I need an attitude adjustment. It’s either that or run away from home and what’s the point of that? Where ever I go I take me with me and today that includes my rather snarky attitude. The answer is not running away, the answer is in me. Go Figure.
School has started. Yes, I know, it’s only August and it’s hotter than forty hells here in Georgia but school has started. 15 hour days are the norm and let’s not even talk about how much money I’ve spent on my classroom already. My washusband used to say that they should stash all the teachers in a hotel for the first and last month of school because we were crazy. When school starts teachers go from 0 to a 100 mph trying to get ready for our students. It’s not a pretty picture. Last night around 11:00 p.m. it caught with me. I let myself get away from me. The minute I noticed that I was not me, peaceful and at ease, I called time out.
I made a cuppa tea and while I was waiting for it to brew I picked up A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle and just flipped through it. I found this underlined passage on page 295, “If you are not in the state of acceptance, enjoyment, or enthusiasm, look closely and you will find that you are creating suffering for yourself and others.” Well, duh.
I took a cuppa tea, went outside and sat in the still, relatively cool air and returned to myself and enjoyment. I love my job, I want to love my job and I do when I don’t let the pressure get to me, when I stay in the moment and out of fear. We want to blame someone for our own unhappiness or stress and most of the time it’s caused by our thinking and a lack of awareness of our inner being. We lose touch with our selves and our connection to God.
An attitude adjustment is as simple as being aware of your inner state of and returning to one of the three states of “modalities of awakened doing,” joy, enthusiasm, or acceptance. It is as simple as remembering that you are not your thoughts, you are a child of God and He delights in your joy.
Today I am going to work some more. I’m a teacher. It’s the first week of school. It’s what we do. I am also going to bring joy into my life. Today joy looks a lot like a good book and a nap in the hammock
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thank you so much Lisa, that helps a lot. I know he tried to blame me for so much stuff, but like I told all of his family and mine none of that added up to a divorce. I do realize it's his needs, it just hurts so bad to think how many years he's
How funny....i only very recently (within last week) read the coconut oil articles on the web. (100 uses, 80 uses etc.) so i bouht some and ordered some from amazon. (Im a stockpiler.)
Have started trying some of the uses. I tried using it a
This sounds like my time out in my backyard yesterday…I guess we all need this at diferent times in our lives…some more than others. Take heart in the fact that you recognize the not so subtle signs and are able to take care of it before it gets out of hand. You also seem to have found a method that woeks for you! Kudos!
Thank you once again for speaking to me. I have been losing myself to my frustrations over my (birth) family & I desperately want to do & say the right things to them, but I’m afraid there isn’t any words except for how I say them & with love. I can’t fix my fathers depression, or my brother’s invasive passive aggression. But the whole family tone is affecting everyone else, especially my mother & me & with a family wedding coming up next weekend, it’s coming to a head. First I must work on regrouping myself & bring in calm for me. Everything will turn out however it will, all I can do is breathe through this.
This post is wonderful timing for me, I’ll keep it handy & read it, maybe until I’ve memorized it!
I’m thinking I might have to tattoo it somewhere. I need the reminder too. Note to self, stay in the moment, stay out of your head.
Remember I’m putting with n for you! Have another cup of tea, breathe, good, you got the boys…TRACK
Thank you, Track for reminding me why I’m doing this. I love my boys. I’ve got several who are dolls. One is the son of a teacher in our school who went to the admin and said, “If he is not in Debra’s class he won’t be in this school.” He sparkles. His mom told me that this year he will get to shine and not be pushed into the shadows. Damn straight!
Mostly I’m tired, my ears are congested and I need to take care of myself.
Reward yourself with a nice message at some point? I think I may!
I hope you don’t mink WM, but I printed this blog so I can pin it up in my sewing room where I spend most of my time (my escape tree fort). I have a few good strong reminders up on the wall.
Please take good care, timeouts and sometime I know it’s hard but do nothing…TRACK
Do Nothing!!! NOOOOOOO! LOL,
Enjoyed the post in the wee hours of this morning, reminded when I left home to go to deep South to get married during the late sixties…many people commented ” I would never go to that place to live”…during the height of the Civil Rights movement..as a young woman I knew that I could live with me …with my faith and that I would take “me” where-ever I’d go ..I liked me well enough to know it would be OK…. 6 months later I was married and my new hubby was moving us back to my home town , where I wanted to be but never asked, a great guy , who wanted me to be with and near my mother as his mother had been deceased for three years...If you live in the Now and go with the Stream of life , letting you passion be known and your heart filled with love it always work out. Sometimes a “quite still moment” can last a year or more …later I will reflect in my garden and have a cup of coffee and think of you and send kind thoughts your way to have the best school year as I want for my daughter…who is waiting to see where she Will be this year , anther great teacher waiting to enhance the lives of our children.
Thank you, I could use the prayers. This morning I read that stress is caused by wanting to be finished with something. In this case, it was be finished with lesson plans and all the stuff teachers do at the beginnin of the year. When I stay in the moment I am deeply content.
I should be stressed out …I’m working on organizing my personal library. and writing material OOOOOOOh I want to be through…but I will stop and here in the moment for a while…..thanks to you again
I think stress is caused by lack of control and the sense that things are happening to us. That is why when you move house you let your kids pick the wallpaper for their new room, it reduces their stress by letting them have a sense of choice and control.
How about the Serenity prayer as a a mantra for the stress:
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can
and wisdom to know the difference.
Praise God for Good Teachers! Especially those that love to work with boys! Love your post, reminds me, even though I am not a teacher, to take things easy….I tend to make everything a big deal, and need to slow down and enjoy each moment…thanks…=]
I have the same issue. A friend told me once that I never saw a fork I saw it as FORK! and IT’S MAGNIFICENT! I’ve gotten better about that but I still push too hard. I never thought of myself as driven but it’s a word that fits. There’s a fine line between having a good work ethic and being driven and I’ve crossed it. Thank you for your kindness. The magnitude of what teachers do scares me sometimes. No one is going to die in a classroom but there is some life and death stuff going on. I can’t bring myself to care less or not know that what we do is important. It helps to realize that you climb a mountain one step at a time. Thank you for reading this and responding. I needed the reminder.
Yes, notice how many of my posts are filled with exclamation marks! That is how I live and talk!! I know if I was a teacher (by profession) I would probably over work it till I am exhausted and no good to anyone….Take big breaths and exhale slowly, take time for tea alone or with a friend, cat naps are great and not only for cats (or dogs), and it is ok to just not be reading, studying, working or talking for a while each day…..just breath and clear your thoughts from your mind…..=] I am saying this to myself along with to you, cause I really need to hear it!!!!!!!!! peace…..=]