Teaching can be stressful, and sometimes teachers need to take a break, relax and decompress!
Classroom
Teachers: Why You Need to Decompress! (Techniques)
Teaching can be stressful, and sometimes teachers need to take a break, relax and decompress!
Teaching seems like a fun occupation when your only experience is as a parent observing a classroom.
Education resources
Why teachers need relaxation
Once you’re in the hot seat, you find out how stressful it can be. The stress can get to you between standardized test requirements, parent problems, student fights, and additional issues (not to mention pay and class supply problems).
If you’re a new teacher, you need to find a way to decompress daily, weekly, and especially between terms.
Suppressed resentment can affect family and friends
A lot will happen during the school year that will anger you and make you feel unappreciated. From the snowplow parent who tries to get in your face about a grade to the state legislature that denies pay raises, you’ll encounter things that stick in your craw.
If you carry mental stress and resentment, that could bleed out your relationships with people. Try to decompress and do things that make you feel good, such as:
- Go on a walk
- Read a book
- Watch a good movie
- Play with a dog
Doing such activities lets a bit of light back in, and you’ll find it easier to separate the stressful event from the rest of your life.
Continual stress can affect sleep
Being overly stressed, even if it’s just from a busy week of tests and grading papers, can affect your sleep. That can lead to health issues ranging from moodiness to possible cardiovascular and blood glucose problems. You must consciously relax and let go of the stress to sleep better.
Not having an outlet can lead to health problems
Stress can also lead to physical responses when you’re awake, too. Increased blood pressure is a classic response, but your body can give you strange aches and pains due to being overly stressed.
How you decompress is up to you. Exercising and playing a sport, lounging at the beach, or even sitting on your apartment balcony looking through pictures on your phone can give you time away. The important thing is that you find ways to let go.
