The Connected Teacher: Practical tools for self-compassion and trauma-informed teaching

What if the goals you're setting are actually telling you a story about how you see yourself?

As teachers, we're constantly looking for ways to improve. We want to be more patient, more organized, more present, more productive, and better at meeting the needs of our students. But have you ever stopped to ask yourself why you want those things?

In this episode, we're exploring the difference between setting goals because we believe something about us needs fixing and setting goals because we're genuinely excited about what we're capable of learning, experiencing, and becoming.

There's a difference between thinking, "I'm not good enough, and I need to change," and thinking, "I'm proud of where I am, and I'm curious about where I can go."

We'll talk about how self-compassion changes our relationship with personal growth, why our goals don't have to come from a place of self-criticism, and five questions you can ask yourself to make sure your goals are aligned with your values rather than your insecurities.

Because you don't have to dislike who you are today to be excited about who you might become tomorrow.

Remember: You are a work in progress, not a problem to be solved.

Lets get connected!

connectedteacher.org

[email protected]

What does it really mean to be seen, to be heard, and to simply be accepted for who you are?

In this episode, I'm joined by Steve McMahon, author, educator, and storyteller, for a conversation about compassionate curiosity and the power of human connection.

Together, we explore what happens when we move beyond assumptions, judgment, and the need to fix people and instead approach ourselves and others with genuine curiosity. What might change in our relationships, our classrooms, and our communities if people felt safe enough to show up as they truly are?

With more than 30 years of experience in special education, crisis intervention, and trauma-informed care, Steve brings a meaningful perspective to the conversation about belonging, connection, and what it means to be human.

Because sometimes people don't need us to have the answers. They need us to be willing to see them, hear them, and let them just BE.

And perhaps that kind of connection starts with us.

Connect with Steve:

Email: [email protected]
MindSet website: mindsetsafetymanagement.com
Books: stevemcmahonauthor.com

A question to take with you: What would change if you approached yourself and the people around you with a little more compassionate curiosity?

And, check out my website: connectedteacher.org

Have you ever had a feeling that just… won’t go away? You replay the conversation, relive the frustration, or find yourself stuck in sadness, anxiety, or anger long after the moment has passed.

What if the goal isn’t to stop feeling your feelings, but to learn how to move through them?

In Episode 47 of The Connected Teacher, we’re exploring the life cycle of an emotion—what happens when a feeling shows up, why we sometimes get stuck in it, and how we can give our emotions the space they need without letting them take over.

As teachers, parents, and humans, we spend a lot of time trying to manage our reactions, push through discomfort, or tell ourselves we shouldn’t feel the way we do. But feelings aren’t problems to solve or signs that we’re doing something wrong. They’re experiences to notice, understand, and allow.

In this episode, we’ll talk about what it means to feel your feelings without getting lost in them, how fighting or avoiding emotions can keep us stuck, and how a little self-compassion can help us move forward.

In this episode, you’ll explore:

• Why emotions are meant to move through us, not define us

• How we can get stuck in emotional loops

• The difference between feeling an emotion and getting caught up in its story

• How mindfulness and self-compassion can help us make room for difficult feelings

• Practical ways to honor what you feel without letting it run the show

You don’t have to judge every feeling, fix it immediately, or pretend you’re fine. You can learn to listen to what your emotions are telling you—and let them move through you.

Because connection starts with how we relate to ourselves, too.

You are doing better than you think you are. 💗

Check out my website: https://www.connectedteacher.org/

Have you ever reached the end of the day and felt like you have absolutely nothing left to give? Not just tired—but depleted. In this episode, we’re talking about the difference between being tired, stressed, burned out, and truly depleted. As teachers, we spend our days giving our attention, patience, energy, creativity, emotional presence, and so much more. And sometimes we respond to having nothing left by telling ourselves we need more discipline, better habits, or more motivation. But what if the problem isn’t that you need to try harder?

What if your body is telling you that your resources have been stretched too thin? We’ll explore what depletes us, why rest isn’t always enough to restore us, how self-criticism can make depletion even worse, and what it might look like to respond to yourself with curiosity and compassion instead.

