Gratitude, Small Shifts, and Teaching Happier with Suzanne Dailey

What's going on everybody? I hope this finds you starving and thriving and doing absolutely amazing. My name is Brian Martin. I'm a second grade teacher and host of the teaching champions podcast. And today we're joined by Susan Daly. She's an instructional coach in the Central Bucks School District, where she works with elementary teachers and students and 15 buildings. She's an author, a blogger, a speaker and the podcaster. And before we dive into this amazing episode, I want you to take a listen to this awesome opportunity that's coming up. Hello fellow educators and pardon the interruption from the teaching champions podcast and the ever kind and impactful Brian Martin friends. I'm Phil jnusu. Ski an extra positive and proud High School Chem and physics teacher ever since 2005, that is looking to recruit positive educators from across the nation. That's right, I'm assembling the most positive educators to join my positive growth lounge membership which is kicking off this October 2023. Now if you are an educator looking to feel more energy, avoid burnout connect and grow with other positive educators and make a bigger impact on your personal life and classroom then this group just might be for you here is your official invite to a new insincere educator family. So friends if you're feeling a little frisky, head on over to www dot positive growth lounge.com that's www dot positive growth lounge.com. From there you can join the positive growth lounge email crew and learn more about our BI monthly virtual evenings. That will be the highlights of your work weeks consider this your invitation and consider this your sign to invest in yourself. I am sending you all health, happiness and patients for the school your friends. And I'll see you all at WWW dot positive growth lounge.com. And now friends back to the inspiring kind and always giving Brian Martin and his teaching championship podcast best. This is gonna be such an awesome opportunity and something that I'm definitely going to check out. So I hope to see you there. Now in this episode, listen, as Susan gives us tips and strategies that can help us teach happier throughout the school year. List. It Susan talks about the benefits of gratitude practice the importance of protecting our energy, small shifts that can give us big gifts, and so much more. I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. I am super excited. For this episode, we have an absolute Rockstar. She's absolutely amazing. And we're gonna learn so much today. I want to welcome Susan Daly to the podcast. Susan, welcome to the teaching champions podcast, my friend. Hey, Brian, thanks for having me. You are the perfect guest to have right now as we're starting out the beginning of the school year, and everyone's refreshed and ready to go. Because you're gonna tell us how we can keep that momentum going throughout the school year. But for the listeners who aren't familiar with who you are, would you mind giving a little bit about your journey? Sure, I'd be happy to. So I'm in my this will be my 23rd year in education teaching. And I am currently an instructional coach for 15 elementary schools outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. So we're the fourth largest school district in the state. So that means I get to work alongside 500 of the greatest elementary colleagues and about 8000 students. So I teach every day I help colleagues and support them with their important work and just really try to have a nice balance of professional development and personal development at the same time. Son you also have an amazing book called Teach happier this school year 40 weeks of inspiration and reflection. And you have an awesome podcast, the Teach happier podcast which I've been diving into on my morning walks because I just have such an elegant and soothing voice that helps me along and gets me started right away in the morning. But can you share a little bit about for us because the school year starts. I think I see all these posts on social media. Everybody is fired up. You know the classrooms are looking good people have big smiles on their face, but then the school year gets going and 678 weeks from now It starts to become a grind. And people start losing some of that motivation. So can you share with us just a few things today that can keep that motivation going? Sure. Well, I mean, right now, we are just the best versions of ourselves, we are rested, we are optimistic, we're organized, right? Our rooms, our school bags, our lunches have never looked better, right. And we're wildly excited for the school year to begin. And just like you said, Brian, six, seven weeks in, everything's routine, we're getting sick, we are gonna tired. And it's really difficult to do our important work well, when we are not feeling whole, and content and balanced. And that's what I mean with the Teach happier book or podcast, it's happy doesn't mean high knees tralala toxic positivity, it's what do I