The BRAVE Director

This week Ruby Compton joins me for a discussion on burnout in the education industry. Ruby runs her own company, Ruby Outdoors, which works to help busy professionals be more present and confident outdoors through trainings and vacation concierge services. 

Ruby and I have known each other for a few years through the summer camp industry and recently caught up at the first ever Women in Camp Summit (follow on Instagram @womenincamping) outside of Chicago at the beginning of November. In the episode, Ruby shares her journey of becoming a summer camp professional, growing into a year-round role,  the different ways she made changes during her career, and what led to her own personal burnout.

We discuss the sacrifices that come with the lifestyle of a program or camp director, and the shame that can come up around stating you need more self-care as an educator. The messaging in the education industry is we must always put campers/students first, which easily leads educators to struggle to say they need self-care time. Ruby shared the way the stress showed up in her body as illness, and the way her health dramatically improved when she made choices more in alignment with her desires and needs.

We discuss the missing link of taking care of middle management in the summer camp industry. From the evolution of summer camp, to the growing demands of educators, and higher stakes all educators feel the stress. Systematic issues in camping industry and public school system lead to a robotic treatment of the humans doing very difficult jobs. We discuss the hypocrisy that this creates - summer camp is an industry that values and promotes human connection and relationship, but we are missing this as a whole when it comes to the treatment of our people in camp administrative roles.

In our discussion around the sacrifice of summer camp/educator lifestyle, I asked when do you make the choice? Ruby brings up self-reflection is key to understanding your sacrifices and needs. She shares two tools:

Mind Maps - she explains the way she mind maps how she spends her time

Re-interview yourself for your job

This moved us into a discussion of ‘sacred no’ and intentional language around how you spend your time and the choices you make. Then we dive into up leveling the conversations on both sides of management - this is vital to creating shift in the industry around taking better care of camp directors. One of my favorite points of the episode is ‘how you finish your job shows more about you than how you start your job’. It is difficult when someone wants to leave a heart-based job for the employer to not take it personally. Courageous and vulnerable leadership is needed from everyone when camp administration want to transition to a new position or leave for a new organization.

We rap on some creative ideas for creating more sustainable practices for summer camp pros and teachers. It is vital that we work as an industry as a whole and within our individual organizations to find creative ways to retain our year round staff. This includes changing the way we think about time off, pay, benefits, the amount of time we work, as well as saying no to industry norms such as being in a frenzy every May going into your summer. Additionally we discussed camp pros affinity for entrepreneurship.

We dig into the epidemic happening in the summer camp industry of strong camp directors leaving the industry because they are saying no to the sacrifice that is asked of each of us as summer camp professionals, and that self-care is knowing what your needs are.

Ruby shares what she loves about the outdoors because getting into nature is a wonderful way to self-care. I asked her  to share ideal vision for the education system as we wrap up.

You can visit Ruby’s website, https://rubyoutdoors.com/ and get in touch with Ruby via email [email protected] or follow her on Instagram @rubyoutdoors - I highly recommend her for camp and staff training consulting, trainings, speaking, and booking a vacation with her in the mountains of western North Carolina. You can also catch her sharing her staff training expertise as a co-host of the podcast of Camp Code, http://camphacker.tv/camp-code/.

 

Questions to ask yourself this week:

 

What reality are you creating with your mindset and your energy?

What are your needs?

How are you meeting them?

Where have you abandoned yourself?

What needs will you take to your supervisor this week to have a creative discussion about making some changes?

 

Resources

Mind Mapping - https://www.mindmapping.com/

Creative problem solving - http://www.creativeeducationfoundation.org/creative-problem-solving/

Growth Mindset - https://hbr.org/2016/01/what-having-a-growth-mindset-actually-means

 

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]. You can follow me personally on Instagram @embodied.soul.love

Until next week, go out Be BRAVE, Hearts Forward.

 

Credits:

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

In this episode I share my story of discovering my path as an educator, break down, breakthrough and healing and how BRAVE came into being. I start off with an ‘I Come From’ poem which is a fun icebreaker to use with students, I modified this version: https://freeology.com/worksheet-creator/poetry/i-am-from-poem/ - you can easily do this as a verbal or written exercise.

