, how we want to create a sustainable career for ourselves, and the goals we want to reach outside of teaching. All of those things and create that for ourselves.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:21:21 – 00:22:05

We’re really like Elphaba, defying gravity. Right? Defying the odds. And so often it’s because we think that we’re going to lose job, or we’re afraid what other people think, and it’s kind of like Elphaba says, too long I’ve been afraid of losing love, I guess I lost, but if that’s love, it comes at much too high a cost. Right? It comes at much too high a cost, that cost of burnout, overwhelm, of not enjoying your career, of act it actually impacting the students if you’re burned out too. Right? So it’s so important for us to take a look, and just see what it is for you to make a small change, a small baby step. And we’re going to do it together at this event starting today, and leading into the sessions that I teach live. We are going to do this together, so I’m going to walk you through it. And we are going to defy gravity together.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:22:06 – 00:22:44

So I challenge you to try a new way to start shifting some of that care that you give to your students back to yourself too. And when you do that, it’ll reflect right back out to them. Because as I mentioned in my book, educate and rejuvenate, and I’ve mentioned or I originally taught it during our self love challenge that we did last February. But so many wisdom traditions, like Christianity and Buddhism, like, for example, in Christianity in the Bible, it says that we want to love our neighbor as thyself. And a lot of times, we think that means we need to love others more. But so often, what I found with educators is we’re loving others more than we love ourself. Right? And we need to give it back to ourself too. It goes both ways.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:22:44 – 00:23:23

And same with, like in yoga, a lot of times we say the divine light in me sees the divine light in you. And it’s just seeing that we are all connected, so if you aren’t taking care of yourself, you’re not as able to take care of those around you. And this is just a universal principle that you’ll be able to see as we really dive in to this work. And it’s really the same thing we’re doing as teachers all the time with our students. So when we’re teaching a kid, and they don’t understand something, we don’t just like go and be like, oh, you or have a d or an f right now. Well, I’m just gonna cross that out and make it an a, and that solves the problem. Band aid, a solution. Right? That doesn’t work that way.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:23:23 – 00:23:55

We need to actually observe, and see where is the lack of understanding. How can I reteach this? How can I model it in a way that they understand it? And we need to do that exact same thing with ourselves. So we observe, we pay attention, we figure out the root cause of their misunderstanding, and we do it with We nurture them. We love them. We don’t be like, why doesn’t that student get it? They’re so dumb. We don’t do that, but we do it to ourselves. So we need to do the same thing for ourselves that we do for our students. We need to give ourselves love, and be like, oh, that’s so interesting.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:23:55 – 00:24:42

Let’s see where the misunderstanding is. And so it’s the exact same thing. It’s observation and awareness, and understanding that it’s not a band aid fix, and it’s not going to be overnight. So again, why don’t we do this for ourselves? Wouldn’t this self love help us to be able to heal from some of that chronic overwhelm while also being better teachers? It absolutely would. But in culture, in education, and society at large has taught us otherwise, like we’ve talked about. Right? But we need to retrain and rewire that thinking, and not just like the automatic thoughts that are coming up all the time, but the more internal beliefs that tell us we can’t, or that we’ll lose our jobs, or that we’ll be a bad parent, or whatever else your brain is telling you if you don’t do those things, if you don’t burn out. But self care isn’t selfish as we often think. And even a lot of times we’re like, oh, I know it’s not, but I don’t do it.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:24:42 – 00:25:14

And so, if you’re not doing it, then something inside of you really still does believe that. But in fact, it’s the opposite. Now here’s a quote from my book. It says, if selfishness is looking at our own gain at the expense of others, then its true opposite is looking for everyone else at the expense of ourselves. We often think that selfish is putting ourself first, but it’s not that. It’s only concern of your own needs at someone else’s expense. Right? But the opposite is self abandonment. That is when we’re only concerned with everyone else’s needs at your own expense.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:25:14 – 00:26:01

So what we’re trying to do is not be like, I even got a comment on Instagram recently when I talked about the whole candle concept about, oh, you’re just a self centered millennial. All those millennials being so self centered. But it’s not about that. Right? It is just understanding that there needs to be a middle ground. We need to not burn ourselves into the ground so we can’t help others. We need to be able to prioritize ourselves so that we can prioritize our students and everybody else. But our brains are currently wired to think the way it currently does, which likely is a lot of those, like, educational, societal messaging of we need to burn out, we need to do more, we need hustle, we need to get all the things done, we need to check everything off, and our brain wants to be right way more than it wants to be happy. And I dive more into the reasoning behind that in my book, but just trust me, it does.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:26:01 – 00:26:59

