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Self-care. It’s a buzzword we hear constantly, but how many of us truly understand what it means—and more importantly, practice it? Whether you’re a teacher, a parent, or juggling both roles, finding time to focus on yourself often feels impossible. In today’s blog, we’ll unpack the concept of true self-care, bust common myths, and explore practical strategies to make self-care a daily, meaningful habit. Ready to embrace the practice that can transform your life? Let’s dive in.
When I Googled “self-care,” the results defined it as “taking action to preserve or improve one’s own health” and “taking an active role in protecting one’s well-being and happiness, particularly during periods of stress.” While those definitions sound accurate, here’s my take: self-care isn’t just a thing (noun) you do; it’s a practice (verb). It’s not something you wait for the “right time” to start. It’s a daily decision to prioritize your needs and well-being, no matter how busy life gets.
Many of us fall into the trap of thinking, I’ll start practicing self-care when… when the kids are older, when work slows down, when life gets easier. But here’s the truth: there is no perfect time. Self-care starts now—with small, intentional actions that build consistency and momentum.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. For years, I told myself the same thing. The reality? We make time for what matters most. Self-care doesn’t have to mean an elaborate spa day or hours of uninterrupted solitude. It can be as simple as taking five minutes to breathe deeply, go for a short walk, or sit in stillness.
When we shift our mindset from “I don’t have time” to “How can I make time?” we reclaim our power. Life will always be busy, but prioritizing self-care teaches us to set boundaries, manage our time effectively, and show up as our best selves.
Let’s address the elephant in the room. The word “self” in self-care might make it seem selfish—but it’s not. In fact, taking care of yourself is one of the most selfless acts you can do. When you fill your own cup, you have more to give to others.
I love what one of my coaches calls being “self-full.” It’s about creating a well of energy, joy, and balance within yourself so you can pour into your students, your children, and your community from a place of abundance—not depletion.
If you’re not sure where to start, here’s a glimpse into what others are doing to prioritize self-care:
Parents in our community also shared creative ways to fill their cups:
Self-care isn’t one-size-fits-all. It’s personal. Take a moment to reflect:
Start by listing activities you enjoy that take different amounts of time. For example:
The key is consistency, not perfection. Small, intentional actions add up to big changes over time.
Taking care of yourself is not a luxury; it’s a necessity. By practicing true self-care, you set an example for your students, your children, and everyone around you. You deserve to thrive—not just survive.
Let today be the day you prioritize you. Embrace the power of small, daily acts of self-care and watch how it transforms your life—and the lives of those you love.
You’ve got this. Let’s fill our cups together. 💕
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Kelsey
You are listening to episode number 56 of wife, teacher, mommy the podcast, how to practice true self care. And this episode is for you, whether you’re a teacher or a parent, or both. How do you practice true self care? Or are you doing it? Are you so busy doing things for everybody else that you don’t take the time for just being and getting to know yourself? Learn how you can self care every day, some ideas on how to do it and how to tune into yourself and make it work in your life as a teacher or a homeschool parent.
I’m so glad you’re here listening to wife, teacher mommy, the podcast today. I’m your host Kelsey Sorenson, a former elementary teacher turned home school mom. Whether you are a teacher or a homeschool parent, my goal at wife teacher mommy is to provide you with full teaching ideas and mindset tools to help you live your absolute best teacher life. Be sure to hit subscribe on your favorite podcast app, so you don’t miss an episode. Now let’s go.
We are talking self care today. Let’s go this is such an important topic. And it’s one that as I posted in some of our groups in preparation for this episode, to find out how you’re all doing it, a lot of you had great responses. But some of you said that you don’t do it. And you know, when I hear that you’re not doing it that makes me think, oh, man, they could totally be doing this, I need to do a podcast and help them out. You know, self care helps so much. And I’m going to tell you about my experience with it. A lot of other teachers and even just some skills and mindset, things to keep in mind when you are thinking about self care is a really important topic. And it brings up different things for different people. Like I said, like some people are like, Oh, I can’t do this, I don’t have time for this. I’m not good enough for this. There’s a lot that can come up when you think self care. So we’re going to really dive into that. But first I want to talk about our ongoing podcast giveaway that I kind of mentioned. And what we’re going to do is every month ish, it’s not going to be exact. But every so often, hopefully once a month, at least every six weeks, we will pick a new podcast reviewer to get a $20 gift card from us as a thank you for leaving a review on this podcast on Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen. So all you need to do is leave a review, and then take a screenshot of it or email or DM us a review. If you can’t figure out how to leave a review on a platform, that’s okay. And then email it to us so we know who you are. And we can get you entered into that pool. Because if your username is like a Larson 123 We have no idea who you are. So just make sure that you email us that screenshot and then we’ll get you entered into the pool. Now what happens is you are in that pool forever once you leave a review.