know I need to do to make sure that I am getting in a good headspace a good heartspace conserving my limited energy and maximizing the capacity that I have some days, we're able to give 100% Other days, we're looking at a strong 45. And you know what? Brian, I feel we have 45% to give and we give 45% That is indeed 100%. So the journey is to acknowledge throughout the school year, there's a cadence to that year, there's peaks, and there's valleys. And we've got to be really honest and vulnerable with each other, and support one another when things are going really well. But then also acknowledge and support one another when collectively, we're really tired. And if we want to show up for the kids in our rooms as effectively as possible, right? We hear from our, you know, administration Teach For rigor, well, we can't do that unless we are feeling content aligned and balanced. And so that's what the podcast and the book just tries to do with honor the time of year where we are in our school year for teachers, we've been living by a school year since we've been five years old. So that cadence is so ingrained in us. And some strategies that we need to have at the top of our mind in September, are far different than what we need to keep in mind in say, January or February. And so just trying to honor where we are in our work and what we can do to best discern our next right thing. Yes, I love that. And I know, we're both Shawn Aker France, that he wrote a foreword to your book. And he's a, if you're not familiar with Shawn, that famous author, I believe his books, The Happiness Advantage. And I was listening to an interview that he was doing one time with Oprah Winfrey. And they were talking about trends with Oprah. So he's a big deal, right? Yeah, he's got a little guy he's hanging out with. And they were talking about the age old question, is your cup half full, or half empty? And he said, everybody gets this wrong? That it's not the question isn't, is my cup full? Is it? Is it half full? Is that half empty? It's understanding and realizing that there's a pitcher, right next to our cup, that we can take that pitcher, and that we can fill that cup up. And that there's strategies that there's things that we can do. And you list out so many of them in your book, what is one or two of them that you would recommend? Don't you just love that image that it's not half empty, or half full? It's refillable, this is an and a situation, right? And when our cup is getting empty, it's not because we're doing life wrong, I firmly believe it's because we're doing it right. And we're leaning into our people and our relationships and our work and our surroundings. And if you're a fully formed grown up doing those things, you're going to get empty, right. But one of the most important things that I've learned from Sean a core is it's an inside job. happiness is an inside job, we can't rely on our partners or our colleagues or our children or students to do that important work for us. We have to be the ones to commit to those consistent shifts. Sometimes those shifts are in our thoughts. Sometimes they're in our language, and sometimes they're in our actions. So there are actual universal practices of happiness. One of them get ready to roll your eyes because everybody does is exercise. Right? You move your body, your mind will be better for it. Like there's just too much research to prove otherwise, right? If exercise is not your thing, then maybe it's gratitude. Gratitude is the single practice that can permanently increase our happiness baseline. Because we're all born with some kind of happiness baseline, it's just how we're wired. It's not right or wrong, just how we're wired. But no matter what our like resting baseline is, we can permanently increase it through gratitude. And we can actually train our brain to see certain things. And it's not hard. I like to joke that it's very underwhelming. It's just consistent practice. We can't write in a gratitude journal for one week in a very intense way. And hope that that sustains us. It's showing up every day, for 30 seconds, and finding three things you're grateful for, whether it's in a journal, whether it's an app, like happy feed, and because what that does is, when we're moving through our days are always scanning for the good. We're always scanning for what's going right. And from that we train our brains to see that that's not ignoring or being ignorant that there's bad stuff in the world, but it's choosing what we're leaning into and paying attention to. So I don't know, Brian, we're all moving through the same days, we might as well move through them as healthy and happy as possible. Yes, 100%. And I love when you said that, like taking that 30 seconds and looking for something that you're grateful for. I know, you know, being in a second grade classroom, I love those youngsters, but there are moments that, you know, the blood pressure starts peeking. And no, just like a basketball game, things aren't going well, in a basketball game, you call a