You Can’t Pour Into Students When You’re Empty

The work is sacred, but the pace can be brutal. When your shoulders won’t unclench, your brain won’t power down, and small choices feel like cliffs, it’s not a personal failure—it’s your body asking for care. We dive into a clear, compassionate plan for educator self-care that protects your energy, your purpose, and your joy in the classroom.

We walk through the real signs of burnout—restless sleep, decision fatigue, tension, and brain fog—and show how small, repeatable habits change the day. You’ll hear practical strategies for physical health, like keeping a water bottle on your desk, prepping simple breakfasts, planning weeknight meals, and building movement into passing periods or after-school loops. We dig into sleep hygiene, grading cut-offs, and transition rituals that help your brain shift gears when you get home, plus the underrated power of massage and outdoor walks to quiet your nervous system.

On the mental and spiritual side, we focus on perspective shifts and faith practices that reduce stress: brief prayers, scripture meditation in hallway walks, and gratitude habits that keep good moments close. We talk about choosing confidants wisely, scheduling joy breaks without guilt, single tasking to tame overwhelm, and mindful listening that prevents misunderstandings. Professional well-being rounds it out: time blocks, reusable templates, Monday-to-Friday folders, kind but firm no’s, and email windows that set expectations. You’ll also hear how to create a calming workspace, reconnect to your why, and lead from any seat without burning out.

If you’re ready to refill the human behind the desk and show up with steadier energy for your students, this conversation is your reset. Listen, choose one habit to start today, and tell us what you’re trying. Subscribe, share with a colleague who needs encouragement, and leave a quick review to help more educators find this resource.

Resources from this episode:

100 Self Care Tips for Educators - Pedagogue

Self-Care tips for teachers | Unicef

50 Self-Care Ideas for Educators - Edu Spark Nation

7 Powerful Teacher Self Care Ideas That Actually Work

Self Care | TPT

Educator Self Care | Etsy

Practicing self-care: 5 tips for teachers

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Thanks for listening and keep making a difference in the lives of children!