So you’re not just entering for this month’s giveaway, but then forevermore. And always you were in there. So if you’ve already entered a podcast giveaway before, you’re already in that pool, and if you haven’t get in that pool, because the sooner you do, the sooner you might get a $20 gift card and who doesn’t like gift cards you get to pick I think it’s like Starbucks or target or Amazon that our team usually does. It can be really anywhere with where we can send it to you online, though, easily. So we are very excited to be offering this to all of you. So approximately once a month we’ll draw the next winner sometime in February. So leave a review on the show if you enjoy it and you haven’t yet. Okay, but let’s talk self care. Now let’s get into the episode. Again. I’m really excited about this topic. And first I want to tell you what came up when I just Googled self care or definition of self care, something like that when I was preparing for recording this episode for you. And it said noun self care, the practice of taking action to preserve or improve one’s own health. And then number two was autonomy and self care and insulin administration said the practice of taking an active role in protecting one’s own well being and happiness in particular during periods of stress. And another one was expressing oneself is an essential form of self care. Now the big thing I want to point out in this definition, I want you to think about if you know what I’m going to point out and what I’m going To challenge in this definition, I’m challenging Google. It says noun self care, like it is a thing.
But in my opinion, as a almost certified life coach and somebody who’s been on a self improvement journey for years now, I see self care as a verb, it is something that you do, it is something we want to continue to do ongoing without any exceptions or excuses for why we can’t do it right now. Because we can always, always do it, it should be a top priority. Okay, it’s never better. somewhere else. It’s never like, Oh, I’ll start doing self care when it’s kind of like we’ve talked about our goals, like, I’ll be happy when we I hit this goal, or I’ll be happy when I lose 10 pounds, or I’ll be happy when I’m no longer in the classroom, or when my children are a bit older, and they’re not doing all these things like not sleeping through the night. It’s never better here than there, there’s always different things. So no, I don’t want you telling yourself, I will do self care when self care is a decision that we make to make it a priority. You can decide today, self care is important, and start doing it now. And then tomorrow, you get up and you do it again. And then all of a sudden, boom, you have consistency, you are somebody who practices self care, you’ve done it for two days in a row, you continue doing it for 20 days, 60 days, 365 days, you can build that new habit of self care. Now, there are two main reasons that I feel like that people don’t do this practice of self care that they might be like, hey, Kelsey, that actually doesn’t apply to me. Okay, so the first one I’m going to talk about is anything that falls under the category of I don’t have time. Now I can relate to you, my friend, if you’re saying this to yourself, I’ve said it to myself for years, I did that. And I even catch myself doing it from time to time. Now even though I’ve been on a self improvement, major self improvement journey since 2019. What I found is we make that time, we can find that time.
And it doesn’t have to be large amounts of time to find for self care, it can be a few minutes a day, especially if that’s what you’re starting at. So you always have time, you don’t need to delay it to when it’s not better here or there. I thought, you know, if I wasn’t teaching in a classroom, which I haven’t been for a while, I had plenty of time for self care plenty of time to do all the things that I want to do. And as you’ve heard, that is not always the case. If you’ve listened to the podcast, I had my major breakdown in 2019, which was a few years after I left the classroom and started this company. And I just found another way to tell myself, I didn’t have time. And that’s what we’ll do if are telling ourselves that we’ll continue to do it. No matter what the circumstances, it’s not the circumstance of not having time, it is a thought telling yourself, you don’t have time, so you don’t change that thought no matter what your circumstances, it’s not going to change. Okay, there will always be demands and things filling up our schedule. Other people will always fill up our schedules for us if we don’t do it ourselves, and if we don’t have any boundaries, but we always get to decide and prioritize. And when we take ownership of that is actually a really powerful thing. If you’re willing to be like, You know what, I can make this happen. That’s where our true power ship comes when we take ownership, like if we haven’t been doing self care, and we realize, you know, what, maybe at least part of that, if you can question it feel like it’s part of the army.