timeout, and you come back to the bench. The timeout necessarily doesn't happen like that in the second grade classroom, but it might happen where I say to myself, I need to see something good. That's happening right now, to take that pause and look around and see, you know, in our schools to her amazing things happening all over. There sure are. And so, as adults, we can see the value in that. So how empowering, is it when we can show our second graders? Right? If we can show them at eight years old? What gratitude does to them? Right? What does that look like when they're 1838 68. So in our school district, in many of our elementary rooms, we've got math notebooks, writing notebooks, we've got gratitude journals. And that's not to say we stop every day and do it. But a few times a week, we're stopping at the end of the day during our closing circle time. And we do morning meeting and closing circles K to six in our school district. Closing circle is a brilliant time for Alright, let's take one minute, here's the timer, jot down something good that happened today. And the days where that's really easy, great. It's the days that it's really hard. That's when we can make permanent positive change, right. I was just in Virginia a few weeks ago at the College of William and Mary. And I was sharing some of the hard things that are happening in my life right now. I know I present, like pretty happy. But there's stuff going on, right as there is everybody. And I recently lost my mom and I shared with that group. I was with my mom when she passed. And I still wrote my gratitude book that night, I still found something on the saddest, hardest day of my life, I forced myself to pause, zoom out and find something to be grateful for. And when we do that, on our really difficult days, that's when we are making different neural pathways in our brain. And that's when our brain is shifting our thoughts, which is what shifts our perception, which is what ultimately shifts our actions. And that really just helps us gain a more aligned content. Anchored life. Yes, thank you so much for sharing that. And sorry for your loss. It's so true. And I was reading your book. And one thing that jumped out at me, and I'd seen this video clip and you talked about the Duke head women's basketball coach, I said, Kara Lawson. Yes. And she was talking about I believe it was things don't get easier. We just do hard, better. And she's got all these brilliant athletes around her right. And it's just it's that arrival fallacy. Like Dr. Laurie Santos from Yale says, It's once I get to the next thing, I'll be happy. And you just keep chasing, chasing, chasing and it's called a rival fallacy because that are arriving to the thing. It's false. It's not going to bring you the happiness you're chasing. And so she says, Listen, it's not going to get easier after this basketball season. It's not going to get easier after you graduate college. You're going to be able to handle hard better. And the crazy thing is Brian, there's so much research that's such a it's such a bummer. There's it's called the you curve of happiness because there is a significant dip between like 24 and six Do you know if you're listening to this podcast and you're, you know, not 16 and not at your probably life is probably pretty challenging for you right now. And so even though that's a real bummer statistic, and it's, it's supported in everything you research, it just reminds us overtly why it's so important to prioritize some of these practices and some of these habits, because if science is literally telling me, your life's gonna get hard, I want to be armed so that I can refill that cup. And I do recognize that this is an inside job. And I have to, you know, do as much as I can for my own happiness. Yes, absolutely. And I love how in the book, one things that you really stress, small shifts, biggest gifts. And he talked about I believe that like the 2%, right, I can't imagine there's a listener out there, that has the capacity right now, even though we're still in August when this airs, to say, like, hey, I want at capacity for that. Nobody has the capacity for that. That's not realistic, that's intense, we need to be consistent. So we talk about those two degrees shifts. And I think I've mentioned in the book, you think about a plane that takes off, and every 10 minutes, they go two degrees, two degrees, two degrees shift, that plane ends up in an entirely different location. So if we want to kind of own our trajectory a little bit more, it's these two degree shifts, and our thoughts and our language and our actions. And my goal, Brian, is people hear some of this and be like, That's it. It's underwhelming. Good. Because we're already overwhelmed with too many other things. Right? So that's the goal to degree shift. Yes, just a couple small things. And sometimes you don't see, or at least I found in my own life, that you don't might not see the results, day one. But if you do them consistently, little by little, a little becomes a lot. And it just