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Brené Brown: Hi everyone, I'm Brené Brown, and this is Unlocking Us.

[music]

BB: I missed y'all. Welcome back, Barrett we're back.

Barrett Guillen: We're back!

BB: We're back! Oof!

[music]

BB: I don't know, I had a vision for 2022 [chuckle] that was easier than what we're in right now.

BG: January is so hard usually, always.

BB: God dang it! January is hard. And every year I say, "Hey, in February, I'm like, planning for next year, January is hard." And then I go into this like, "But not this time."

BG: Yeah.

BB: January is tough.

BG: It's totally been a hard start.

BB: A hard start. And we celebrate Christmas in our family, and that was different and hard because we had a COVID diagnosis on Christmas Eve...

BG: Yeah.

BB: Right before our big... Yeah, not a big family gathering, but all the siblings with each of the parents.

BG: But you know, I haven't talked to one family who really wasn't impacted in some way over the holiday break.

BB: Yeah, I've had a couple of friends say "I don't know how we made it through, but you know, we did it," but everyone else was kind of last minute changes, and rearranging and yeah, it was... I don't know, I was talking to Ashley... Oh you were there. I was talking to Ashley, for those of you who have not listened to the Sister Series, that's our other sister, who's actually Barrett's identical twin, who's a therapist, and... Hey, what's wrong with you? Catch up on the Sister Series. [laughter] But we were talking about something and she said, "People are not okay."

BG: Mm-hmm.

BB: People are not okay.

BG: I agree.

BB: Yeah, I'm not okay. [chuckle]

BG: No, I'm not okay.

BB: Yeah, I just think it's... I don't know, I think you get so close to some normalcy and then have that pulled out from underneath you more than once, twice. Yeah, it's hard. I'm glad to be back. I'm excited about you and I doing this together today.

BG: It will be fun.

BB: Yeah.

BG: And you're back back... This is like you're unofficial first day back.

BB: Yeah I know, I took three, four weeks off?

BG: Yeah.

BB: I did, first time in my whole career. And let me tell you, that's dangerous because big changes are coming [chuckle] no one should give me that much time. I was just thinking, is it you and I, or me and you? I don't remember, but I'm glad we're together doing this.

BG: Me too.

BB: Okay, and I'm super clear, it's not I too.

[laughter]

BG: Yes! Look at that start. Yeah.

BB: Yeah. Let's go. Okay, so I have to tell y'all that we wanted to do something for the new year that's really different and you're either going to like it or you're going to not like it, and then you'll let us know on social using nice words.

[laughter]

BB: I thought we would do some work together, and so if you go to brenebrown.com, you're going to find a downloadable PDF for this episode, especially made for this episode, and we're going to do it together. So if you're walking right now and you're like, "Shit, I can't do that," you can listen to me and Barrett do it. You can pause and come back. But I want to take us through an exercise that I think is life-changing. So that's what we're going to do in our first episode of Unlocking Us for 2022.

[music]

BG: Let's do it.

BB: Let's do it.

[music]

BB: Okay, let's get started. So I am not a fan of resolutions because there's so much... The whole like "New Year, New You" marketing scheme is so stressful to me.

BG: [chuckle] Me too.

BB: On January 1st, I'm in deep recovery. I'm not bouncing up. And I swear to God, I keep getting these texts that say like, "You can lose 30 pounds if you click here on this link." And twice I just texted back, "Fuck you." But I think... I don't think that's the same as stop text, but it should be.

BG: No, I bet it doesn't. I bet the robot doesn't pick it up the same... [chuckle]

BB: Yeah.

BG: It's January, read the room people. [chuckle]

BB: Read the room. I'm just not a fan. And maybe I'm also not a fan, to be honest with you, because I don't mark the new year in January, because kind of as a professor, I mark the new year in August, and then I end the year in May. So... [chuckle] Perpetually a student. But I was trying to think of what would be valuable to do in January as kind of a... If you're in a "Great, get up and go, let's do it." If you're in the, "Do you want a bonbon place?" Or if you're in the like, "Oh my God, I'm barely standing place." What could be helpful? And we do an exercise, that's part of Dare to Lead, part of courage building, that has been... When we get feedback, we've taken 100,000 people through the Dare to Lead courage building program, and it has been life-changing for people. So that's what we're going to do today. Barrett and I are going to do ours with you, and then we have the PDF for you to do yours. So it's basically a values exercise about not just naming your values, but operationalizing them into behaviors, understanding what they are, understanding what it looks and feels like when you're aligned with them, and what it looks and feels like when you're not aligned with them, and it's hard. Right?

BG: Yeah. It's really hard.

BB: But I have to say, and I'd be curious about your experience, I'd have to say in the end, when the water is deep and swift and I'm in a hard place, it is... My values are the most consistent life raft for me.

BG: Yeah, I agree, I think so too. It's a system that you can lean into for yourself when shit's really hard and you can't even put the next foot forward, sometimes you can always just lean into it.

BB: Yeah, that's it. It's always right there. And it's not someone texting you bullshit about who you should be, it's not pictures, it's not like the gym calling saying like, "Get your shit together. It's January." This is just you. This is you doubling down on you.

BG: Yes, yes.

BB: Yeah, nothing external. But we need to excavate it in a way, and we've got a pretty good process for it, so let's jump in. So again, if you're walking right now, or running or driving and you don't... You didn't say, "Hey, I'm going to listen to the first Unlocking Us podcast with a pen and I'm going to have my laptop and printer here just in case I need to download something," listen through with us. And the nice thing is, I don't think you need to listen again because the PDF will take you through each of these steps, super self-explanatory. If you want to fill it out yourself and then listen again, that could be a neat way to do it.

BG: Yeah.

BB: Okay, so the first thing we're going to do, and this is really interesting, is a part of the PDF will be a list of values. Now, one of the things that's interesting is, how did I get to this place where I'm saying, you need to pick two? I reverse engineered it from over 500,000 pieces of data talking to people, and people who have clarity, people who were both thoughtful and decisive, people who were vulnerable and also brave; which I don't think you can be one without the other, one of the things that they had in common was real clarity about their values, and when I asked, "What are your values?" no one gave me eight, no one gave me four. People gave me one or two. And so when you look at this big list of values that's on the PDF, it's really... We have in our experience, it's really difficult to get to two.

BG: [chuckle] Yeah.

BB: And so here's how I would approach this list. This list is from accountability to wisdom and everything in between. It's probably... What do you think, there's 100, at least?

BG: Probably, yeah.

BB: Yeah. Patience, kindness, knowledge, freedom, financial stability, environment. It's all here. Culture. So what I want you to do is when you look at this big list, I want you to start by circling 15 even, that speak to you. Because the thing is that if you have 15 values that are... We can't end up there because then you're like a Hallmark store, they're not helpful when you have 15 of them. So I want you to start, and I want you to circle as many of them really speak to you, but no more than 10 or 15. So once you've done that, then we're going to get to the two. And the best way... And this is where the work, it's happening, something's changing in you as you do this exercise.

BG: It totally is.

BB: Especially I think with this question. To get from the 15 or the 10 to the two, we ask ourselves these questions. What are the one or two values, looking at all the circled ones, where everything else is forged, that all these are great, but without these, there's really nothing. And when you look at the values, you're asking, "Does this define me? Is this who I am at my best? Is this a filter that I use to make hard decisions?" Have you struggled to get it to two? Do you still struggle? We've been doing it for a long time.

BG: Yeah, yeah, I can still struggle, and sometimes I'm like, "Oh, but maybe it's this one." And you know, mine change. Yours have been the same for a while, but last year mine... I actually changed mine, and so yeah, I can still sometimes get caught up in like, "Oh, but family. I work with my family, I love my family, I want to spend all my time with my family. Why isn't that one?" But I have found that it can ladder up under something else.

BB: Yeah. I'm the same way. In fact... So let me tell you my two. My two are courage and faith. What about you?

BG: Courage and growth.

BB: And I have to say that it wasn't like a, "Hey, I'm going to go to the list and pick a new one." That change to growth...

BG: It picked me.

[laughter]

BB: But it actually did.

BG: Yeah.

BB: Say more. Can you say more without... I don't want you to disclose what you don't want to disclose, but too late, these people already know all your shit.

BG: Yeah. They already all know us. Yeah, I think it was just for me, it kept growing as a person, growing as a leader, growing as a sister. I thought about it being curiosity because it was kind of the same for me, but it's not. I just want to keep growing. I want to keep doing my personal work. I have a therapist, I have a leadership coach. I'm always asking for feedback just from anybody that I'm working with every day, in my marriage, as a parent, and so I think it's just I want to grow, I want to be better. And I think... I don't know if we were doing the end of the year values exercise with the team or what... I can't remember when it came up, but I was like, growth actually is where it is for me.

BB: You know what it was? It was... We were sitting right in here in the other office, and we were doing it as a team.

BG: Oh, that... Yeah.

BB: Yeah, it's so funny. I'm curious that... It's like a chicken-egg question, I think you get a lot of feedback. I know that you have from me about growth, about, God, just remarkable growth, and especially in leadership, and hard feedback.

BG: But don't think that those things don't go over to your personal life because having difficult conversations has been key across...

BB: Oh yeah, yeah, I don't... Remind me to tell them the funny professional personal thing in a minute.

BG: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

BB: Do you think it was that you got feedback about how much growth some of the more senior leaders had seen in you, or do you think... How do you think that shift happened? Was it a chicken-egg thing?

BG: I don't know, I think it's a great question. I'd have to think about it because I think I was coming to a point in my own personal therapy journey, and then also at work, where I just settled into my skin.

BB: Yeah, I remember... I... You could see it actually.

BG: Yeah, and so I think it was just like every single day, I would wake up and just want to be like, "What could I get better at today? What can I just do a little bit different? What am I not doing because it feels a little scary?" And just do it. And also, I feel like I was that annoying person that, "Give me some feedback. Could I have shown up a little bit better? How could I have done that differently?" to everybody, and not just you, but then again, I am the lucky one who sits in the room when you do all of these events for all of these organizations, all of these speaking events, and I get to hear you do it sometimes two or three times a week. And so I just really have found myself in this place where I want feedback because I want to be different. Not different, but the best version of me.

BB: So, do y'all hear how she... She's into this. [laughter] Do you hear how she lights up when she talks about it? That's... Was it curiosity before?

BG: No.

BB: It was courage and what? I don't remember.

BG: God, I can't remember. I'd have to look at the list.

BB: Yeah, so I'm struggling right now actually. And one of the ones... So in this list, you'll see where there's a write your own. Mine have been courage and faith for a really, really... Since forever.

BG: Yes.

BB: Yeah. And probably before I did the exercise, those were the two things I leaned into, I think courage and faith. I remember thinking about those and talking to a sponsor in AA about courage and faith, 25 years ago or 26 years ago when I first got sober. Those have always been my values. Now, I have wanted to change faith, how many times? Like, 477 times. I don't want it to be faith. I really don't. I'm pissed off at church. No, I don't want it to be faith, it just seemed so... It's not my favorite. So the ones that I struggle with is I think courage is a value for sure. Did you find your... Did you find the one?

BG: I think it was reliability.

BB: Was it?

BG: It was either the reliability or accountability one. I can't remember which one.

BB: Yeah. And whatever one it was, it was not memorable for either one of us, because you didn't talk about it like you talked about growth, and that's how like, boom, you're on it. So for me, the two that I really struggle with are curiosity, because I would say that's just a huge part of who I am.

BG: I know, and it's like your super power.

BB: Maybe, yeah. And then the other one that is something, it's my word of the year. You know Ali Edwards, my friend Ali Edwards has the word of the year. It's the word of the year, and it's also the bullshit that on my Enneagram that says I can't get integrated as a number one until I get better with this, but discernment.

BG: Oh!

BB: I need to be more discerning. I need to make better choices and not...

BG: But is that a value?

BB: Is it a value or is it a skill?

BG: I mean could you think of other things that would ladder up under discernment? Would you lean into... Well yeah you would lean into discernment when shit gets hard.

BB: Yes. Yes. Yes, so for example, today playing pickleball.

BG: Oh! [chuckle]

BB: No, I'm not kidding.

BG: I didn't play today, so I can't wait to hear about it.

BB: Yeah. So it was me and Andrew, against Lindsey and Steve. So, separated married couples.

BG: [chuckle] That's always the best way to do it.

BB: Yeah, and I would say the match score ended up being fairly uneven, but we did pickle them once so that counts as four games. So it ended up being...

BG: [laughter] I didn't use mine...

BB: Pickle is like, we beat them something-0, 11-0. If you don't know what pickleball is, it's like tennis but on a smaller court with a plastic ball and it's my... Pickleball is one of my values. [laughter] But you know... So you're standing at this... They're standing at this line up against the net, and dinking is when you're doing a soft game. You're just doing it barely over the net, barely over the net, and you're waiting for... Pickleball is all about forcing someone to make a mistake so you can kill the ball, so you can slam the ball. And so, I was dinking and I just kept saying, "Discernment, discernment." And so, instead of going, "Well, that's a little bit high." Boom, let me kill it, and it going into the net, I was trying to be discerning. And so... But discernment is a huge thing for me, but dammit. And curiosity is I think a super power of mine. But when it comes down to brass tacks, like it or not, it comes down to faith and courage for me. Because, I think faith fuels my belief that I can be discerning and it'll make a difference.

BB: Even when I pray for discernment, I say, "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things... " I usually say, "God grant me serenity to accept the shit I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom and grace of discernment."

BG: That's powerful.

BB: Which one is which? Which is stuff I... And even with curiosity, I'm curious because of my faith because... And my courage. It takes courage to be curious for me, because I have a tendency to be valued for being a knower. And so, I need to be brave and say, "I don't know, I'm interested. Tell me more." And then I think for me, I guess it's just vulnerability is also probably a big value of mine. So I guess what I'm saying is for everybody listening, you may think, "Well, courage is the root of everything." But it's not true because for some people, curiosity, that courage may be really important to them, but where that's forged is in curiosity. For me, my stuff is forged in courage. My stuff is forged in my faith. I don't want it to be.

BG: And I'm going to say, if you use this example of dinking outside of the kitchen and pickleball, mine definitely is courage. I'm like, "Courage to be patient, patient, patient, patient," because I just want to hit the ball hard.

BB: Yeah.

BG: And so I'm like, it takes courage for me and probably growth [chuckle] to be patient.

BB: Yeah. Yeah, it's really true. It's... So I hope what we're illustrating for you is that...

BG: It's not easy.

BB: It's not easy to pick your values and you may want to revisit after you do, but just think about the power of just talking about this.

BG: Mm-hmm.

BB: And I have to figure out what my faith means to me too. I have to figure out... For me, when it comes to faith, it's about mystery and believing things I can't see all the time because I'm such a data person. So you're going to pick your two values, value one and two in no order. Then we're going to go to the second part. And I love this part. This is called taking values from bullshit to behavior. And the reason I call it this is because I do so much work in organizations where they have values. They have posters. They have handouts. They have shit that people have thumbtacked to their cubicles. And when I ask people, "Well, what does that look like?" Behaviorally, if you work for me, I'll know that your behaviors are aligned with those organizational values how. And people are like, "I don't know. There's just the... We memorize these and then we're told to memorize them in onboarding. I don't know what they mean."

BG: It's crazy.

BB: It's crazy. And so we found in our research, and again, this is going on 11 years of research in organizations, somewhere around 10% of organizations that we've worked with, and I'm talking about a lot of the Fortune 100 companies, about 10% have operationalized their values into observable behaviors that people are actually taught and held accountable for. Very few. So that's like what I always say, I tell people all the time when I'm doing the Dare to Lead work. I'm like, "If I see another poster with a big bald eagle on it that says like integrity."

[vocalization]

BB: What does that mean? Like, fly fast and catch shit with your claws. I don't know what it means. And so we want to take it from gauzy bullshit words to behaviors.

BG: Okay. Before you go into this part of the exercise, go back to the professional versus personal values.

BB: Yeah. So we do this a lot in organizations and people will always raise their hand and say, "Hey, Brené, should I be listing my personal values or my professional values?" And whoa. Yikes. We only have one set. And the problem arises when we feel like we have to splinter ourselves and have a set of values for who we really are, and then a set of values at work. Because one of the most ferocious, unseen drivers of disengagement at work is a values... There's no alignment in my values and the organization's values. That almost is not fixable.

BG: Yeah.

BB: Yeah. So we have one set of values. So the next question is, we're going to look at each value. So starting with your first value, Barrett we'll take growth for you. And we'll just do one of them.

BG: Okay.

BB: And y'all can do them at home. What are one or two behaviors that support your value? Specific observable behaviors of growth.

BG: I think for sure, when I ask questions, I am really... I never have to be the knower. I always like to be the learner. So one very specific behavior is when I'm asking questions, when I'm like, "Hey, hold on. Slow down. I really don't understand where we're going." Or, "Can you say it in a different way because I'm not tracking?" So, asking questions for one. And then I think another specific behavior for me is when things feel really hard and dicey, no matter personal or professional, if I can take five minutes to myself and just think about, "What's actually happening here? Why am I reacting this way?" That's interesting, both questions. I'm asking myself questions or I'm asking other people questions.

BB: Yeah. This is so beautiful because... Let me go back to... But what's driving those questions for you is not curiosity. What's driving those questions for you is growth. That's what makes you come alive.

BG: Yeah, I think so.

BB: Yeah. And I'm staying away from courage for both of us because we talk so much about courage in our work. Okay, so for me, a couple of behaviors that support my value of... Oh, fuck. I have to talk about faith. Okay, sorry.