It would rather be right about your current negative thoughts than it would for you to think more positive thoughts or for you to feel good. So change will not happen without conscious effort to rewire those current neuro pathways. The status quo is much easier because it’s what those neuro pathways in your brain are currently used to, and change, it like it resists change. But if we don’t put in that conscious effort, things stay the same. And again, as Elphaba said, at what at much too high a cost. Right? That cost of burnout, less time for family relationships, physical symptoms, health problems, not enjoy your creating the life you want inside, don’t mind my typo, again, not perfect, and outside of teaching. So would you rather have those or would you rather make a conscious effort to make a change so that you can start to see those dissipate a little bit? So you can start to feel burned out less often. Then maybe to burned out hardly ever, more time with family.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:26:59 – 00:27:22

Eventually, seeing it shift towards the direction that you want, that you intended on going into education in the first place. And it is possible. Here are just some quotes from some of our members. Rose said she was coached by Kelsey. The coaching was helping her immensely. It’s great to know you’re not alone. Making a difference in your life teaches you to be more mindful about feelings that are tied to circumstances, but not always real. Jen is a homeschool mom.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:27:22 – 00:28:04

She says her circumstances are neutral and she’s in control of her thoughts, emotions, and actions. And then there’s and then another teacher said, the tools that I’m teaching you here today are giving her the mindset to deal with life positively and calmly in the classroom and daily life. So everything’s still the same, but she’s able to handle it better, and that’s what we’re talking about today. So if you’re listening to this and thinking that’s great for them, but it’s not possible for me, I hear you. I used to think that same thing. In fact, I identified as a chronic worrier who would feel stressed all the time from the time I was a little girl, and I brought that right with me into teaching. In my book, Educate and Rejuvenate, the actual beginning of this book starts with a story about me having a panic attack in my classroom. I didn’t actually call it that.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:28:04 – 00:28:45

I didn’t even call it in the book, but really, as I thought about it, when I got to my worst panic attack, I realized that all these were smaller panic attacks. And a story I realized I don’t think I actually have shared yet was the time I even had so much of a panic attack that I literally fainted in my classroom on the day of a field trip. I was not coping very well, probably worse than a lot of you currently are. And and I thought that if I just didn’t have to teach every day anymore, that will solve all my problems and overwhelm. I thought teaching was the only problem, and this is an example that shows that it’s not always just that circumstance of teaching, but we tend to think that. We tend to think, if I just had didn’t have to do this, if I just didn’t have to do that, that would solve all my problems. I totally thought that. I thought that quitting teaching, my problems would be solved.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:28:45 – 00:29:24

I’m, like, I’m going to go part time, I’m going to sub, I’m going to be a stay at home mom. Other than that, I ended up starting a business, but again, it didn’t. Right? I still kept worrying at worrying all the time, and it makes sense, because, again, like I mentioned, I did it before teaching too, but the panic attacks continued. And, in fact, the same patterns for years years until 5 years later, after having my youngest, I landed in the emergency room. And I’m not going to dive into that whole story today, but, basically, it was my worst panic attack ever. I didn’t sleep for over a day and a half. Not even kidding. Every time I would try to sleep, it would jolt me awake like it was terrifying.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:29:24 – 00:29:52

I got hooked up to all kinds of machines, got diagnosed with postpartum anxiety. But I realized that it was so much more than that. If you want the full story, it’s in the book. You can grab it and read it if you’d like. But I find That is when I finally had a breaking point, and I was like, you know what? This has not been working for me. This being a chronic worrier, not working. That I thought I finally started to question that being an unchangeable part of my identity. I got on medication, I started therapy because I didn’t want to worry my whole life.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:29:52 – 00:31:02

I wanted to enjoy my life. And all of this eventually, led to my own healing self personal development journey that led me into becoming a life coach myself, certifying through the Life Coach School, starting my podcast, writing my book, speaking at in person conferences, hosting my own virtual conference, all while homeschooling my kids, and being a mom, and wife, and all the things that are going on in my life. And I met some really big goals, like the fact that I wrote and published a book, started this podcast, and doing these events, like, I was able to use this work to help me build something that has helped other people too, and that’s what I want you to do as well. I want you to be able to take this so you can be less burned out, so you have more to give because I had so much more to give once I did this work for myself, and you will too. But it was that initial, being willing to question what I thought was fact about my current reality. It was necessary for my personal and professional growth to even be hosting this event and be talking to you on this session today. But if I can learn how to do that and navigate overwhelm when I, like, literally ended up in the emergency room, you can do it too. And I want it to be faster, easier, and a lot cheaper for you than it was for me.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:31:02 – 00:32:08

