Overcoming Overwhelm

Where to begin when much around us seems to be crumbling or unfixable.

G. FAITH LITTLE
Initiative Director, 21st Century Learning

​​We walk through our days meeting the needs of our kids, our students, our partners, and our colleagues. When times are free from major conflict or loss, we can stay afloat or even find ourselves dancing under a beautiful sky of carefree moments. When times are tough, the margin we enjoyed shrinks. When times are as tough as they are today, we wake up almost daily to disheartening news, disturbing events, and distressing social media posts. We are overwhelmed and we may not know where to begin to make a difference when much around us seems to be crumbling or unfixable.

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Restore your energy

Overcoming Overwhelm, an original CPET workshop, is designed to support a teacher’s self-care practice. It can expand to an all-day experience at one of our institutes, or its building blocks can be customized to accommodate a shorter time frame. The objective is for each educator to develop a unique plan to thrive through tough times. 

The live workshop engages participants in self-reflection focused on their current social, emotional, and mental space, with a lens on themselves as a human and in their role as a teacher/student/professional. Each person identifies areas of overwhelm and concern, explores their processes for dealing with the stresses resulting from challenges in both their professional and personal life, locates one leverage point for restoring their own energy, voice, and/or activism, and receives feedback and support from fellow participants. Participants come away from the workshop with a co-created self-care packet made up of their own writing and artwork, their colleagues' recommendations, and resources provided by our team (participants choose what resources they find most useful for their own packet, so it is a truly customized experience).

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Connect to your body

What about today? This moment? How can you address overwhelm where you are right now? Body Connection is a simple practice you can follow to engage in a self-care — you won’t be surprised to hear this works great with kids of all ages as well!

Prompt: When I am overwhelmed, what do I feel in my body?

• First, take a few minutes and write or draw on the figure what you usually feel, where you feel it. Is it an ache in your head? Does it churn in your stomach? What about your joints, your back, your breathing?
• Next, focus on your breathing for two minutes. On each inhale feel how the air fills your lungs. On each exhale let go of tension in one part of your body. Inhale – feel. Exhale – let go.
• Finally, write down one word to describe how you’re feeling right now.

Let us know how Body Connection works for you. We look forward to seeing you soon at a workshop, institute or conference!