Episode #17 Season 3 Finding Silence Amongst the Chaos

What if five quiet minutes could reset an entire day? We close the year with a focused, practical guide to finding calm in a loud season—especially for teachers who spend every hour juggling decisions, emotions, and endless distractions. Rather than adding another task to your to-do list, we build a small, sustainable habit that creates big returns: a short window of morning silence that lowers stress, resets attention, and restores patience.

We unpack why silence is more than peaceful—it’s powerful. Research points to lower cortisol and parasympathetic activation when we pause the noise, and that matters in December when finances, social obligations, and grief often collide with shorter daylight. We share plainspoken steps to make the practice stick: wake a touch earlier, flip your phone face down, set a five-minute timer, breathe or repeat a grounding mantra, and name five things you’re grateful for. If mornings are hectic, we offer creative plan B options, from a no-audio commute segment to carving out a quiet nook with earplugs or a closet beanbag.

Throughout, we connect this practice to the classroom. A clearer mind increases tolerance, deepens listening, and helps you respond rather than react—to students, colleagues, and the everyday frictions of traffic, grocery lines, and holiday expectations. You’ll hear reminders from past guests about how movement and journaling can pair with silence, plus realistic planning tips for the night before to protect your calm at sunrise. Start with twice a week, notice what changes first—focus, patience, or gratitude—and let the habit grow from there.

Be well to teach well, and find joy in the journey. If this conversation helps, share it with a colleague who could use five minutes of quiet today. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us where you’ll make space for silence this week.

Thanks for listening!