In fact, that’s why we made this event free so this work is available to anyone to get started with it. So over the course of a year and a half of writing this book, Educate and Rejuvenate, I developed a framework, and I’m going to teach you that today, that I learned through it altogether so we can make the same changes, those same baby steps with a community of other educators who are also committed to it. Because having community and other people doing it with you makes it so much more powerful, gives you accountability, makes it so you’re not alone. And one thing I wanna mention is, so what we’re really doing is life coaching. Right? And if you’re really to ask me what life coaching is, it’s kind of like tutoring, except the subject you’re studying is yourself. We’re just really intimately getting to know ourselves, our needs, our wants, our dreams, our feelings, our thoughts, our nervous system, and you’re going to learn to become your own life coach through utilizing the tools I teach. And there are many tools, all of which fall into this 3 step framework, and during this event, we’re going to be focusing on a tool that I call the self coaching model. There are some more I talk about in the book and with my members, like processing feelings and the nervous system and all of that.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:32:08 – 00:32:42

We’re not going to get as deep into that during this event because I really want to hone in on the essentials that we’re starting with today, and then helping you set your goals for the new year. And the self coaching model is going to be the best tool to help us accomplish that in such a short period of time. So I’ll be giving you the coaching framework today. We’re going to be mainly honing in on that first step, which is the most important one. And then we’ll dive deep into one of that self coaching model to help you set your 2025 goals during the live sessions of this event. So here is that framework. You’ll see we have observe yourself. Right? That is the first step we’re gonna be focusing on today.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:32:42 – 00:33:13

So what we’ve been talking about, we’re paying attention to ourselves, kind of like we observe our students to see the understanding or what is going on for them. We do the same thing with ourselves. Then we take those observations, and we choose our direction. We figure out what is it I actually want? What is it I don’t want anymore? And then we align ourselves. We just keep, like, checking in and being like, am I going the direction I wanna go? Is this the direction I wanna go? All of that. It’s so simple, and so many tools fall under it, and yet these are the 3 steps. Right? It’s simple. It’s not necessarily easy.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:33:13 – 00:33:35

So we’re going to be starting to dive into that today. What does it mean to be the observer, or the first step of the framework? So think of it as if you’re watching a movie. I like to imagine myself with my big Coke 0, and my popcorn. I’m like, I’m watching myself. I’m observing with curiosity. I’m like, I wonder why Kelsey’s doing that. I wonder why Kelsey’s thinking that. Like even talking in 3rd person can help with it.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:33:35 – 00:34:08

And we want to approach this with love and understanding, just like we do when we’re helping a student figuring out what they’re struggling with. And it’s so powerful because we need to get to that root cause. We can’t create meaningful change without first understanding what is driving our thoughts, our feelings, and our actions. What do we observe when we observe ourselves? We wanna look at our thoughts, our self talk. Right? We wanna look at our feelings, which are like the emotions. Right? Our feelings, emotions, how we’re feeling. Also just sensations in our body. Right? If you’re feeling sick, all of that, just actually tuning into yourself and your body.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:34:08 – 00:34:38

Also, your nervous system state, and we have a whole chapter about that in the book, and we talk about that more in the club. We’re not going to get as much into that during this event. Just know it is very important. And if you find yourself not able to utilize the tools I’m talking about, it’s likely you need to regulate yourself first through movement or breath. If you need to know more about that, definitely check out educate and rejuvenate the book. We’re going to be talking mostly about thoughts and some about feelings during this event. But these are the things in general that we want to observe when we’re observing ourselves. So let’s take an example story.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:34:38 – 00:35:27

So what I want you to do is as we’re looking through this story about another teacher, you see what are her thoughts? What are her feelings? What is she doing as we look through this story? Miss Ramirez, a dedicated special education teacher, steps into her classroom on the 1st day after winter break. The students are buzzing with energy, their voices overlapping as they catch up with friends. She begins the day’s independent work activity, but the classroom quickly grows chaotic. Some students are whispering and tapping their pencils, while others wander around the room, seemingly ignoring the task entirely. A few of her students with higher support needs appear particularly restless, requiring constant redirection. Again, this could be seen as pretty common going into the winter break. But, again, this is what is going on in her classroom. As miss Ramirez walks between desks, she adjusts her lanyard and folds her arms tightly across her chest.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:35:28 – 00:36:03

