To encourage dialogue and reflection about the ways we make time for ourselves, our question for the week is: When you make time for yourself, what do you like to do (interests, activities, hobbies)? Time for Ourselves (Week of 9/26/21) (This is an anonymous Google Form)
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The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning. - John Dewey
You cannot teach today the same way you did yesterday to prepare students for tomorrow. - John Dewey
Having finished the first 5-day week of the school year, my guess is that I was not alone in looking forward to and enjoying the weekend! Amidst the typical ‘mixture’ of activities with the kids, we celebrated my mother’s 80th birthday as a family on Saturday night - it was wonderful to be together with the entire brood (or, as I often share the ‘layers of the Vaughn family onion’)!
Why You Need to Protect Your Sense of Wonder — Especially Now
by David P. Fessell and Karen Reivich in Harvard Business Review
One potentially powerful intervention is rarely talked about in the workplace: The cultivation of experiences of awe. Like gratitude and curiosity, awe can leave us feeling inspired and energized. It’s another tool in your toolkit and it’s now attracting increased attention due to more rigorous research.
Cultivating experiences of awe is especially important and helpful now as we renew our energy and make plans for a more hopeful future. That’s because beyond physical effects like tingling and goosebumps and a lowered heart rate under stress, awe also affects us emotionally.
Research has shown that experiencing something bigger than us helps us transcend our frame of reference by expanding our mental models and stimulating new ways of thinking. This can increase creativity and innovation, and facilitate scientific thinking and ethical decision making.
We spend much of our time at work trying to stake our claim and make our voices heard. It can feel counterintuitive to engage in something that might stimulate feelings of “smallness.” But doing so through a positive experience of awe can, in the end, bring us that sense of grounding we’re searching for, along with a multitude of benefits — such as energy, inspiration, and resilience — for ourselves and for our teams.
Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: What strategies do you use to help you stay in the present (to help avoid worrying or thinking about the future)?
- Staying busy with fun things.
- I try to do things in the present that serve the future by thinking about how everything is connected.
- I use my breathing, but also think about happy things that have happened in the past.
- I try to think about staying in the moment by really focusing about what is happening.
- Yoga with Adrienne - I have a regular at home practice that over the years has supported me in staying grounded in the moment. I highly recommend checking out her youtube channel Find What Feels Good - lots of free practice videos.
- I create a daily agenda for myself and make a rule that only things relevant to that day will go on it.
- I go at my own pace. I don’t let myself get distracted by what others are doing and I worry about what I am doing.
- Fidgets or extra help
- Sometimes I set down my computer and really listen and look at the people around me.
- I usually take a deep breath and maybe listen to music or talk with my friends.
- I go on Netflix and watch my favorite shows.
- I take a deep breath and try to keep my mind off of my worries
- I remind myself to keep my head where my feet are.
- Just to live in the moment
- Taking deep breaths and reminding myself to stay in the moment. I try to take things one day at a time.
- I like to go for runs because it keeps my mind off of other things that are happening in my life and I can just focus on running. Listening to music helps me with that too.
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Take care.
Nat