If you follow me on social media, you may have noticed something: I haven’t written a new blog since the beginning of November.

Here’s what you may not know: even back then, I was struggling. 

In fact, my second-to-last blog was actually about how I was struggling to write the blog. 

It was about that time that I met with my social media manager and mentioned I felt “burned out” in terms of writing the blog. She suggested I take some time off through the end of the year. 

That sounded wonderful, so that’s what I did. 

January came around and I still thought to myself, “I don’t want to blog. I’m burned out.” I had to roll my eyes because I hadn’t written one in months! 

As I sat and reflected, I remembered the part in my book where I talk about how breaks or vacations don’t cure burnout. (Guess that applies to taking breaks from writing blogs, too.) 

I decided to pick up my book and read...

If you've followed my blog for a while, you know that each of my blogs corresponds with a pillar of my burnout recovery model, THRIV. 

T - Tending to Yourself

H - Harness Social Support

R - Recharge Through Detachment

I - Ignite Compassion Satisfaction

V - Vow the Honor Your Humanness

I cycle through these on the blog, through the THRIV Newsletter, and in the Support Communities. This week is about Harnessing Social Support, so last week I was supposed to write the blog by Friday. Most weeks I have a draft done by midweek so my copywriter can proof it and make suggestions. But last week, Friday came around and I still hadn't written this blog. 

And I just couldn't make myself.

I was sitting at my desk staring at the blank page and nothing was coming. So finally, with great frustration, I Slacked a message to my copywriter and said, "no blog this week unless I get inspired." I closed my laptop, left my desk, and went and sat in the living room. 

I turned on the tv,...

What are the things you need to survive? 

In education, we often talk about Maslow's Hierarchy when we consider student needs.

If you need a reminder, Maslow proposed that our needs exist on a hierarchy where certain needs must be met before we can have other needs met. For example, physiological needs must be met before we can experience safety and belonging. While Maslow's theory of needs being hierarchical has been debunked, the categories of needs Maslow proposed are still valuable to consider.

When I talk with teachers about their needs in relation to Maslow's Hierarchy, most teachers will report that their needs are met. When asked about "self-actualization" most folks will respond with something like, "Well, I'm a work in progress, but the others are met for sure."

When I think about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, I think about the minimum we need to survive - the minimum we need to be "okay." 

But don't we all want to feel better than just "okay"? 

That's where...

Perhaps one of the most uniquely difficult things about being a teacher is all that is involved in taking a sick day.

I can't think of another profession where taking a sick day involves finding a replacement and writing a moment by moment breakdown of how that replacement is supposed to do your job, especially when your substitute may or may not have any experience actually doing the job. Depending on whether your area is experiencing substitute shortages, you could make that detailed plan and it might not even be used!

Then add in unrealistic expectations of perfect attendance that are promoted and financially rewarded in many districts, and it's no wonder you struggle to take a sick day!

I could go on and on, but you know what the issues are because you live it.

I want to give you three Actions Steps straight from my book THRIVing After Burnout: A Teacher's Compassionate Guide to help you strategize around making the choice to take a sick day. 

1) Reflect on your...

I didn't plan to tell this personal story today, but because of what's going on with me on this beautiful Friday, I'm changing it up.

I'm currently going through treatment for an autoimmune disease, and I feel like total crap. Sick selfie below.

I've been in bed most of today working on my phone. I got up once to see if I could work at my desk and filmed an Instagram story and then realized it was a terrible idea.

I remember when I had these flares when I was a teacher. A sub never picked up my jobs, and I always felt guilty, like I was letting my students and co-workers down. The years I taught first grade were the worst. I had no idea what was wrong with me (nor did my doctors) and I was so hard on myself. Frankly, my co-workers weren't that supportive either.

It was during that time that I realized that my expectations for myself were toxic. I realized that I had been taught that being at school was more important than my health, and I had bought into the lie.

So I went to...

A few weeks ago I shared with my email list that when I was a teacher I went to work sick a lot. As someone with an autoimmune disease, I was rarely contagious, but I could never find a sub. I worked with deaf and hard of hearing students and subs were really intimidated by accepting jobs in a classroom where they couldn't communicate with the students directly.

If I had to be out, I always felt what I thought was "guilt". I couldn't take a physical or mental health day without feeling like a bad teacher that was letting down my students and my co-teacher.

What I was feeling was not actually guilt, so let's talk about what guilt is.

Emotions, in general, exist to give us information about what happening in our world. For example, anger tells us that injustice is happening, sadness tells us we're experiencing a loss of some kind, and fear tells us we're in danger. So what does guilt tell us?

It tells us that we've done something wrong that we need to make amends for.

So let's think...