Join the next cohort of 'The Healthy School Year'

Why do you start the school year determined to better care for yourself only find yourself too exhausted, stressed, and starting over again and again.

Your health plan may simply not be built for the realities of working in education.

In this episode, I'm breaking down why healthy habits often disappear when the school year gets stressful and what you can do differently.

Be sure to subscribe and share this episode with someone in your network who you believe it can help.

#educatorwellness

You can be doing an amazing job in education while quietly realizing that the way you're working isn't working for you.

In this episode, we're talking about Proverbs 4:23 and what “guard your heart” can look like in the real life of an educator.

We'll explore the tension between being dependable, successful, and committed at work while trying to protect your health, energy, peace, and life outside of education.

Because maybe the question isn't only, “Did I get everything done?”

Maybe we also need to ask:

What did getting everything done cost me?

Listen in, then grab your journal and reflect with me.

Grab the JournalIf you’re an educator who has been pushing through the school day without stopping to process how you actually feel, this guided journaling session is for you.In Day 3 of Journal With Me for Educators, we’re slowing down with one reflective journal prompt:“What emotion are you ignoring, and what is it trying to teach you?”When you spend your day teaching, leading, solving problems, answering questions, managing responsibilities, and responding to everyone else’s needs, it can become easy to push your own emotions aside just to keep going.Today, we’re not trying to fix everything.We’re creating a few minutes to notice what’s there.Grab your journal and join me as we reflect, write, and create a little space between the demands of the school day and the rest of our lives.This guided journaling session can be used as an after-school reset for teachers, school leaders, administrators, counselors, and other education professionals who need a moment to slow down and check in with themselves.Come back whenever you need a quiet place to journal after a difficult or emotionally demanding school day.Journal Prompt:What emotion are you ignoring, and what is it trying to teach you?#GuidedJournaling #JournalWithMe #TeacherStress #JournalingForStressRelief #EducatorWellness #TeacherWellness #EmotionalWellness

What if your body isn't overreacting...what if it's responding exactly the way it's been trained to?Every school day brings decisions, interruptions, deadlines, and constant responsibility. Over time, your body may begin to interpret that environment as one continuous emergency—even when you're simply doing your job.In this episode, I explore a question that completely changed the way I think about educator health:What if your body believes every school day is an emergency?We'll talk about how the culture of education can shape your body's stress response, why this matters for your heart health, and what it means if your blood pressure, energy, or recovery haven't been the same since entering education.This isn't about blaming education.It's about understanding what your body may be trying to tell you.

Watch on the Youtube Channel

Before you prepare your classroom, prepare your heart.

As educators, we spend weeks getting ready for a new school year. We organize classrooms, write lesson plans, and think about our students—but many of us never stop to ask one simple question:

What is my blood pressure?

In this episode, I'm sharing why checking your blood pressure is one of the most important first steps you can take before the school year begins.

High blood pressure often develops without obvious symptoms, which is why it's known as the "silent killer." If you're waiting until you don't feel well, you may already be behind.

This isn't about becoming obsessed with health.

It's about taking one small step that could help you protect your heart and stop losing your health to the education system.

This school year, don't just prepare your classroom. Prepare yourself.

In this episode you'll learn:

• Why blood pressure should be every educator's starting point
• Why feeling healthy isn't the same as being healthy
• How the demands of education can quietly impact your heart
• The first simple step to begin resetting your health this school year

If you're ready to take the guesswork out of your health journey, take the Wellness Gap Quiz.

Educator Health Gap Quiz

You've probably downloaded the meal plan, started the workout program, or followed advice from someone whose results you wanted. But if you've ever wondered why it worked for them and not for you, this episode is for you.

I'm sharing why the best plan for improving your blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, and even your response to stress isn't the most popular plan—it's the one that's personalized to your life, your health history, your schedule, and your current habits.

As educators, we're often handed generic health advice that ignores the realities of the school day. A personalized plan considers where you are now, what's driving your current health numbers, and what changes will actually be sustainable.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why generic health plans often fail.
• What makes a personalized health plan different.
• How individualized strategies can improve blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, and stress regulation.
• The first step to creating a plan that works with your life instead of against it.

If you're tired of starting over every Monday, this episode will help you think differently about what it really takes to improve your health for the long term.

________________

Keep In Touch

Subscribe to the YouTube Channel

Take the Educator Health Gap Quiz Here

Why Your Health Plan Isn't Working

Every summer it happens.

You tell yourself this will be the year you finally get healthy.

You meal prep. You walk every morning. You drink more water. Your blood pressure starts coming down. You have more energy. Maybe you even lose a few pounds.

Then August arrives.

The alarm goes off before sunrise. Meetings fill your calendar. Lunch becomes whatever you can grab in five minutes. By October, you're wondering how you ended up right back where you started.

It isn't because you lack discipline.

In this episode, we're talking about why so many health plans fall apart once the school year begins—and why that isn't a personal failure.

We'll unpack the difference between the freedom of summer and the reality of the school year, the impact each season has on your blood pressure, cholesterol, energy, and long-term health, and the common plans educators keep relying on that simply don't work:

• The "I'll Start Monday" Plan

• The Reactive Healthcare Plan

• The Generic Wellness Plan

• The Vacation Reset Plan

If you've ever felt like you're constantly starting over every school break, this conversation is for you.

Because educators find a way to fit lesson planning, grading, meetings, parent conferences, and everyone else's needs into their lives. The question isn't whether it's possible to make room for your health.

The question is whether you have a health plan that's actually built for the life you live.

It's time to stop restarting and start building a personalized approach you can sustain—not just during summer break, but all year long.

Take the Educator Health Gap Quiz Here

Educators: You track student data constantly, but when did you last measure your own health?

I was uniquely and wonderfully made with one kidney.My doctor mentioned that she would continue observing the health of my kidney.

Should my numbers start declining, we would need to have a conversation about lifestyle or perhaps work.

For instance, we would discuss if I have a career where I'm holding "it" and not going to the restroom as much as I should while working.

This conversation confirmed what I've been saying to educators: The education system can affect your health.

Let me ask you this: How often has a meeting at school ran over into your lunch hour and the healthy lunch you intended to eat suddenly became a quick bag of chips just to hold you over?How often are you avoiding drinking "too much water" because it's not easy to step away from your class or other duties during the school day?

When this happens once or twice, okay, we can move past it. But when it's happening multiple times during the school day, year after year, your body takes the greatest hit.

If you're serious about no longer losing your health to the education system, follow @the_rachel_harper for help.

And remember, you don't have to lose your health to the education system.

#EducatorWellness #TeacherHealth #SelfCareForTeachers #EducationSystem #PrioritizeHealth #TeacherLife #WorkLifeBalance #ReelsForEducators

Subscribe to the YouTube channel for more

The Secret to Being an Educator Without Losing Your Health

Is there really a way to thrive in education without sacrificing your health?

For too long, educators have been told that exhaustion, skipped meals, chronic stress, and putting themselves last are simply part of the job. But what if losing your health isn't a requirement for being a great educator?

In this episode, I share what I've learned as an exercise physiologist and educator about why so many health plans fall apart during the school year—and why the answer isn't simply more discipline or motivation.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why educators often lose healthy habits during the school year
• The biggest misconception about improving your health
• How the HEAL • GROW • RESET framework can help you build a healthier, more sustainable approach to wellness

If this episode resonates with you, take the free Educator Health Gap Quiz to discover whether your biggest health gap is in HEAL, GROW, or RESET, and take the first step toward building a healthier future.

Subscribe to the YouTube channel