Liv·a·ble (adjective): worth living; enjoyable
Every Livable Lesson will encourage you to prioritize your own health and happiness by:
1. Sparking inspiration from a quote/research.
2. Connecting the quote/research to what you deserve as a teacher.
3. Promoting accountability with related actions to implement inside and outside your classroom.
4. Encouraging reflection with a related wellness question.
Inspiration
“Trust is hard to define, but we do know when it’s lost. When that happens, we withdraw our energy and level of engagement. We go on an internal strike, not wanting to be sympathetic to the person who we feel has hurt us or treated us wrongly” (forbes.com).
What You Deserve
“Hey, I’m really sorry to do this again, but I have to cancel our dinner plans. I know we’ve been trying to get together for a few weeks now, but I have to stay at work a little longer. I’ll reach out next week!”
This friend has now canceled your dinner plans for the third time. Despite continually promising to make it work, something always seems to come up.
How are you going to start viewing this friend? Unreliable? Frustrating? They might make you feel deflated and sad. You’ll adopt that “won’t believe it until you see it” attitude toward them. Ultimately, you will probably lose trust in them.
Have you ever considered that you’re guilty of treating yourself the same way?
➡️ You keep promising yourself a workout before school, but you choose to snooze your alarm because you went to bed late.
➡️ You keep promising yourself a home-cooked meal, but you order takeout again because you’re too tired.
➡️ You keep promising yourself that you’ll leave 30 minutes after school, but you end up staying an hour longer because you didn’t utilize your planning period effectively.
➡️ You keep promising yourself that you’ll start reading that book you’ve had for two months, but you watch TV again because it’s just what you’re used to now.
Little by little, day by day, you are breaking promises to yourself, JUST like your friend. If you keep breaking these kinds of promises, self-doubt and self-criticism will constantly creep into your mind because you have broken your own trust.
Self-trust is part of a larger cycle. Think about it—watching TV before bed stimulated your brain so you struggled to fall asleep. Consequently, you were too tired to work out in the morning, so you slept in. You didn’t have time to pack food so you just skipped lunch and felt irritable. Of course, you were easily stressed and negative throughout the day; you didn’t set yourself up for success physically or emotionally.
Now, imagine if you had gone to bed early because you wanted to prioritize reading. You got quality rest and felt ready to exercise before school. You had time to pack a nourishing lunch and snacks for the school day which, in turn, kept your blood sugar (and mood) stabilized. Negativity and stress will NOT hold the same power on a day like that.
Self-trust ignites deep respect for yourself, strengthening your understanding of what you deserve and why you make the decisions you do. Thus, the impacts of guilt, shame, pessimism, and stress in your life are lessened because you not only held yourself accountable but also recognized your self-worth.
So when you promise yourself something, don’t treat yourself like that unreliable friend would. Trust yourself and follow through.
Accountability
At School: Give every student a post-it. Have them write a promise for your class using the sentence frame: “I promise to…because…”.
At Home:How can you set yourself up for keeping a promise at home? Put your workout clothes out? Stock your fridge with fresh ingredients? Put a book on your pillow?
Reflect
What promise will you keep for yourself today?
How will you avoid breaking that promise?
In health and happiness,
Lauren Girgash
Founder of Livable Learning
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