5 Ways to Bring More Joy Into Your Day

What's going on everybody, I hope this finds you striving and thriving and doing absolutely amazing. If you could welcome more joy and love into your life would you do if there were strategies that you could use to make your workday filled with more joy, and strengthen the relationships that you have? Would you do them? My name is Brian Martin. I'm a second grade teacher and host of the teaching champions podcast. Now I'm coming off of spring break, and I know many of you are as well. And we're entering that final push to summer vacation. And we can approach this time that we have left in one or two ways, we can look to just finish to get through the days left of the school year, to get in as much learning as we can. And to cross off those days off of the calendar. Or we can embrace our days, we can enjoy them, we can embrace the learning, and also embrace those relationships that we have. Because the one thing that I know, is, time is fast. Before we know it, it's gonna be the end of the year. And there's gonna come a point when next year starts up. And we're gonna miss the students that we have right now. And I read an amazing blog the other day by Livia Chan. And she's just such an amazing woman. And she's someone that is so full of love and joy, that when you meet her, it just rubs off on you. So when you read a blog post that she writes, and it's all about cultivating joy and love in your life, you take note, and it's something that should be shared. I mean, is there any one of us who would not welcome a little more love or joy into their life, creating more love and joy into our lives, it's not something that can be passive. It's not something that just happens, you have to be intentional, you have to work at it. But if you do, if you put in that work, then there's so many amazing things that come into your life. And in this blog, live shares, five ways that you can cultivate more joy. And the first tip that lives shares is investing, getting to know and love yourself. And we need to be deliberate about this. And if you're someone who needs a little extra help, then try writing down your strengths, your core values, your beliefs, what are the things that drive you day in and day out, think about who you are, your strengths, your weaknesses, the things that you want to improve on. And it's important that we're honest with ourselves that we acknowledge these things. And also equally as important that we accept that we recognize, each and every single one of us has weaknesses, I have weaknesses, you have weaknesses. And that's okay. Because we're perfectly imperfect. And along with accepting and acknowledging these, you want to make it a point to believe in yourselves. Because one thing that we're great at is we're phenomenal at pouring into others. We're great at supporting our students, when they have their struggles, and when they need that little extra encouragement. But when it comes to ourselves, that such a different store, that internal voice that we have, it can be so brutal, and we'll say stuff to ourselves, that we wouldn't dare say to another person. So pay attention to that chatter. Listen to that internal dialogue, and ask yourself, are the words that I'm using? Are they kind? Are they helpful? Are those words true? Are those words true 100% of the time. And if they're not, then recognize that turn down the volume on those words, look, to reframe them, and also turn the belief that you haven't to others and put it on yourself. I think as we get older, we don't hear that praise and encouragement as much as we did from others when we were younger. So that's why it's so important that we have to be our biggest cheerleaders. We have to remind ourselves of everything that we've accomplished, everything that we've achieved, all the struggles, all the hurdles that we have passed. And along with getting to know ourselves, it's important that we're disciplined in what we eat, how much water we drink, the amount of sleep that we get, because welcoming more joy and love into our lives. It also includes taking care of our bodies, our temple, as well. Now, the second tip that lives shares is know what brings you joy. And if we know what brings us joy, we can welcome more of it into our lives. And for myself, that's that cup of coffee, that's a necessity. And there's a lot of times midday, where that cup of coffee, just as an extra spark, it might be that 15 minute walk at lunchtime, it could be taking time to slow down and share a laugh with a colleague at work. And one of the great parts of my day is when I step out of my classroom door, right before the first bell rings and the kindergarteners, they're lined up, right across from my room. And we do a countdown to start the day for the morning bout. And after the bell rings, they walked by and we give each other high fives. And that is a moment of joy. And there's no doubt that there's things in your day that bring you joy. You just have to be cognizant of them. And you have to put yourself in a position to experience them. Now live also mentioned, do we talk about this with our students? And it's so true, do we tell them about the joy that they give us in the classroom? Do we point out specific examples that they do that bring us joy, and live talks about being present, and noticing those special things that are happening inside our classroom. And when we see them, we name them, and then we make it visible to our students. And then we go and we nurture that behavior we cheer on, we emphasize it in that's going to lead to us seeing more of it. Now the third, the cultivating more joy, that live gifts is to let our students know early and often that we appreciate them. And think about this school culture, that classroom culture that we create, when we're telling our students about how much we appreciate them, what type of classroom environment it's created, when everyone is using, please and thank you, when we're cheering each other on. When we're modeling, sharing compliments, and uplifting one another, you can create such an amazing environment, just by giving those authentic compliments. And it's always important to remember that the one compliment that you share with that student with that child, that might be the only kind thing that they hear all day long. And that's something that we should think about. Now, tip number four is to remember, we're always better together to find your crew. Find those people that are there to support you, that encourage you, those people who are there to listen, that are there to bounce ideas off of those people who you feel better after you interact with them. And the one thing that to remember is it doesn't have to be the people that are right there in your school. The teach better team, they're amazing group of educators. There's also a community centered around Adobe Canva, Microsoft flip in these people, they're absolutely crushing it and they're so good about supporting one another. And teaching sometimes it can feel like a lonely endeavor. We can get trapped in those teaching silos if we're not intentional about connecting with others. So whether it's online, or it's inside your own school, make it a point to connect with others. And the last tip that Liz shared is to be relentless and be resilient, that we can cultivate our own joy through the way that we love people. The way we love our job, the way we love ourselves, and it's about understanding as well. That every student is different. And we need to be relentless and finding ways to support them and their learning. And I always think the joy is in the journey. And if we think about the growth, if we think about the gains that our students make, from the beginning of the school year, to the end, it's amazing. So make it a point to finish this year strong. cultivate more joy, and atomic love into your day. Know yourself, know what brings you joy, filled rooms that you enter with love and appreciation. Find your crew, be relentless, be resilient. Because our days are too short. There's too special to just try and get through them. So be intentional and bringing more joy. Be intentional, and bringing more laughter into your day. Be intentional and welcoming more love. Be intentional in embracing the day and finishing the year strong. And my challenge for you is to really think about how you will bring more joy and atomic interactions into your life. Now this was just a little snippet of Livia Chan's blog. For even more tips. Definitely check it out. I'm gonna leave a link in the show note. And always remember, we've been blessed with another sunrise. Have an awesome day, my friends