The coronavirus has interrupted the familiar structure of our lives: going to school, thinking about college, prom, graduation. The stress only increases when you add in the fact that you are mostly stuck in the house.
How do you handle this stress? My dad would tell me to be a man, which for him would be to act as if nothing is wrong. This is one time when I am going to go against my dad’s advice.
Stress is our body’s natural response to adversity or challenge. Denying that feeling is neither good for us nor for the people around us. I think of stress as a friend preparing me for the moment. When you have the proper mindset about stress it enhances your performance (more)
The other day, I told my family that teaching online is more stressful to me then teaching in person. I then explained the things about online teaching that stressed me out and what I needed to learn from those situations to reduce my stress.
When you share your stress with others, it normalizes it. Instead of thinking, you are the only one who feels this way, you and your friends realize that many people share in this emotion.
Finally, think about things you can change to help you adapt to our new situation. I know that I must be more precise in my communication with students and offer times when they can ask questions. I also need to appreciate that, given the unstructured day, I have more time to exercise, be with family, and read.
If we are honest with each other and ourselves about our emotions, it will help us through this difficult time.
The part about being honest with each other and ourselves about our emotions hit me. Often, when we get stressed, it's as if we are trying to hide what really scares us about the situation from the forefront of our minds. But when we talk to each other and really face what is lying in front of us, we see that other people are in the same boat as us. And this, if not motivating, is at least reassuring. If these people can make it through, why can't I? Thanks for the post Mr. Bressler, keep them coming!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you when we discuss our emotions or events in our lives we tend to realize other people share the same problems as well. Thanks for taking the time to reply
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