The main problem with being a teacher with busy brain is that it inhibits your ability to be able to focus and you want to have focus because when you have focus you have greater clarity over what’s going on in your life over the activities that you’re doing. So
here is a definition of stress that I found. When the brain becomes overactive and the emotions of fear and anger appear the body goes on alert. A state of vigilance develops.
So, for short periods of time we know that that can be quite a useful and normal thing. There are times when you need to have a certain degree of stress in order to be able to get things done but if it’s ongoing and there is this constant stimulation of what is called
the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal pituitary adrenal axis resulting in the release of chemicals that are those Fight or Flight chemicals. Then a cycle can be created and those chemicals keep the brain being overactive and overanalysing and overwhelmed and there is this constant release of those stimulating chemicals. That is what leads you into a state of stress.
Here are some general tips for dealing with that and you can only deal with it when you realise that you’re in that state. I know a lot of teachers who are constantly living their lives in that place and haven’t noticed that that’s happening. Sometimes they don’t
notice until something goes horribly wrong. So, you need to be really in touch with your own emotions to know when you’re starting to get yourself into that state so that you can then take the action that you need to take.
Here is a technique:
If you’re a driver and you’ve been driving a long time, you know what the stop sign looks like. The question that you need to ask yourself before you use this technique is: Do you always stop when you see a stop sign? Hopefully the answer is yes, because otherwise you are playing with danger if the answer is no!
This is how you can then utilise that stop sign, not just in your motoring skills but in your daily life as well. I want you to get a picture in your mind of that big red stop sign and when you see that you know that you have to stop both when you’re driving and
whatever else it is that you might be doing.
Let’s say for example that you are suffering a state of busy brain. As soon as you notice that you’ve got all these thoughts bubbling away and that things are slipping through your fingers, you’re not feeling as productive, you’re starting to slip into that stress
state, I want you to do a stop sign in your mind very quickly. Just pull it up and quite firmly say to yourself “stop!” and when you’ve done that, start to focus on just one thing at a time.
You could well be thinking “I can’t focus on one thing at a time!” but you can with practice and by reminding yourself to do this you’ll begin to retrain your brain.
People Building in an NLP and personal development training company for teachers and professionals working in education.
For more information about our courses designed to reduce stress in teachers and avoid ‘teacher burn-out’, contact us on 0345 3192 666
By Gemma Bailey
www.peoplebuilding.co.uk
