Well, we made it through another October. I will say, by the end of the month, I was feeling it in all the ways so many educators feel it generally. One evening, when talking to my husband who is also a teacher (at the same school I am an admin) said to me, “You sound like an educator in October”. While the month is generally tough, I found this year to be even more challenging. I am guessing as we worked through multiple quarantines, as we progressed through late nights of conferences, and as we continue to navigate our way through the pandemic, it compounded the challenges of the month.

However, as I closed out the month with my team at a local favorite restaurant in fact called “The Principals Office”, I sat around the fire pit with 15 teammates, and honestly did bask in the moment. I was overwhelmed with gratitude for the team I get to work with who truly are the people who lead this work. And despite the potential to feel tired, overwhelmed, and defeated, instead I was sitting in state of joy and happiness.

On my quest to ensure that educators, especially our teachers, can find happiness and health and truly be the best version of themselves to cultivate happy and healthy students, in this month’s post I share with you the benefits and practice of generosity and gratitude; both in fact studied and found to be sources of happiness.

To Happiness and Health through Generosity and Gratitude,

KP

Generosity

Google “generosity and happiness” and studies are abundant about the connection between the two. Would you be surprised to know studies have uncovered “evidence that humans appear biologically “wired” for generosity”? And, in these multitude of studies they have found that no matter the size of the gesture from picking up something someone has dropped to providing an extra $2 so other students in your child’s class can have access to snacks on a field trip, people find greater happiness! And, with greater happiness, people are in fact healthier. (John Templeton Foundation, The Science of Generosity)

Yet, somehow we as educators give and give and too often we find ourselves exhausted and worn out. Part of this of course is the education system in and of itself, part of this is the fact that our generosity is a job and is “expected”. However, the good news is, there are ways to fill our cups by intentionally filling others.

This month, I encourage you to do some little things that YOU are in control of when it comes to being generous. Here are a few suggestions.

• Hold the door open for someone
• Write a positive note to one of your student’s family members thanking them for being awesome.
• Bring a colleague a coffee
• Write a quick positive note to a colleague
• Buy a coffee for the person behind you at the coffee shop
• Write a quick positive note to a student
• Smile at a stranger
• Write a note to your administrator letting them know one thing you value about them
• Support a colleague in helping them grade or put up a new bulletin board.

And finally, here is a meditation to support your efforts in practicing generosity.

It is my deepest desire to support in finding happiness and health for educators, and especially teachers, and therefore I hope this post serves as reminder that both can be found and helps in doing so!

Gratitude

This is not the first time I have talked about gratitude and likely will not be my last, however just as generosity is connected to happiness, there are also a multitude of studies that show simple acts of gratitude can in fact improve a personal mental and even physical health. In both June and September I talked about gratitude and what it does for us as educators. Too often, we forget that there is so much good happening around us and we need a gentle reminder to be in the moment, celebrate and give thanks to what is going well and what we are thankful for.

I love this quote from Will Arnett, “I am happy because I’m grateful. I choose to be grateful. That gratitude allows me to be happy.”

Remember, we get to choose happiness. I know this is not always easy, but I am here to remind you and support you in it being possible. Enjoy the following gratitude practice as it will allow you to find even an ounce of happiness.

Practice 1: Gratitude Meditation

I encourage you to revisit Day 3 of The September Teacher post as it has additional content to support your gratitude meditation however, here is a Five-Minute Morning Practice on Gratitude by Julie Ela Grace via Insight Timer. For this month, I would encourage you to do this meditation at the beginning of your day before you journal.

Practice 2: Gratitude Journal

Unlike June and September, instead of seven minutes of gratitude for one day, this month I encourage you to write out 3-5 things you are grateful for daily until the end of the month. Once again, feel free to tune into this great Spotify Playlist for Mindful Journaling.