Transcript

Why Educator Self-Care Matters

Recognizing Signs Of Burnout

Leaving Public School And Reframing Calling

Resources For Self-Care

Physical Well-Being: Hydration And Food

Movement, Walking, And Massage

Sleep, Boundaries, And Night Routines

Stress, Faith, And Perspective Shifts

Processing Emotions And Joy Breaks

Mindfulness, Single Tasking, And Gratitude

Workload Systems And Saying No

Classroom Space, Organization, And Calm

Relationships, Family Time, And Support

Start Small And Take One Action

Listener Invitations And Next Topic

Closing And Ways To Connect

Tonya 0:04

Welcome to Educate Me Well, the podcast that brings faith and education together. Hi, I'm Tonya and I'm so glad you're here. In 2008, I know that's been a long time ago, right? I had been teaching seven years and found myself as my school and district's Teacher of the Year. For the Regional Teacher of the Year written submission, my topic was teacher self-care. At the time, it was not a thing. Now it's a big thing! Welcome to today's topic, Educator Self-care. I hope you all are doing well. My goal for this podcast episode is to encourage you to take care of yourself so that you don't get sick or burn out in your life's work. So important. Teaching or being an administrator, we all know, is very stressful. You have to prioritize taking care of yourself so that you can show up and be what the kiddos need you to be every day. Self-care is anything we do to help us take care of our mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical health. If you don't plan to help yourself, no one else will. No one else will. So let's talk about what are some symptoms of burnout? Do you feel tired all the time, even with sleep? Do you have trouble going to sleep or waking up in the middle of the night with your brain wired? You know, you're just thinking about what you have to do during the day or the next day, or unable to think clearly, or to remember common things. A lot of muscle tension, the shoulders are tight, your back is tight, your neck is tight, getting sick more often, constant headaches or stomach aches. You know, we see this in our kids at school, but sometimes we don't recognize it in ourselves. Or uh, what about feeling like you don't have time to care for others? You want to, and you feel like you're a very uncaring person, but you just think you don't have time. Another one would be decision fatigue. You just have a hard time making decisions. You know that when it gets to that point that you have to step back and get some help. We are not good educators when we are burnout. I recognized many of these in myself when I was in the public school system. So I decided after 16 years as a teacher and administrator to get out of the public school system. I was angry and frustrated about many things. And I didn't want to become one of those educators that you know should have left the system years ago. You know, those I'm talking about. I was burnt out. And God had another calling for me. Private school administration. You will become that teacher or administrator that we're talking about if you don't take care of yourself. So let's talk about some strategies for self-care. I found an article that had so many great tips for self-care that I just had to include some of those in the podcast today, along with the notes that I'd made for myself. It's called Pedagogy. It's a Pedagogy article, and I will include that in the show notes so that you can also go back and reference those for yourself. Also, Teacher Pay Teacher has some great free resources for self-care ideas as well. And Etsy has some for sale. So I'd go check those out. I will put all of that in the show notes. But let's take a look at some of those. The first area would be I think your physical well-being. We all know that nutrition and hydrating our bodies is so important. One of the things that I used to do when I was in the school system before I retired, public school and private school, uh, was put a water bottle on my desk every day. And I got to where I'd put some electrolytes in there as well, because those are really important too. But just keeping yourself hydrated throughout the day will give you more energy. And so that's a good thing to do. Sometimes people get busy and they don't think about having to keep yourself hydrated. Also, a good idea for nutrition would be to make sure you have some grab and go breakfast options on hand, even if that means on the weekend, maybe make up some breakfast bars or some breakfast granola bars or just some healthy breakfast options, some fruit, whatever you like. Something that you can grab with a quick cup of coffee and maybe eat it on the way to work if you have to. Although I do recommend taking the time to wake up just a little bit earlier and sit down for just a second and get some breakfast. It's so nice to be able to sit there quietly and drink a cup of coffee and eat some breakfast before getting started with our day. I know I like that anyway. I'm a breakfast person. Some of you may not be breakfast people, so that's perfectly okay. Another thing that you can do to help you with overall nutrition is create a weekly meal plan, maybe on the weekend or on one of the nights if you feel like it. Just go through some recipes. And I used to be real elaborate about this, and I would do this whole meal plan and write it out and all this, and I just got tired of that anymore. But you have to know me, I'm an organized person, and so that's just the way I was. But you mellow out as you get older. But anyway, what I do now is, and this worked for me whenever I was in school too as a private school administrator, was that I would just pull out some recipes that were quick to cook on a weeknight, or maybe cook several that I could cook on the weekend and freeze them, and then all I had to do is pull them out at night and just warm them up. That was a blessing. So, and that keeps us eating nutritious items, not junk all the time. And we know that when we don't eat right, that we feel it in our bodies, and so you want to be sure that you're getting some good nutrition. And also, that includes lunch. I know when I was in public school, I used to eat in the cafeteria. I wanted to eat in the cafeteria every day just about because the cooks there were so good, but it just wasn't always healthy for me to do. Every item wasn't healthy, and so I learned that I had to get those healthy options together on the weekend and plan ahead for that, or I would be just grabbing anything or eating in the cafeteria, and so you have to plan ahead. Also, stock your desk with some smart snacks. I did that as well. Healthy options, or maybe bring those with you in your lunch kit when you bring your lunchbox to work. That way, you have some nuts or some dried fruit or some protein bars or something like