Because you don’t have to become better at tolerating an unsustainable situation—you’re allowed to notice when your tank is empty and ask what you actually need.

my website: connectedteacher.org

email: [email protected]

Have you ever had a moment when your mind knew you were okay, but your body seemed to have a completely different plan? In this episode, I’m talking about why our bodies sometimes move slower than our minds—and why that isn’t a sign that we’re failing at healing. I share a personal story from my softball days, when I struck out four times in a row and could feel the urge to self-sabotage creeping in. But something was different: my nervous system didn’t let me go down the same old path. Through years of practicing self-compassion, my body had learned a new response. We’ll explore how self-compassion gives our nervous systems repeated experiences of safety, how healing becomes embodied over time, and why we can’t always think our way into a different response. If you’ve ever thought, “I know better, so why am I still reacting this way?”—this episode is for you.

My Website: connectedteacher.org

My email: [email protected]

Sometimes we worry so much about missing out on stuff that we make ourselves super busy. This is great and all, until we realize being busy is actually taking us away from what is most important.

You'll leave this episode feeling calm and inspired to slow down to live more often in the timeline of our lives that is the most important; the present.

Also, I'm happy to release my new website! Check it out!

https://www.connectedteacher.org/

Wanna connect with Monique? Here's her website.

Monique's Website

https://moniquerhodes.com/home/

Liz Moyer Benferhat has spent nearly two decades in sustainable development, where she kept witnessing the same thing: burnout, grief, and an inner toll nobody talks about. What she found wasn't a problem unique to activists or policymakers. It was a human problem. In 2018, she launched We Heal For All to address what she saw as the missing piece in social change work: the emotional lives of the people doing it. Through her teaching, she demystifies emotions, what they are, how they move through the mind and body, and why understanding them changes everything. In her signature Circle model, participants process those emotions experientially, together, unearthing wisdom within what they feel. The work has helped hundreds of people, parents, professionals, healers, and everyday humans trying to make sense of it all, move through the world's pain rather than be flattened by it, and find their place in changing it. Her sustainable development work spans from grassroots programs in Africa and South America to SDG policy through the UN's Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and her research has been published in Columbia University's Consilience Journal. She holds a Master of Public Administration in Development Practice from Columbia University and lives in the Bronx, New York. Her award-winning debut book, When the World Hurts: Why the World's Pain Makes Sense, and What You Can Do About It, is available now at wehealforall.com/book.
Headshot: hereWebsite & handleswww.wehealforall.comWhen the World Hurts: Why the World's Pain Makes Sense, and What You Can Do About It www.wehealforall.com/bookInstagram, Facebook: @wehealforall 
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizmoyerbenferhat/

So, lets talk about PMS. I used to hate it. I used to think it meant something was wrong with me. I used to think it was this dumb thing and if I couldn't manage my emotions well enough during the hormonal imbalance, I deserved all the teasing.

After going through trauma and gaining a deeper understanding of the role of emotions, I've learned that our hormonal imbalances can become a gift for emotional literacy, and emotional expansion.

I hope you enjoy this episode!

Let me know what you think!

[email protected]

Our brains and nervous systems are brilliant. So brilliant that they can keep us safe even when threats we were once protected from are no longer in our lives.

This kinda sums up an adaptation our bodies make to try to protect us from danger. Gaining awareness of what adaptations our body has made and why, can help us change the pattern of our nervous system reactions.

With that said, beware of judging those adaptations as something that has gone wrong, or your body will just create more adaptations on top of adaptations that protect you from something that no longer exists.

This is why Adam McCormick suggests we intentionally look for the brilliance in our childhood adaptations. This will also help us find the brilliance in our current behaviors.

Here's Adam's book: https://a.co/d/07t5xAZQ

Lets connect! [email protected]

Do you know who you are? Like, really know who you are? Well, neither does anyone else. But, the closer you get to understanding your authentic self, the better you get at effortlessly lifting those around you. If your strength is depleated, your ability to teach decreases drastically, as does your awareness of how well you are teaching. Crazy right?!?!

This episode talks about the cost of not being ourselves, and begins to describe a crazy paradox we have as teachers where if it goes unnoticed, the likelihood of you being in burnout is so much greater!

You will leave this episode feeling hopeful and ready to see yourself and your students more clearly.

Adam McCormick's book: https://a.co/d/07HB73pa