She gently picks up a pencil that one student has dropped for the 3rd time, but doesn’t say anything. And, again, we’re watching for her thoughts, her feelings. What is she doing? Her brow furrows as she sees another student doodling on his worksheet instead of completing it. Across the room, two students are arguing over a marker and she hesitates before stepping in. Her jaw tightens as she moves back to her desk, glancing at the clock and wondering how much longer until the next transition. A flood of thoughts runs through her mind again. See, let’s notice these thoughts she’s having. Right? Why can’t they focus? Don’t they care about learning? Maybe I’m just not cut out for this anymore.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:36:03 – 00:36:43

She sits down at her desk and begins straightening a stack of papers. Her movement’s quick and tense. Her shoulders sag when she notices the noise isn’t subsiding. By the time the bell rings for lunch, she’s rubbing her temples and staring at the disorganized materials spread across her desk, feeling drained and unsure of how to regroup. Again, we’re watching for her thoughts, her feelings, all of that. Okay? When the students sleep for lunch, miss Ramirez collapses into her chair, staring blankly at the pile of individualized lesson plans she needs to review. Instead of getting started, she scrolls aimlessly on her phone thinking, what’s the point? They aren’t retaining anything anyway. She feels a twinge guilt for not being more productive, but quickly brushes it aside.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:36:43 – 00:37:18

As the day continues, her energy wanes further. During a literacy activity, she decides to skip a small group session she had planned, opting instead for a video to keep the class occupied. Why bother putting in all this effort when they won’t stay engaged, she thinks. Her voice grows sharper with each reminder to stay seated or follow directions. By the end of the day, she avoids eye contact with her colleagues, too exhausted to talk about how things went. At home that evening, miss Ramirez sits at her dining table with her laptop open, but untouched. She sighs as she glances at the IEP goal she needs to document, feeling overwhelmed by the thought of facing the same chaos tomorrow. Her thoughts spiral.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:37:18 – 00:38:05

I used to love this job, but maybe it’s too much for me now. Maybe I’m not cut out for this anymore. She closes her laptop without making any progress, and heads to bed, her shoulders heavy with self doubt and exhaustion. So first off, who can see themselves in that story? I’m sure a lot of us can, and I’m sure some of us are like, oh, well, it’s like noticing where you might have think or thought or done things differently too. And that’s what’s so interesting about just hearing these like fictional stories, but that are relatable to our situations. Right? Now what we wanna do is we wanna separate what are just the facts, the circumstances of the situation, and what is her thought or interpretation behind them. And this is going to help lead us into the tool that I mentioned called the self coaching model. So first, I want us to divide the circumstances and the thoughts.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:38:05 – 00:38:29

So again, the circumstances are neutral facts that everyone would agree on. Now these are just a few examples you could, I mean, it’s a 6 whole size of it. Right? We could find a lot more. But examples of neutral facts that we could all agree on. Right? That she teaches special ed, it’s the first day after winter break, they’re talking, tapping, the actual actions they’re doing, students arguing, doodles, all of that. Right? Those are just circumstances. They’re just the facts. Like, other people, we can’t control them.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:38:29 – 00:38:56

The day of the like, the the fact that it’s the day we go back, can’t control that right now. The fact that you currently have a job as a special education is a circumstance that you currently have that job. Now the thoughts are the meaning that we put behind them. Right? So a lot of thoughts that we saw her having. And again, because it was in 3rd person, so we could see what was happening. We don’t have all her thoughts, but some that we had. Why can’t they focus? Don’t they care about learning? Maybe I’m not cut out for this anymore. What’s the point? They aren’t retaining anything anyway.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:38:56 – 00:39:36

Why bother putting in all this effort when they won’t stay engaged? I used to love this job, but maybe it’s too much for me now. Right? All of these are the meaning that she’s putting behind what is actually going on. And if we were actually inside her head, if it had been like a first person one, I did I did it in 3rd person because I wanted us to be able to see, like, oh, her jaw clenched and all that. When when we notice the things like our jaw, like we’re getting into observing. Right? And that’s where we kinda do a pattern interrupt. And since we weren’t having a pattern interrupt, I wrote it in 3rd person. But if we were inside her head, this list would be even longer because she would be she was ruminating on thoughts. Right? What else might she be thinking? Kinda think about what other thoughts might she be thinking, and how do you suspect she’s feeling right now? Maybe discouraged, maybe feeling inadequate.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:39:36 – 00:40:12