becomes more natural, and you can feel them inside. Now, one thing that I love from your podcast that you were talking about two things, two episodes, but they kind of went together, you were talking about a strawberry. And you were talking about the trees in the root systems. Well, you know, metaphors. So I love a metaphor, and kids love strawberries, because I also take some of these ideas and turn them into lessons for kids. So I would say this the same to adult learners or kid learners, I'd say Have you ever gone in to get a strawberry? And there's a moldy strawberry, right? And they like the you know, they have their typical insert age reaction. And I say I asked them, What do you notice about the strawberries around that moldy strawberry? And what do they all say? Brian? They say they're moldy? Yes. And so we talk about our energy, and what that does to the people around us. And then conversely, the energy that we are choosing to surround ourselves with. And so people they fight back on me hear Brian, they say to me, yeah, I get it, Suzanne, but I can't change who's in my grade level. I can't change his in my department or who's in my hallway? Yes, yes, we're, we're Rational Optimist. So we're not just going to say good vibes only be like, yes, that's hard to have somebody who's pretty toxic across the hall from you. You can't change your classroom, you can't change your department, grade level, whatever. Yet, you have the influence to decide how much of your energy they get. Does this person kind of initiate later night text messages? You don't have to engage in those right? Is that person going to come up to you during prep and say, Can you believe it so and so did at a faculty meeting. Once you recognize that they are a moldy strawberry, you start putting up those boundaries, and you start creating a little bit of distance. That's all within our realm of control or influence, which is again, something I learned from Sean a core 10 to 20% of our lives can't change. It can't changes in my grade level. But that leaves 80 to 90% for me to make some decisions of what my next right thing is not answering the text, closing my door during prep and saying listen, it's busy. I just got to get my head down and get some things done. Those are all that's that's the cup is refillable. Yes, I 100% agree with them. I think that's so good. Making those boundaries. I've known you know, I've been blessed. I've worked with some amazing educators. But I also recognize and we all have tough times tough moments. There's certain things that trigger us that understanding people like what triggers them and when They're going down a slippery slope that just like you talked about, that you can walk away. Or if you start seeing that sometimes, like, I'll try and steer that conversation in a different direction. Yep. And, and just little things that we can do is so big, like protecting that energy. It's true. Here's it, here's something else you can do. And I, I am almost like, do I really say this? Because people are gonna catch on to me at work. Set a timer on your phone. And when that timer goes off, I'm serious. No, that's good. I set timers all the time, because I'm going to lots of schools and lots of classrooms, and I genuinely will lose track of time because I'll be so invested in what's in front of me. But I'll also be like, Hey, Brian, good to see you. I just need to set my timer because in five minutes, I have to make a quick phone call. So then I know in my head, alright, Suzanne, listen to Brian, because you got three and a half minutes left. And you know, there'll be an n so, but again, I do hesitate to tell you that because people are gonna cut down on what I do. That's, I might steal that one. So I like something my daughter does, too. I hope she'll she's 15. She might hate that I'm saying this. She'll say my battery's about to die. I gotta go get her batteries totally full. It's brilliant. Yes, no, that is brilliant. Absolutely. Now you also talk a lot about that I really liked the power of intentional acts of kindness. Would you dive into that real quick, I would love to so gratitude that we talked about earlier, that's how you can permanently increase your happiness baseline. Conscious or intentional acts of kindness is the fastest way to temporarily give yourself a little happy happiness bump. So if you're having a bad day, positive psychologists, social scientists through brain scans, say, perform a conscious act of kindness. So in some of the workshop sessions I do, I'll ask folks to fill in the blank, it'll say blank acts of kindness. And they all shout out random. And I push back on that and say, Okay, what if here's a two degree shift in language, we move we evolved from random acts of kindness to intentional or conscious. And it's it's so much more than semantics, Brian, because what that does is it trains our brain to know, we have the power to put positivity out into what most scientists say is a pretty neutral universe. It's not really inherently positive or negative. It's