[laughter]

BG: That's one sentence that you won't hear a lot.

BB: Yeah.

BG: Maybe you will. [laughter]

BB: If you're a member of the the Episcopal Church, you will. But, yeah. What are one or two behaviors that support my value of faith? God, I don't know. I'm going to say this, we're not going to edit this out because this is... This is good modeling, blah, blah, blah.

[laughter]

BB: I don't know. I don't know that I've been engaged in behaviors that... I'm going to go... I'm going to take us on the wildest non sequitur. Are you ready?

BG: Yeah, ready.

BB: I'm going to take you on a ride. Ready? Strap yourselves in.

[vocalization]

BB: Just put your seatbelts on. I think I've been struggling with this a lot because in the AA Big Book, one of the most important things to me in the Big Book is the promise of neutrality, that if you work your program... And it's a deeply spiritual program. It's a deeply faithful program. If you work your program, whether you believe in God or not, it doesn't... That's... I have a lot of friends who work a deeply faithful spiritual program that don't believe in God. But if you work your program, you experience the gift of neutrality where you're neither running as fast as you can toward the beer, nor are you running away from the beer as fast as you can. And I've had deep neutrality probably six months into my sobriety around alcohol. Now, the bread basket is a different situation. The bread basket. So, in order for me to have... Or work, like too much work, in order to have the gift of neutrality... It's interesting. Do you know what the prerequisite is?

BG: What?

BB: You have to be in fit spiritual condition.

BG: Damn.

BB: Yeah. And so I think for me, the way I think about my faith is that I think about the behaviors that support my value of faith are the behaviors that support being in fit spiritual condition. And I actually think that that is moving my body, resting my body, and play. But, I also think there's a relationship for me with God that I've really been negligent around, so I think I have been actually out of alignment... I'm having a real time epiphany. I think I have been out of fit spiritual condition, and I think I've been out of alignment with my faith value more than I am in other times in my life. And I think it's because I'm grappling with ways to do that that don't involve church. I still love church, but I only like to go to church so I can sing. I like to pass the peace. I love the peace be with you.

BG: Also with you.

BB: And yeah, I like to go to the communion and be at the rail with people, because it reminds me that there's something bigger than us. But yeah. So I think I'm out of alignment a little bit. So let's go to the second question, what are one or two slippery behaviors that are outside of your value of growth?

BG: I think definitely when I turn into the knower, which isn't often, but when I get really caught up in having to know the answers instead of just listening. It's very specifically what I'm planning to say back to you... In a conversation, I'm working on what I'm going to say back to you instead of listening. That's a specific behavior.

BB: You are on fire, Barret. Yeah, and she's so deep in her value of growth right now. If you could see her, it's tattooed across her forehead. You just see it when you see you. But, I love the specificity of that behavior. Because, it almost ties back to James Clear of the James Clear podcast, like your values are identity-based. When you find yourself planning what you're going to say instead of listening, you're not a growth person.

BG: No, you're not.

BB: That's so good. Is there another one you can think of?

BG: You're kind of just an asshole. [laughter]

BB: No, but you're... Maybe, I don't know if you're an asshole but you're... You're probably thinking of me when you say that. [laughter]

BG: No, I'm not. I was thinking of a very specific situation for me but I think it's...

BB: I'm trying to win, because I'm afraid.

BG: Yeah.

BB: Yeah.

BG: And sometimes you're just so far in. For me, it's terrible. Sometimes you're so far into the conversation that you can't just say, "Yeah, you know what, you're right." [laughter] For four weeks.

BB: We're not wired that... That's genetically incompatible with our wiring.

BG: Yeah, so part of me, very specifically, a behavior that I'm working on in growth is holding people accountable within a couple of hours of something happening. And so for me, an indicator light would be, if I very specifically make up reasons where I don't have to communicate or see that person for three days, [chuckle] then I'm outside my two-hour window.

BB: So we talk about the language of indicator lights. What are the indicator lights? I think it's on the next page, but what are the indicators lights? Yeah, I love that.

BG: Yeah.

BB: So there is a meeting and someone that reports to you...

BG: Even at home, or even...

BB: Something hurt your feelings.

BG: Yeah, even like us. Something hurt my feelings, or I even showed up in a way that was shitty that I wanted to circle back for. But, because it's going to be hard, I'm like, "Oh okay. Well, I'm not feeling too good, I should probably stay home for the rest of the weekend." You know or...

BB: Yes...

BG: Because it's easier... It's actually not easier, but in the second you think it's easier to avoid than to jump right in, so that's definitely an indicator light for me.

[music]

BB: Okay, I'm going to ask... I'm going to write down something because I want to ask you about it in a minute, hold on.

BG: Oh boy. [chuckle]

BB: Don't look. Okay. What... And one thing I was going to say to you, what are behaviors that support my value of faith? I will tell you that one of the biggest ones... I was just thinking about the last real moment of electrifying faith. Where I felt like my feet were planted into the earth and connected to every person that has ever walked the earth before me, and that my hands were shooting lightning bolts and connecting to everyone in the whole world.

BG: Do tell. [chuckle]

BB: Yeah, no, was the last time I met with Diana, my therapist, who is also a deeply spiritual person. And, we were talking about something and I said, "Can I tell a weird story?" And then I told this weird story and she goes, "That's so crazy. There was an article that I wanted to send you about that very person." And I said, "Oh my God, that person. I just shot you an email, have you seen it yet? Yesterday." And it was all these wild connections. But I was like, "Is this so weird what's happening?" And she's like, "No, there's nothing weird about what's happening right now." And so, I guess one of the behaviors that supports my value... Why are you shaking your head so radically? Because you see me when I'm in that.

BG: Yeah, I totally see you in... Yes, I totally do.

BB: Yeah. It's weird when it happens.

BG: Yeah.

BB: So I guess I would say, and this is hard, this might make me cry, one of the behaviors that supports my value is when I believe myself. Let me just say that whole sentence, because it might be big for me. One of the behaviors that supports my value of faith is when I believe myself before I can find evidence or data.

BG: Yeah, yes.

BB: Do you know what I mean? Yeah, that's good. Okay. The slippery behaviors that are outside of my value is... I know what drives it, is certainty and fear drive the behaviors that are outside of my values. I have to be in a... And I don't think it's an accident that that therapy session with Diana, when that happened, I don't think that's an accident that that happened after I'd been off for two weeks and I was open to it. And I think my receptors are out of whack right now.

BG: Yeah, I... They would have to be.

BB: Yeah, it's just disastrous.

BG: You've had no space. There's like no place to connect to yourself.

BB: Yeah, yeah, so a slippery behavior outside of my value is certainty, as Diana said to me 10 years ago, that's really sad.

[chuckle]

BB: I just want to let you know that there was a seven-year hiatus in between this therapy. It wasn't straight through, okay. Don't get cocky if you're listening. I remember I was saying, "But I need to do this," and she goes, "Wow, it's like you live by that saying, let go and let Brené."

BG: She said it again?

BB: Yeah, no, no, this was seven years ago.

BG: Okay, I got it.

[laughter]

BB: No, and so how can I hear God and be connected to God and be connected to my faith when it's like... "And Brené's will will be done. My timing." And so...

BG: Because you have to let go a little.

BB: Yeah, I think when we're talking about this question of what are the slippery behaviors that are outside your value, I think back to the podcast that we did with Dr. Sarah Lewis who, God, we love, right?

BG: She's amazing.

BB: She's just amazing. And the concept of surrender, which I just had... Ooh, the hairs on the back of my neck stand up when I think... Do they with you too? Do you have that word?

BG: Yeah.

BB: Yeah, I don't like it. It's like give up. But Sarah has this quote that's so beautiful. She writes, "There is no way to measure surrender's impact. We know its efficacy when we see it. After the deep pain of coming close or failures of all kinds, we break open enough to contain, invite and triumph over more." And so what Sarah Lewis taught me is that surrender is not about giving up, it's about giving over. And I think about... Like, I have the Me-Ma box. You know, our grandma, we called Me-Ma, and we had this old box that has Me-Ma's picture on the top of it, and sometimes I just write what is scaring me or what's giving me pain or... And I just fold it and give it over. And so I think my slippery behavior is when I get into the let go and let Brené, instead of giving over.

BG: Love it.

BB: So what is an example? This is the last question on this. What's an example of a time when you were fully living into your value?

BG: Well, most recently, I think a big change at work, and I think it was all about asking some really hard questions to myself, asking some really hard questions in some meetings, that I felt like really in my value of growth.

BB: I love that. I was there. [laughter]

BG: I know you were. [laughter]

BB: I saw it. It was magic. Man, is there nothing more miraculous than to see someone really living into their value?

BG: Yeah, it's amazing.

BB: It's incredible. Oh man, let me tell you, I've done this with Ellen and Charlie.

BG: Oh, really?

BB: Yeah, and who knows what their values are going to be when they're not 22 and 16, but it's helpful. Like you're driving home from something and you feel like crap, and you're like, "Man, did I show up in my values?" And if the answer is yes, you can be like, "Yeah, I did. It was just hard. It was just crappy."

BG: How old do you think... Do you think I could do it? Mine's 11?

BB: I think you could if it was framed in the way that these may change over the course of your life, that it doesn't have to be forever, but right now in your life, when you kind of look at this list, what are 15 words that are important to you about who you are, and then what are the couple where these have to be in place for everything else to happen. I think it'd be... Yeah, and I think it's just you have to make it developmentally appropriate and exploratory, not, this is it.

BG: Yeah, totally. Oh that's... Okay. I have to go now.

[chuckle]

BB: Okay, so next question. Who is someone who knows your values and supports your efforts to live... Oh! And I will just tell you, I forgot mine, my when I know I'm in my values. I'm so excited right now about recommitting to being in spiritual fit condition and protecting that time, because that electricity is the fuel for everything I do in my life, my research, my work, my parenting, my partnership. I'm really glad we had a talk about it. I didn't... Maybe it was supposed to happen that way.

BG: Yeah.

BB: Yeah, there you go. So when was the last time that I was in my value of faith is talking to you right now about faith, even though I didn't want to. It would have been much easier to go courage because I have a lot of examples of when I'm brave in hard times because it's just part of my work. But I think I need both in equal measure. Alright, who is someone who knows your values and supports your efforts to live into them?

BG: You.

BB: I love you.

BG: I love you back.

BB: You're, yeah, you are too. You are someone... Yeah.

BG: And also you are like... You're outside your values right now a little bit.

BB: Yeah.

BG: So both.

BB: Yeah. So, I'm going to ask you a hard question and you can ask me if you want to but you don't have to.

BG: Okay.

BB: What do you think drives the decisions and behaviors that I engage in that move me away from my value of faith the most?

BG: To be honest with you, and you're just like I have not had any time to prep for this question, but I would just say when you're in overload with work and you don't have any space. Because for me, it's like... I could be wrong, but the story that I make up about it is that you're really aligned in your value of faith, when you have space, when you're creating, when you're thinking about what the future holds for you, for your family, for the organization, but when you're in the weeds and you're like way too much shit on your plate and you can't stay connected to yourself, that is when I think that you can fall outside.

BB: I think that's true. That's really insightful. Thank you.

BG: You're welcome. Okay, I'm not asking.

BB: That's great.

[laughter]

BG: Well what do you think? What do you think or when do you think I'm outside of my value of growth?

BB: I'll be really honest with you, probably for the past couple of years, I haven't seen you outside of your growth value very much at work. I think, caveat at work. [laughter] No, I think, and when I think you are, you circle back so quick. It's just like, "Hey, you know what? Instead of asking more about that, I got really shitty and so I'm overwhelmed or something." But I haven't seen you. I think in your personal life, control.

BG: You don't know me. [laughter]

BB: Yeah, control that in order for me to grow in this area, I'm going to have to let go of some control.

BG: It's hot. [laughter]

BB: We all get really red and all... We [laughter] get uncomfortable. Yeah, no, I think, yeah, control. But I think it's interesting because...

BG: It's true.

BB: It is true, but I think I'm in the weeds of things I shouldn't be in the weeds of at work out of control and fear.

BG: Yeah. Well times, they are changing.

BB: Yeah times are changing. Yeah.

BG: That was a good hard question. I'm glad you asked first.

BB: Yeah. I think, because I wonder if in the end, for all of us, as you're thinking about your own values and you're thinking about what drives a lot of the behaviors that get in the way of you being aligned, I think for all of us, it's going to come down to vulnerability and uncertainty and control and fear. It's going to come down to armor and self-protection.

BG: Yeah.

BB: Yeah.

BG: I was telling Gabby, we were talking. I don't know how we got on the subject of the Enneagram and she hasn't taken it, obviously she's 11, although we might soon, but and I was telling her I was a six and I was like, "Oh that's a worrier." And we were talking about it, I was like, "But the most integrated sixes are the most courageous." I was like, "So it's like, that's what I'm working towards."

BB: Yeah, that's, yeah. Isn't that incredible? Like in the Enneagram world, which we're just saying that we don't know the validity and reliability, we've looked at a lot of the...

BG: And the memes are, if the memes hurt your feelings, you got it right. [laughter]

BB: I thought you were going to say don't worry, because they're not valid or reliable. [laughter]

BG: I'll say, then you got the right number.

BB: I'll say the other part. We don't know about the, look, I don't know about the reliability and validity of the instrument. I know that some scales are better than others, but I also have a lot of questions about the Big Five in psychology, which are reputed to be stellar. I just don't know. I think you take all that stuff with a grain of salt, but I will say it's been helpful for us.

BG: Yeah, totally.

BB: Yeah, and I do love how that fear is a big thing for sixes, but when they start integrating and doing the work and examining and growing, that they become the bravest of all of us.

BG: But how I got there was the control thing, because the six just craves control of the situation, and I've got some issues around control. I won't lie. Is that a value? Can we add that control to the list?

BB: Yeah right, control. I'd like to pick control as my primary value. I know a lot of CEOs. [laughter] Yeah. My two values, command and control. [laughter]

BG: Well let's not work there, guys.

BB: Yeah, no work there. Alright, what does support from me look... Because I'm your person here. What does support from me look like around your value of growth?

BG: I think just holding me accountable and when you see me slipping outside of that, call me out on it, and I think you do in a very nice loving way.

BB: I would say the same. I would just say accountability is what it looks like. Accountability and a lot of times you always say there's nothing wrong, I think we say it to each other actually, there's nothing wrong with you. You're not broken. Everything is okay, and you're great, and this is a hard time. You know, I think we say that to each other, and Ashley usually leads the way.

BG: [chuckle] She sure does.

BB: The therapist sister. Okay, so what can you do as an act of self-compassion to support yourself in the hard work of living into your values? Both of them.

BG: I don't know that I would have ever named this as something I could do for myself until now, but oh man, doing my personal work has been the most life-changing thing I've ever, the most life-changing gift I have ever given myself or my family.

BB: I would say 100% the same.

BG: Yeah.

BB: Yeah. I would say I want to live in a country that has secured voting rights for all people, and that everyone has access to good mental healthcare. That's how you save democracy.

BG: Yeah, sign me up.

BB: Yeah. Okay, and crush white supremacy and the patriarchy.

BG: Yeah.

BB: But I think if everyone had mental healthcare, I don't know if it would work or not, but I think the two are inextricably connected. Yeah, back to the command and control thing.

BG: Jeez, yes.

BB: Okay. This was our values. This is good, right? This is harder... It's always harder than I think it's going to be when we have these conversations.

BG: I know, me too. Oh, we've done this values exercise before, but always go a step deeper on the podcast because it's just us.

BB: It's just, yeah, it's just you and me in this little blue room, but yeah, I really appreciate you doing it with me. It was really...

BG: It was fun.

BB: It was... Exhibited both growth and courage.

BG: Oh, thank you. And yours, I love your epiphany around faith. It's so important.

BB: Epiphany around faith.

[vocalization]

[laughter]

BB: I really like that. No, it is really important and I'm excited. I will say that I'm making changes.

BG: Yeah.

BB: Wait, when is this going to be recorded? When is this going to go out?

BG: This is going to go out next Wednesday.

BB: Oh good. Well...

BG: Just in time.

BB: If you're listening to the podcast, you'll know that I have indeed been working hard to make changes to get re-aligned with my values. Alright, download the PDF. It'll be on the home page of brenebrown.com. Scroll down past the picture of me looking serious talking into the mic in my little camo jacket, and then half way down, you'll see the PDF for this episode. You can listen, do the exercise, go back if you want to.

BB: The other thing is, hey man, do this with a sibling, a friend, a group of friends, your book club. Do this, and let me just tell you this, if you decide to do this with a group of people, more than just two, one of the neat things you can do is, and we do this when we do it in... For our... With teams. We do this with our own team. We do this when we do organizational work outside of our company, is we get one of those poster Post-It notes, it's kind of like 8 x 12 or 11 x 17, and we write everyone's name at the top, and then after we're done with this, everyone writes one thing that they've observed like, "This is Barrett, I can see you in your value of growth when you," and then everyone has this take home sheet, and I have to tell you just... I know this is... I can't compartmentalize Dare to Lead and Unlocking Us because they're just about being human, but when we do this in families, if you've got older kids, when we do this at work, when we do this in teams, when we do this with our pickleball partners or tennis partners or sports teams, imagine working with people for years and years and years and never knowing what their values are. Imagine doing this, could you guess what your partner's values are? Maybe, maybe not.

BG: Yeah.