If you can take ownership of that, that’s where our true power comes in. That is where we can, you know, kind of redirect and make things happen. Life is always going to be 5050, there’s going to be things that aren’t great, there’s going to be things that are great. But we can always make the time for self care no matter what. Okay, and the second reason that a lot of people might question whether they can do self care. And I feel like this is especially true for women, for teachers, for moms. So a lot of people think that self care is selfish. So I mean, it’s even part of the phrase self care. And the word selfish has really negative connotations to it. Now, I want to tell you about a podcast episode, I’m going to tell you a little bit that was in it, but I would really recommend finishing this episode, but then also listening to this one. I was listening to episode number 304 of The Life Coach School podcast by Brooke Castillo, she is my mentor, and I’m getting my life coach certification through her right now. And in this podcast, she talks all about her own self improvement journey that she went on before becoming a health coach, and then a life coach, and then somebody who certifies other life coaches and how she’s done so much in her life and so many amazing things. But at first when she was starting her self improvement journey, people were like, is this selfish? Isn’t it all about me, me, me? And she was saying that she kind of laughed and she was like, isn’t it selfish? And she’s like, is it a bad thing?
If we should be focused on ourselves the definition of selfish that she read on her show that kind of fascinated me I was the definition is selfish is putting your needs above other people’s needs. And she wanted us to kind of look at it and be like, is that a bad thing? If we don’t put others first, if we do everything that they want, before we do anything for ourselves, you know what she said about that definition is she feels like that’s the only way to show up in the world in order to contribute and actually give more to other people, you have to know yourself, you have to be able to understand your brain and how it works, how to take care of yourself how to fill your own well, so you actually have one to draw from to contribute to give so much more to the world, to our students, to our children, to those around us in our communities, we don’t need to give at our own expense. And that’s why a lot of people get into when they think oh, if I do that I’m selfish I need to give to others at my expense. That is not what you need to do. In fact, I would call that and our coach Chrissy and wife, teacher mommy club, she says itself full, we are filling up ourselves filling up our well. And then we have so much abundance and so much greatness in our lives that we’re then able to take that feeling of abundance, take it into our classrooms or to our own children that we’re teaching, and be an example to them, and have so much more to give to them have a much better, cleaner perspective. Now what we don’t want to do what a lot of times you might think of with the word selfish, is that we don’t want to only think of ourselves at others expense we don’t want to take from others with no regard to them.
That is not what we’re talking about. We’re not talking about walking all over anybody, we are talking about taking care of ourselves, feeling our cup, and then from that place giving back because as people, as human beings in general, we have this innate desire to help other people. We want to help other people, we want to help our children, we want to help our students, this is a good thing this is there’s a reason we want to do this, we want to be part of a larger community and give back. But we can’t truly do that. If we’re doing it without taking care of ourselves. Now we want to talk about a place right in the middle. And this is what Brooke talks about in the episode we fill ourselves up, we understand our brains, what is going on in our minds. And this is what I help you to do on this podcast. And what we dive into even more in wife, teacher mommy club, there’s a place right in the middle where we fill ourselves up, we understand our brains, we get to know ourselves what actually do we like to do for self care? I’ve had some people say like, what do you like to do? And this has even been me at times, like what do I want to do besides work or besides take care of my kids or whatever. And there were was a time when I would say I don’t know. And that’s interesting if you’re in that spot, because then you know, you’re really not taking that time to fill your cup.
So now think of this as a teacher or parent. Because if you do this, if you fill up your cup, you’ll be able to give back way more. So I’m going to share a little bit about what I’m doing for self care right now. So what I’m doing is I am working out every morning, I’ve done this since December 20. As of recording, it is January 12. I feel like I have built a very consistent habit and very happy with it. And I’m going to continue doing this every day, I’m going to wake up and the first thing I do is weigh myself and then I work out and I feel great about this, I am eating so much healthier. I’m setting goals for myself and for my work and actually getting more done and having way more fun with it than I ever have in my life. And a big part of the reason I’ve been able to accomplish all this is because I’ve been working on my mindset with my Life Coach School certification. And you can do that whether or not you’re doing a certification. It’s just working on your mindset, seeing what’s going on in your mind, coming to coaching at wife, teacher mommy club listening to this podcast, there are so many things you can do to better take care of yourself. This is just an example. But I’m doing it is not what you have to do. Because self care is truly individual. You need to tap into yourself. Ask yourself what do you need? feel in your body? What is your body telling you? Are you tired?
