Thriving or Surviving?
Are you Thriving or Surviving right now?
In times of big change and uncertainty, we humans go into survival mode. It’s natural. Our cavemen ancestors did it, and it’s in our blood. Sometimes I hear myself thinking, “If I can just survive this tough moment…”
How about you?
We can all handle occasional moments of survival mode, but our bodies and emotions are not equipped to live that way continuously.
Psychologists warn us that prolonged survival mode leads to damaging trauma.
Sometimes it feels like our trauma started during COVID and it hasn’t let up. Right? Think of the impact on our students, our teachers, our families… well, on YOU!
How are you holding up?
So what can we do?
The best advice is pause and take a deep breath (or maybe three deep breaths). Then look for ways to support ourselves. This is good advice if you’re a teacher; it’s good advice we can pass on to our students; and it’s good advice for families.
Ask questions like:
I was pondering this “thriving or surviving” issue when we packed for the Council for Exceptional Children Conference. How would we find the participants who stopped by our table and the ones who attended our session? How many would be looking for JOY (as in Joyful Inclusion)? Or were they simply looking for relief from their stressed out situations?
Predictably, the topics of stress, uncertainty, and trauma came up in nearly every conversation. Universally, those who traveled to this conference came with positive intentions - a commitment to learning, becoming more effective, and transforming their schools and organizations. Still, there was an undercurrent of survival.
Then we attended the Women Leading Delaware Education Conference and discovered the theme was thriving. The keynote speaker spoke about the importance of psychological safety, coping with personal triggers, and building a supportive network.
Once again, “thriving or surviving” was in the air.
This weekend, I will lead a pre-conference session at the National School Board Conference. I will encourage participants to consider what they can do to support members of their school communities at all levels to acknowledge the stressors that have us just surviving and consider how to promote thriving.
This seems like the perfect time to offer some hope and some strategies!
If you are looking for a supportive community right now, we’ve got you covered:
The Joyful Inclusion Community is now live and here are the details:
Our first Power Hour & Webinar are coming up!
We want our first Power Hour to reflect many perspectives, so it will be open to the public! Everyone who registers will receive the compiled list of dreams. Premium Members will have access to the graphic representation. (Future Power Hours will be for Premium Members only.)
So what can you do now?
Register for our inaugural Power Hour:
“What’s Your Inclusion Dream?”
Learn more about The Joyful Inclusion Community
For a limited time, our subscribers can use this code:
launch12
to get $12 off your first month of membership
