Stress. It’s real. It’s intense. And it has an impact on everything we do because it impacts our emotional, mental, and physical health.
Normally at this time of the year, we music teachers find ourselves stressed about all of the activities that take place in the spring, from trips and festivals to graduations and other rituals. We are used his time of the year being very busy, but those same events that make us busy are also very rewarding.
This year, not so much.
We are certainly stressed out, but this year we are getting all of the stress with very little of the rewards.
Instead of enjoying the traditional spring-time activities with our students, we are watching our music programs struggle as a year of online, hybrid, and in-person-but-with-masks-and-social-distancing educational models have required us to create (and re-create) all kinds of new experiences for our students and this process has left many of us depleted, depressed, and wondering if we have the stamina to do the work it will take to rebuild our programs.
It is daunting to think about all of the ramifications this year will have for many years to come, and worrying about the short and long-term impact all of this will have on our life’s work is enough to cause even the most well-seasoned veteran music educators stress.
Everything from worrying about whether we’ll have enough students to keep all of our class offerings and how to do all this with budget cuts and other challenges eats away at us and often shows up as insomnia, headaches, weight gain, aches and pains, upset stomachs, GI issues, high blood pressure, depression, anxiety, and other physical issues.
As teachers, we are expected to somehow gracefully lead our students through this crazy situation – one we’ve never experienced before or been trained to handle.
And somehow we are supposed to nurture their social and emotional needs even as our own lives are full of challenges. But how can we support their social and emotional needs when our own social and emotional needs are neglected?
We can’t.
As we head into the summer months, this is the time when it’s essential that YOU are your priority. You cannot continue to take care of everyone else’s needs when you are depleted. You have been asked to do the impossible and you’ve undoubtedly gone to super-human lengths to serve your students before and during the pandemic. And now it’s time for you to take a good look at how you are doing and what you need to do to “tune up” your body and mind so you have the stamina to step into next year with renewed vigor and purpose.
As many of you know, my own emotional, mental, and physical health greatly suffered due to the stressors I experienced during the first three decades I spent as a high school band director and mom of three. Turns out that making babies in your belly, running a program that serves 300 teenagers a day, having zero period classes five days a week and several night activities every week, and all of the other things that go along with being a busy band directing mom isn’t actually a one-person job, but being the control-freak that I used to be, I tried to do it all. And it cost me dearly.
I’d gotten to the point where I thought I had to walk away from my life’s work because I couldn’t figure out how to turn around the damaging effects the stress was having on my personal health.
Through my work with music teachers all over the world this year, I am seeing many who are currently struggling with the same challenges I faced when I had more stress than I could handle. My mission is to share the strategies I learned and applied in my own life with other music teachers so they have the stamina to do this important work for many years to come.
In my books, I Love My Job but It’s Killing Me and Love the Job, Lose the Stress, I share strategies that took me from unhealthy (and unhappy) to health and much happier. The changes I made in the ways I respond to stressful situations and how I learned to “tune my brain and body” to function at a completely different level took me from being unhealthy, depressed, anxious, overweight, and unable to sleep (and being dependent on lots of prescription pills to mask symptoms so I could keep on working) to being in a much better state of mind and body (and off all the pills!) Getting my own personal health turned around has paid dividends in my classroom ever since – for my students and for me.
This year has certainly been stressful, but the stress no longer has power over me. The reason it doesn’t is because I have practiced making changes in habits that were no longer serving me so that I am at my physical and mental strongest and stay grounded in spite of the constant stream of stressful events that continue to play out.
I want to encourage you to take some time this summer to intentionally focus on your emotional, mental, and physical health. Let’s face it, if your own social and emotional needs aren’t met, how can you support your students in their social and emotional needs? We all realize that their SEL needs will be greater than ever after the year they’ve just experienced, so it’s essential that we address this at a core level – and that starts by supporting your own social and emotional needs first so you have a strong enough foundation to support them without it sucking all your energy.
It’s like being a music teacher – in order to be an effective music educator, you first had to become a musician who had acquired the habits and skills you would eventually be teaching your students. That required intentional practice, setting goals, and taking steps every day to build the skills that allow you to be an excellent musician even when under stress.
But who has the time or energy to figure all of this out after the exhausting year you’ve just experienced?