Do you need some sleep? Do you need to kind of take a breather and stop, go go going for a while I don’t know that’s up to you. You’re the one who knows what you need. I also want you to hear from others so and what they are doing for self care because it may jog some ideas in your mind. That’s kind of why I shared what I’m doing. Because if you haven’t been doing self care as a verb in a while you might be a bit rusty. You might be like one of those people, like I mentioned, you don’t know what you like to do outside of teaching or parenting or all those things. And that is okay. Just start where you are. That’s totally fine. You’re amazing just where you are right now. But as you listen, I want you to ponder these questions. Okay. So first if I had a full day with no school, no work, no family or obligations. It’s only me, myself and I How would I feel? How does that feel? When you think about that? You imagine it you envision it? How do you feel? Does that kind of stress you out? Does that feel amazing? It could be different for every person how you feel? Another question? What is it that lights me up? Is it pulling out a Taylor Swift album and listening to it? That sure does for me, I don’t know. It’s different for everybody.
So think of audit for yourself? How can I make my self care a priority? Here’s another question, What is something you can do to make it a priority? How can I make time for self care? How can I refill my cup every single day? Think about this as you continue to listen to this episode. And last but not least, how is doing all of this self full, not selfish and helping me to be my greatest self for both myself and others? These questions are going to get your brain working if you really ponder them. Because we are often pondering negative questions. And so our brain focuses on the negative often the question that comes up is what if and then something you’re worried about? And then your brain gets to work on all these terrible situations? What if this what if that, but let’s replace it with some questions that get your mind working in a way that’s going to benefit you more? When you ask the right questions, you’d get better answers that are going to serve you more in your life. Okay, so now we’re going to dive into what some of our listeners do for self care. You might take some of these ideas make, you know, I might like that, too. I’m going to try that. And I’m going to try that to add that into my self care ritual. So first, I have some actual voice recordings that I’m really excited to share with you. I love when we get to do this I love when this podcast is not only one way of me talking to you, but you talking to me too. I just love that. If you ever want to contribute your voice to the podcast, go to WTM podcast inbox.com It’ll take you there where you can ask us a question or answer whatever question is coming up for a future episode. But we are going to start with Julie and she is going to share what she does for self care.
Julie
One thing I do for self care is get my nails done sure does make me feel better. And there’s nowhere you can go when you’re getting your nails done. So it’s up to you, the nail tech and your brain. It’s a nice thing, and it makes me feel much better about myself.
Kelsey
Okay, next we’re going to hear from Meghan who is part of Team wife, teacher, mommy, she is incredible, and she has an awesome tip for you.
Megan
My biggest self care for me as a teacher is setting boundaries between work and school, especially as to when I will check my email. I check it right before I leave school at the end of the day. And then I don’t check it again until the next morning. And especially on weekends, or when I’m on vacation or on winter break. I’ll set very strict rules for myself when I can check in on email to make sure I have that boundary that I’m focusing on things outside of teaching when I’m away from my school.
Kelsey
Next, you’re going to hear from Lindsay who has an awesome tip on how she uses her hobbies for self care.
Lindsay
When it comes to self care, I actually have a few hobbies that helped me cope with my stress. The first is writing because sometimes you just need to get out what you’re feeling in the moment and those frustrations of what’s happened throughout the day. Second of all, I really like to crochet because then I have something tangible to show for the time that I spent working on something. But I guess the same thing goes for writing as well. After spending any amount of time on a project like that I have something tangible to show for it. And that makes me feel pretty good about myself.
Kelsey
And last but not least, we’re going to hear from Jennifer from Smith curriculum and consulting. And if you have a furry friend, you might like this tip.
Jennifer
My favorite self care thing is just to spend time with my family and my animals and know that they have unconditional love for me. And just allow me to do my thing, whether it’s take a shower, and extremely hot water, wear my sweatpants around the house the whole weekend. Or even take a three hour nap when I want to find what works for you.
