Are We In-Tune With Ourselves?

Feeling frequently exhausted, irritated, and resentful of not having enough time to do all we want and need are signs we are out-of-tune with ourselves. These feelings are all too common an experience in teaching. Teaching shouldn’t make you unwell. Yet this seems to be considered a normal, if unfortunate, aspect of being a teacher. It can be different.

If we want things to be different we need to be willing to do things differently. Outside of acute situations (like illness, death, separations and major upheavals) most stressors are the proverbial straws that break the camel’s back (report cards, paperwork, collegial relations, student concerns, home and family issues, finances). It’s often our pattern of interaction with and response to these minor stressors that keeps us in grooves where we make the same choices again and again. We may not realize what these patterns and beliefs are or how we acquired them, but they are our personal paradigm. If our patterns and beliefs are making us unwell, we need to shift the paradigm.

Progressive spiritual teacher, Eckhart Tolle says our life is not our life situation. We often confuse the two. Our life is the core of who we are. It’s the unshakable rock that sits serenely, confidently knowing everything is as it should be and will be ok, while our life situation (that is the positive and negative roles we play, events, situations, acquired beliefs, goals) often showers down and obscures it. If our life is like a house, then our life situation is often like the clutter cramming our closets, drawers and basements. Clearing out the trash will help us make better use of our house. We need to discern what is trash and what is not.

To do this we need to take stock of what we do. Time management is a lot like money management. You can spend $500 when you only have $100 in the bank, but you incur debt. Likewise you can schedule more in a day than there are hours to complete it, but that too is incurring debt. You are salaried for an approximate 40 hour work week. Budget your time to work within that frame. Whatever that doesn’t fit ask yourself if it’s worth going into debt for?

Looking at our motivations helps make the shift. What am I doing? Why am I doing it? Aware of our motivations, we can make conscious choices about what we do and how we do it. We begin to master our work so it serves us and not the other way around. Our beliefs and patterns begin to change. When we consciously choose our actions, we empower ourselves to be able to respond to stressors in ways that affirm our wellbeing.

This inner space will alert us to what is out-of-tune in our lives and how to make adjustments to rectify that. Rest in this space: it's from this space the courage and conviction to create change comes.