pretty neutral. So I'll say okay, give me an example for random acts of kindness. So I don't know Brian, give me one. What do you got? A random, random ad kind of simple holding the door open for somebody open the door. Okay. So that's, that's one we get all the time. So I say is that random when you decide to hold the door for somebody? Absolutely. Not. Even when you're like, oh, like they are kind of far away, I could close the door. holding the door open for somebody is a very intentional act of kindness. Here's the greatest thing. Let's say, you hold the door for me, Brian. Right. So who benefits from that? Well, I benefit because you open the door for me, thank you kindly. You benefit. Your dopamine and serotonin start coursing through your body because you did something nice for somebody. And I just learned this from Rob Dunlop. He's the author of strive for happiness and education. He said, anybody who witnesses that conscious or intentional act of kindness, their dopamine, you know, they get a little hit too, right? So it's kind of counterintuitive to think if I'm having a really tough day, I'm supposed to lift somebody else up. It works exactly 100% of the time. Now, your happiness isn't going to like permanently move, but for 15 minutes to 30 minutes, you're feeling much better. And oftentimes, that's just the little course correction that can help you move on to the rest of your day. Yes. Oh, that's so good. Does it that 2% shift that small it starts gets that ball rolling. And did you hear Brian and it's okay if you say no, the podcast about a local convenience store around here. I did. Yeah. Didn't Very good. Dive into that. Yeah, they intentionally so it's called wha wha wha wha if you're from this area you get it? Don't you don't and it's fine. It is your most average convenience store you've ever seen. Like think like a 711 meets Cumberland Farms meets whatever is an only and I can I can see it right across from our homes. But I don't know like what that gets us. What is it? It's 711 it is a seven Okay, so they have stores now up and down the East Coast, and they're getting pretty nice. I mean, the ones near us aren't that nice, but like the newer ones are really, really nice. Right? They are purposely not installing automatic doors, they are making sure that they are still, I guess, is there is a manual door, I don't even know what the opposite of an automatic because they want people to hold the door for each other. And they want people coming in and out of their store just feeling a little bit happier than when they came in. And it's actually really true, you go into a very average convenience store, the parking is always a disaster always like it is. The joke around here is when kids get their license, don't take them on a road test, like take them to a Walmart parking lot, if you're all stressed out in the parking lot. But when you go in and you're holding the door, in and out, you just feel better. That is an intentional act of kindness. And that's 2%. That's not been right. Yes. And one thing that I love to do within the classroom, or I tried to do is when you see a student, and they do an intentional act of kindness, to really point it out to the class. Yeah, because just like you said, it makes the class feel a little bit better. But then they start doing some nice acts. At the elementary level, oftentimes we have like a student of the week or leader of the week, you know, something like that. So in a lot of our classrooms, if you are the student of the week, your job is to come up with an intentional act of kindness for as almost like a like a challenge. And so when my son was in third grade, he came up with putting a surprise in a neighbor's mailbox. And so he shared that, that act. And then as the week went on, other kids tried it, and then it came became this beautiful organic conversation of so you put an A note in a candy bar in the mailbox for a neighbor, how do they feel? Oh, they loved it. This is what they said, How did you feel? Oh, I loved it. Here's what I said. Right? And again, we're empowering our kids to know what these small shifts can do for them. Because if they can own some of these strategies now, I just think it's really helping prepare them for a as balanced life as realistically possible. Yes, no, that is so good. And I love that I love now, was the challenge issued to be done obviously. Was it sent home to the parents? Or is it like the newsletter? Yep. Oh, that's such a bad idea. Yep. So I knew Okay, here's the math homework. Here's the reading homework. Here's the intentional acts of kindness this week got it? Perfect. It's not realistic to think everybody participated in every week. I mean, that's, you know, real life, but you get a couple kids to do it and talk about their response. Pretty cool. Yeah, that's really cool. And it just, you know, like you said, it spreads throughout the class. And that just becomes contagious. And it gets kids talking at home with their families of discussion. And when a kid comes home, and challenges