that that you can eat when you get hungry. Also, mindful eating. You know, we don't have much time for lunch when we're in school, usually about 30 minutes or so, and it's really important not to sit there at your desk and eat. I know sometimes you want a quiet time, and so some people occasionally stay in their classroom and eat, and it's good to get out of that environment. Maybe that works occasionally, but it's good to get out of that environment and go fellowship with your fellow teachers and just do some mindful eating where you know you get out of that in classroom environment. And be sure you do stop and eat. You know, don't skip, don't skip your lunch because you do need that in nourishment just like the students need it to keep your brain going. You need your brain going just as much as they do, even more so, probably. But even if it's off schedule, I know as an administrator, I didn't always have a set time to eat every day. There were meetings, there were parents that came, there were all kinds of things, discipline issues that happened. So, administrators, that's a thing too. You know, I know your day is so busy and you could skip lunch without a problem, but it's so important for you to get that nutrition. One of the next areas in physical well-being would be getting some movement in and some physical activity. If you just go and take a walk on your break or after school or before school, uh, walking is a very good thing to help keep you loosened up. I do that now in retirement and several days a week, and it just helps keep me going. Another thing that I would not try for a long time, and my fellow teachers did, and that was a massage. I went and got a massage for the first time, and I thought, why did I not ever do this? And you, those of you who have gotten one before, you know what I'm talking about. It works wonders to relieve stress and help your body to relax, you know, and take the tension out of those muscles. And we know that's really important. If you are the type of person who likes to go to the gym, go to the gym before or after school, you know, you walking, you can just go out at school at any time. And just I used to go as an administrator in private school and just walk around the building. If I had a stressful discipline problem or stressful parent meeting, or just any number of things, I would go outside and just walk around the building or walk around the parking lot, and that just helps get outside in nature and take some of that stress off, and also helps you get some physical activity. Another thing you could do is incorporate some of some activity in your lessons with your students, have fun with them and incorporate some activity. Another area would be rest and sleep. I was so horrible at this, got about five to six hours of sleep a night, and now in retirement I get eight to nine if I sleep and wake up naturally, and so that tells you that my body was short about three hours, really. And of course, I'm not I'm not saying I could do eight to nine hours now if I was working as a teacher or administrator, but get as close to that seven, eight hours as you possibly can. It's amazing the difference in your body and how your body feels when you get enough sleep. Also, set a grades down time, you know. As teachers, you bring home a lot of grading work a lot of times. I know I did when I first started teaching, would spend all night grading papers, you know, and I got to the point where I tried to just stay later at work, get to a stopping place because my work was never done. I was a special education teacher and there was just tons of paperwork. And I knew that I had to get so much done. So I would stay after school for a little while longer than everyone else. And I knew my husband would be at work anyway, and so I stayed and got some things done, and then I got to where I wouldn't take it home, I would leave it at work unless I just absolutely had to. Of course, there were times that I did absolutely have to do that, but it's a good idea to have a grades down to another thing is make your bedroom quiet, low light, take the digital distractions out, and make it a place where you can sleep well without distraction. Something you can do to rest when you get home from work is to take a 20-minute nap after work. Sometimes you may have children and you may not be able to do that. Send them to play a game or um, you know, if you can. I know if you have little ones, you just can't do that. But if it if at all possible, just sit down for a minute, you know, just sit down for a minute, a few minutes. If you can't take a nap, just sit down for a few minutes and let your body decompress, let your mind decompress, just lay your head back a little bit in the chair and just let yourself decompress a little bit before you get up and go about your home job. And then, you know, at night, if you have trouble sleeping, use some white noise. I know I've always slept with a fan on, and it just helps take noises out, you know, and and helps that steady rhythm just helps get you to sleep, you know. Another thing would be to maintain a consistent sleep timing. Go to bed at the same time every night, wake up at the same time. I know on the weekends you're gonna want to sleep in a little bit later, but don't overdo it because then you mess yourself up. So, and let's okay, now let's talk about our emotional and mental well-being. We want to talk of that's a very important part, and sometimes as women, we're very emotional. As men, men, you're different. The men that are listening, you tend to be very matter-of-fact, but you're a human and you have emotions as well. So, and everybody gets stressed, you know. So, let's talk about stress management for a minute. This is what sent my body into high cortisol and an autoimmune condition, and I really didn't even know I had it until I became a private school principal, and then it hit. I didn't handle it well, that's why I did not handle it very well at all. So my cortisol levels were high and all kinds of stuff, but anyway, give yourself a calm down, you know, drink some tea, drink a cup of coffee, whatever would calm you. Uh, you know what that is yourself. I love sitting down with a cup of coffee and just relaxing, and that helps me to de-stress a little bit. Make a transition ritual when you get home. For instance, I used to before I would fix dinner at night, I would come home, put away my things, and go and change clothes into something more comfortable. Get out of those everyday work clothes and either sit down and or and lay down and take a nap for 20 minutes or just sit down and decompress for a minute. Another thing would be putting the right perspective in your mind, create some personal reminders for yourself. Like this is one moment, this is not my whole career. It's gonna be okay. You know, sometimes we