Transcript

Year-End Framing And Core Motto

SPEAKER_00 0:18

This is Wellness for Educators, episode 17, and the final episode for this calendar year. You need to be well to teach well. That is the motto. Seeking a healthy balance. You matter, and so does your health. There is life beyond the classroom. This is Wellness Wednesday, December 3rd, 2025. Wellness for educators, Lori Maxfield, your host. I want to remind you of a few themes that have been discussed since September. Parenting, helping students overcome adversity, balancing health, and teaching, and today our theme is finding silence among the noise. I'm not sure about you, but there seems to be a lot of noise all around us. Social media is actually the worst place to look. There is a constant barrage that makes us harder to focus. If you live in the United States, there's political division that just brings stress and anxiety. My goal for you this month is to find life above the noise. There are a total of 1,440 minutes in each day. I'm asking you to devote five of those minutes to silence. That is actually less than three-tenths of a percent of your daily minutes. Are you willing to give it a try? Silence is the sanctuary of the soul. I personally have found the early morning to be my precious time. Maybe it's the opportunity to be still, maybe it's the sound of the birds, or maybe it's just the smell of my morning coffee. But I do feel peace within my soul when I put my phone away and devote the start of my day to silence. Often our minds are racing with anxiety, fear, doubt, but in starting a new day with hope seems to bring an overwhelming calm to my day. As an educator, you are traveling thousands of miles per hour. Your minds are racing, accomplishing so much in a short amount of time. However, you can accomplish this without taking a few minutes to just stop. Silence is not just peaceful, it is powerful. In our world, we are faced with constant noise and distractions. Silence is a rare commodity that allows you to perform tasks more effectively and efficiently. When you are quiet, what do you hear? Do you hear someone else's voice telling you to do something? Do you hear your own voice in your head? Do you hear your heart beating? This is the time to listen. We sometimes fight against listening. Listening is a very important skill that is often not practiced. The art of listening is vital, both to yourself as well as to others. The Dalai Lama said it best. When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new. This is the time to quiet your mind, be still, and listen. Scientific studies have demonstrated that periods of silence can be more relaxing than actually listening to music. For example, research indicates that working in silence leads to lower cortisol levels compared to working while listening to speech or noise. I'm pretty sure you are unable to work in silence. However, I believe you can start your day in silence. Silence provides a tranquil space that promotes a sense of peace, tranquility, and mental clarity. Did you know that just two minutes of silence can activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which slows the heart rate and lowers cortisol levels? Cortisol is a stress hormone, so lowering its levels can reduce feelings of stress and anxiety. December is often a stressful month. This may be due to financial pressures from holiday spending, increased social obligations, and also emotional stressors like loneliness or grief. This is often compounded by reduced daylight and less restorative sleep. Some people even feel pressured to live up to unrealistic expectations for the holidays, which can lead to burnout and frustration. As you may have noticed, this podcast is being aired at the start of the month rather than the middle. This is strategic because I want you to have the ability to focus on your goal of five minutes of silence for the majority of the month. In some schools, they have created whisper room booths. These are used by educators and students who need distraction-free zones for study and practice. Silence gives us an opportunity to actually connect with ourselves. Constant noise from the outside world causes us to miss out on the benefits of silence. In today's fast-paced world, many have a short fuse. Educators, especially, need to increase our tolerance levels. If we do, I believe you will become more patient with students as well as colleagues. You may even be more patient in a traffic jam or in a long line at the grocery store. When you learn to savor silent moments, it may change your mindset for your entire day. So if you don't even know how to begin, let me give you a few simple pointers. First, you need to schedule in these five minutes to your morning routine. Oh boy, I hear you saying, My morning is so hectic. How am I going to do this? Well, I recommend you get up 10 minutes earlier. You can opt to move in silence, like a brisk morning walk, or you can sit in a comfy chair with your coffee in your hand. It's your time. You decide what works best for you. If you're at home, sit in your comfy chair with your special mug. I have found dimmer lights are actually nice. If you want to close your eyes, that may be helpful. You may use your phone or your microwave as a timer and set it for five minutes. If you use your phone, please put it face down so it does not distract you. Be honest. Tell yourself you will not look at social media, you will not look at texts or emails until after you have experienced your five minutes of silence. If you want to focus on your breathing, take deep breaths. Sometimes it helps to reduce our thoughts. Or if you want to repeat a positive thought or mantra, that can be helpful in refocusing your voice in your head. I have found that if you focus on gratitude, that helps to start your day in a positive manner. Maybe even in your mind, think of five things that you are thankful for. Try to minimize distractions. If by chance you have difficulty finding a quiet spot, maybe wear earplugs. Or you could even sit in a beanbag in your walk-in closet. You want it to be a spot where you generally experience quiet. Oh, I hear you saying. How am I gonna do this? I have so much going on in the morning, I cannot add another thing to my plate. As you are certainly aware, a good teacher is a planner. So, if possible, try to do everything necessary the night before. Make your kids' lunches, make your own lunch, set out your clothes that you plan to wear the next day, even set out your kids' shoes. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to get out of the house and your children can't find their shoes. If you honestly feel that you cannot do this, then be creative. After you've dropped off your kids at school or finished your morning activities, when you are driving to work, do not turn on your Spotify, your radio, your music. Allow for five minutes of silence as you drive. This is not ideal, but it might work for you. Allow those five minutes of silence to quiet your mind. As you recall, Sam Rogers talked about how he does his best thinking in the morning as he runs. Angelica talked about her morning and finding calm as she wrote in a journal. At the end of each episode, I repeat the same statement. Find joy in the journey. This is your chance to find joy in your journey. Quiet may actually be the pathway to this joy. I am hopeful this opportunity to start your day in five minutes of silence will help you to reconnect with your inner voice. This may be the gateway to deeper self-awareness. It's not just quiet, it's clarity. If your mind wanders, which it naturally does, acknowledge those thoughts without judgment. In our world filled with constant distractions and noise, silence isn't just a luxury, it's a necessity. My hope is that this helps you to find clarity in the chaos. If this is a new practice, be patient and kind to yourself. Consistency is the key. To start, maybe you want to try this twice a week. In time, maybe you will see the benefits to this practice, and it will naturally become part of your daily routine. That is certainly my hope for you. The purpose of this podcast is for educators to take care of themselves. Allowing five minutes of silence into your routine may actually benefit your wellness in ways you have never imagined. I do hope you'll give it a try. A quote from Ram Das the quieter you become, the more you can hear. Remember, I am here cheering for you. Enjoy a restful holiday break. Spend time with people you love. Be sure to relax, unwind, and enjoy this well-deserved break from school. Thanks to Ron Coleman for providing the music, and thanks to you for being a positive influence to the future generation. You are a true hero. You need to be well, to teach well, find joy in the journey. This is Lori Maxfield, and I thank you for listening to Wellness for Educators. If you have a friend who you think could benefit from this podcast, please pass it along. If you can rate and review this podcast, I would greatly appreciate it. I look forward to connecting again in 2026. Until that time, remember our bodies benefit from movement, but our minds benefit from stillness.