BB: You know, it's a real way of sharing ourself with each other that has some guard rails, has some container building built into it and can be powerful.

BG: Mm-hmm.

[music]

BB: Okay, thank you again for the conversation B.

BG: Yeah, it was good.

BB: It was so good. Thank y'all. We're glad to be back. We're glad to be with you again. If January isn't awkward, brave, and kind month, I don't know what is. And hey, I have to also mention while we're here with everybody, the support for Atlas of the Heart.

BG: Yes.

BB: I mean, just number one, every week over and over, it was, I just... I can't even believe it. So thank you, and I would love to see in social if there's something you think you'd like us to do around it. There's something big coming up in a couple of months. Well, in February, we're going to release the audio of Atlas and I'm reading it. Sorry that it didn't launch at the same time, but I wanted to make sure I read it, and I just couldn't do it because I was creating space [laughter] for my value.

BG: Or just dragging behind us getting through the end of the year.

BB: Yeah I just, yeah, yeah, but actually I said no to it.

BG: Yeah, you did.

BB: I actually couldn't... I did. I said it, I want to take credit for that because I actually said, "I can't do that in a way that's meaningful to me, and I think it'll hurt me and my family and myself, so I just, too much." Yeah. So thank you. We're back. We're going to be back with Dare to Lead as well, and just grateful you're here.

BG: Yeah.

BB: Stay awkward, brave, and kind.

[music]

BB: Unlocking Us is a Spotify original from Parcast. It's hosted by me, Brené Brown. It's produced by Max Cutler, Kristen Acevedo, Carleigh Madden, and Tristan McNeil, and by Weird Lucy Productions. Sound design by Tristan McNeil and music is by the amazing Carrie Rodriguez and the amazing Gina Chavez.

[music]

© 2022 Brené Brown Education and Research Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Brown, B. (Host). (2022, January 26). Brené and Barrett on Living Into Our Values. [Audio podcast episode]. In Unlocking Us with Brené Brown. Parcast Network. https://brenebrown.com/podcast/living-into-our-values/

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Brené and Barrett on Living Into Our Values

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I can't think of a more powerful way to double down on ourselves than getting clear on our values. In this episode, we talk through how to not only name our core values, but operationalize them into behaviors.

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Let Me Tell You More About The Book...

Atomic Habits is the most comprehensive and practical guide on how to create good habits, break bad ones, and get 1 percent better every day. I do not believe you will find a more actionable book on the subject of habits and improvement.

If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system.

Bad habits repeat themselves not because you don't want to change but because you have the wrong system for change. This is one of the core philosophies of Atomic Habits: You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. In this book, you'll get a proven plan that can take you to new heights.

James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible.

Along the way, readers will be inspired and entertained with true stories about Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field.

Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits-whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, and achieve success that lasts.

Browse our selection of the best Atomic Habits quotes or read the official Atomic Habits summary here.

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Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

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Packed with evidence-based strategies, Atomic Habits will teach you how to make small changes that will transform your habits and deliver amazing results.

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Essential Slides, Sleep and Rest, T. Boogren

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Essential Slides, Decision-Making, T. Boogren

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Day One Keynote Essential Slides, T. Boogren

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Mindfulness Resources for Teachers - Brilliant Mindfulness

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A daily practice can consist of intentional moments for: Mindful breathing - seated Mindful listening (see links below) Mindful moments Check in with your attention several times during the day - what do you notice? where IS your attention? Bring mindful awareness to one routine daily activity: washing dishes, driving to work, eating breakfast, etc.

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George Lucas Educational Foundation

Discover how students and educators can reduce stress, better regulate emotions, and focus more fully on teaching and learning by tuning into their inner selves.

Sort by:

Providing students with a quiet spot where they can calm themselves in times of stress helps them develop self-regulation.

While checking in on students' well-being at the beginning of class is important, tending to it throughout the day helps students flourish-socially, emotionally, and academically.

See what happens when students and faculty participate in regular meetings to build trust and promote deeper learning.

Mindfulness and compassion are effective self-care strategies for teachers who work with students who routinely experience trauma.

Get a peek at daily advisory meetings where students build both literacy and social and emotional learning skills in tight-knit groups.

This simple mindfulness activity can help reset your brain when things get chaotic during the school day.

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George Lucas Educational Foundation Discover how students and educators can reduce stress, better regulate emotions, and focus more fully on teaching and learning by tuning into their inner selves. Sort by: Providing students with a quiet spot where they can calm themselves in times of stress helps them develop self-regulation.

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Teaching is a juggling act. Days are filled with never-ending to-do lists of lessons, assessments, meetings, and more, not to mention the care and attention we give to dozens of children every day. With all of the demands of the job, it's easy to see how teachers become exhausted and unbalanced. One way to stay healthy is to intentionally build in short, focused breaks throughout the day to practice mindfulness. When we practice mindfulness, we intentionally hit the pause button and turn our attention to nothing but the present moment. Here's our simple guide to mindfulness for teachers, including seven practices that will help you find some much-needed calm amidst the madness of your hectic day.

1. Take a moment to breathe.

It sounds strange, but sometimes we get so caught up in our day that we actually forget to breathe . At the very least, we get caught in a rhythm of shallow breathing that leaves our bodies and minds woefully short of the oxygen it requires to function optimally. When you find yourself in this state, take a pause. Close your eyes and breathe in and out slowly and deeply five times. It will take less than a minute, but it will do wonders for your nervous system.

[Check out 23 Classroom Yoga Photos for even more inspiration.]

2. Listen carefully.

Every once in a while you catch a rare moment of silence: in between periods, when your students are at lunch, or even when you're alone in the staff bathroom. Don't let it pass you by! Take a moment to focus intently on the absence of racket in your ears and in your head and feel your breathing deepen and your pulse slow.

3. Ground yourself.

Stand up straight with your arms resting comfortably at your sides. Place your feet shoulder-width apart and focus on feeling the bottoms of your feet grounded on the floor below you. Close your eyes and scan your body from bottom to top, sensing any places that feel stiff or tender. Try to breathe into those areas to release any tension.

4. Use your sense of smell.

Plug in an essential oil diffuser and add any of these calming essential oils to it. If your school is a fragrance-free environment, keep a small bottle of your favorite scent in your desk drawer and inhale deeply when you need a calming break.

5. Try a change of scenery.

Nothing grounds a person faster than connecting with nature. Even when you're indoors, you can still connect. Sneak a peek out the window every now and then. Pause and focus on the blue sky, the green leaves on the trees, or the bright sunlight outside. Take just a moment to block everything else out and soak it in. If you are unfortunate enough to work in a windowless environment, zone out with one of these beautiful videos or choose one of these serene images as a screensaver for your computer.

6. Walk mindfully.

Whenever you leave your classroom, instead of racing through the hall with a million things on your mind, try to slow your pace and just focus on putting one foot in front of the other. Count your steps silently, if that helps. Use your movement as an opportunity to catch your breath and clear your mind as you transition from one space to another.

7. Make an authentic connection.

On super busy days it's easy to speak your students instead of them. Make it a goal to genuinely connect with individual students whenever you can, even if it's just a quick greeting in the morning. Look straight into their eyes and listen carefully to what they say, giving them your full focus, if just for a few moments. Here's a guide to learning to love even your most difficult students.
What are some hints that you can share on mindfulness for teachers? Come and share in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook. Plus, three activities for teaching kids mindfulness.

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7 Simple Ways to Sneak Mindfulness Into Your Teaching Day

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With so many daily demands it's no wonder teachers feel exhausted and burned out! Our guide to mindfulness for teachers will remind you to stop, breathe and let your body reenergize throughout the day, leading to a healthier, happier lifestyle.

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Over the course of my over forty years as an educator and researcher, I've learned that teachers are often incredibly altruistic and devoted to making a positive difference in children's lives. But too many of them are not well prepared for the social and emotional demands of today's classroom. Stressful conditions-like high-stakes testing or students with severe psychological problems-can lead us to feel discouraged, burnt-out, and ready to quit.

Most teacher training focuses primarily on content and pedagogy, overlooking the very real social, emotional, and cognitive demands of teaching itself. Luckily, learning and cultivating skills of mindfulness -the ability to stay focused on one's present experience with nonjudgmental awareness-can help us to promote the calm, relaxed, but enlivened classroom environment that children need to learn. Mindfulness can also help us to be more effective at reducing conflict and developing more positive ways of relating in the classroom, which can help us feel more job satisfaction.

How does mindfulness do this? By training our minds consciously to become more aware of our inner and outer experience, and learning how to manage our emotions.

In my new book, Mindfulness for Teachers, I outline several mindfulness practices-including focused breathing, open awareness, loving-kindness, and others-that teachers can use in the classroom, whether they want to invoke a sense of mindfulness in the classroom or to become a more mindful person, in general. These practices can help a teacher to slip into a mindful presence when it's most needed, allowing us to pay better attention to the learning environment and our students' needs within the classroom.

Here are some of the many ways that developing mindfulness can help us be better teachers.

1. Mindfulness helps teachers understand our own emotions better

When I teach, I sometimes notice that my mind is so focused on thinking about what I need to do and how to do it that I'm not paying attention to the present moment. I have expectations about how things ought to be and I become attached to them, rather than noticing and accepting how things actually are.

This causes distress, making me emotionally volatile, which in turn affects my perceptions and makes me more sensitive to threat. I may imagine a student's disruptive behavior is intentionally designed to interfere with my teaching when in fact it is the normal behavior of a child who needs help with his self-regulation. If I take his behavior personally, I may lose my temper and say something that makes matters worse.

Practicing mindfulness can help teachers to recognize our emotional patterns and proactively regulate how we behave, responding in the way we want to rather than reacting automatically. It can also help us to savor the positive moments in our job-when we feel the joy of true connection with our students or resonate with the joy and excitement our students feel when learning clicks for them.

2. Mindfulness helps us communicate more effectively with students

During my first year of teaching I had no idea how to get my students to pay attention to my lessons, respond to directions, or behave appropriately. I thought that if I was nice to my students, they would like me, want to please me, and do what I wanted them to do.

However, I was wrong. My students didn't respond or behave that way at all, and, day by day, my frustration grew to the point where I was impatient and snapping at them.

One day a supervisor came to observe my teaching and gave me some important feedback: She told me that I was saying "okay?" at the end of many of my instructions to students, giving them the message that whatever I asked of them was optional. No wonder they were so unresponsive!

After that feedback, I began to monitor myself to break this bad habit, and this helped me see how mindful self-awareness could help me succeed as a teacher.

3. Mindfulness helps us manage students we find difficult

All teachers have problems with particular students who misbehave in the classroom. Mindful awareness helps us attend to what's happening with a child to cause them to misbehave.

Sometimes students misbehave because the environment is inappropriate for their developmental stage-for example, we can't expect kindergarteners to sit quietly listening to an adult talk for long periods of time. Children exposed to trauma in their lives tend to be hyper vigilant-which consumes a lot of cognitive resources, and can lead them to learn more slowly than other students or to be overly sensitive to changes in environment.

Nonjudgmental awareness is an important aspect of mindfulness, too-one that involves accepting things as they are in the present moment. When we first practice mindful awareness, we often notice how hard it is not to judge. But, as we observe ourselves engaging in judgment, we become more aware of it in the moment, our mind begins to settle, and eventually our tendency to judge subsides.

Judgment often induces feelings of guilt and shame. Sometimes teachers judge their students harshly and unconsciously use guilt and shame as management techniques with their students-probably because they've learned these techniques as a child from their own parents. But there's plenty of evidence that this approach doesn't work. Rather than encouraging children to behave, it promotes resentment, distrust, and retaliation.

Mindfully recognizing our emotional responses toward students may help us understand why they are behaving the way they are. If we feel annoyed, the behavior is likely attention seeking. If we feel threatened, the behavior is likely a bid for power. If we feel hurt, the behavior is likely an attempt at revenge, and if we feel discouraged, the student is likely giving up. These feelings can help us respond more appropriately to the underlying issues of our students, and help us shift from a negative appraisal to a state of compassion.

4. Mindfulness helps us set up a positive learning environment

There is a mistaken belief among many teachers that we can and must control our students' behavior. This sets us up for power struggles, where our attempts to control are likely to backfire.

It's far better to create and maintain an effective learning environment by learning to control ourselves. We can control how we communicate, how we behave and where we position our bodies in space. We can set and reinforce expectations and limits. And, we can control the classroom physical space so that it supports learning.

A kindergarten teacher I know couldn't get his students to stop running in the classroom, even after repeated reminders, and he was getting very frustrated. But, once he became mindful of the fact that his classroom furniture was arranged to create distinct "runways" in the class space and remembered that children have a natural inclination to run in open spaces, he could see what needed to be done: he moved the furniture to block the runways, and the children stopped running.

Knowing what's going on in your classroom and with your students is critical to your ability to orchestrate the social-emotional dynamics and the physical spaces that are conducive to learning. Practicing mindful awareness helps you develop the skill of paying attention in the present moment and learning to see what's truly happening in your classroom, allowing you to come up with better solutions to problems you see.

5. Mindfulness helps strengthen our relationship with students

Research on effective classroom management points to the importance of teacher-student relationships. We can set up great management systems involving guidelines and limits, but if our students don't trust and respect us or think we don't respect them, we're in for some challenges.

Giving each student our full mindful attention for even a short period of class time gives them the message "I see you." By making a connection with our students, we let them know we value them as individuals.

Because the goal of school is learning, we naturally tend to signal to students that we value high academic achievement. However, we need to be mindful when we see students displaying non-academic attributes, such as helpfulness, friendliness, creativity, problem-solving, and conflict resolution, and to communicate that we value these as well. Students feel connection with teachers when they know their teachers truly see them and appreciate them.

6. Mindfulness helps us slow down when we need to

Sometimes as new teachers we can be overly concerned about getting through our lesson plans and can unconsciously start to rush. Slowing down and deliberately pausing for a moment of mindfulness can give us time to ask ourselves how we are feeling, what's happening in the classroom, and what our students need at that particular moment. It also models mindfulness for our students.

The speed at which students process information varies. Some students process auditory information very quickly, while others tend to have more visual or sensory-motor strengths. Younger children require more time to process than older children, though adults often forget this. No matter their ages, students process information better when there are given a little extra time, and consciously creating pauses throughout a lesson helps support learning.

Too often teachers forget to pause after asking a question or interrupt student pauses and hesitations, not giving students a chance to think through their answers. Pausing is helpful during lecturing (to give students time to absorb the information and consolidate their thinking) and during student work periods (to give students uninterrupted time to figure things out for themselves). It can also generate feelings of suspense and expectation, enlivening the classroom.

If we rush because we are anxious, we may miss these opportunities to deepen learning. Mindfulness can teach us to wait and be patient and to time our pauses appropriately.

7. Mindfulness helps us build community

Students have a basic need to belong to and contribute to a community. We can foster a sense of community by modeling caring and other prosocial behaviors, instituting caring routines, and mindfully listening to our students.

To cultivate a community of learners, we can provide students with opportunities to collaborate with and help one another-for example by having students work together in groups where each student has a specific task that contributes toward the outcome. Collaborative learning gives students the opportunity to help others and to reflect on the experiences and needs of others, which promotes empathy and perspective taking.

Another way to build community among students is through joint service learning projects, where students work together on giving back in some way to their community. Mindfully taking note of different student strengths and challenges can help teachers make these shared work opportunities enrich student learning and can help build a positive classroom climate.

In all of these ways, mindfulness can help teachers to be the best they can be and bring out the best in their students. Being able to approach a classroom with a sense of calm understanding and the skills to intervene appropriately can make learning a pleasure for everyone.

Greater Good wants to know: Do you think this article will influence your opinions or behavior?

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Seven Ways Mindfulness Can Help Teachers

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Patricia A. Jennings explains why teachers should cultivate moment-to-moment awareness of thoughts, feelings, and surroundings.

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Just keep breathing, just keep breathing.

Deep breathing and mindfulness have long been considered solutions to stress; the focus on inhales and exhales centers us in the present moment and keep us grounded and focused. It's no surprise, then, that meditation and breathing apps are a top way to help combat anxiety and depression, as well as life's everyday challenges. We're finding them especially useful for keeping ourselves calm and grounded through the pandemic.

These specific apps focus on meditation, deep breathing, and sleep sounds. Many include daily push reminders, guided lessons, calming music, and nature sounds to round out the experience. Keep calm and carry on.

If you want to get your kids involved, here are the best mindfulness apps for youngsters! And if you're seeking out one-to-one support, we have online therapy options that are both affordable and accessible.

1. Calm

Best For | Meditation & anxiety |Free for basic features, $69.99/annually for Calm Premium, or one-time purchase for lifetime membership ($399.99)
Features |Guided & open-ended meditations, sleep stories, Daily Calm, mindfulness programs & masterclasses

Previously named the #1 App of the Year by Apple, Calm is a game changer for those in need of peace. It's one of the top ranking apps in the Health and Fitness category, for good reason. Millions of people swear by Calm for their breathing programs, stretching exercises, and even sleep stories (voiced by the likes of Matthew McConaughey and Bob Ross). Whether you're a beginner and want to try a weeklong trial or you're ready to commit to the 21-day meditation program, Calm will help keep you grounded and reflective on the daily.