Kelsey
So good. I just love hearing your voices. And I love that we get to come together and share ideas because I’m not the end all be all of all the information in this world that teachers need to know that’s why I love sharing your voice clips. I love bringing other experts on to the podcast so you can get the best that you need to live your best teacher life. Next I’m going to read some tips from our members that came in written form so I’m going to read them out and we have been having so much fun and wife teacher mommy club lately we just came off of our winter educated rejuvenate event that was members only work together on Zoom. It was such a great time and then we kicked off our January jumpstart where we’re sharing wins each day. We have giveaways that are only for our members you can earn points for doing different things and all the things are just making the best use out of your membership like downloading a resource or listening to a coaching we play and different things that help you live your best life. And some of our members I’ve been able to coach them one on one because they unlock 150 points in the January jumpstart they get a one on one live coaching session with me. And that has been incredible. I’ve been enjoying that so much as I’ve been doing certification. So after this short break, I’ll be reading some more tips from you. So don’t go anywhere. I’m interrupting this episode for just a moment to share an experience from one of our newest incredible members of wife teacher mommy club. Her name is Ashley and I just love having her as a member of the Love. Here’s what she’s had to say so far,
Ashley
I joined wife, teacher mommy cub, because there are just so many resources available to club members, classroom resources and the personal side with the coaching. That is a huge resource that I did not have prior to joining the club. And it’s been really great getting an outside perspective on problems and issues that I might be facing. And it really helps me to see them from another perspective for me, wife, teacher, mommy Club offers more than just the resources. It has that coaching component, and it has the Facebook group and community component. It also has, you know, that professional development component, the Educate, rejuvenate series, and all those things together, I think helped me in my job as a teacher, it’s not just a one off thing. All of that together really helps make the whole package
Kelsey
to learn more about wife, teacher mommy club, go to wife, teacher mommy.com/club To request an invite for the next time that we open the doors and hope to see you inside the club soon
Okay, we are back. And you’re just heard from Ashley, who is a new member of wife, teacher, mommy club, I just love meeting our new members and getting to know all of you. It’s so much fun. If you’re a member and you haven’t really participated in the community as much come and join us. I love meeting you. I love talking with you. It is incredible how we can come together. Okay, so I’m going to be getting some more tips from our members. So we’ve been coming together with that January jumpstart, we’ve been really talking about self care and our wins and everything. So here’s what some of our members have been saying. So Ashley, who you just heard, she said that she likes to spend time with my kids without the phone. And this is something I’ve been working on too. I feel like a lot of times we scroll on our phone and I would honestly call that Doom scrolling because it’s like you’re almost like you’re buffering you’re avoiding feeling feelings or you’re, you know, not being present in the moment. So when we put that phone away, and we just enjoy being present. Oh, I just love that tip. Thank you, Ashley. Okay, and then Monica says for self care, I carve out two to three hours a week to knit or crochet. I also set a goal for myself to walk three miles a week starting this month. And now Rhonda says as a teacher, wife and mommy, I wake up early to have me time I have my breakfast coffee and workout. Martha says she likes to play the banjo. I love this. Amy says To be honest, up until last week, nothing, absolutely nothing. So she was one who wasn’t doing the self care. So if you’re there, it’s okay. But now I’m going to continue reading and you’re going to see how she’s now implemented that. She says I have since started CrossFit. It’s a great workout and stress release. I’m also taking FMLA and working on a modified schedule Friday’s off because my mental health matters. And I could not handle the stress of my class this year. So look at that she found something that’s helping her. Now Pamela says I am a work in progress. I have great intentions but find myself too tired at the end of the day to do much.
I used to get up super early to work out. But that lasted half a year and I fell out of the habit. I’ve been wanting to try and start walking during my half hour lunch because I have my planning period right after I have my sneakers pack yesterday take a walk and got busy and never went it’s on my to do list today. And then Lisa Coleman did, because remember, this is an awesome member community and we get to talk to each other. Lisa said, Did you read my mind? This is exactly what I did choose her here but no time. But when they continue that conversation, we’re able to see that they were both able to figure out how to get it done. And I love that that even they’re making the intention. Even if it doesn’t always happen every day. They’re making that intention. And I think that is great. It’s just you know, sometimes we show up in one way, sometimes we bring our shoes and that shows like wow, I was thinking about myself. Even if I didn’t take that walk that’s still a step in the right direction. Okay, now I have some more tips for you from members of our wife, teacher, mommy unite Facebook group, which is a free Facebook group. So if you’re loving this podcast, but the club doors are closed, you’re not quite sure about joining the club. Come join us and that group is completely free. We have fun in there too. And I get a lot of the quotes from the podcast from that group. So if you’d like to be quoted, come join that group. So Rachel says long hot soaks in a hot bath with Bath and Bodyworks and aromatherapy bath foam. Cassidy says I’ve started running again. It’s nice to have 30 minutes to myself a few times a week and better myself while I’m at it. Leon says crochet and or bike Sarah says leave on time walks with my kids at home. Just shell says leave work at school. It’s not every day sometimes things have to happen.