Right? So now what we wanna do is look at a potential model for for Ms. Ramirez. And this is, again, the self coaching model that we’re using. What this tool does is it shows us how our thoughts impact our feelings, actions, and results. So our circumstances are just the facts, and then our thoughts create our feelings, drive our actions, and those create our results. Right? It’s based in cognitive behavioral therapy. There’s more background on how this model developed and everything inside the educate and rejuvenate book. What we do is we pick one thought and we see how it impacts our feelings, actions, and results.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:40:12 – 00:40:46

We’re going to do that here in just a second with everything we just went over with miss Ramirez’s story. Today, we’re focusing on how we’re going to use it to observe ourselves and see what’s already happening. But as we move through this event and we create our goals, we’re going to use this model to set ourselves up for success for our new year’s goals during the during the live sessions. So let’s look at a potential model for the story we just read. So the circumstances, just everything that the that is the 1st day back and the kid’s behavior. Her thought is maybe I’m just not cut out for this anymore. That came up a couple times during it. Again, we just pick one thought.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:40:46 – 00:41:06

In my coach training, one of the things we like all roads lead to Rome. It’s really just pick 1. Don’t overthink it. We’re picking a thought. That thought makes her feel discouraged. So again, the feeling is what emotion we’re feeling. And a lot of times we wanna pay attention to how it feels in our body too. Right? How does that emotion feel? And then when we’re feeling that way, there are a lot of things we do.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:41:06 – 00:41:38

And when we look and this is usually this is the part I like to be really long. You’ll see like, woah. Like it went from like a ton of white space to a ton of stuff. Right? And when I use the self coaching model as a coach, we wanna keep being like, oh, and what else are we doing? What else are we doing? What else are we not doing that I might be doing if I were feeling a different way? So we see that when she’s thinking, I’m just not cut out for this anymore, she’s feeling discouraged. She spins in those self critical thoughts about how she’s not good enough. Sit at my desk, and I’m I’m gonna switch into as if I’m her. Right? Sit at my desk while the classroom stays chaotic. Move tensely and quickly.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:41:38 – 00:42:25

React instead of being intentional. Skip the small group lesson I plan and put on a movie. Question my abilities repeatedly with thoughts like they deserve better than me. Doom scroll on my phone during lunch instead of reviewing lesson plans, get sharper and tone with students, avoid eye contact and interaction with colleagues, shut down emotionally, stare blankly at my computer at home without making progress, layer guilt on myself for not being productive, refuse to take a meaningful break after work, and increase my mental exhaustion. Wow. Hey, that’s a lot. So in that, we reveal the result that she’s preventing herself from connecting with her students, colleagues, and even herself, which is exactly what we need after break. A lot of us know, like, we want to connect before we correct, and she’s preventing herself from connecting with her students, with her colleagues when she doesn’t make eye contact into them, and with herself.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:42:25 – 00:43:13

And so it’s making the transition harder. Right? She can’t control the student’s behavior, but she can control her reaction to it when we get a hold on it. We can’t control every thought that comes into our head, but when we notice, when we can catch ourselves. Like maybe maybe she would think I’m just not cut out for this more, feel discouraged, maybe she would start in those self critical thoughts, then be like, wait a minute. If she’s observing and notices it, maybe she could have redirected sooner. And that’s what we’re working on. But you might be tempted to immediately just wanna change that thought, and instead be like, oh, if I just go in and I switch out the thought, and then that would be a different feeling, that would be different actions, that’d be a different result. That is an exercise we call the intentional model, but in the book, I teach about the concept of thought work, and the model in chapters 23, and we don’t get to actually changing the model until chapter 7.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:43:13 – 00:43:35

And the reason being is because we can’t just change it. Again, it’s that same thing with a student. It would be like changing that F grade to an A without the basic understanding of why it’s happening. We can’t just change a thought. That’s toxic positivity. Right? We’re not just going, oh, actually, I’m an amazing teacher if you don’t believe that. It’s not going to work. So we need to work with our brains, not against them.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:43:35 – 00:44:44