2. Headspace

Best For | Meditation & anxiety |Free for basic features, $12.99/monthly or $69.99/annually for a premium membership | Free basics course, guided & short meditations, sleep time sounds, focus & bedtime practices, Headspace at Work options

If you're new to meditation, check out Headspace -the app is the best 101 we've found, and we love the 10-day basics course. Created in tandem with scientific research and meditation history, Headspace takes a clinical approach to the many benefits of mindfulness. With hundreds of meditation options starting at three minutes and resourceful blog posts on sleep, stress, and mindfulness, you can gently hone your skills with clarity and reduce anxiety levels in a few days.

3. Liberate

Best For | Black community-centered meditation|Free for basic features, $9.99/monthly or $71.99/annually for a premium membership; reduced-cost options available at $4.99/month
Features | Black experience-focused meditations, 40+ BIPOC teachers, 5-25 minute meditations, offline listening available

Liberate is both a meditation app and safe space designed by, and for, the Black community. There are over 260+ meditations available between five and 25 minutes, covering topics like microaggressions, internalized racism, ancestral healing, and forgiveness. Committed to accessibility, Liberate offers reduced-cost subscriptions for individuals, nonprofits, and first responders. Led by more than 40+ BIPOC teachers and a diverse team, Liberate aims to "help the Black community collectively heal and be free."

4. MyLife™

Best For | Breathing & meditation for adults & children|Free for basic features, $9.99/monthly or $58.99/annually for a premium membership, or one-time purchase for lifetime membership ($249.99)
Features | Customized surveys for guided meditations, integrates with Alexa, 400+ activities, free for educators & counselors

MyLife™ understands the power of mindfulness, especially when it comes to how you're actually feeling. With glowing reviews from the Wall Street Journal and Fast Company, MyLife™ helps you tune in to your emotions and check in with your innermost thoughts with customized surveys and personalized activities. MyLife™'s sibling app, Stop, Breathe, & Think also offers tailored experiences for teens and kids as young as five years old so that anyone in your household (or classroom!) can benefit from the power of calm and quiet.

5. Simply Being

Best For |Affordable meditation| $1.99 |Five meditation time-lengths up to 30 minutes, additional music/nature sounds

Launched by the Maddux duo (they have more than 40 years of meditation training and are most known for their popular Meditative Oasis podcast and apps), Simply Being offers you peace during the most stressful moments of the day. With five time-lengths and an intuitive user experience, you'll find yourself immersed in soothing music and gentle instructions. For just $1.99, you can unlock everything within the app, including optional nature sounds and 30-minute voice-guided meditation.

6. iBreathe

Best For |Breathing & anxiety| Free for basic features, $1.99 to remove ads & customize options|Pre-defined presets, customizable reminders, can send breathing exercises to others

If ease-of-use is the name of the game, then iBreathe is right up your alley. This uber-simple, beautifully designed app reduces clutter to ensure a mindful and centered experience. Whether you're battling anxiety or insomnia, iBreathe offers deep breathing exercises for relief. Best of all, the app pushes reminders to your phone, so you can take some time out of your busy day to be fully present. Plus, you can send breathing exercises to friends and go through them together for shared moments of zen.

7. Breathe+ Simple Breath Trainer

Best For |Breathing visualizations| Free for basic features, $4.99 to unlock all premium features & remove ads |Custom inhale/exhale time-lengths, guided sessions up to 60 minutes, reminders

Therapists and guides alike will recommend breath visualization for meditation or daily relaxation. Breathe+ Simple Breath Trainer is a stunning visualization tool where you can literally see your inhales and exhales (timed to your preference). And if you want to close your eyes, you can set up a vibrate function to let you know when it's time to switch between the two. With guided session lengths up to one hour (or freeform if that's more your thing), you'll feel ultra-relaxed in both mind and body.

8. Breethe

Best For | Pre-sleep mindfulness | Free for basic features, $12.95/monthly or $89.95/annuallyfor a premium membership, or one-time purchase for lifetime membership ($149.95)
Features | Playlists, readings & stories, guided meditations & masterclasses, 12-week daily program, options for kids & teens, reminders, syncs across multiple devices

If you're dealing with sleep issues, we highly recommend giving Bree the a try, given the app's expertise with hypnotherapy and bedtime stories. Breethe is your own personal mindfulness coach, and you can see results in just five minutes flat. With over 1,500 stories and guided meditations, you can combat anxiety, sleep more soundly, or reduce stress using the curated sounds and bedtime visualizations, among other features. When you wake from your restful slumber, you can also start your day with gentle alarm clock and morning meditations.

9. Simple Habit

Best For | On-the-go sessions with experts| Free for basic features, $11.99/monthly or $89.99/annually for a premium membership, or one-time purchase for lifetime membership ($299.99)
Features | Five-minute meditations, over 500 free sessions & motivational talks, led by experts, integrates with Apple Health

For even the busiest person, meditation can become a daily practice thanks to Simple Habit (first seen on "Shark Tank"). Made for people on-the-go, this app will have you feeling calmer and breathing more easily within five minutes, all that's needed to improve your mind-space. You'll be guided through each meditation by experts at Google or former monks, which can be accessed both on- and offline-ideal for those with flying anxiety.

10. Breathe In

Best For | Calm & focus| $5.99/annually or $0.99/monthly, or one-time purchase for lifetime membership ($15.99)
Features | Simple exercises, visualizations, reminders, 5-minute guided meditations

Often times, the key to a rest and relaxation is breathing consciously. Breathe In: Calm Exercises & Guided Meditation app helps you focus on breaths and ignore distractions in a couple of minutes. Set up cycles of inhales and exhales and let the app do all the work; you can also set reminders for when you'd like to take that time again or opt for a guided meditation. Easy, ethereal, and engaging, this app is sure to give you the relief and focus you've been hoping for.
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RELATED READING

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The 10 Best Meditation & Breathing Apps To Reduce Anxiety - The Good Trade

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Deep breathing and mindfulness have long been considered solutions to stress; the focus on inhales and exhales centers us in the present moment and keep us grounded and focused. It's no surprise, then, that meditation and breathing apps are a top way to help combat anxiety and depression, as well as life's everyday challenges.

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2 Minute Re-Centering Mindfulness Meditation for De-stressing

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Mindfulness is the simple process of noticing new things about the familiar. When we notice actively, we become sensitive to perspective and change."

Ellen Langer, professor of psychology

Mindfulness and meditation may help:

Mindfulness can help us recognize that some fear reactions are disproportional to the threat, and thus reduces the fear response ..."

Sara Lazar, MGH Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program

Sit on a straight-backed chair or comfortably on the floor.

Focus on your breath and pay attention to things such as the sensations of air flowing into your nostrils and out of your mouth, or your belly rising and falling as you inhale and exhale.

Once you've narrowed your concentration in this way, begin to widen your focus. Become aware of sounds, sensations, and ideas.

Embrace and consider each thought or sensation without judging it good or bad. If your mind starts to race, return your focus to your breathing. Then expand your awareness again.

Calm your mind

Harvard's Center for Wellness and Health Promotion offers a number of pre-recorded mediations for anyone to explore.

See more meditations

Quiet Harvard spaces

There are several quiet, restful places on and near campus that are conducive to contemplation and reflection.
Due to pandemic restrictions, some spaces may currently be closed.

Explore the spaces

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Mindfulness is the simple process of noticing new things about the familiar. When we notice actively, we become sensitive to perspective and change." Ellen Langer, professor of psychology Mindfulness and meditation may help: Mindfulness can help us recognize that some fear reactions are disproportional to the threat, and thus reduces the fear response ..."

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If you've been following this blog, you know that there are countless ways to apply mindfulness in your everyday life.

You have probably also noticed that there are tons of benefits of practicing mindfulness regularly.

Although we've talked about these benefits in a few other places, we thought it would be helpful to provide one resource that breaks down all of the great benefits of practicing mindfulness in one place, with sources to back them up.

If you're wondering what you can get out of being mindful, read on to learn about all the great things mindfulness can do for you!

Before you read on, we thought you might like to download our 3 Mindfulness Exercises for free. These science-based, comprehensive exercises will not only help you cultivate a sense of inner peace throughout your daily life but will also give you the tools to enhance the mindfulness of your clients, students or employees.

You can download the free PDF here.

The 5 Most Common Benefits of Mindfulness

We'll start with some of the benefits you probably already expect from mindfulness, like enhancing your ability to deal with everyday struggles.

1. Decreased Stress

If you read our piece on Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), you know that mindfulness is considered a key element to fighting stress.

An entire stress reduction program, with decades of experience and tens of thousands of practitioners, is an excellent indication that mindfulness works.

In addition to the outcomes of MBSR, there have been numerous studies supporting the idea that mindfulness reduces stress.

One study on present-moment awareness found that it facilitates an adaptive response to daily stressors (Donald, Atkins, Parker, Christie, & Ryan, 2016). Another study by Donald and Atkins (2016) found evidence that mindfulness produced less avoidance and more approach coping as a response to stress than relaxation or self-affirmation controls.

Mindfulness can also help alleviate stress by improving emotion regulation, leading to a better mood and better ability to handle stress (Remmers, Topolinski, & Koole, 2016).

The impact of mindfulness on stress can also be seen in several specific groups, including:

Those who suffer from restless legs syndrome (Bablas, Yap, Cunnington, Swieca, & Greenwood, 2016);

Parents (Gouveia, Carona, Canavarro, & Moreira, 2016);

Healthcare professionals (Burton, Burgess, Dean, Koutsopoulou, & Hugh-Jones, 2017);

Veterans with depression and/or PTSD (Felleman, Stewart, Simpson, & Heppner, 2016);

Police officers (Bergman, Christopher, & Bowen, 2016).

For an excellent dive into how mindfulness affects the experience of stress, check out the Little Book of Mindfulness by Rebecca Howden and Medibank. I'll leave it to them to dive into the nitty-gritty, but I'll describe their explanation of the relaxation response.

Howden and Medibank first list the symptoms of stress, including:

Constantly feeling anxious and worried;

Feeling irritable, agitated and easily annoyed;

Argumentative and defensive with friends and family;

Restless sleeping;

Low levels of energy, often waking up feeling tired;

Restless and frenetic mind;

Often self-critical and/or critical of others;

Feeling flat and uninspired;

Having difficulty concentrating;

Skin rashes and conditions;

Clenching your jaw muscles and grinding your teeth at night;

Headaches and migraines.

When you induce a state of relaxation, which can be achieved through mindfulness, another kind of meditation, or other activities, you can reap the benefits, including:

Higher brain functioning;

Increased immune function;

Lowered blood pressure;

Lowered heart rate;

Increased awareness;

Increased attention and focus;

Increased clarity in thinking and perception;

Lowered anxiety levels;

Experience of being calm and internally still;

Experience of feeling connected.

Gaining these benefits can be as simple as closing your eyes and being silent for a few minutes a day. This is a practice that is so easy, anyone can do it!

2. Enhanced Ability to Deal with Illness

Perhaps one of the most studied groups in terms of the impacts of mindfulness is cancer patients and others who are suffering from a chronic or potentially terminal illness.

Mindfulness may not take away their symptoms, but it can help make them more manageable.

For example, the eCALM trial, a therapy program for cancer patients, found that mindfulness can reduce symptoms of stress, enhance spirituality and non-reactivity to experience, facilitate post-traumatic growth, and enhance vigor while relieving fatigue (Zernicke, Campbell, Speca, ruff, Tamagawa, & Carlson, 2016).

Another cancer-specific mindfulness program decreased rumination and worry and increased observing and nonjudging in cancer patients (Labelle, Campbell, Faris, & Carlson, 2015).

An exploration of MBSR for those suffering from chronic low back pain found that mindfulness improved patients' ability to function independently and resulted in less back pain than treatment as usual (Cherkin, Sherman, Balderson, Cook, Anderson, Hawkes, Hansen, & Turner, 2016).

Mindfulness can also help patients to focus less on the pain, improving their quality of life (Garland & Howard, 2013).

A study on the use of MBSR with lung cancer patients and their partners showed that mindfulness can instigate a process of positive change in patients and their partners, as well as relieving caregiver burden in partners (van den Hurk, Schellekens, Molema, Speckens, & van der Drift, 2015).

Similarly, a review of MBSR for family caregivers found that mindfulness can decrease stress, depression, and anxiety in those caring for a loved one who is sick (Li, Yuan, & Zhang, 2016).

3. Facilitation of Recovery

Mindfulness can not only help you deal with a chronic or potentially terminal illness or life-threatening event, but it can also help you move on from it.

A study of MBSR in Chinese breast cancer survivors provided evidence that mindfulness can enhance post-traumatic growth and decrease stress and anxiety in cancer patients (Zhang, Zhou, Feng, Fan, Zeng, & Wei, 2017).

Another study of young breast cancer survivors showed that women who practiced mindfulness were more likely to experience increased self-kindness, decreased rumination, and decreased stress (Boyle, Stanton, Ganz, Crespi, & Bower, 2017).

Mindfulness, yoga, and meditation have also been found to decrease anxiety and facilitate post-traumatic growth in breast cancer survivors, in addition to increasing vigor and spirituality (Tamagawa, Speca, Stephen, Lawlor-Savage, & Carlson, 2015).

4. Decreased Depressive Symptoms

Mindfulness has long been considered an effective supplemental treatment for depression.

It has been found to decrease depressive symptoms, anxiety, and stress in college students, as well as increasing self-compassion when compared with yoga alone (Falsafi, 2016).

One of the ways in which mindfulness can help treat depression is through enhancing practitioners' ability to regulate their emotions. Mindfulness provides the tools needed to step back from intense negative emotions, identify them, and accept them instead of fighting them. This allows mindful thinkers to better regulate their emotions, leading to better coping and management of depression.

A study by Costa and Barnhofer (2016) backs this theory. They found that, when compared to guided imagery relaxation, a brief training in mindfulness helped participants struggling with depression to reduce their symptoms through greater emotion regulation.

Another study found that MBCT reduced depressive episodes, which not only helped participants feel better but also had positive impacts on their health care costs (Shawyer, Enticott, Özmen, Inder, & Meadows, 2016).

Mindfulness is even effective for people dealing with the most critical of depressive symptoms: suicidal ideation, or thoughts of suicide. In chronically depressed participants with suicidal thoughts, mindfulness was more effective than treatment as usual in reducing these thoughts (Forkmann, Brakemeier, Teismann, Schramm, & Michalak, 2016).

5. Improved General Health

Beyond the many mental health benefits of mindfulness, it can also improve your general health.

For example, a study of how the two facets of mindfulness impact health behaviors found that practicing mindfulness can enhance or increase multiple behaviors related to health, like getting regular health check-ups, being physically active, using seat belts, and avoiding nicotine and alcohol (Jacobs, Wollny, Sim, & Horsch, 2016).

Another study on mindfulness and health showed that mindfulness is related to improved cardiovascular health through a lower incidence of smoking, more physical activity, and a healthier body mass index (Loucks, Britton, Howe, Eaton, & Buka, 2015).

Additionally, mindfulness has been positively linked with lower blood pressure, especially when the practitioner is skilled in nonjudging and nonreactivity (Tomfohr, Pung, Mills, & Edwards, 2015).

Finally, in a study on the impacts of mindfulness on the psychological and physical health of obese or overweight adults, researchers found that mindfulness helped participants lose weight, improve their eating behaviors and attitudes, and decrease depression and anxiety (Rogers, Ferrari, Mosely, Lang, & Brennan, 2017).

While all of these benefits of mindfulness can be experienced by children as well as adults, there are some benefits that have been found specifically in young people. These are outlined in the next section.

Health Benefits of Mindfulness for Kids and Students

Many studies have been conducted using college students as participants, as they are an easily accessible population that is often willing to participate for simple incentives like extra credit or some extra spending money.

Mindfulness studies with children as the participants are becoming more common as well, as more and more benefits of mindfulness on early development are discovered. We'll describe some of the amazing outcomes associated with mindfulness on children, teens, and young adults here.

Benefits for College Students

Adults are not the only ones who can reap the benefits of mindfulness.

College students have also experienced incredible positive impacts resulting from the practice of mindfulness.

A study on mindfulness in college students found that medical and psychology students who practiced mindfulness reported improvements in a wide range of areas, including decreased reactivity, increased curiosity and affect tolerance, improved patience, and self-acceptance, and enhanced relational qualities (Solhaug, Eriksen, de Vibe, Haavind, Friborg, Sørlie, & Rosenvinge, 2016).

Problems with alcohol are more prevalent in college students than many other populations and can lead to serious issues with both academic progress and life in general. Mindfulness may be an effective tool for addressing this issue, as it has been negatively linked with alcohol problems and can help students deal with the stress that may prompt drinking in this population (Bodenlos, Noonan, & Wells, 2013).

Mindfulness has also been shown to be an important link between the depressive symptoms that spring from alcohol-related problems and the incidence of drinking to cope in college students (Bravo, Pearson, Stevens, & Henson, 2016).

College students who practice or have practiced mindfulness were less likely to experience depression stemming from the use of alcohol to cope with their problems.

Another study on drinking in college students found that those who practice mindfulness are engaged in lower rates of problematic drinking, especially those proficient in acting with awareness and nonjudging (Vinci, Spears, Peltier, & Copeland, 2016).

The effects of mindfulness on the likelihood of drinking may be due in part to the impact of mindfulness on self-control. College students who participated in mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) reported enhanced self-control and vitality, among other outcomes (Canby, Cameron, Calhoun, & Buchanan, 2015).

Similarly, a study on mindfulness and emotion regulation in college students found that higher levels of mindfulness predicted better regulation of emotions and suppression of thoughts (MacDonald & Baxter, 2016). Better self-regulation and self-control contribute to the more effective positive inhibition of destructive behaviors and, in turn, greater psychological well-being.