But when possible I walk away it’s always there tomorrow. And I agree with that and also it’s not the all or nothing like she said it’s not every day sometimes things happen but when possible. I want to be there and walk away Lindsay says daily walks, lifting and puzzles Jigsaw board games etc. Always find a time to do something that brings me joy even if just for a short time in the day. My sister Mr Cardenas says crochet desk pets for my kiddos and you know some of us we enjoy doing little things like that like oh I want to crochet this for my students. That is an amazing way to both fill up yourself and help others. You know, when we become our biggest highest versions of ourselves we’re able to contribute so much more to everyone and enjoy the process you Leah says sleep enough. Yes, this is such an important one and Christy and I were talking about this on our recent coaching call that a lot of times even just sleep is the big thing that we need. Sleep can be self care. If you’re like I didn’t do anything today, but you got eight hours of sleep or seven hours of sleep even. You took some time for self care because you made sure that your body had enough rest. Now Laura says playing video games and reading I love reading my husband loves video games. I’m not as much a video game person myself. Linda says have counseling every two weeks and get a haircut every six weeks.
I love that she’s taking care of her mind. She’s taking care of her body. She’s feeling great about herself. And taking that time. Kathy says she gets her nails and hair done reading, painting being outside spending time with family and friends. Now another place I asked for tips on what they do for self care is in the homeschool moms summits Facebook group. As I mentioned on the podcast last week, I’m in this awesome Summit. And if you’re listening to this live on the 20th There shouldn’t still be time to sign up for it. So we’ll put that link in the show notes. But here are what a few of those moms had to say. I love to get the mom perspective as well. So Rachel says Bible study taking care of my skin cleanse, moisturize and put on makeup, or at least lipstick every day whether I’m leaving the house or not. She says she gets up before my kids and feel that my day starts so much better when I wake up for my day and not to it. Love that thought waking up for your day not to it. It’s such an intentional way to think such a great that. And when I asked what she does before her kids get out she said she uses that time for quiet, uninterrupted time to read the Bible and get her hobbies lunch packed and go over the day’s plans with him before he leaves to work. Love this. She takes time for herself and she also then from that place of filling her well. She helps others too.
Now Clarissa says Bible study eating healthy writing and date nights with her husband. And I asked what her favorite date nights are. And she said eating together and watching YouTube clips together at home after the children are put to bed. It’s been a way that for many years due to many young children, some serious medical conditions and the fact that I’m an introvert that relaxes best at home anyway, I can relate to that. I love relaxing. I love home dates, like why not right. And then Sarah says acupuncture helps me put my own health as a priority. So I can do better with all the things I need to do. And for a bonus, I get to lay down twice a week and relax with absolutely no demands on my attention. I love this. It’s kind of like one of our other listeners said about when she gets her nails done. She can’t do anything else. It’s just her in the nail tech. So it’s kind of that time where you just get to decompress, and we all need that. And then Tanya says Bible study praise and worship music journaling, doing mani pedi at home, going for a walk, etc. so, so good. I love all these tips from the homeschool mamas. You are also welcome here too. I’m a homeschool mom, former teacher loves serving all of you here at wife, teacher, Mommy. Now I want to come back to you. What does self care mean to you? It could mean some of these things. It could be most of them. It could mean something completely different. That wasn’t even mentioned today. But I want to come back to these questions I asked before I shared all these ideas. If you had a full day, with no school, no work and no other family obligations. Just you yourself. How would you feel?
Kelsey
What is it that lights you up? How can you make your self care a priority? How can I make time for self care? How can I refill my cup every single day. Now you know when some of these like Pam, she brought her shoes. She didn’t make it on the walk that day. But she brought her shoes, she had that intention, she was thinking of herself. And you can also even if you don’t have time to go on a walk during your lunch break, you go and take a few minutes to pause and breathe. It does not have to be a long thing. You can find a small way to fill your cup every day. You could even make a list of like these are things I’ll do when I have only a couple minutes. These are things I’ll do when I have 20 minutes. These are things I’ll do when I have a whole hour. But I don’t know that’s my tip. But again, to ask that question for you to think about how can I refill my cup every single day? And how is doing this self full and helping to be my greatest self both for myself and others. Tap into your power and ownership of this. You can take care of yourself. And it is your responsibility to do so. Not only for yourself but to better serve your students, your children, those around you, your spouse or partner. It’s so important that we take care of ourselves.
