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As a classroom teacher of 16 years, I understand the pushback from some within the education community about adopting a social emotional learning curriculum and making it a priority within their classrooms or schools. For the first 12 years of my teaching career, I taught at upper middle class, high-achieving schools in suburban Texas neighborhoods. When I wasn’t teaching these students, who came to school predisposed for success, I taught overseas in Abu Dhabi. Once again, I was teaching students who rarely wanted for much.

For many people who live in the United States of America, the early days of July are energetic times, full of fond memories with family and friends. It’s a time to celebrate this country and the freedoms that come with it, in the warm weather, eating good food and watching fireworks, like the grand finale to the day.

There are also a lot of people in the USA that do not celebrate this federal holiday, because they do not yet feel free themselves.

As I began writing the idea for this blog I was laying down in the back of my Subaru, watching the sun go down over the mountains somewhere in the middle of Nevada. I was surrounded by my things, getting ready to tuck myself in for a night of car camping, listening to the birds and the bugs and the silence in between.

Some of the best advice I have received from my Midwestern grandfather is to “stop burning the candle at both ends.” When I think about what burnout looks and feels like to me, it feels like that candle is about to run out of wax between the flames. Although I continue to burn the candle from both ends, it serves as a ringing reminder in my mind that I only have so much energy to give at any certain time.

In honor of International Day of Happiness on March 20th, I invite you to take two minutes to do a simple experiment:

1) Take a mental note of how you are feeling right now. Just notice it without doing anything else.
2) Now, just like Peter Pan trying to fly, think of a happy thought (your kids, vacation, having a bikini bod, whatever)
3) Notice how you are feeling while that thought is present.

The mind can be so tricky when you don’t understand how it works. I grew up thinking that I must believe the thoughts I have about myself, and that’s exactly what most people do when they don’t understand. I personally suffered with insecure thinking about myself and never could see my mental health and wellbeing. I grew up feeling very anxious about being in any spotlight. Public speaking and anything to do with people focusing their attention on me made me feel absolutely ill. I felt like I was incapable of it. The thought of having to speak in front of people who could judge me, laugh at me, or mock me was horrific and a literal nightmare. I sometimes would get sick before school and my mom would say a prayer with me before getting out of the car to head to class, just to try and calm my nerves. Looking back, I thank her for doing her best to regulate my mind. Sometimes it helped but other times, I was still a complete ball of anxiety.