their parent, to perform a conscious act of kindness at their workplace, or someplace where they frequent, that's a win, right? Yeah. Take all those wins, sir. Awesome. One last thing that I want to touch on that you talked about on a recent podcast episode that I thought was beautiful. And I actually this weekend, was reminding myself of it was you talked about bids for connection? Oh, yeah. That's a tender. I don't know, I melt when you say that, because that was a really tender episode. And that has changed me at a cellular level. I know that sounds very exaggerated. But that is just a fact. So I learned from Oh, the Gottman Institute, I forget to forget their first names. But they're really smart people who do a lot of research and they talked about what a bid for connection is. And essentially, it's noticing when anybody around us met, whether it's our partner, maybe it's our kids, or students or colleagues are offering a bid to connect. And I've looked at my interactions with so many different groups of people in my life, both personally and professionally. Totally different. This just happened right before we logged on. My son. Bless 14 year old boy wanted to show me some dumb tic toc something okay. His name was Ryan and it was a thing about this Ryan convention. Mom, mom, you gotta see this right? And I'm trying to like clean up after dinner. Get ready for our our conversation. I don't want to see this dumb tic tac right like in my head. I'm like, but then now I think of that as like he's trying to connect. This is a bit for connection. My son wants to show his mom something. So this is an opportunity for me to connect with him. All right. And so sometimes maybe a text comes through and you're like, oh, gosh, I don't know if I'm ready for this exchange. Well, if we view it, not as an inconvenience, but more so as a bid for connection, it changes the complexion of that interaction altogether. And so my husband and I, like we've been far more mindful of bits of bits for connection from our children. And that practice at home has helped me become more aware of it, it at work and at school, which is important, It just strengthens our relationships altogether. The as I mean, those bids for connection are so important and so meaningful, and we can get distracted like that phone is just such a distraction. And, you know, just like you were saying, you know, this weekend, I was with my little nephew, and he was playing around on the floor. He's only a few years old. So he was just playing around on the floor and everything. And I started to pick up my phone and scroll through x Twitter. And, you know, I stopped myself and I said, No, I How many moments like this do I have, you know, get down there on the floor and start crawling around to my friend. And then I think going back into the classroom, because we get so caught up, everybody's so passionate about like, their content area, there's never enough time to fit everything in. But those bids for connection, sometimes those kids come, they don't get those moments of connection at home, you buy new shoes, and you like you forgot attendance, and they're yelling at you, and they all fit, right. But they just want you to look at their shoes and say I love them. You know, how do they you know, can you run fast? And I'm like, I don't know, whatever you ask. But that's it. That's a five to seven second interaction that they are hungry for. And we'll miss it. I know I've missed a ton. Yes, until I've learned more what those what I thought were interruptions what they often mean. Now, and you know, I've done a lot of thought about this too. Recently, I was reading a book by John Maxwell and he was talking about connection and everything. And with that better connection, it's not just you know, my eyes are looking at him. But what's my body language tone? When when they you know, showing me those shoes are showing me that Pokeyman card and everything. What am I showing them that I'm actually engaged in care about for that small moment about what they have to say? And I forget who said it? I want to say it's Toni Morrison but then I think it might be my Angelou because they're both so brilliant. You know, do your eyes light up when your child walks in the room? I just don't think that's realistically I'm not gonna I'm not gonna light up. I'm just not what I can absolutely try to discern a bid for connection that I can do and then I light up then doing it all the time just isn't realistic. But once I noticed that it's a bid for connection. That's that's a different. That's a different opportunity. Yes, no, I love I love that how you added that on that. So that's perfect. So two of my favorite questions my friend is I know you are very well read and you listen to some podcasts. Do you have any book recommendations podcast recommendations? I love the happiness lab. And so that is with Dr. Laurie Santos from Yale. She you may have heard her if you didn't hear her before possibly during the pandemic. She runs the most popular courses at Yale and