We need to understand what is going on before we can change it. Again, we wanna lean into the awareness for a bit, and just sit in it, and just realize what is this telling me with a lot of compassion, with a lot of curiosity, with a lot of self love, and just openness to understand ourselves better. Taking this as a golden opportunity to do that, and realizing that slowing down is going to help us speed up eventually. And the way we can do that is really just by, like, getting curious, even asking ourselves questions, such as what is this telling me? What deeper held beliefs might be triggering these thoughts? Because again, our thoughts don’t come from nowhere. They come from deeper held core beliefs, or intermediate beliefs that I talk about in the Educate and Rejuvenate book. What’s deeper here? When did I first start to believe this thought? What evidence do I have for it that my brain is latching onto? And what am I ignoring? What evidence do I have against it? Because again, our brain is going to keep what works for it, and then remember wants to be right more than wants to be happy. So there is probably evidence against that thought that your brain is rejecting, so look for that intentionally. What does it even mean to be cut out for this? When I’m coaching, I ask that a lot because that thought was, maybe I’m just not cut out for this.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:44:44 – 00:45:51

And when we dive into that, what does it mean to be cut out for this? When we dive into what that really means for the person, we realize they’re not as far off, or they’re not off at all, versus what they think. If a colleague or friend had this thought, what would I say to them? Great exercise. What does discouragement feel like? Like just noticing that feeling, letting that sensation simmer down, noticing that feeling, naming it is huge in the fact that once you’ve named it, and then notice doing a body scan, seeing what what does it feel like in your body. Just being with that discouragement for a minute, and noticing that human experience that you’re having, and then letting it simmer down a little bit. And then noticing, how does your body feel now as you’ve revealed this new awareness, and maybe now you’re in compassion, or curiosity, or just noticing it. Right? How how are you feeling now? Tune into that. Another great question. When you feel inadequate, or whatever feeling it is for you, what do you tend to focus on? If you were feeling curious rather than discouraged with the same behavior, so again, students are doing the same thing, but you’re feeling curious instead of discouraged, how might have you reacted differently? And how might the student’s behavior be completely normal, and not reflective of your teaching skills? Hello.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:45:51 – 00:46:33

1st day back from winter break. Right? And when you skipped your small group or avoided coworkers, what were you hoping to escape or not have to face or get away from? What expectations did you have for today? Were they realistic given the circumstances, and what needs of yours might not be getting met in this situation or at all? Right? Questions are such powerful tools. You can We can ask them to yourself. We can journal on them. You could write into our Ask A Coach portal if you’re one of our club members, or have a platinum pass where you have access to that during the event period, and, I could ask you some questions depending on your situation. Right? But again, really what you wanna do is just, you know, question yourself. Get in deep, journal. You’re going to uncover so much.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:46:34 – 00:47:29

So what I want you to do, what you can do to put this into practice right now is download your handout that you’ll find right around this video in the Educate and Rejuvenate app, and do the 24 hour observation exercise where you pay attention to your thoughts, your feelings, your sensations, your self talk, all of it for 24 hours and write it down. And then after that, you can pick just one thought or one feeling. So if you’ve been feeling constant overwhelmed, and that’s been noticed, write that down. Pick a thought that was triggering that, or the other way around, pick a thought you were having, what feeling does it have you do, and then just build out the rest of the model. If you need my help with it, I can help you with that during the live sessions. And then get curious about it, and reflect on the awareness you’ve gained just from that exercise, and don’t try to jump into changing it right away. Just like notice it. And then as you feel like you’re gaining understanding of it, that is when we can start to make little tiny shifts, which is what we’re going to talk about more in my next live session.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:47:30 – 00:47:46

So here’s here’s where we are right now. It says, you are here. This is what we’ve been doing today. We’ve been working on observing yourself. Right? Step 1 of the framework. Normally, we just go with the flow of our lives. We don’t take the time to notice what we’re thinking, feeling, or experiencing. Our brain sees the problems from outside of us, and naturally looks for solutions that can come from within.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:47:46 – 00:48:18

When we become observers, we need to pay attention to what we think about the problems, so we can resolve them from within. Right? And these are screenshots from the Kindle version of the educate rejuvenate book. Step 2, choose your direction. Now that you’re starting to observe yourself, we can use those observations to choose what we want in our lives. We’re delving deep into our psyche to truly understand ourselves and using our unique perspective to guide choices. We’re enhancing our observational skills while incorporating strategies for conscious decision making. So it’s not moving on from one layer to the next. So once you get to choose your direction, you’ll notice there’s still a foundation of observe yourself underneath.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:48:18 – 00:48:53

We’re just layering on. Right? And we’re really going to be starting this in the first live session on December 30th. If you’re watching this after that’s happened, watch the replay. It’s gonna help you dive in deep and really getting into choosing your direction. And then step 3 is to align yourself. So now that you’ve observed your intentions, and chosen your direction, it’s time to align your inner compass. So we’re going to do goal setting, which actually is at the end of the choose your direction because you’re choosing their direction you wanna go. And then aligning yourself, we’re setting going during this event, we’re going to set yourself up for success during it.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:48:53 – 00:49:19