I want to share the four components of The mPower Method ™ I outline in my first book because they are the areas where makinga little change can have a huge impact. Through daily small steps, I was able to focus on these areas and see tremendous improvements in my physical, mental, and emotional health – and my ability to go from thinking I had to walk away from being a music teacher in 2017 to now being in a better place than I was then…in spite of the pandemic.
Moffat’s mPower Method:
Meals: The meals you eat directly impact your brain and body. There’s no getting around it. Putting sugar, processed foods, and a lot of the options that are quick and easy (and cheap) into our bodies is equivalent to playing a Buffet wooden clarinet with a plastic reed. That beautiful clarinet simply won’t respond to a plastic reed the same way it will with a high-quality cane reed that’s the proper strength for the musician who is playing it. Take the opportunity to notice how you feel after eating meals, and if words like “bloated, gassy, and tired” are the first ones to pop up, ask yourself how you want to feel and find foods that support those feelings. If you want to feel “energetic, focused, fit and flexible”, notice what foods help you feel that way and eat more of them. Much like reed strength preference varies for woodwind players based on everything from embouchure to experience levels, our diets are very personal. Our bodies are all different, so don’t worry about what everyone else is doing. Just focus on what makes you feel the way you want to feel.
Movement: Our bodies were made to move. As music teachers who are used to being on our feet, directing, and being busy, the sudden shift to sitting in a chair to teach online music classes came as a shock to many of us. Finding ourselves spending hour after hour seated in front of our computers as we designed and delivered curriculum meant that many of us didn’t get the kind of movement our bodies need – and that can result in unhealthy physical attributes such as weight gain, joint pain, muscle stiffness, back aches, and much more. If we don’t allow the fluids in our bodies to circulate, they become stagnant and that’s how diseases settle into our bodies. Take opportunities this summer to find movement that feels good for you so you will be motivated and look forward to doing it. For me, yoga and walking are my activities of choice. My husband prefers ice hockey and other more vigorous activities. Again, the activities themselves aren’t what’s important. What really matters is that you have regular movement in your day so your body is able to metabolize your meals, keep the organs working their best, and produce energy.
Music: My husband is able to tell what kind of mood I’m in based on what I’m playing on the piano. From the style and type of music to the way in which I’m playing it (gently vs. “with gusto”), he can read my state of mind. I use the opportunity to play the piano to channel my emotions, help me work through a tough day, or to connect with my need for artistic expression. In my books, I share how non-performers can use music to support them in their health goals. From making playlists to help them feel energized so they’re motivated to exercise, sleep better, or focus to attending concerts and blasting their car radio, even non-performers have endless tools at their disposal to make achieving their goals easier. From playlists to performing, you have dozens of ways you can use music as a motivator, relaxer, energizer, and so much more. Music is one of your Super Powers, so why not use it to your advantage?
Mindfulness: Finally, taking a mindful approach to the choices you make is the real game-changer. Deciding what’s important, why you want or need to make changes, and how you want to feel when you’ve made those changes is key. Being intentional about taking care of your personal health is the foundation for making EVERYTHING in your life easier.
Summer Homework Challenge: Take a few minutes to look back at the last year and pat yourself on the back for the super-human lengths you went to in order to provide your students with music education in spite of the innumerable challenges and stressors that showed up and tried to derail everything you’ve worked so hard to build.
What were the costs to your health? Are you in better or worse physical, mental, and emotional health than you were before the pandemic? When you think about next year, are you filled with excitement or feelings of fear? Do you feel like you’ve gotten to the finish line and are a victor, or do you feel like you’re being dragged through the final leg of the race and are barely going to make it?
Wherever you are, acknowledge it and then decide if you want to make any changes from how you feel right now. If so, give Moffat’s mPower Method a try. Before we can take care of our students and our families, we must take care of ourselves. It’s not a selfish act – it’s the same thing as taking care of our instruments.
Your body and brain are like an instrument. Just like we must keep our instruments in good condition if they are going to respond when we play them, we must do whatever it takes to ensure our own brains and bodies are “in tune” and functioning at their best, or we’re fighting a losing battle.
Thank you for all you’ve done to continue to serve your students during this challenging time. Now it’s time to take care of you so you are ready for Music Ed 2.0!