Todo gira alrededor de ti: Resiliencia y bienestar

(En inglés)

It’s All About You: Resiliency and Wellness Strategies

[music]

Dawn: Our next segment is called "It's All About You." We include this in the show because it's important for teachers to have some things for them to do for themselves so they can think about their well-being.

Kristin: That's right, it's all about resiliency and wellness strategies. So, we know that research has told us that self-care strategies can really have long-term health benefits.

Dawn: So, Dr. Gail Joseph is going to join us to share some strategies. Thank you so much for being here for this segment where we're going to be talking about resiliency and wellness strategies.

Gail: Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here. It's one of my favorite things to talk about. It's one of the things I wish that I had learned more about when I was a teacher, actually.

Dawn: Me, too. Kristin: Absolutely.

Dawn: It would have helped a lot.

Gail: So, I have a great practical strategy for us today. I brought some things with me. So, I'm going to talk about a strategy that actually has some research behind it that will improve your health, your physical health. It helps you get more sleep, helps you have more energy. It will help you spend less time feeling upset or angry or sad.

Kristin: We need it.

Gail: I know! It will help you build deeper connections with people. I know you were talking about relationships, and so building some deeper connections. And just helps you feel happier, better emotional well-being. And so, I know.

Dawn: What is this? [laughter]

Gail: And it doesn't even cost anything. It's actually expressing gratitude. Super simple. So, I brought a couple practical ideas for us to express gratitude. So, one is, I brought a stack of thank you cards. So, I just picked up some thank you cards, and one practical way that you can build gratitude into your everyday life is to think about somebody who's made a positive difference in your life – maybe it's somebody now, maybe it's somebody in the past – and to take the time to actually write them a thank you, to write them a thank you, what did they do, how did it help you, and just express your gratitude. And I was thinking, like, you could even set maybe one day a month that you just reminded yourself, I'm going to send a thank you card. At least just once a month, right? And I said send it, but actually, there's some great benefits to not only writing it, but if the person is – if you're able to, is to actually go to them in person and read it to them.

Kristin: How powerful that would be. Dawn: Yeah.

Gail: Incredibly, like how you would feel, how they feel. It's just a wash of calm and happiness. So, thank you cards. So, the other practical strategy is I just brought you a blank journal. And the intention here is to have this become your gratitude journal. And the idea is to put this in a place where you would see it on a regular basis. And just when you're feeling grateful, write it down. So, it's not something that you have to do every day. In fact, in the study that they ran, they didn't do it every day, but they still got all of those benefits that I talked about with gratitude. So, it's just on a semi-regular basis writing down things you're grateful for: the food you ate, shelter, job, people in your life.

Dawn: Sunshine.

Gail: Sunshine, exactly. So, keeping a gratitude journal. And a third one is something that I love doing. Especially if you're feeling stressed or overwhelmed, it's a great way to get yourself calm. It's also something you can do on a regular basis, maybe when you're falling asleep at night, and that is to take five thank you breaths. And so, the idea is just to inhale ... and then on the expression, or on the exhale, is to just say thank you and something you're thankful for, just on that outgoing breath. And it does two things. So, one is by having that exhale be when you're thinking about the thing you're grateful for and even maybe saying it out loud, is it makes that exhale longer than the inhale. And that's what we want to do because when we exhale, we activate what's called the parasympathetic system in our bodies, which is what triggers calm and content. Whereas the inhale is actually what gets us kind of energized, and kind of that fight or flight, is that inhale. And then the exhale is when you're calm. So, you want to get that exhale longer, and you do that by expressing your gratitude.

And then the last thing I would say is that you could bring this into the classroom because you're never too young to start learning the benefits of gratitude. So, children can keep a gratitude journal, children can write thank you notes. You could do a gratitude circle at the end of the day where children just offered something they were grateful for. Maybe you write that down and have a classroom gratitude journal. But just something that you can help children start to experience those benefits of gratitude as well. That's it.

Kristin: Love those. Those are so simple but so powerful. I can't believe how many positive effects are just from really expressing gratitude.

Gail: Thinking grateful thoughts. Kristin: That's right.

Dawn: Thank you, Gail.

Kristin: Thank you.

Gail: Thank YOU.

Kristin: Yes, we're expressing gratitude. Thank you. [laughter]