Did you know that April is stress awareness month? Since 1992, stress awareness month has been held to raise awareness to decrease stigma, increase understanding and encourage people to talk.
For teaching staff, including early years, primary, secondary and college sectors as a tutor, teacher, T.A, ECT or head teacher, stress can be an ongoing factor. Increasing challenges due to Covid and now budget pressures has meant that many teaching staff have endured long term stressors. Prolonged stress can reduce resilience and may appear as feeling ‘run-down’ with an increase in physical ailments.
Top 10 stressors for teachers:
- long hours
- too much marking
- too much lesson preparation
- lack of resources,
- lack of work-life balance
- managing pupil behaviour,
- taking on extra work/responsibilities due to staffing shortages
- supporting students’ mental health,
- financial worries
- political dynamics
This year, the Stress Management Society is advocating the 30-Day Challenge. It involves taking one action each on your physical, mental and emotional wellbeing each day. The ethos behind it, is that it takes 30 days to embed actions into habits to positively impact your wellbeing over the long term. To find out more, click here.
However, if that feels like something else to do when you already feel overwhelmed, make sure you talk to others about how you feel. Start saying ‘no’ to requests if you feel overworked and do one kind thing for yourself every day. Always speak to your GP for further help, if you think your feelings are escalating and becoming unmanageable; remember you are not alone and the sooner you act the better.