My Relaxing 5

Good morning, colleagues! I am part of a teacher blogging group, and one teacher, Mari, encouraged us to blog about our "relaxing 5." This stemmed from Brian's post about "Putting Yourself First." As teachers that have stressful jobs, we need to find ways to relax and take care of ourselves. I always likened this to airplane rules - put the oxygen mask on yourself before your child. You can't be a good teacher and take care of students unless you care of yourself. This blog post is all about the five things that I do to relax after a long day (or week) of teaching.

Read a book. I've blogged before about my love for reading. I'm currently reading book #51 for the year. Reading is often how I wind down before bedtime. I make time to read each night from 8 - 8:30. I change into my PJs, spray my pillow with sleepy spray, and tuck myself in under the blankets. If I'm lucky, one of my cats will join me on the bed. Once I've read for a half hour, I'm usually sleepy and ready to go to bed. It's also a way for me to let go of my day and "escape" into another world for a while.

Meet with friends and grab a drink. I have fabulous friends here in the Springs, but because most of us are stressed-out teachers, we don't meet up as often as we should. Sadly, last week, one of our friends passed away (she was also a former colleague and my mentor during my first year at Skyview). The week of Thanksgiving was rough, to say the least. We've all discussed how we really, really need to get together more often, whether it's for a game night, a movie night, happy hour, dinner, or coffee. No excuses - these ladies are my people, and I want to enjoy every moment that we can together.

Take some photos. I am an amateur photographer. Recently I've been taking pictures of my travels (Steamboat Springs, Iowa, New York, Belize, Guatemala), but I know that I need to get out more often and take local images. I've recently been lucky in that someone posted on Reddit about a cool bridge in town. I went out to take pictures of the bridge, and it was super snowy (instead of pretty fall leaves). It was also foggy, so I drove to Garden of the Gods to see what it looked like. It ended up being a lucky opportunity because the conditions were stunning. BUT I made the time to drive around and take pictures. I NEED TO DO THAT MORE OFTEN!

Attend a hot yoga session. Literally, all I can think about is how hot I am. I cannot think about my day, about tomorrow, or about anyone else in the room. I'm purely focused on not dying. Then, once done with the session, I feel detoxed and relaxed. I also feel like I can conquer the world!

Listen to music. This sounds pretty normal... but I'm kind of a weirdo when it comes to music. Do you make a ridiculous amount of playlists for specific feelings? Probably not. But I do. Sometimes I can calm down and relax when I recognize my emotions and then build a playlist with songs that will change that mood. Need a good cry? Boom. Relishing your summer? Enjoy. Unwinding on the back deck? Cheers. Happy about something? Dance it out.

These are #myrelaxing5. What are yours? I'd love to hear them in the comments because I'm always on the lookout for #myrelaxing10 or #myrelaxing20.

Thanks for reading! I'll see you next week :)

- Rachel

@historicalipad
My Teacherspayteachers website