have to self-talk, we have to talk to ourselves and tell ourselves it's okay. I can do this, it's not the end of the world. You know, I'm gonna be okay. Let me think about this. You know, sometimes you have to tell yourself that. Let me think about this. I need to think about this before I make a decision and move on. You don't have to be hasty and making decisions and don't let anyone feel like you have to be. Another thing is I have found, and a spiritual person, some of you are, some of you aren't, and that's okay. That's your decision. But I have found that if I give my cares to God, I pray about it, that he cares, he cares about how we feel. And first Peter 5 and 7 says, Cast all your care upon him, for he cares for you. He will free your mind and your spirit. You just have to ask him, and you just have to give it to him, lay it in his lap and let him take care of it. Another area of our emotional and mental well-being is how we process our emotions, and so some ideas are find someone you trust, a confidant, a friend, someone that you can trust. And sometimes you know that could be a person there that you work with, and then sometimes there may be things that you don't want that person to hear, or anyone at school to hear. You may want to get somebody from the outside, you don't want that to backfire on you, it could cause even more stress. So be careful who you choose to be confident with. So another thing is you can schedule what pedagogy calls joy breaks. I call them just do whatever makes you happy. You know, intentionally plan some small things to help bring happiness into your life, whatever that might be, you know what it is, it's different for. Everyone. I used to feel lazy if I sat and read a book for pleasure. But I love to read, and now that I'm retired, I read all the time. But that's not so. It's not being lazy, it's taking time for yourself. And I was looking at it the wrong way. Now I see differently, but it's it's looking at it the wrong way. You need that. And so please do it. You may like puzzles. We do puzzles, games. You may have a hobby, you might like to sew. One suggestion would be to reduce your tech time. You know, staying on social media all the time. Sometimes that's more stressful, and that's just not going to give you the happiness that you want. So I'd be careful about that. And then think about your thought process. You know, what how are you thinking? Do you have unproductive thought cycles? Is your perspective right? Are you thinking right? You know, learn to think about your thought processes and and change that. Change the way you think. I know I had to do that. It's it's so important that we learn to have the right perspective. And so realize also that hey, you're not perfect. I'm not perfect. We're not perfect, and that's okay. We don't have to be perfect, nobody humans perfect, and so that's okay. And sometimes you may need to tell yourself that, you know, it's okay. This is great, this is good enough for this time at this moment. So that's okay. Also, we need to set boundaries, healthy emotional boundaries, that the way your students perform is not always a direct result of your teaching role. You know, there are other factors that affect how student outcomes. There are. We all know that. And that's one of the frustrations we have with state testing is sometimes there are things that happen at home before the child ever even comes to school. And we know that. And we know that we have taught them well, we've given them strategies, we've done all we can to help them, but still sometimes they don't do well on testing. And so separate yourself from that and make sure that you don't hold yourself totally responsible for every single student outcome. Yeah, you're responsible, but limit limit it, and you know where you should be. Another area is mindfulness and presence. You may want to practice single tasking. I had never heard of that before. I read this pedagogy article, but you know single tasking would be the opposite of multitasking. So just focusing on one thing at a time. And sometimes that takes the stress out of making even more decisions. So also use mindful listening when you have a student in front of you or a colleague. Practice giving them your full attention, put your eyes on them and listen actively to hear what they're saying. So many misunderstandings take place because we don't actively listen. And so that will take some stress off. Uh try walking and thinking about things and meditating, even thinking on scripture, thinking on the Lord will help you as you go through your day. If you just stop and walk, and hey, I'm going down the hall to pick up a student or going to the restroom, you know, let let there be gratitude and meditation. And that was the next thing I was going to talk about was gratitude. You know, develop a consistent way to remind you of things that you appreciate in your teaching and in your life in your daily life. One thing I did was I held on to notes and cards from students and parents and colleagues. And sometimes when I needed, I was down on myself as a teacher or an administrator, I would pull that little basket out and I would go through them, and it would just make me happy, you know, to remember them and how they were and the things that we did. And it would just give me a positive mental boost and help me to move on. And that didn't take five minutes, and so that's just one thing you can do. One thing I didn't mention earlier was part of our well-being and self-care is our professional well-being. Managing our workload that has a profound impact on us. And I know not everybody is organized, not everybody likes a one, two, three, and this is the way it's going to be. But it is important to manage your workload and to be a little bit organized. Learn to use time blocks, you know, structure your prep periods and your planning time so that they are dedicated segments and that you can attach them together to something else. I used to like to attach my planning period to my lunch time because then it wasn't time that I spent, you know, getting students back and forth or transition things, you know. And so it gave me just a few more minutes to get some things done. So also create some template collections, maybe. I used to do this too, like rubrics and lesson plan forms and things when I've got to communicate regularly about something. I like to make documents that would help me with that, and so checklist kind of items, documents, they really help a lot in keeping you reducing that time down. So another thing is practice saying no gracefully. It's okay to say no. You don't have to be on every committee, you don't have to do everything everybody asks you to do. So be aware of that and be able to say no occasionally. I wouldn't say no constantly. Sometimes you need to say yes, but it's okay