For a teacher it’s common to feel there is limitless work to be done in a day. The level of attainment and required outcomes, in what often appears as ‘never enough time to do it in’, can have an impact on our body posture as we perform seemingly unending tasks. It can often feel like a vice like grip or bracing that descends on our bodies in a bid to get the work done.
And when the space arises to get work done during the teaching day, it can almost feel like being on the starting block of a 100m sprint! There is not usually a protracted or lengthy amount of time to complete daily tasks such as preparing lessons, uploading behavioural incidents, marking, responding to parents, preparing personalised learning support for certain students, as a few examples.
As we sit to begin the long list of ‘to dos’, instantly our body can become tense and contort into a posture or movement that can actually be rigid or hard without us even realising it. Before we know it, we may be leaning too far to one side, have our chair positioned too far back from the desk, and bending our spine - all examples of postures we can lock and freeze into.
The gun fires, and the task at hand begins. It needs to be done; it has to be done. In this moment, our body often stiffens into those awkward and unsupportive postures, pushing through with effort and trying. There is a sense which comes in, that when the job is complete, - but only then – can we go to the toilet, eat something, make a cup of tea or shuffle in our seat to attend to a twinge in our shoulder, spine or neck.
At the same time, not only is our body locked up, but the flow of ideas for the lesson plan, email, writing up of an incident etc., can also lock up. When this begins to occur, there is a propensity to cycle back into more effort, more locking into bracing our body, in order to fix it all up and get it done.
And so, the cycle perpetuates.
Our forehead and top of our head itself might begin to ache or become intense under the pressure; our shoulders might lock, our spine might ache, our heart might race, and our breathing might become shallower. The more we try, and the more we brace, it’s as if all flow of ideas become blocked.
The thoughts that there is no time to walk to the toilet, refill our water bottle, take a few minutes break, check in with a colleague, check our pigeonhole, or return documents to admin, can be convincing.
But attending to these things actually is the gateway to remove or move the blockage. A reset can occur from one simple movement, no matter how small – it could be simply standing up and sitting back down again, pausing to release the shoulders, or shifting our body back into the chair. Simple movements often release the gripping sense of tension and can support increased productivity to return.
Instant self-care is offered through simply bringing a focus and, observation to our body posture and feeling the impact on our body whilst it engages in the volume of work that needs to be attended to as part of a teaching day. The more we become aware of our body posture and how simple movements can support to unlock the body, the less the anxiety is felt and this, in turn, offers support in a greater ease and flow in producing greater quality and productivity with the given task at hand.
What if all that is needed is to make a simple movement to break away from the intensity and bracing placed on our bodies … a movement that can unlock both our bodies, the ideas, and the flow in our teaching day …