In general, children are not likely to have the same problems college students do (especially problems like over-imbibing!), but there are many areas in which mindfulness can have positive outcomes for children.

Improved Academic Success

Mindfulness is known to be effective in helping students achieve academic success in a variety of ways, and this benefit is not reserved for any specific group.

The following groups of children have enjoyed the benefits of mindfulness when it comes to their academic performance:

Elementary students who practice mindfulness exhibit greater prosocial behaviors, emotion regulation, and academic performance (Harpin, Rossi, Kim, & Swanson, 2016);

Teenagers studying for a general education certificate who participated in a mindfulness program experienced lower depression and anxiety, which contributed to improved academic attainment (Bennett & Dorjee, 2016);

Children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds who participated in a five-week mindfulness program reported decreased stress, allowing them to focus on school (Costello & Lawler, 2014);

Urban male youth who participated in MBSR experienced less stress, anxiety, and negative coping, improving their ability to deal with academic stress and achieve academic success (Sibinga, Perry-Parrish, Chung, Johnson, Smith, & Ellen, 2013);

Children with ADHD displayed less aggression and conduct problems when exposed to mindfulness therapy, which helps them focus on their academics (Singh, Soamya, & Ramnath, 2016);

Homeless middle school students who participated in a mindfulness course reported greater well-being and a higher incidence of using mindfulness in school, which can lead to greater quality of life and academic achievement (Viafora, Mathiesen, & Unsworth, 2015).

Buffer against Bullying and Depression

Mindfulness can even help kids deal with bullies!

A Chinese study on bullying victims and depression showed that mindfulness can protect children against the depressive symptoms that can arise from being victimized by bullies (Zhou, Liu, Niu, Sun, & Fan, 2017).

A dissertation by Sandra Mccloy (2005) on mindfulness as a coping tool for bullying suggested that mindfulness can help children consider perspectives other than their own and find constructive reactions in the face of bullying.

Mindfulness may even be an effective tool for addressing bullying at the source. Improving empathy with tools like mindfulness and improving social and emotional learning could be the key to stopping bullies before they become bullies (Kaldis & Abramiuk, 2016).

Provide Support and Boost Resilience

Mindfulness can also aid children who have been involved in the welfare or mental health care system. A study on a mindfulness program for vulnerable children found that mindfulness improved emotion regulation, mood, empathy, confidence and self-esteem, coping and social skills, and ability to pay attention and focus (Coholic & Eys, 2016).

Resilience is a very effective skill for children to cope with daily struggles and develop emotionally, psychologically, and academically. Mindfulness training has been shown to boost resilience in children and help them understand and regulate their own emotions (Coholic, 2011; Coholic, Eys, & Lougheed, 2012).

In the classroom, mindfulness can be as simple as adding a station for students to visit any time they are feeling a hard emotion. This station can have crayons and be a "pause" station for students to spend 5-10 minutes before reflecting on the emotion.

Another study showed that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for children reduced problem behaviors, attention problems, and anxiety while improving children's social-emotional resiliency (Semple, Lee, Rosa, & Miller, 2010).

And the benefits of mindfulness don't stop here. Mindfulness in the workplace also has numerous benefits for all levels of staff.

Advantages of Integrating Mindfulness in the Workplace

Although many of the benefits of mindfulness described above can and do affect individuals in all areas of their lives including work, mindfulness' impact on job performance may be the outcome that gets the most attention and interest from managers and executives.

There are several ways that mindfulness has been shown to impact job performance, including:

Gallant (2016) found that mindfulness can improve executive functioning by improving inhibition abilities;

Mindfulness in service industry workers improves job performance, even when controlling for workers' level of engagement (Dane & Brummel, 2014);

De Bruin, Formsma, Frijstein, & Bögels (2017) showed that mindfulness in the workplace can actually increase the number of contract hours worked by employees, a result that will certainly catch the attention of higher-ups;

Office employees who participated in an eight-week mindfulness intervention experienced lower levels of work-related stress, greater job satisfaction, and, ultimately, enhanced job performance as rated by their employers (Shonin, Van Gordon, Dunn, Singh, & Griffiths, 2014).

Beyond job performance, mindfulness has also been applied to the workplace for other benefits that can contribute to a healthy and productive work environment.

Reduced Work-Related Stress and Psychological Distress

One of the most common benefits of practicing mindfulness in the workplace is the decrease in stress experienced by employees.

Researchers Grégoire and Lachance (2015) found that employees at call centers who took part in a brief mindfulness intervention reported decreased stress, anxiety, depression, fatigue, and negative affect, while also experiencing greater satisfaction at work.

Similarly, employees from the Dow Chemical Company enjoyed less stress and increased resiliency and vigor after completing an online mindfulness intervention (Aikens, Astin, Pelletier, Levanovich, Baase, Park, & Bodnar, 2014).

Huang, Li, Huang, and Tang (2015) also found that mindfulness reduces stress, fatigue, and psychological distress, especially for employees struggling with poor mental health.

A study of public sector employees showed that this group was also able to benefit from the mental health effects of mindfulness. These employees reported less stress, reduced psychological distress, and improved social functioning and quality of life (Bartlett, Lovell, Otahal, Sanderson, & Tasmania, 2016).

Decreasing Turnover and Burnout

Along with the decreases in stress, mindfulness can also lower the incidence of burnout and turnover at work.

Researchers Taylor and Millear (2016) found that mindfulness helps employees construct a buffer between their work and becoming burned out.

Dane and Brummel's (2014) study also discovered an inverse relationship between mindfulness and turnover intention, meaning that employees who are higher in mindfulness are less likely to leave their jobs for any reason. The study referenced earlier by de Bruin and colleagues (2017) also uncovered the reduction in the risk of employees dropping out of work when mindfulness is encouraged in the workplace.

Burnout seems to occur less in workplaces that encourage and offer spaces for mindfulness.

Goodman and Schorling (2012) found that mindfulness-based stress reduction reduced work-related burnout and improved mental well-being among healthcare providers. A study of Australian psychologists added more support to this theory, finding a strong negative association between mindfulness and burnout (Di Benedetto & Swadling, 2014).

Further research on mindfulness at work showed that mindfulness can act as a buffer for unsupportive work environments, enhancing well-being at work and contributing to lower levels of burnout for employees from a range of careers (Schultz, Ryan, Niemiec, Legate, & Williams, 2015).

Clearly, mindfulness has some extremely positive impacts on both individuals and the work they produce. But how does mindfulness produce these outcomes?

Research on Mindfulness and the Brain

Recently, a lot of research has been conducted on what effects mindfulness has on the brain. It's clear that practicing mindfulness can lead to positive outcomes, but many researchers want to know why it works as well.

This is where neuroplasticity comes in.

Explaining Neuroplasticity

Neuroplasticity is, at its most basic level, the ability of the brain to change and adapt over time.

This adaptation happens regularly, as the brain constantly works to make itself more efficient and effective, but neuroplasticity is of specific interest to researchers in the context of brain injuries like a stroke. Our brains can actually reorganize themselves to ensure that functions continue unhindered after a traumatic injury (Honan, 2017).

Whenever we complete a new task or find a more effective way to do something, our brain takes note, often making structural or connection changes to facilitate our next attempt at this task.

When we practice mindfulness, we send the message to our brain that we are more effective at dealing with everyday tasks when we are aware, observant, nonreactive, and nonjudgmental. This causes our brain to make the changes that will improve our ability to function mindfully.

Note: For the more neurobiologically inclined among our readers, continue on in this section to read more about how the brain changes after practicing mindfulness. If you've already had enough talk of brain structures and gray matter, feel free to skip the jargon and head straight to the next section!

For example, meditation practice has been linked to an increased thickness in the cortex, an area that is important for a general cognitive function like attention and sensory processing (Lazar et al., 2005).

Similarly, long-term meditation is linked with a denser gray matter in the brain stem, an area that is linked to cardiorespiratory control (Vestergaard-Poulsen, van Beek, Skewes, Bjarkam, Stubberup, Bertelsen, & Reopstorff, 2009). This may help explain how mindfulness produces positive outcomes in cardiovascular, as well as general, health.

A study on an 8-week MBSR program showed that the regular practice of mindfulness increased grey matter in the left hippocampus, an area involved in learning and memory (Hölzel, Carmody, Vangel, Congleton, Yerramsetti, Gard, & Lazar, 2011). This finding can help us make sense of the improvements in academic achievement and job performance that can result from mindfulness.

Mindfulness has also been shown to result in changes in white matter, particularly in areas involving brain interconnection and self-regulation (Tang, Lu, Fan, Yang, & Posner, 2012). You'll recall from above that improved self-regulation is a key result of mindfulness practice, and can lead to a plethora of advantageous outcomes.

In general, mindfulness is known to impact brain systems that control emotion regulation and self-awareness (Paulus, 2016), which makes sense given the outcomes we have seen in the practice of mindfulness.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

More specifically, one study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess changes in the brain after an eight-week mindfulness course.

Results showed that the prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus, and other areas experienced heightened activity and connectivity, while the amygdala experienced decreased functional activity and earlier deactivation after exposure to emotionally charged stimuli (Gotink, Meijboom, Vernooji, Smits, & Hunink, 2016).

This means that the areas of the brain associated with higher-level functioning were more active, while the area of the brain that handles stress and strong emotions was less involved. These findings match the behavioral changes we see after a mindfulness program, like better emotion regulation, less reactivity, and even better performance on tasks.

Another study of brain activity related to mindfulness found evidence that mindfulness is associated with areas of the brain related to memory retrieval, decision making, and outward attention, all functions which can help link the bridge between mindfulness and improved mental health and job performance, among other outcomes (Gartenschläger, Schreckenberger, Buccholz, Reiner, Beutel, Adler, & Michal, 2017).

While the science of neuroplasticity in relation to mindfulness is still relatively young (as neuroscience as a whole is relatively young!), these studies and others have provided a solid foundation for continuing research on how mindfulness impacts the brain.

The Importance of Consistent Practice

"Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most."

Buddha

While everyone has something to gain from practicing mindfulness, there is one caveat: to reap the maximum benefits of mindfulness, it truly needs to be a practice, meaning that it must occur regularly and often.

Nearly all of the articles mentioned above on the benefits of mindfulness are based on a mindfulness practice of five to eight weeks, or more. While a regular practice is vital, it does not need to be a huge commitment. Even a brief, 10-minute daily practice can result in more efficient cognition and better self-regulation (Moore, Gruber, Derose, & Malinowski, 2012)!

Another study on the effects of a 10-minute mindfulness exercise showed that even just a few minutes of mindfulness practice can lead to better executive attention and recognition memory, leading to better performance on a simple task (Watier & Dubois, 2016).

If you need some tips on how to commit to a regular mindfulness practice, try the following (Lucid Living, 2013):

Find the right motivation and intention. If you are experiencing a busy day or just don't feel like practicing mindfulness, it might help to remind yourself why you practice and what it can do for you.

Find the right attitude and attention. Each practice will be different, but try not to think of them as "better" or "worse." There is no bad way to become more mindful.

Find the right time and timing. Just as each practice will be different, the length of time appropriate for your practice can vary as well. Some days you may need only a few minutes, and other times you may want to stick with it for a bit longer to make sure you have a rewarding experience.

Find the right spot and posture. It's important to feel safe and secure, wherever you decide to practice. That may be on a cushion on the floor, in your office chair at work, or even sitting in your car in traffic. You will benefit from finding a comfortable and familiar spot for your regular practice, but there's no harm in modifying your seat or posture if circumstances require it!

Find the right routine and stick to it! Although the length, location, and posture of your practice can and will change depending on your situation, it's best to make a minimum commitment when it comes to frequency. Whether practicing once a day works best for you, or multiple times a day, find a routine that you will be able to stick to in the long-term.

Another helpful way to support your commitment to a daily practice of mindfulness is to assign a different value to each day's practice.

Dr. Amit Sood, the chair of the Mayo Mind Body Initiative, provides the following mindfulness schedule as a template:

Monday: Gratitude - Find things to be thankful for throughout your day, and include them in your loving kindness meditation or a gratitude journal;

Tuesday: Compassion - Set an intention to decrease any pain or suffering in others that you encounter throughout your day;

Wednesday: Acceptance - Accept yourself as you are and others as they are; appreciate yourself and other people without trying to change them;

Thursday: Meaning and Purpose - Think about your ultimate purpose in life, and where and how you find meaning;

Friday: Forgiveness - Forgive yourself first, then extend your forgiveness to others for any past transgressions;

Saturday: Celebration - Make sure to take a day to celebrate all the joy in your life and the lives of others;

Sunday: Reflection - Reflect on your week, your month, your year, or whatever period of time makes sense to you at the moment. This can be accomplished through meditation, prayer, or simple awareness.

A Take-Home Message

This article was packed with a lot of information, but I hope you found that it was worth your time.

To recap, this article included numerous potential benefits of practicing mindfulness for adults, children, and employees, including:

Decreased stress and psychological distress in adults and employees;

Enhanced mental health and functioning;

Increased emotion regulation and self-control;

Decreased anxiety, depression, worry, and rumination;

Reduced incidence of problem drinking and symptoms associated with problem drinking;

Enhanced academic achievement in students, due to improved ability to focus and improved attention;

Improved social and relational skills;

Reduction in aggression and problem behaviors in children;

Reduced symptoms of burnout in employees;

A decrease in turnover and turnover intentions at work;

Enhanced job performance;

Increased ability to cope with bullying;

Enhanced resilience in children.

There are so many amazing benefits to practicing mindfulness, with more being discovered all the time. With such positive potential outcomes, the reasons not to practice mindfulness are quickly evaporating.

If you've decided to give mindfulness a try, restart a stalled practice, or if you're looking to enrich your mindfulness practice or contribute to a healthy practice by your clients, check out our pieces on mindfulness-based stress reduction, mindfulness exercises and techniques for adults, and mindfulness exercises and techniques for children and teens.

I hope you find these tips and techniques as helpful as I did!

Thanks for reading, and please be sure to let us know in the comments section if you have experienced any of these benefits in your practice, or benefits not listed here.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don't forget to download our 3 Mindfulness Exercises for free.

If you wish to learn more, Mindfulness X© is our 8-module mindfulness training package for practitioners which contains all the materials you'll need to not only enhance your mindfulness skills but also learn how to deliver a science-based mindfulness training to your clients, students or employees.

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23 Amazing Health Benefits of Mindfulness for Body and Brain

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If you've been following this blog, you know that there are countless ways to apply mindfulness in your everyday life. You have probably also noticed that there are tons of benefits of practicing mindfulness regularly.

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Podcast: Dr. Laurie Santos 'Are We Born to Work? Or Born to Live'?

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Podcast: Dr. Laurie Santos 'Are We Born to Work? Or Born to Live'?

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Q: “Are We Born to Work? Or Born to Live?” | The Happiness Lab | Dr. Laurie Santos

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The Pool Cleaner: Cleaning the Reflecting Pools at the 9/11 Memorial Honors a Painful History | TIME

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Brené and Barrett on Living Into Our Values

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Listen to this episode from Unlocking Us with Brené Brown on Spotify. We're back, and we are starting the year with a deep dive into values. I'm not a fan of resolutions, but I absolutely believe in the power of resetting.

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How To Improve Your Sleep | Matthew Walker

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Everything you need to know about sleep, but are too tired to ask

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Ask neuroscientist Matthew Walker, author of the new book, Why We Sleep, about the downside of pulling an all-nighter, and he'll rattle off a list of ill effects that range from memory loss and a compromised immune system to junk food cravings and wild mood swings.

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6 tips for better sleep | Sleeping with Science, a TED series

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The real reason why we are tired and what to do about it | Saundra Dalton-Smith | TEDxAtlanta

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You get at least seven hours of sleep every night. (Most nights. OK, some nights.) You do yoga twice a week. You spent all of Sunday on the couch, binge-watching Bridgerton. So why are you still feeling... blah? According to a now-viral TED Talk by Saundra Dalton-Smith M.D., it's because you're not getting all of the seven types of rest your body needs. Even if you're getting enough sleep, you're probably feeling drained and tired if you've spent ten of your waking hours staring at screens, sitting in meetings and tackling your to-do list. "Rest is the most underused, chemical-free, safe and effective alternative therapy available to us," Dalton-Smith tells us. So if sleep alone just isn't cutting it, it's time to incorporate these seven types of rest into your routine.

1. Physical Rest

Dalton-Smith explains that physical rest can be either active or passive. Passive physical rest is when your body is actually asleep, like when we're sleeping at night. But even if you spent the night tossing and turning, it's not too late to add some passive physical rest to your day. "If we have a bad night of sleep, taking a nap during the day can have restorative effects on our alertness and performance," adds Frida Rångtell, PhD and sleep expert at Sleep Cycle. Active physical rest, on the other hand, is an activity that restores the body, like yoga, massage therapy or stretching. While this type of rest isn't as crucial as passive physical rest to your daily functioning, it is still extremely important to get some form of physical rest at least two or three times a week.

2. Mental Rest

Call it brain fog. The post-lunch haze. The 2 p.m. slump. This sudden whoosh of exhaustion is your body telling you that it's time for a mental rest ASAP. One set-it-and-forget-it way to take effective mental breaks? Get your technology to work for you, instead of the other way around, says Dalton-Smith. Use your phone or computer to schedule a ten-minute break every two hours. During that break, take a quick walk, grab a snack, take deep breaths and use it as your time to rest and reset, so you'll be ready for another two hours of productive work. And if you're having an extra stressful day, it may be beneficial to pull the plug on technology entirely. "We can also rest our minds by being unavailable for some time and disconnecting from the internet, social media and our emails," Rångtell explains. Even a 15-minute break can make a huge difference.

