Samantha Brusnighan joins us for the very first episode of B.R.A.V.E. to discuss her journey in self-care and how it has shaped the way she works with her students. Sam is a Houston ISD based college and career readiness educator with a Master’s degree in Higher Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Like many educators her job varies from day-to-day and time of year. Listen in as she discusses her own passion for personal-development and leadership that led her to discover that she is energized by building relationships, and discovering how use tools such as Strength’s Finder, a leadership assessment tool, for herself and in her college readiness program.

As our discussion deepens, you can follow how Samantha’s own quest for bettering herself creates meaningful impact for her students because she teaches from experience. Sam brings up the idea that you can’t pour into someone else’s cup what you do not have in your own cup. She goes into her story of burning out during her first few years as an educator, which led to health issues, eventually leading her to more intentional self-care. She shares how her self-care journey has evolved from just movement and exercise to other significant self-care practices, and we jive on creating a self-care system of your own that works for you and how this is a discovery process.

We discuss how self-care is cyclical holistic, when you just focus on one area of self-care the other parts tend to fall into place, and how we cannot strive for perfection in self-care, but rather just starting somewhere. She further shares how she has taken her self-development journey into her teaching, putting practices such as mindfulness into lingo that her students can relate to. This led us to a discussion of failure and how to process failure as an educator. I loved that Sam vulnerably shares that letting go of failure continues to be a growth area for her, and she is learning the valuable tool of reframing situations and defining success for herself -- all incredibly crucial aspects of self-care that we may not normally define as self-care. As we wrap up our conversation, Samantha mentions that she has PCOS and ties learning health practices specifically for her that do not necessarily follow specific rules helps her create understanding and intention behind her actions, which helps her self-care be more consistent. She discusses how being vulnerable with her PCOS journey taught her to bring vulnerability into her teaching. We discuss how being vulnerable with our students is an act of self-care and a positive and impactful teaching tool because our students know when we are living in our truth.      

Listen in at the end as Sam shares her vision for the future of education.

Self-Care Ideas

Start your day off with positivity by consuming content you enjoy!

Surround yourself with people that inspire you and fan your fire.

Focus on one area of self-care to start instead of trying to get every area ‘right’ or going at the same time. It’s ok to start slow.

Recognize how you process failure and define success for yourself.

Practicing being vulnerable with boundaries to deepen relationships.

Questions to Ask Yourself

What beliefs do you have around ‘self-care’?

How do you start your day?

What content do you enjoy consuming that you could bring into your life with intention?

Who do you surround yourself with? Who are the people in your life that inspire you and how much time do you spend with them?

How do you process failure?

How comfortable are you with vulnerability?

Resources

Strengths Finder

It Starts with Food

PCOS resources: PCOSAA, PCOS Diva, Online Support Network

You can follow Samantha, her self-care journey, and awesome cat Tater on Instagram @samanthabee785 or contact her via email, [email protected]  

Follow B.R.A.V.E. on Instagram and Twitter @brave_educators and on Facebook @brave.educators Have questions or want to share your story on B.R.A.V.E.? Email me [email protected]

Want support in developing authentic self-care? Work with me one-on-one for 3 months and we will create a self-care system that works for you! Email [email protected] and follow me personally on Instagram @embodied.soul.love

Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

Until next week, go out and Be BRAVE.