We’re going to set you up for success during it because you’re going to have a plan on how you’re going to follow through with those goals. Because when we’re aligning ourselves, that is when we are following through. We’re checking in. We’re redirecting as needed. We’re reassessing as needed, and going from there. So we’re going to continue working through this framework during the event. In the meantime, do that 24 hour observation exercise. Continue to watch all the sessions here in the Educate and Rejuvenate app.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:49:19 – 00:49:59

General admission will have access through January 10th to all the sessions completely free. If you upgraded to platinum or you’re a club member, you’ll continue to have access to the event after that date as well. And while you’re here, continue to explore the rest of the app too. We have a free coaching clip of the week with the podcast, meditations, and more right here in the app. Now if you want platinum access to this event, which means that you won’t have only through January 10th, and you’ll also have early access if you’re watching this before general admission access has opened, since we’re giving access to this session early. With the Platinum Pass, you won’t feel rushed. We did give longer than most free summits. It only give you a few days to watch the sessions, but I did wanna give you time for free where you could, like, watch the sessions.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:49:59 – 00:50:54

But if you want more time, to revisit them as much as you want, Platinum access is going to give you that. You’re also going to get a free planner when you, upgrade your ticket to Platinum, or join us in the club. You can revisit them as often as you want to. So if you, like, watch something and find it really powerful, and a month later you wanna revisit it, you totally can. You’ll also get a bundle of resources from our presenters that alone would cost more than the Platinum Pass, more bonuses from us, such as a self load journal for teachers, a physical and digital planner and PDF for 2025, guided meditations to go along with this content, and so much more. And, yes, that is actually one of our beautiful physical planners in the mail. If you wanna buy the platinum pass, it is currently 127 to upgrade your ticket, or you could join us in the educate and rejuvenate club instead. Our educate and rejuvenate club members get platinum access to all of our events, so you would immediately, when joining us, unlock all the platinum perks, immediate access to the summer 2024 event as well.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:50:55 – 00:51:50

And if your membership is still active in summer 2025, you’ll have platinum access to that event at no extra cost. You’ll unlock all the sections of the app that are currently locked. You’ll get to join me on a weekly coaching call or watch the replay each week easily in the app, just like you’re watching this, and unlock all past replays of all calls, unlock the meditation library, unlock everything in the app that you see, all the past coaching clips, everything. You’ll also get access to our teaching resource library on our website. On the monthly plan, you get 20 downloads per month. On the annual and lifetime, you get unlimited downloads, so 1,000 of dollars worth of resources immediately when you join. We also If you want to be able to get on and talk with me, again, you’ll have a chance during the live event, but every week, you’ll have a chance to raise your hand and be coached directly by me. And or if you want it to be anonymous, you can use the Ask A Coach portal where you can anonymously submit questions, and I will answer them and coach you through writing.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:51:50 – 00:52:28

And if you join us on any plan, only through January 29, 2025, you will get a free planner in the mail on any plan. So that can even be on the monthly plan for $37. That is less than you would pay just for the planner on our Etsy shop to try out the club for a month, or you can join us on the annual plan, or the lifetime plan, as well. Awesome options. We’ll go over more of those later, but I just wanna make sure that you knew about these. Now, you’re not going to want to miss the rest of this live event. It is the most powerful when we come together. Right? On December 30th, we have a pre party where we start with an amazing booty yoga class.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:52:28 – 00:52:51

It’s called booty, b u t I. It’s amazing. It’s like dance and yoga meshed together. My teacher, who I go to twice a week at least, she is going to be teaching the class. It’s gonna be so much fun, And I will be teaching what worked, what didn’t, and what’s next. The educators reflective reset for 2025. So for that, I’m really going to dive in deep and figure out before we set your goals, what is it you want? Just a lot of reflection. A lot of what worked, what didn’t, really just reflecting.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:52:51 – 00:53:31

And then January 6th, we’re gonna get into creating those get into creating those goals. January 7th, we’re gonna make tweaks. I’m gonna coach you, and help you if you have any questions on what we learned on the 6th. We’re going to dive into those, getting really crystal clear on everything, and just dive a little deeper. And then on 8th, we have a coaching panel with all the educate and rejuvenate coaches, and a live trivia, which will have questions from all the pre which will have questions from the prerecorded sessions and the live sessions. Live trivia giveaway experience unlike any other. We’re gonna have a live coaching panel with all the educate and rejuvenate coaches. It’s gonna be so much fun.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:53:31 – 00:54:06