As part of my story I discuss and define intrusive thoughts. For more information on Intrusive thoughts visit www.intrusivethoughts.org. I also discuss my experience with anxiety. If you or someone you know struggles with anxiety, depression, addiction, or any other mental illness please reach out for support. You are not alone, and you deserve help through your journey in healing. It may feel impossible now, and it may be very challenging, and I encourage you from the bottom of my heart to check out these resources now.

Transference and counter-transference:

https://k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com/tlb/what-is-transference-and-counter-transference/

https://www.rivendell.nsw.edu.au/resources/for-teachers/tool-kit/transference-and-countertransference/

 

Resources for anxiety and depression

Anxiety and Depression Association of America adaa.org

Use Psychology Today to find a therapist near you. Look for a therapist that specializes in something you may need such as anxiety, anxiety disorders, childhood trauma, family dynamics, bi-polar disorder, depression, sexual trauma, etc. And ask questions and do you research - make sure they feel good for you, have similar values to you, this is your healing journey.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freudian-sip/201102/how-find-the-best-therapist-you

Online Counseling: www.betterhelp.com/

Mental Health Online forum: https://themighty.com/topic/mental-health/

Crisis Hotlines: https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/depression-hotline/

Find more on the book I refer to “The Way of the Peaceful Warrior”: http://www.peacefulwarrior.com/

One of my favorite tools for working with the anxiety I experience is to consume media that lights me up. My favorite blog is elephantjournal.com and one of my all time favorite coach and author is Christine Hassler who hosts a podcast called Over it And On With It where she coaches people live on air through an issue they are struggling with. This is a great place to connect into other people doing inner work and learn valuable tools to apply to your own life. https://christinehassler.com/podcast/

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]. You can follow me personally on Instagram @embodied.soul.love

Until next week, go out Be BRAVE, Hearts Forward.

Credits:

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

Jill Murawski joins me for episode three of B.R.A.V.E. to share her passion for finding stillness, setting children up for learning success and brain health. Jill owns Fit Yoga in Richardson, Texas and is a trained educator with STRIPES. In this episode, she shares her values and how she lives into her values through her life, including how she finds stillness each morning. Jill discusses the difference of holding ourselves to what we ‘should’ be doing versus bringing ‘allowing’ into our lives. Allowing leads to grace in our lives.

STRIPES is Systematic Training in Relaxation for Inner Peace for Every Student, a wonderful program that involves learning to be still, to move, and breath to help set students up for learning success. Teaching these skills guides youth to learn that they have all the tools within them already to be able to move through life. This leads us to the discussion around children feeding off adults’ nervous systems. Breathing is a vital tool for helping educators and students self-regulate, bring a sense of calm, and move into their parasympathetic nervous system. Jill advocates that educators need to practice pausing, breathing, and being still as a part of self-care. This leads us back to giving ourselves grace as we are in our practice of self-care. Jill is also an Embody Love Movement Facilitator, which we will share more about in a future episode. The ELM facilitator training mentioned in this episode is past, but if you are interested in learning more, please email me - see below.

 

Self-Care Ideas

Take time each morning to pause and find stillness through meditation, quiet time, or getting into nature

Learn breathing techniques

Bring movement into your morning

Give yourself grace - allow self-care to come into your life

Schedule time for yourself to take a break

 

Questions to Ask Yourself

How do you begin each morning? How does this routine affect you as you move into your day? Are there adjustments you would like to make?

What are you in the practice of each day?

What is your technology use like and how is it affecting you?

What is one thing you can schedule for yourself this week to take a break?

 

Resources

STRIPES

Embody Love Movement

Self-Compassion Steps

Co-Regulation

You can follow Jill and learn more about STRIPES at https://fityogajill.com/

 

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! Or join BRAVE self-care mastermind, enrolling now and beginning December 1st. Email [email protected] for more info, and follow me personally on Instagram @embodied.soul.love

Until next week, go out Be BRAVE, Hearts Forward.

 

Credits:

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

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.