3. Sensory Rest

Take a look around for a second. How many lights are on in your room right now? Are there any screens in your view? What about noise-from the street, your dog or your toddler, crunching crackers with his mouth open? Whether you notice it or not, your senses are being overwhelmed with tons of stimuli all day long. "The bright lights, computer screens, the background noise of phones ringing and multiple conversations going on in the office can all cause our senses to be overwhelmed," Dalton-Smith says. "If left unchecked, this can lead to sensory overload syndrome." This calls for a sensory rest: Unplug your electronics, turn the lights off if possible and shut your eyes for a few minutes to recharge. And if you're feeling seriously depleted, consider a one-day (or one-week, if you're really up for the challenge) vacation from all unnecessary electronics. It's as restful as a week at the beach. (Well, almost.)

4. Creative Rest

If your job requires a creative component (Pitch meetings? Brainstorming sessions? Devising ways to one-up your work wife's desk plant collection?), it's especially important to schedule in time for creative rest. If you're feeling creatively drained, take a walk where you go nowhere in particular...and don't bring your phone. Rångtell loves to turn on some music and sing and dance in the kitchen to get her creative juices flowing. Or you might want to sit and read a book or watch a movie that you find particularly inspiring. And if you're extremely artistically pooped, check out The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron for a creative jumpstart. (We personally love morning pages.)

5. Emotional Rest

For people pleasers, "yes" is a dangerous word. Whenever someone asks you for a favor, you find the word sneaking out of your mouth before you've even had a chance to think through what they're actually asking. ("Sure, I'll help you move, even though we only met two weeks ago! Sounds like a blast!" Wait...) If this is you, you're in need of emotional rest, Dalton-Smith advises. It's time to take a "yes" vacation. The same goes for folks who do lots of emotional work on a daily basis. Activists, teachers, caretakers, parents-your emotional brain could probably use a pause. For the next week, instead of saying "yes" to everything, try, "I need to think about it," instead. Give yourself a moment to weigh the pros and cons of each decision and don't agree to do it just because someone else wants you to (unless that person is you).

6. Social Rest

Whether you're an introvert or just feeling weighed down by the expectations of people in your life, it's time for a rejuvenating social rest. On one side of a sheet of paper, make a list of people in your life that you find enthusiastically supportive, kind and easy to be around. On the other side, make a list of people you find draining, demanding and exhausting to hang out with. It's time to spend more time with the first group, and as little time with the latter group as possible.

7. Spiritual Rest

You've just accomplished a huge personal goal-go you! But whether you lost 25 pounds, got a promotion after working your butt off at work or moved to a bigger house, all the focus on you and your goals has left you feeling disconnected from the rest of the world. It's time to start meditating, check out a new church or spiritual center, or schedule some time on your calendar to volunteer at the soup kitchen around the corner, Dalton-Smith suggests.

Wait, How Do I Know What Type of Rest I Need?

At one point or another, you're going to need every type of rest on this list. You probably need more than one type of rest right this second. But depending on what you're currently spending your day doing, and how you've been feeling about what's on your plate is a huge clue. Do you dread going to work, because you feel like a zombie all day? It's time for a mental or sensory rest. Are you procrastinating finishing your screenplay because negative thoughts keep creeping in? Creative rest time. Did you just spend eight months planning your wedding and never want to hear the word "catering" ever again? A spiritual rest is calling.

And How Much of These Types of Rest Do I Need, Anyway?

While you should get seven-to-nine hours of passive physical rest (in the form of napping or sleeping) every day, there is no cut-and-dry answer for the other six types of rest. If you work in an office, mental and sensory rest should be a daily part of your workday routine, even if it's only for a couple of minutes every few hours. If you frequently do creative projects, whenever you're feeling blocked would be a great time to take a creative rest. And whenever you find yourself frustrated with yourself or other people, it's a great time to step back and incorporate an emotional, social or spiritual rest into your day. Ahh, we're feeling more rested already.
RELATED: The 3 Calmest Zodiac Signs-And How the Rest of Us Can Copy Their Cool

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There Are 7 Different Types of Rest. Are You Getting the Right Kind?

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You get at least seven hours of sleep every night. (Most nights. OK, some nights.) You do yoga twice a week. You spent all of Sunday on the couch, binge-watching Bridgerton. So why are you still feeling... blah?

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Japan’s karoshi culture was a warning. We didn’t listen

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For decades, Japan has grappled with the problem of people overworking themselves to death. Now, it’s a global issue

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What are the Four Chronotypes?

We already know about the early birds and the night owls, but I've actually broken it down further into four chronotypes that indicate a person's ideal schedule according to their unique internal clock. These chronotypes are dolphin, lion, bear, and wolf.

Each of these chronotypes have different schedules and windows of productivity that allow them to function at their best. Let's take a look at each of these chronotypes and their unique properties below.

Dolphin Chronotype

Of all the chronotypes, Dolphin is the hardest to create a set schedule around, since people with this chronotype tend to have trouble finding a sleep schedule that works for them. People with the Dolphin chronotype tend to be very intelligent, but also high-strung, sensitive sleepers who are often easily disturbed by noise or light. A Dolphin's fragmented sleep patterns often overlap with symptoms of insomnia, which may or may not be indicative of the disorder itself.

But there is good news for all the Dolphins out there! People with this chronotype have an excellent window of productivity- they tend to get things done between 10AM and 2PM each day.

Lion Chronotype

"Early to bed, early to rise" is a good way to summarize this chronotype. People with the Lion chronotype tend to wake up early in the morning, and are most productive in the hours before noon. Lions are at their best when they can immediately get started with their day's to-do list and get things done sooner rather than later.

After finishing their day and winding down in the early evening, Lions tend to fall asleep early, usually by 9 or 10 PM.

Bear Chronotype

This is the most common chronotype- about 55 percent of people have the Bear chronotype. People with this intermediate chronotype are generally most productive before noon, and begin feeling declines in energy in the late afternoon, and begin winding down for sleep in the early evening.

The sleep-wake cycle of Bears is aligned with the sun, so it's more natural for them to rise and set with the sun as well.

Wolf Chronotype

Odds are, we know someone who is not a morning person. These people almost certainly have the Wolf chronotype.

People with the Wolf chronotype are most energetic waking up later in the day. They are most productive between noon and 4PM, and also get boosts of energy during the evening.

I'm actually a Wolf chronotype myself. Working according to my body's unique schedule makes it much easier to get everything I need done during the day, especially if a day is especially busy!

How Do I Find My Chronotype?

Finding your chronotype may seem like a tricky task, but it really isn't. The easiest way to find your chronotype is to take my chronoquiz.

The chronoquiz will determine your chronotype through quick and simple questions intended to help you think about and understand your biological programming. Once you know your chronotype, it'll be much easier to organize your body's best schedule. Give it a try- you might be surprised by what you learn!

Can I Change my Chronotype?

Put simply, no. You can't change your chronotype yourself, but your chronotype can shift on its own with age. In fact, it's perfectly normal for that to happen. Most kids have an early chronotype, driving them to wake up and go to sleep early. But as they grow into adolescence, their chronotype begins to shift later and later, before shifting earlier again as they reach adulthood.

What if I Don't Fit in with Just One Chronotype?

Chronobiology is complex and dynamic, just like our individual chronotypes. We're not always going to fit perfectly into one chronotype or the other. Sometimes we may even be in-between chronotypes. In fact, people with the Bear chronotype are more likely to be part of a hybrid chronotype, and share traits with Lions, Wolves, and even Dolphins.

This happens more than you might think- I can tell you this from personal experience! As mentioned above I am normally a Wolf, but lately I've been falling asleep earlier and waking up earlier, more like a Lion or a Bear. This leads back to how chronotypes can change with time and age. Our sleep needs change as we age, and it's not unusual to find ourselves in the middle of a transitional period where our body's clock may be a little askew.

If you're struggling to follow your chronotype's schedule, or are in-between chronotypes, there are steps you can take to help get the sleep quality and quantity you need to be at your best each day.

1: Eat at the Right Times

It's important to avoid eating too close to bedtime to make sure that your body has time to digest and metabolize your food before you sleep. Otherwise, you may find that falling asleep is difficult, if not impossible. An early, carb-heavy dinner is ideal for helping the body prepare for sleep- this is because it gives your digestive system plenty of time to work before you wind down.

A similar rule applies to breakfast as well. Eating a high-protein breakfast right after you wake up can help jumpstart your body and give you the energy you need to take on the day.

2: Avoid Caffeine in the Afternoon

The stimulant effect of caffeine can really ruin your rest if consumed too close to bedtime. Consuming caffeine within six hours of your bedtime could reduce your total sleep time by up to 41 minutes, so it's a good idea to stop consuming caffeinated beverages at least six hours before your scheduled bedtime.

If you enjoy caffeinated beverages like soda, tea, or coffee during the day, consider drinking their caffeine-free alternatives after your chosen cut-off point.

3: Follow a Consistent Sleep Schedule

A consistent sleep schedule makes a huge difference in your sleep quality, and it's especially important to keep your chronotype's ideal schedule in mind here as well.

Since your chronotype can influence your ideal bedtime, be sure to follow that as closely as you can. If you need to ease yourself into a new schedule, that's okay! It's not always easy getting yourself on a new sleep schedule, but as long as you are consistent, it'll get much easier. It may soon become second nature!

Your chronotype is a very important factor that determines how you function. What I've covered here is really only the tip of the iceberg! If you're interested in learning more about your chronotype and your ideal schedule, check out my book The Power of When.

Even if you know your chronotype and your ideal schedule, no chronotype is immune to sleep disturbances or sleep disorders. If you are struggling to sleep even after adjusting to your chronotype, then you may have a sleep disorder like insomnia or a circadian rhythm sleep disorder. If so, it's very important to contact your doctor or a sleep expert to see what your potential treatment options are. To find accredited sleep specialists and sleep centers near you, check out this tool provided by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

It's much easier for us to be happy and productive when we're working with our bodies rather than against them. Finding your chronotype is a quick and easy way to start finding your perfect sleep schedule and boost your productivity. Our lives can get pretty hectic sometimes, but it's much easier to handle when you have a solid plan for when to sleep, when to wake up, and when to be productive.

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We already know about the early birds and the night owls, but I've actually broken it down further into four chronotypes that indicate a person's ideal schedule according to their unique internal clock. These chronotypes are dolphin, lion, bear, and wolf.

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Tina H. Boogren: books, biography, latest update

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Follow Tina H. Boogren and explore their bibliography from Amazon.com's Tina H. Boogren Author Page.

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Solution Tree (Events, Webinars, Workshops)

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Solution Tree (Events, Webinars, Workshops)

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Tina H. Boogren, PhD, is a fierce advocate for educators, particularly for their well-being. She is the author of numerous best-selling books centered around her passion areas of quality instruction, coaching, mentoring, and wellness and is codirector of Solution Tree's Wellness Solutions for Educators with Dr. Timothy D. Kanold. She also hosts a weekly podcast, Self-Care for Educators with Dr. Tina H. Boogren, and has been recognized as one of the Top 30 Global Gurus in Education.

Tina H. Boogren

Tina H. Boogren, PhD, is a fierce advocate for educators and an award-winning educator, best-selling author, and highly sought-after speaker. Dr. Boogren has proudly served as a classroom teacher, mentor, instructional coach, and building-level leader and has presented for audiences all over the world.

Dr. Boogren is deeply committed to supporting educators so that they can support their students. She conducts highly requested and inspiring keynotes, workshops, and virtual webinars that focus on quality instruction, coaching, mentoring, and educator wellness, and she hosts a weekly podcast, Self-Care for Educators With Dr. Tina H. Boogren. Additionally, she is codirector of Solution Tree's Wellness Solutions for Educators with Dr. Timothy D. Kanold.

Dr. Boogren was a 2007 finalist for Colorado Teacher of the Year and was a recipient of her school district's Outstanding Teacher Award eight years in a row, from 2002 to 2009. She has been recognized as one of the Top 30 Global Gurus in Education and is the author of numerous books, including In the First Few Years: Reflections of a Beginning Teacher; Supporting Beginning Teachers; The Beginning Teacher's Field Guide: Embarking on Your First Years; 180 Days of Self-Care for Busy Educators; Take Time for You: Self-Care Action Plans for Educators, which was the Independent Publisher's Gold Award winner in the Education category; and Coaching for Educator Wellness: A Guide to Supporting New and Experienced Teachers. She is a coauthor of Educator Wellness: A Guide for Sustaining Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Social Well-Being with Timothy D. Kanold and Motivating and Inspiring Students: Strategies to Awaken the Learner with Robert J. Marzano, Darrell Scott, and Ming Lee Newcomb. She is also a contributor to Richard Kellough and Noreen Kellough's Middle School Teaching: A Guide to Methods and Resources, Robert J. Marzano's Becoming a Reflective Teacher, and Women Who Lead: Insights, Inspiration, and Guidance to Grow as an Educator, edited by Janel Keating and Jasmine K. Kullar.

Dr. Boogren holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa, a master's degree with an administrative endorsement from the University of Colorado Denver, a doctorate in educational administration and policy studies from the University of Denver, and is a Level One Certified Nutrition Coach and Specialist in Change Psychology through Precision Nutrition.

Wellness Solutions for Educators™️

Certified associates in Wellness Solutions for Educators™️ deliver a research-backed approach to overall teacher well-being that focuses on four key dimensions--physical, mental, social, and emotional-to help you bring your best self to your students and colleagues each day.
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Presentations by Tina H. Boogren

180 Days of Self-Care for Busy Educators

Educator Wellness

Coaching for Educator Wellness

Women in Leadership

Take Time for You

The Beginning Teacher's Field Guide

Motivating and Inspiring Students

Supporting Beginning Teachers

Improving Teacher Development

The New Art and Science of Teaching

Becoming a Reflective Teacher

The Highly Engaged Classroom

Coaching Classroom Instruction

"The presentation was GREAT! Tina's enthusiasm kept me engaged throughout the entire session."

Chelsea Miller, teacher, Crofton Woods Elementary, Maryland

"Tina is always engaging and relevant. She brings positivity and excitement to the content she is sharing."

Bobbie Kesecker, principal, Fort Smallwood Elementary School, Maryland

"Dr. Boogren [displayed] authenticity while presenting practical and applicable information for self-care. She was highly informative but also gave personality and genuine care and compassion to this topic. The wait time for responses in the chat was perfect and upfront. Participation was highly encouraged, yet she made people feel safe and secure with the format. Her overall language was positive, saying 'I invite you' and 'I encourage you,' along with genuine gratitude and praise for specific ideas in the chat. She was a great presenter, and I feel that everyone was validated and left with something positive."

Justin Carl Oswald, science teacher, Valley Center Middle School, Kansas

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Tina H. Boogren, PhD, is a fierce advocate for educators, particularly for their well-being. She is the author of numerous best-selling books centered around her passion areas of quality instruction, coaching, mentoring, and wellness and is codirector of Solution Tree's Wellness Solutions for Educators with Dr. Timothy D. Kanold.

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As we get down to work, our mind is flooded with thoughts - should I respond to that email I got last night or a message from my boss, how about a cup of coffee, why not start the project I have been avoiding this entire week or maybe just a quick catch up on the meeting I missed yesterday...

A series of these small decisions scattered throughout our day may seem harmless in the moment as they seem to demand only a small fraction of our mental energy, but as the day goes on and we continue to expend from this seemingly reserved pool of energy, our mental capacity to make decisions starts depleting.

Unlike physical fatigue which we can feel and instantly express, the mental fatigue that comes after making multiple decisions is not visible to us.

Decision fatigue as psychologists like to call it leads to poor quality of decision making - we show reluctance to make trade-offs, fall back to easy choices and may even find it difficult to exercise self-control after making a series of decisions.

"If your work requires you to make hard decisions all day long, at some point you're going to be depleted and start looking for ways to conserve energy. You'll look for excuses to avoid or postpone decisions. You'll look for the easiest and safest option, which often is to stick with the status quo", says Roy Baumeister in Willpower.

Ordering a pizza as opposed to a healthy meal in the evening after a long session of decision making at work is a sign that our self-control against impulses decreases in the face of decision fatigue. Social psychologist Roy Baumeister describes this inability to exercise self-control as ego depletion in his study on decision fatigue.

Decision fatigue also explains why we are more reluctant to approve new ideas, find it difficult to choose from a number of presented options and end up making poor choices in the evening as opposed to making these decisions in the morning when our reserved bank of mental energy is at its best.

Before we get down to reduce and maybe even avoid decision fatigue, it's important to recognise its symptoms. Knowing when we are running on a low mental battery will enable us to avoid making bad decisions and find creative ways to save the battery for important decisions.

How to identify when you are experiencing decision fatigue

Recognise if you are experiencing decision fatigue by watching out for these symptoms -

Become reckless

Decision fatigue will cause you to act impulsively instead of taking the time to think through the consequences of your decisions.

It shows up when you fall back to your instincts or choose an option just because its first order consequence is positive without analysing the second order effects of your decision.

Taking the time to think through the impact of your decision requires putting multiple options on your mental stage and comparing them. A tired mind isn't equipped to provide the resources for weighing in on different options, challenging your assumptions and navigating the potential obstacles required to make a thoughtful decision.