You’re not going to want to miss it. And again, this is just my live sessions. There’s also a lot of other fun stuff coming too, like a panel with the presenters, the comedy with Leslie Robb, so much great stuff. So make sure to check the app, and see all the fun stuff that is happening. Check out all the pre recorded sessions, but make sure you come to the lives live if you can, because the live experience is unlike any other. It’s amazing seeing the support you all give each other in the chat. It’s not just me, or our coaches, or presenters talking at you, but us all engaging together. And that is what I love about it.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:54:06 – 00:54:30

I haven’t seen the vibes at another virtual event like I’ve seen here at our Educate and Rejuvenate conferences. It’s something you really have to be there to experience, and so just take the opportunity. We’re also doing a giveaway at each session of the live. So even on December 30th, it’s like each hour, there’s a giveaway prize. And the same on the 6th, 7th, and 8th, that’s 2 hours. So each hour, there’s a new giveaway prize. You’re going to wanna check it out. Check out the schedule on the app.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:54:30 – 00:55:07

I cannot wait to see you there live. If you have any questions, please email hello at educate and rejuvenate.com, or DM me on Instagram at educateandrejuvenate. And also, I’m just so happy that you took the time to watch this whole session all the way to the end. It really shows that you care about your goals, about your dreams, about cultivating a life, a teaching career that is sustainable in 2025, and that is what I’m here to help you do. So I will see you on the lives, whether you are on the live, or on the replay. And again, if you have any questions, reach out in the meantime. Thank you for joining me

Speaker B 00:55:07 – 00:55:17

on educate and rejuvenate the podcast today. If you’d love what you heard in this episode, be sure to hit subscribe so you don’t miss the next one. And if you’re hungry for even more, be sure to check out the book that I wrote.

Kelsey Sorenson 00:55:17 – 00:55:18

It’s called educate and rejuvenate a 3 step guide to revitalize your teaching,

Speaker B 00:55:18 – 00:55:34

renew educate and rejuvenate, a 3 step guide to revitalize your teaching, renew your spirit, and reignite your passion for life. It takes everything you learn here on the podcast and that I teach our members inside the educate and rejuvenate club into a guide book you can refer to again and

Kelsey Sorenson 00:55:35 – 00:55:36

again. One of our early readers said it

Speaker B 00:55:36 – 00:56:05

0:00 – 56:06

was like clarity for her brain. Plus, it’s not only a book. With your purchase, you’ll get a full PDF guide with exercises and links to videos and more so that you can not only consume, but apply everything that you learn. If you’re ready to make educate and rejuvenate not just a podcast you passively listen to, but a lifestyle that you put into action, it’s time to grab your copy on Amazon today, or head to educate imageryumate.com/book to read the first chapter and the introduction today.

More about Educate & Rejuvenate: The Podcast

Being an educator is beyond a full-time job. Whether you’re a teacher or a homeschool parent, the everyday to-do list is endless. Between lesson planning, grading, meetings, and actually teaching, it probably feels impossible to show up for your students without dropping the ball in other areas of your life.Educate & Rejuvenate: The Podcast is the show that will bring you the teacher tips, practical strategies, and inspiration that you need to relieve the stress and overwhelm of your day-to-day. Your host, Kelsey Sorenson, is a former teacher and substitute turned homeschool mom. Tune in weekly to hear Kelsey and her guests cheer you on and help you thrive as a wife, teacher, and mommy. Because with a little support and community, you can do it all. To access every single Educate & Rejuvenate resource, join the club at educateandrejuvenate.com/club.

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Thrive in 2025- Prioritize Yourself While Transforming Your Teaching [#161]

Click below to listen to episode 161,Thrive in 2025- Prioritize Yourself While Transforming Your Teaching:

Key themes from Thrive in 2025- Prioritize Yourself While Transforming Your Teaching [#161]:

Make 2025 Your Year: Transform Your Teaching with One Mindset Shift

The New Way to Thrive in Education

Step 1: Observe Yourself

Step 2: Choose Your Direction

Step 3: Align Yourself

Why It Matters

Join Us and Make 2025 Your Best Year Yet

Your Next Steps

Take our Podcast Quiz

Connect with Kelsey:

Read the transcript for Thrive in 2025- Prioritize Yourself While Transforming Your Teaching [#161] below:

More about Educate & Rejuvenate: The Podcast

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