all of Yale's history. And it's about the science of happiness. And so she has some really great guests. The episodes are about a half an hour and they always just make me think a little bit so love that podcast and books I think for teachers that strive for happiness in education by Rob Dunlop is really great and a newer that's I always say that's the brother to teach happier with the sister book would be bold gratitude by Laney Rowell. So really great written for teachers. And I think it's really important when, as educators we're trying to grow personally, it's nice when things are written just for us. Because our work is just so human that I just think we need some special care and attention sometimes. Yes, it's wonderful when you have books that are written by people who are actually like in it that know those feelings know the the roller coaster ride and everything that this journey brings us. So some great recommendations. Now if someone wanted to connect, they wanted to read your amazing book, listen to your podcast or bring you in to speak what will be the best way for them to connect with you. The best place is Suzanne daily.com Everything's right there. But you know the podcast is on everywhere. You can get podcasts and the book is everywhere you can buy Book. So in everything is teach happier. So thank you, Brian for asking. Yes, that's perfect. And if you could have the listener walk away with one thing, what would that be? So because we started this conversation saying, we are the best versions of ourselves right now, think about what did your summer self do to help you feel rested, rejuvenated, calm, and see if you can prioritize that into your school self? Because just like you said, we will lose it by Halloween. If we're not really aware and treating it almost like a discipline, right and prioritizing. What do we need so that that cup is refillable? Maybe it's exercise? Maybe it's getting to bed at a certain time. Maybe it's powering down at a certain time, right? Maybe it's gratitude, whatever it is this summer, that helps you feel full. Prioritize that when school starts, don't let that be the first thing off the list. Yes, I love that small shifts bring those biggest gifts. So Susan, you are such a bright light. We talked about like that energy. I absolutely love your energy. We have so many things in common. from Niagara to Bonaventure to that beautiful Buffalo Bills helmet that you have floating in the background. I wish the listeners could see it, guys, this is our season. Okay? Every year, but the one thing it's since 1991. This has been such it's such a pleasure, my friend and keep being that light to so many. Thank you, Brian. Thanks for having me. This podcast is a proud member of the teach better Podcast Network. Better today. Better tomorrow, and the podcast to get you there. Explore more podcasts at WWW dot teach better podcast network.com. Now let's get on to the episode. This was such an awesome conversation. Susan is absolutely amazing. Now this is a teaching champions tech, where I share three of my favorite gems from the conversation. The first gem that I love is how Susan talked about the power of gratitude. She talked about how gratitude was the single practice that can increase your happiness baseline. So be intentional. Create a gratitude practice, where you take a few minutes each day to think about things that you're grateful for. It could be a designated time, it could be during a break or lunchtime where you think about things that you're grateful for. Or it could be that noontime walk. The key is to set a deliberate gratitude practice. And the second gem is how Susan talked about the energy that we surround ourselves with matters, that it's important that we protect our piece, that we should seek out those who fill us up and utilize strategies to help minimize the contact we have with those who drain our energy. And the third gem that I loved is how Susan discussed the benefits of intentional acts of kindness. Susan truly illustrated how doing intentional acts of kindness can have a positive impact on us. And I also loved how Susan talked about having intentional acts of kindness activities that we have with our students and extending it to the homes, how impactful that can be. Now these were just a few of my favorite takeaways. Let me know on Twitter at Bheema, unreal, or on Instagram at teaching champions podcast, were a few of your favorite gems. A big thank you to Susan for so many amazing gems. And the thank you to all of you for being here for being part of the teaching champions community. We support we encourage we lift each other up. And always remember, it doesn't matter whether you're from rural America, to urban America, to Canada to Spain to Bahrain. We're all on the same team. We're all on the same mission. And we're always better together. Keep being amazing, my friends, and as you go out into the week, May you step into your strength, may you step into your shine, and let's build our champions. Have a great week, everybody