to say no. So set clear communication boundaries. Let people know this is when I respond to my emails. If it's after school, I don't respond to emails until after school, devoting my full attention to my students during the day. I don't check email until the end of the day, or I check email in the mornings, or I check email at the beginning and end of the day. So let people know that, and then they know what to expect, and and that makes good communication too. So keep your week mapped out. I used to on Friday afternoon or sometime on Friday, I would try to go ahead and get my lesson plans together for the next week, and then decide here's what we're gonna do. I had Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday folders, and would try to get everything in those folders for those days. And another thing with that, if you do do that and be organized, it does help you if you accidentally or you have an emergency or something like that and have to be out of school, then you've already got your sub plans right there ready to go. So that does very helpful. I would like to say too, another thing about setting boundaries is and to help you, is something called what then sentences. Tell yourself when I finish entering these grades, then I will check my email. Or when I finish checking this homework, then I'll come down to your classroom and visit. So those kind of things are really important. Those just it's another tip to help you out. So and we all want to grow professionally, don't we? So be sure you're consistently reconnecting with your why. Why are you teaching? Why do you want to be with students every day? You know, why are you an administrator? Be sure you're constantly, regularly checking your why. Make sure that the growth opportunities that you select for your professional development really are important, that that you're just not going and wasting time. That that they're really things that will help you to be a better teacher or a better administrator. And then connect with some mentor teachers, some teachers that have been doing this longer than you in your field, or someone that just will give you some great advice. Maybe they're just positive and you just want to be around them, you know. Be sure you stay connected to those kind of people because they can relieve some stress and help you out professionally. And then find ways to lead where you're at. You don't have to be an administrator, teachers to lead. I wish I'd have known that before I became an administrator better than what I did. Of course, before you become an administrator, you don't know what you don't know, right? So as a teacher, I sure was a leader and didn't realize how much of a leader I was. But there are so many great opportunities to lead as a teacher, and so be sure you're taking care of that. Another thing about professional growth and profession your professional area is your workspace. That would include your desk and your classroom and just the area around your desk, your whole classroom. Take a small area of your classroom and make it your area. And students, you know, they can stay off boundaries, they don't have to be in every area of the classroom and just make it pleasing, calming. I used to have like a little lamp on my desk or on the file cabinet or something, and when I wanted a quiet time, I would turn out the big light, you know, and leave my lamp on, and it was just calming to me. Of course, I'm the type of person that I like low light, and so not everyone's like that, but that was something and make it pleasing to you the way it looks, you know, decorate it, make it yours, put your family pictures, you know, and and take out the clutter, you know, keep the clutter down because a lot of times clutter can make I know it does me, it doesn't everyone, but it can make you feel frustrated and it can make you feel just chaotic, you know. I like to have a neat, calm place, and and then maybe some plants, maybe a rug, just whatever you like, whatever makes you that area yours. And then organize all your materials and all your resources to keep you from having to search or look under this pile or that pile or that kind of thing. Just make sure you know where it's at, whatever your organization method is, and then make sure you develop a practice that sets up and closes down your space for each day, put things away, make it confidential. You know, we are responsible for that. Another area is your relationships, you know. Personal relationships have a great impact on our self-care, how how our bodies react and our minds react. And so block out periods of time where you have family time. It's really important that you create family time, and others need to understand that and respect that. Give a teacher reality, tell people, close friends, family, you know, they need to know the real demands of the teaching profession or the the administrator profession. There it's not an easy job, and they need to know that in a nice way. And then balance giving and receiving support. Not only do you need self-care, but others need care too. And be sure uh that you're looking out for others in your relationships that you value and take care of them as well, and that takes some stress off of you because if they don't feel like they're being cared for, sometimes that causes more stress for you. And so it's important to take care of each other. I've given you many things to think about in caring for yourself today. So don't walk away overwhelmed that you have to try to do all of these. Ask yourself, what do I need the most right now? And work on that one thing that will have you alleviate that one heavy item. And then go to the next one, or maybe two things that you have the power to change. And before you know it, you'll be doing a much better job of taking care of this awesome educator that you are. You are fearfully and wonderfully made by God, but you aren't invincible. Through your one action today, you can be what your students need you to be. I would love to hear your story or encourage you more. Reach out to me through email at admin at educatemewell.com or comment on this podcast episode. Be sure to share it and leave a comment. I would sure would love to hear from you. Go make a difference in the lives of children. And don't forget our next episode is going to be on family interactions, how schools and families can work together. Thank you for joining me today on Educate Me Well. I'm grateful you spent this time with me, and I hope the conversation encouraged and equipped you. If you have ideas for future episodes or questions you'd like me to explore, you can reach me anytime at admin at educatemewell.com and be sure to keep an eye on educatemewell.com. The website will be up and growing as new episodes are released. Until next time, keep making a difference in the lives of children.