"Effort is required to maintain simultaneously in memory several ideas that require separate actions, or that need to be combined according to a rule. System 2 is the only one that can follow rules, compare objects on several attributes, and make deliberate choices between options. The automatic System 1 does not have these capabilities", says Daniel Kahneman in Thinking, Fast And Slow.

With your system2 deliberate thinking mode refusing to cooperate, your system1 automatic thinking springs to action and system1 is known to act on impulse or as Daniel Kahneman calls it "The law of least effort is operating here. He will think as least as possible"

Choose the status quo

It's easy to stick to what you know while exploring the unknown requires crossing the mental boundary from comfort to discomfort.

David Rock explains this in Your Brain At Work "Picturing something you have not yet seen is going to take a lot of energy and effort. This partly explains why people spend more time thinking about problems (things they have seen) than solutions (things they have never seen). It explains why setting goals feels so hard (it's hard to envision the future)"

After making multiple decisions throughout the day, decision fatigue can cause you to stay inside your comfort bubble and resist the idea of a change since it's uncomfortable and demands a lot of effort and energy.

Decisions made under the effect of decision fatigue with a mentally tired state can have a huge impact on your future. Sticking with the status quo can cause you to -

Invest in sunk costs while ignoring the multiple opportunities that lie ahead

Ignore technological advancements and shift in market trends that require you to reevaluate your strategies

Reject proposal for a new product that could be a game changer for the company

Fail to see value in making small changes that could yield significant rewards

Stuck with analysis paralysis

Making a good decision requires bringing knowledge from several domains, stitching distinct ideas together, maintaining the right balance of exploring breadth and depth across these ideas, making new connections and then zeroing in on a few candidates that look promising.

When your mental machinery is tired, you will find it hard to process information to separate noise from the goodness of an idea. This may lead to overthinking, the tendency to think too much and move back and forth on ideas without the ability to give them a specific direction.

Decision fatigue may cause you to obsess about the problems that don't even exist, draw biased conclusions and be stuck with analysis paralysis with the possibility that there might be something better. It can cause you to chase a perfect solution instead of making the best decision under the given circumstances.

Too many options

Decision fatigue is not necessarily caused by making too many decisions, it could also be a result of too many choices. We prefer having choices even when they don't necessarily add value to our decision.

At work, too many choices can cause designers to waste hours in finalising the right shade of blue, marketers may find it difficult to choose the channel that will give them the maximum return for their investment, hiring manager may be burdened with the task of finalising a recruiting agency amongst the many possibilities and engineers may argue over minor details in the strategic planning phase to lock down on the specific tactics to be employed.

Choices can be overwhelming and too many choices can tax your mind by consuming resources in a short frame of time leaving less energy for making further decisions.

Barry Schwartz advises in The Paradox of Choice "Learning to choose is hard. Learning to choose well is harder. And learning to choose well in a world of unlimited possibilities is harder still, perhaps too hard."

React aggressively

Under the effect of decision fatigue, your brain's regulatory power weakens causing you to lose control over your emotions. This makes everything around you feel more intense than normal.

Small mistakes can make you furious, disagreements may cause irritation and you may react aggressively to things that are not in line with your expectation.

Without your realisation, the switch in your brain may flip after many rounds of decision making causing you to react to people and things in your environment instead of taking the time to analyse and act appropriately.

How to overcome decision fatigue

Decision fatigue is a real thing, but it's also something completely under your control.

Only you can design a personal system that maximises your chances of making the best decision as opposed to trying to squeeze out every bit of your attention.

Employ these 5 practices to avoid decision fatigue -

1. Be an essentialist

We make a large number of decisions from the time we wake up - some consciously, others unconsciously, some trivial, others significant, some reversible, others irreversible.

Without controlling the number of decisions we make by choice and dedicating our peak mental energy to those significant decisions that impact our lives in a huge way, we may end up with poor judgment.

Inspired by Greg McKeown from Essentialism, we need to be essentialists when it comes to decision-making

The way of the Essentialist means living by design, not by default. Instead of making choices reactively, the Essentialist deliberately distinguishes the vital few from the trivial many, eliminates the nonessentials, and then removes obstacles so the essential things have clear, smooth passage. In other words, Essentialism is a disciplined, systematic approach for determining where our highest point of contribution lies, then making execution of those things almost effortless

The first step to combat decision fatigue is to organise your life in a way that you prioritise what needs prioritising and put all your energy into getting it right.

So let's jump to this step in the process, which is to make your commitments visible by planning upfront.

2. Get things out of your head

Identify activities that align with your goals and values and say no to all inconsequential activities. Then spend dedicated time daily to plan what you wish to achieve each day. Planning upfront has two major advantages -

You don't have to think about what demands your attention as you start your day

It serves as a commitment and point of reference when you find yourself distracted

By not spending mental cycles in deciding every instant on what to do next, you can avoid decision fatigue and free up more resources to do the real work. It will also help you attend to those urgent situations which are not under your control with the right state of mind.

Putting this practice into action requires what David Rock suggests "Creating visuals for complex ideas is one way to maximize limited energy resources. Another way involves reducing the load on the prefrontal cortex whenever possible. The idea is to get the concepts out of your mind and into the world and to save the stage for the most important functions. Minimize energy usage to maximize performance."

A good way to get the plan out of your head is to utilise Eisenhower's productivity matrix to divide your work in 4 quadrants based on their urgency and importance.

The next step is to order these priorities for optimal resource usage - eat that frog first.

3. Eat that frog

Tackle your most challenging task first, one that demands your mental capacity to process information at its best.

"The stage uses up power quickly, and as the lights dim, it gets harder to hold actors in the right place and stop others from getting on the stage. This tendency means scheduling the most attention-rich tasks when you have a fresh and alert mind. This could be early in the morning, or perhaps after a break or exercise. Making a tough decision might take thirty seconds when you are fresh and be impossible when you're not", says David Rock in Your Brain At Work.

By prioritising work that will have the greatest positive impact on your life and matching the mental demands of the work with your energy levels, you will be able to make the best decisions when you are not under the effect of decision fatigue.

What do you do when things don't pan out the way you wanted?

4. Believe you have more willpower

As much as we crave an organised world and like to be in control, things don't always go according to a plan.

You may be forced to make a decision when you are tired. What should you do then - say no to making a decision? Well, sometimes that may not be a possibility.

Stanford University Professor of Psychology Carol Dweck found "that while decision fatigue does occur, it primarily affects those who believe that willpower runs out quickly." She states that "people get fatigued or depleted after a taxing task only when they believe that willpower is a limited resource, but not when they believe it's not so limited". She notes that "in some cases, the people who believe that willpower is not so limited actually perform better after a taxing task

This does not mean that you will never feel decision fatigue if you keep making one decision after another. Rather, it guides you to believe in a growth mindset and exercise your willpower when put under tough situations, when you have to make a decision even though your mental resources have depleted.

By exercising your willpower in such moments, you may not make the best decision, but it will be much better than the one without it.

5. Know when it's time to stop

Roy Baumeister, a social psychologist, known for his work on willpower, self-control and self-esteem says "The best decision makers are the ones who know when not to trust themselves. Even the wisest people won't make good choices when they're not rested and their glucose is low. That's why the truly wise don't restructure the company at 4 p.m. They don't make major commitments during the cocktail hour. And if a decision must be made late in the day, they know not to do it on an empty stomach"

Know when it's time for you to stop - take feedback from your past decisions, identify patterns based on your best and worst decisions and incorporate it into your planning.

By knowing when you operate well and when you are physically present but mentally absent, you can make a choice to opt-out of the decision process and push those decisions to a later stage.

Be the master of your own life. Don't let it run on autopilot by learning to make a few decisions and make them well by being an essentialist, getting things out of your head, eating that frog, exercising your willpower and opting out when you aren't adding value.

How do you manage decision fatigue? Write to me or share your thoughts in the comments below.

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Decision Fatigue: Don't Squeeze Out Every Bit Of Your Attention - TechTello

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Do you control the number of decisions you make by choice and dedicate your peak mental energy to those significant decisions that impact your life in a huge way?

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Understanding the science behind willpower and self-control leads to a better life and more happiness.

You will learn techniques that are easy to implement and follow in your daily life.

For example, doing the most demanding tasks when you have peak willpower.

Willpower books have been on my reading table and e-reader for several years now. I feel that I always lack willpower, so I have devoured a lot of material to understand better how my willpower works, how to motivate myself, and how to stop falling back to old ways.

There's a lot of self-help books about setting and reaching your goals. What sets apart most of the books here is the clear foundation in science. Even a few of these books will get you well on your way to strengthening your willpower.

I have added a video to each willpower book to highlight the concepts covered. Here we go, the best books on willpower and self-discipline:

Really great willpower book from a scientist based on experiments. Nobel laureates and many other scientific papers mention his work on willpower. This book about self-control is a must in this area.

The pioneering researcher Roy F. Baumeister collaborates with renowned New York Times science writer John Tierney to revolutionize our understanding of the most coveted human virtue: self-control.

In what became one of the most cited papers in social science literature, Baumeister discovered that willpower operates like a muscle: you can strengthen it with practice and fatigued by overuse. The fuel for willpower is glucose, and you can bolster it simply by replenishing the brain's store of fuel. That's why eating and sleeping- and especially failing to do either of those have such dramatic effects on self-control (and why dieters have such a hard time resisting temptation).

Combining the best of modern social science with practical wisdom, Baumeister and Tierney here share advanced lessons in willpower. As our society has moved away from the virtues of thrift and self-denial, it often feels helpless because we face more temptations than ever. But we also have more knowledge and better tools for taking control of our lives. However we define happiness-a close-knit family, a satisfying career, financial security-we won't reach it without mastering self-control.

Look at the 30-day challenges that help you build new habits and use as a willpower exercise.

This is one of the best books about habits I have ever read.

No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a framework for improving every day. James Clear reveals practical strategies that will teach you how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.

If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again, not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.

The book gives you a proven system that can take you to new heights. Learn how to:

make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy);

overcome a lack of motivation and willpower;

design your environment to make success easier;

get back on track when you fall off course;

...and much more.

The author draws on the ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create a guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success. You get the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits.

Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress. ~ James Clear

This is one of the best books on self-control. The willpower book explains the science of self-control and how you harness it to improve our health, happiness, and productivity, what willpower is, how it works, and why it matters.

After years of watching her students struggling with their choices, health psychologist Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., realized that much of what people believe about willpower is actually sabotaging their success. McGonigal created a course called "The Science of Willpower" for Stanford University's Continuing Studies Program. The course was an instant hit and spawned the hugely successful Psychology Today blog with the same name.

From the Willpower Instinct you'll learn:

The Willpower Instinct is one of the best self-control books as it combines prescriptive advice and complementary exercises to help readers with goals ranging from a healthier life to more patient parenting, from higher productivity at work to finally finishing the basement.

Willpower is a mind-body response, not a virtue. It is a biological function you can improve through mindfulness, exercise, nutrition, and sleep.

People who have better control of their attention, emotions, and actions are healthier, happier, have more satisfying relationships, and make more money.

Willpower is not an unlimited resource. Too much self-control can be bad for your health.

Temptation and stress hijack the brain's systems of self-control, and that you can train the brain for greater willpower.

Jonathan Bricker's work has uncovered a scientifically sound approach to behavior change that is twice as effective as most currently practiced methods.

The first book that opened my eyes to the fact that we really do not know what we want and what makes us happy. Gilbert's central thesis is that, through perception and cognitive biases, people imagine the future poorly, in particular, what will make them happy. He argues that imagination fails in three ways:

The advice Gilbert offers is to use other people's experiences to predict the future, instead of imagining it. It is surprising how similar people are in much of their experiences, he says. He does not expect too many people to heed this advice, as our culture, accompanied by various thinking tendencies, is against this method of decision making.

Imagination tends to add and remove details, but people do not realize that key details may be fabricated or missing from the imagined scenario.

Imagined futures (and pasts) are more like the present than they actually will be (or were).

Imagination fails to realize that things will feel different once they actually happen. Most notably, the psychological immune system will make bad things feel not so bad as they are imagined to feel.

Stumbling on Happiness Quotes

Our brain accepts what the eyes see and our eye looks for whatever our brain wants. ~ Daniel Gilbert

If you are like most people, then like most people, you don't know you're like most people. ~ Daniel Gilbert

What are the essential things in life for you? If you are in a hurry, skip all the background stuff and get straight to the How-to section.

I believe this is one of the most important books published in recent years. One of the best psychology books ever by Nobel Prize winner in Economics Daniel Kahneman summarizes research that he conducted over decades, often in collaboration with Amos Tversky. It covers all three phases of his career: his early days working on cognitive bias, his work on prospect theory, and his later work on happiness.

The book's central thesis is a dichotomy between two modes of thought: System 1 is fast, instinctive and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The book delineates cognitive biases associated with each type of thinking, starting with Kahneman's research on loss aversion. From framing choices to substitution, the book highlights several decades of academic research to suggest that we place too much confidence in human judgment.

Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how we make choices in both our business and our personal lives-and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Thinking, Fast and Slow will transform the way you think about thinking.

Sometimes, you act automatically (System 1), find out how to improve your life by finding a balance between control and flexibility.

I have always thought effort beats talent. Or more precisely, most talented people who achieve great results, get to those results by putting in countless hours of practice. If you want to get better at anything, this book is a guide and source of motivation.

Have you ever wanted to learn a language or pick up an instrument, only to become too daunted by the task at hand?

Anders Ericsson's Peak distills three decades of myth-shattering research into a powerful learning strategy that is fundamentally different from the way people traditionally think about acquiring new abilities.

Peak shows that almost all of us have the seeds of excellence within us - it's just a question of nurturing them by reducing expertize to a discrete series of attainable practices. Peak offers invaluable, often counterintuitive, advice on setting goals, getting feedback, identifying patterns, and motivating yourself.

Whether you want to stand out at work, improve your athletic or musical performance, or help your child achieve academic goals, Ericsson's revolutionary methods will show you how to improve at almost any skill that matters to you.

This book is a breakthrough, a lyrical, powerful, science-based narrative that actually shows us how to get better (much better) at the things we care about. ~ Seth Godin

Main steps of deliberate practice:

Quotes from Peak

Have a clear goal

Focus on one thing

Immediate feedback

Practice out of your comfort zone

If you never push yourself beyond your comfort zone, you will never improve.

You have to keep upping the ante: run farther, run faster, run uphill. If you don't keep pushing and pushing and pushing some more, the body will settle into homeostasis, albeit at a different level than before, and you will stop improving

So here we have purposeful practice in a nutshell: Get outside your comfort zone but do it in a focused way, with clear goals, a plan for reaching those goals, and a way to monitor your progress. Oh, and figure out a way to maintain your motivation.

Find out about the benefits of prioritizing a single task. Look at examples of how to engage in those tasks with a singular focus.

The first section, "The Lies: They Mislead and Derail Us," analyzes how multitasking has erroneously received praise as a desirable trait. The authors also challenge the concept of "work-life balance," calling it "[i]dealistic, but not realistic."

This leads to the "Focusing Question" of "What's the one thing I can do such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?" The second section of the book deals with productivity principles like habit-building and benchmarking. For example, you should engage in 4 hours of work on your "ONE thing" every day.

The third section of the book focuses on "Extraordinary Results," how to make the principles in the book actionable. One important concept is "time blocking." You should focus on only your ONE thing during a given amount of time. It also suggests that you should schedule time to reflect, plan, and relax. Everything else during scheduled time blocks is a distraction. Each section is followed by a "Big Ideas," review that gives a summary of the sections' concepts and principles.

The One Thing Quotes

Multitasking is a lie ~ Gary Keller

A different result requires doing something different. ~ Gary Keller

Why You Can't Get Anything Done - The One Thing by Gary Keller | Animated Book Summary.

Subtitle: Mastering the Skills for Success in Life, Business, and School, or, How to Become an Expert in Just About Anything.

How we learn matters! Spend the same amount of time and get better results. Learning is about memorizing information, right? You study facts, dates, and details, burn them into memory, and then apply that knowledge at opportune times. But this approach to learning isn't enough for the world that we live in today. Learn Better shows that how we learn can matter as much as what we learn.

In this book, you find the new science of learning, showing how simple techniques like comprehension check-ins and making material personally relatable help people gain expertize in dramatically better ways. There are 6 key steps to help listeners "learn how to learn,"

You can group them into three areas:

Learn Better will help students approach learning and makes the case that being smart is not an innate ability. Learning is a skill everyone can master.

Ulrich Boser: "Learn Better: Mastering the Skills for Success in Life [...] | Talks at Google

In Anything You Want, Sivers details his journey and the lessons learned along the way of creating CD Baby and building a business close to his heart. "[Sivers is] one of the last music-business folk heroes," says Esquire magazine. His less-scripted approach to business is refreshing and will educate readers to feel empowered to follow their dreams.

Aspiring entrepreneurs and others trying to make their own way will be particularly comforted by Sivers straight talk and transparency -a reminder that anything you want is within your reach.

Motivation, deeply personal reasons for "why" we are studying.

Relation, relate ideas to other ideas to think deeper, more creatively, and challenge preconceptions.

Recall, we won't remember material the first pass through.

Why do people succeed? Is it because they're smart, or are they just lucky? Analyst Richard St. John condenses years of interviews into an unmissable 3-minute presentation on the real secrets of success.