So to recap everything we went over today, we talked about what self care is and how it’s a verb the myths of selfishness being it’s selfish to put your needs before others it is not it is self full. The myth Have not having time you do have time, we get to this side. And we get to make that time and figure out how it works. Whether it’s two minutes or one hour, two minutes or three hours, whatever you make time for that day in your schedule, then we talked about a lot of ideas for self care. A lot of our members like to get their nails done or go on walks, or workout or bake or smelling Bath and Bodyworks aromatherapy, so many other great things. And but then it’s important to remember that self care is personal to you. So you get to see and feel what it is that fills your cup. It can be whatever you want it to be, it’ll look what however you want it to look, make it look away, that’s not overwhelming to you. Again, we don’t want this to be another thing that pressures you, but something that fills your cup, and asking yourself powerful questions if you need to write down all those questions that I asked twice during this podcast. So you can hang them up somewhere and ask them every day do it. In fact, maybe I should make a printable with them, maybe we will at some point. And the last thing is tapping into your power by making your self care a top priority in your life. Because you are so important. You deserve self care, you have so much inherent value just by being here. You’re a human being and you deserve to be taken care of just like any child in your classroom. One way I’d like to think about it too. And I’ll close out with this is one of my friends. It was actually Kiersten from Kyrsten Kaboodle high Kiersten.
She told me that she does this, and she put up a picture of herself as a little girl. And when she wanted to think that something bad about herself, so this was about negative self talk, but I think this is for self care, too. So if you think, Oh, I don’t deserve to take time for self care, you look at that little girl with that little boy or whatever. And you say, do they deserve time to take care of themselves? Yeah, you wouldn’t say any of your students or your children deserve time for that. Right? You do too. So does that little girl I’m talking about myself that little girl, I put a picture of me in kindergarten with my side ponytail, and the cute little scrunchies that are now back in style again. I put that picture up. And I remember it’s on my vision board. And I’m like, You know what, that little girl she deserves the world. And I’m still that little girl and you deserve the world too. So that is my message that I’m leaving you with today. Now next week on the podcast, I’m talking all about Valentine’s Day ideas. I would love for you to hit subscribe so you don’t miss it because we have tons of fun ideas for you if you’re planning for your Valentine’s Day. And if you enjoyed this episode, some similar recent episodes were my recent interview with Brittany Blackwell about the stress cycle.
And my recent episode about how to set intentional goals. I would really recommend if you love this personal self development side of the podcast, be sure to give those two recent episodes a listen. Now I will talk to you next week. If you’re enjoying this podcast, be sure to hit subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. And if you’re ready to take the next step with me, then you are going to love wife teacher mommy club. Our top selling resources for pre K through sixth graders have been used and loved by 10s of 1000s of teachers. The club gives you one click access to all of them to meet the needs of every child to teach while saving tons of time. Plus, you’ll have our certified life coach in your back pocket. With several monthly workshops and an Ask a coach portal you can use 24/7 The combo of resources and coaching is our secret sauce to your best teacher life. Think of my team tonight as your personal team, doing the lesson planning for you and on the sidelines coaching you and cheering you on as you focus on what you do best impacting the children you teach. Plus, if you’re loving this podcast, you’ll also have access to our private podcast just for members, where I continue the conversation with all of our guests with members only bonus episodes. And don’t forget the club with VIP access to educate and rejuvenate our Summer Conference and our private Facebook community full of like minded educators support each other. You do so much for everyone else so it’s time to invest in yourself. Your t shirt brands jaws will drop when they see just how quickly you finish your planning. Not to mention the globe the happier, more fulfilled you head on over to wife teacher mommy club.com to learn more.
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.
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One Response
When I leave school, I pretty much shut down. I sit on the couch and read a book or play a game on my phone. I used to think of this as my “self-care” time. But I’ve come to realize this is not taking care of myself. I’m aware of changes I can make to actually improve my life, but have fallen into this rut and don’t have the desire (drive?) to make the change. It’s easier to do the norm, even though I know it isn’t healthy. Sigh…