Every so often, a truly groundbreaking idea comes along. This is one. Mindset explains:

Mindset is a simple idea discovered by world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck in decades of research on achievement and success-a simple idea that makes all the difference.

In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They believe that talent alone creates success-without effort. They're wrong.

In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work-brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment. The growth mindset creates motivation and productivity in the worlds of business, education, and sports. When you read Mindset, you'll see how.

Forget everything you thought you knew about how to motivate people. It's wrong. Drive is among the best motivational books out there. The secret to high performance and satisfaction is the need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world. Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does - and how that affects every aspect of our lives.

Why brains and talent don't bring success

How they can stand in the way of it

Why praising brains and talent doesn't foster self-esteem and accomplishment, but jeopardizes them

How teaching a simple idea about the brain raises grades and productivity

What all great CEOs, parents, teachers, athletes know

He reveals the three elements of true motivation:

Along the way, he takes us to companies that are enlisting new approaches to motivation and introduces us to the scientists and entrepreneurs who are pointing a bold way forward. DRIVE is bursting with big ideas - the rare book that will change how you think and transform how you live.

In The Power of Habit, award-winning New York Times business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. With penetrating intelligence and an ability to distill vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives, Duhigg brings to life a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential for transformation.

Learn why some people and companies struggle to change, despite years of trying, while others seem to remake themselves overnight. We visit laboratories where neuroscientists explore how habits work and where, exactly, they reside in our brains. We discover how the right habits were crucial to the success of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and civil-rights hero Martin Luther King, Jr.

Great motivational book. A single idea, short willpower book. Gets you moving. Julien Smith has delivered a surprise, a confrontation, a book that will push you, scare you, and possibly stick with you for years to come. The idea is simple: your flinch mechanism can save your life. It short-circuits the conscious mind and allows you to pull back and avoid danger faster than you can even imagine it's there.

Autonomy - the desire to direct our own lives;

Mastery - the urge to get better and better at something that matters;

Purpose - the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.

But what if danger is exactly what you need? What if facing the flinch is the one best way to get what you want? Here's a chance to read the book everyone will be talking about before they do. What are you afraid of? Here's how to find out.

Dan Ariely challenges readers' assumptions about making decisions based on rational thought.

"My goal, by the end of this book, is to help you fundamentally rethink what makes you and the people around you tick. I hope to lead you thereby presenting a wide range of scientific experiments, findings, and anecdotes that are in many cases quite amusing. Once you see how systematic certain mistakes are-how we repeat them again and again-I think you will begin to learn how to avoid some of them".

Learn the secret to making changes that stick. Every so often people get inspired (again!) to lose weight, get organized, start saving, or stop worrying -but a few months later they give up, frustrated. It doesn't have to be that way. In This Year I Will, bestselling author M.J. Ryan offers breakthrough wisdom and coaching to help readers make this time the time that change becomes permanent.

Why do people find it so hard to change? The secret is that everyone has their own formula for making changes that stick, but most people don't know what theirs is. They think there is one way to lose five pounds, and another way to stay on top of their e-mail, but they don't realize that for all changes, there is one system that works best for each individual. This Year I Will helps you lock on to your unique formula for planning, implementing, and seeing a life change through, so you can use it again and again to tackle anything else you'd like to do.

For anyone who has broken a New Year's resolution, fallen off a diet, or given up on fulfilling a dream, the ingenious strategies, inspiring stories, and sheer motivational energy of This Year I Will help you make a promise to yourself that you can actually keep.

Why do we routinely choose options that don't meet our short-term needs and undermine our long-term goals? Why do we willingly expose ourselves to temptations that undercut our hard-fought progress to overcome addictions? Why are we prone to assigning meaning to statistically common coincidences? Why do we insist we're right even when evidence contradicts us?

David DiSalvo reveals a remarkable paradox: what your brain wants is frequently not what your brain needs. Much of what makes our brains "happy" leads to errors, biases, and distortions, which make getting out of our own way extremely difficult. DiSalvo's search includes forays into evolutionary and social psychology, cognitive science, neurology, and even marketing and economics-as well as interviews with many of the top thinkers in psychology and neuroscience today.

Related posts

Behavioral Economics Introduction with 10 videos from heavy weights of the field (Kahneman, Pink, Ariely) and others. Sit back and watch the videos.

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16 Great Willpower Books, Motivation, and Self-Control 2021 [VIDEOS]

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Understanding the science behind willpower and self-control leads to a better life and more happiness. You will learn techniques that are easy to implement and follow in your daily life. For example, doing the most demanding tasks when you have peak willpower. Willpower books have been on my reading table and e-reader for several years now.

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Decision fatigue is the idea that after making many decisions, a person's ability to make additional decisions becomes worse.

The psychological effects of decision fatigue can vary, potentially leading to difficulty making the right decisions, impulse buying, or other avoidance behaviors.

There may be some ways to combat decision fatigue or limit the decisions a person needs to make to reduce the stress associated with decision making.

Keep reading to learn more.

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For people experiencing this fatigue, making the right decisions may be more difficult as the day goes on.

Decision fatigue is a psychological phenomenon surrounding a person's ability or capacity to make decisions. It is also called ego depletion.

The theory surrounding decision fatigue is that a human's ability to make decisions can get worse after making many decisions, as their brain will be more fatigued.

This fatigue applies to all decisions, not simply the large or more difficult ones.

It can help some people to think of the decision making ability as a finite source, such as a battery. Each decision reduces the charge of the battery, and the person has less energy available to make other decisions later on.

Many experts still do not fully accept the notion of decision fatigue, partly due to the difficulty of proving the effects in any concrete way.

A meta-analysis in the journal Psychological Research notes that existing research only shows low evidence for ego depletion, but that it is still too early to make conclusive claims either way.

As a study in the journal Frontiers in Psychology notes, the lack of a specific definition that is easy to categorize and test may be one of the reasons researchers are still debating the effect. Decision fatigue is also difficult to quantify and test for.

Researchers have observed the phenomenon, however. For instance, a study in Health Psychology found that nurses tended to make less efficient and more expensive clinical decisions about patient care the longer they went without a break.

There may also be an individualized role in the concept, so that the more a person feels or believes it affects them, the more it actually does.

The underlying cause of decision fatigue may have to do with a person's stress levels and the number of decisions they have to make each day. The weight of these decisions also matters.

Most people have to make a large number of decisions each day. From the moment they wake up, they start making them.

Simple examples include what kind of clothes to wear, what to have for breakfast, and what to listen to on the way to work.

Business decisions, social interactions, and even leisure time all have their own inherent decisions involved that a person must weigh up and make, either consciously or subconsciously.

More complex decisions may deplete their energy levels faster.

As the day goes on and the person has to make more and more decisions, their ability to choose wisely decreases.

A person with decision fatigue may feel tired, have brain fog, or experience other signs or symptoms of physical or mental fatigue.

As the phenomenon may increase as a person makes more decisions, they may feel worse or more drained as the day goes on.

Decision fatigue may manifest in a few different ways, depending on how it affects a person.

The following are some potential effects of decision fatigue.

Impulse buying

A common form of decision fatigue is impulse buying. Most people can recognize this in grocery stores, where candy, baked goods, and special deals are placed near the registers.

After making a series of decisions in the store, a person may be less likely to resist the quick deals and items nearer to the checkout.

Trade-offs

A trade-off is a decision between two options, where each option has both a positive and negative element.

A person experiencing decision fatigue may be reluctant to make these decisions, take longer to make them, or simply make a decision that they later regret.

Decision avoidance

Some people may start to neglect, ignore, or avoid decisions altogether when they feel drained. This avoidance behavior may cause the person to simply choose the default or most socially acceptable option, rather than the option that is right for them.

Procrastination is another form of decision avoidance, wherein a person puts off making a decision for another day or until the need to make the decision disappears altogether.

By the standard view of decision fatigue, a person is more at risk of experiencing it if they:

make many decisions throughout the day

feel greatly affected by the decisions they make

make very stressful decisions

make very complex decisions

make decisions affecting other people in a significant way

One of the most important risk factors for decision fatigue may be the belief that it will affect a person's choices.

There may also be a cultural aspect to decision fatigue. A study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that although Western populations tend to show signs of ego depletion, similar tests in Indian populations show the opposite effect.

The Indian study participants performed better after first doing a strenuous task, while the Western participants tended to do worse after this task.

Again, researchers pointed to the idea of belief. The Indian participants tended to believe that exerting willpower was energizing, while the Western participants tended to believe that exerting willpower was draining.

Combating decision fatigue may begin with changing the patterns of belief surrounding willpower. People who train themselves to enjoy decision making and efforts of will may not notice the effects as much as others.

Other changes of habit may also help people combat decision fatigue. For example, a person could try:

Making important decisions first

If each decision depletes a person's energy, it may be best to make the most important decisions as early as possible each day.

Whether it is a tough phone call, hard project, or another difficult task, making important decisions early in the day may help prevent decision fatigue when facing these choices.

Removing distractions

The choice to engage with distractions that pull a person away from a project can be a form of decision fatigue. Choosing to look at a cell phone, browse social media, or glance at the television may drain their willpower for tasks later in the day.

Removing these distractions may help a person reduce this fatigue and engage with the tasks at hand.

Simplifying the wardrobe

Some people reduce decision fatigue by simplifying routine choices such as wardrobe, instead wearing a similar outfit each day.

Simplifying everyday decisions such as these may help some people feel less stress from the first decisions in their day.

Planning meals

Planning ahead may help eliminate other forms of decision fatigue. A simple example would be to make a meal plan and prepare meals for the week in advance.

This can help reduce decision making pressure in the moment and preserve brainpower for more important tasks.

Taking breaks

Physical fatigue may also play a role in decision fatigue. Some people might simply make worse decisions when tired.

Taking rest breaks throughout the day as needed may help these people recharge. Some may even benefit from taking a short nap to help refresh their brain.

Decision fatigue is still a debated topic. For those who feel the effects of decision fatigue, it may be more difficult to make the best choices as the day goes on.

Although more research is necessary to fully understand decision fatigue, many people claim to experience its effects.

Changing the way a person looks at willpower may help them change their response to decisions.

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Decision fatigue: Effects, causes, signs, and how to combat it

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Decision fatigue is the idea that after making many decisions, a person's ability to make additional decisions becomes worse. The psychological effects of decision fatigue can vary, potentially leading to difficulty making the right decisions, impulse buying, or other avoidance behaviors.

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How to Make Stress Your Friend | Kelly McGonigal | TED

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Technology is compromising the health and well-being of teachers, blurring the already-indistinct boundaries between work and home and leading to an unsustainable "always on" mentality, researchers assert in a new study.

It's not an entirely new problem. For decades, educators have labored under the twin pressures of expanding responsibilities at work and increasing domestic demands. As dual-income families became the norm, larger class sizes, more paperwork, and a gradual shift in caretaking duties toward school systems have strained the capacity of educators, encroaching on personal time traditionally set aside for family and friends. Well before the pandemic, stress topped the list of reasons teachers quit, according to a RAND study, which identified long hours and the burden of taking on second jobs to supplement income as primary factors in early retirement.

Technology is rapidly pushing things toward a breaking point. The proliferation of computers, and especially cell phones, is putting the last vestiges of personal space at risk, compelling teachers to spend more time outside of school hours planning tech-enriched lessons while responding to nighttime emails and text messages. This pattern of incursion-researchers call it "techno-invasion" or "pervasive connectivity"-can make them feel as though they're on call at all hours of the day and even late into the night, explains Caroline Murphy, a researcher at the Kemmy Business School at the University of Limerick, in the current study.

For teachers, there are few places to turn to for respite. While the public sector has typically traded lower wages for better work-life balance, the commodification of teaching-driven by a greater focus on test scores and evaluating teacher performance-has led to what some experts call the "marketization of education." Increasingly, the profession looks like the private sector, "in particular in relation to demands around working time, and the development of an 'always on' culture," Murphy points out. In what amounts to a broken promise, the expectations keep growing, but the pay hasn't kept pace.

Without new policies defending teachers' fundamental right to disconnect-to reclaim time with their families and friends, and to relax and restore themselves-the outcomes are all too predictable. Rising job dissatisfaction and deteriorating mental and physical health are real risks, according to the research. The issue is serious and growing, and it demands immediate attention.

Internet Leakage

Online communications have led to a pervasive "encroachment of work on individuals' time off through ubiquitous connectivity," says Murphy. The mere expectation that an email or text may arrive from a principal or student, and demand a response, is an intrusion into a teacher's personal space.

Theoretical emails eventually become real ones. The average teacher receives up to 100 emails each day, a staggering amount that can feel insurmountable-and the pressure to reply quickly can feel irresistible. In a 2019 study, employees reported that they started responding to emails 6 seconds after receiving them. Meanwhile, in a 2015 study, researchers observed that employees experienced "significantly lower daily stress" when limiting the frequency of checking email to three times a day, compared with those who had no restrictions.

There's also a significant cognitive tax to checking emails and other notifications, like texts or reminders: According to a 2017 study, the barrage of pings and warnings emanating from our phones are almost impossible to ignore, even when the phone is off and turned upside down on the table. "The mere presence of one's own smartphone may occupy limited-capacity cognitive resources," the researchers conclude, "thereby leaving fewer resources available for other tasks and undercutting cognitive performance." Shutting the cell phone off and abandoning it in another room was the only way to restore sanity.

The Technology Learning Curve

The deluge of new technologies unsupported by adequate training-from learning management systems to new apps, videoconferencing software, and multimedia lesson-planning-is undermining competence and professionalism, Murphy argues.

"I have NEVER been this exhausted," exclaimed Sarah Gross, a veteran high school English teacher who did hybrid teaching last fall, according to the New York Times. "This is not sustainable."

Gross isn't alone: In 2021, researchers analyzed over a decade's worth of studies and found that teachers were being pushed to adopt technology in their classrooms without the "technical resources and equipment necessary for its correct didactic use," a particularly insidious problem that culminated in "conflicts between teachers, as well as in their relationships with colleagues or with other people involved in the environment, eventually producing, in the worst case, damaged personal and interpersonal relationships that affect their health."

In a study published earlier this year, researchers found that nearly half of the teachers surveyed spent 20 or more hours per week creating new lessons, adapting materials to online classrooms, and troubleshooting tech issues. Notably, this pattern is expected to continue past the pandemic as schools commit to deeper integration of technology and even offer some form of remote instruction permanently.

A Heavy Toll

This new source of anxiety is not only linked to decreased job satisfaction, motivation, and competency but is also a health and safety concern, "causing physical ailments such as headaches, sleep issues, muscle cramps, back aches and high blood pressure," according to Murphy.

It's not technology itself that's the problem-it's that technology erodes the boundaries that have historically constrained altruistic teachers. "We may feel that if we don't get a task done, our students will suffer or programs will fail," explains John McCarthy, a former teacher and current consultant. "However, if we become mentally exhausted, overtired, or drained of energy, we risk a complete shutdown mentally or physically-and at that point, no tasks will get done."

According to a 2015 survey, 78 percent of teachers feel physically and emotionally exhausted at the end of the day, and while technology isn't the sole source of stress, it is "one of the most significant contributing factors to increasing stress levels," Murphy points out, adding that educators routinely report that "invasion of privacy" is a "significant source of work exhaustion."

Pushing Back-Without Going Back

That's not to say that Ludditical solutions like banning technology should be pursued; technology creates enormous efficiencies and is here to stay, but it must be carefully managed. Murphy asserts that we need to establish and adopt policy that "supports the healthy adoption of technology outside of school hours by both teachers and students."

While the United States is lagging behind other countries, "right to disconnect" legislation has been proposed in New York to protect workers from being penalized if they choose not to respond to emails after work hours. Meanwhile, major companies have begun to acknowledge the problem. Volkswagen banned internal emails from being sent or received through its servers during off-work hours in 2012, following "complaints that staff's work and home lives were becoming blurred." And in 2016, France adopted new labor laws giving employees the right "to not have to take calls or read emails related to work during their time off." The law's stated goal is to "ensure that the employees' non-work hours, vacation time, and personal and family life be respected."

So what should be under consideration for schools?

Model better practices: Consider developing policies or guidelines that encourage school leaders to avoid sending emails after school hours, except in the case of emergencies. What may seem like a simple question or request can have bigger implications as teachers feel the need to regularly check email at night to avoid appearing nonresponsive.

Give "permission to disconnect": Leaders can provide explicit permission giving teachers the right to disconnect from work-related communications outside of normal school hours. The policy should be socialized among all stakeholders in the learning community and honored with no questions asked.

Survey your staff: Conduct work-life balance surveys to gauge staff well-being. Ask questions such as "How often do the demands of your job interfere with your family life?"-good lists of questions can be found in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Quality of Worklife Questionnaire and the Staff Distance Learning and Wellness Survey from Broward County Public Schools.

Keep your cell phone clean: Teachers should consider removing access to work emails from their smartphones, and school and district leaders should encourage it. "You may find it more helpful to only check email on your computer-that way, when the school day ends, you can close your computer and walk away from the pings and the temptation to check your inbox," suggests classroom teacher Lauren Huddleston.

Be transparent about your obligations: Block visible time on your calendar for typically unstructured tasks like writing emails, grading papers, and planning lessons, suggests educational consultant and former teacher Marissa King. Consider clearly demarcating your work hours on your calendar as well, and set up out-of-office messages that state your work hours and indicate when you'll respond to late emails.

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Defending a Teacher's Right to Disconnect

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Remember personal time? For many educators, technology has driven it toward extinction-and it's time to get serious about reclaiming it.