76. Digging Deeper: Uncovering the Root Causes of Teacher Burnout

Oct 17, 2023

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If you find yourself deep in the trenches of teacher burnout, you're not alone. The demands of modern education can feel like an ever-expanding tree, with branches of stress, anxiety, and exhaustion stretching in all directions. Perhaps you've tried various strategies, self-care routines, or even sought advice from colleagues, and yet, the burnout persists. If this sounds familiar, I have an important revelation for you: it's highly likely that you've been treating the symptoms rather than addressing the true core cause of your burnout.

In this episode, we will dig deep to discuss how teacher burnout is like a tree with branches of stress, anxiety, and exhaustion stretching in all directions, but most importantly how the solutions to your burnout struggles are found in understanding the root reasons behind your exhaustion and overwhelm. We'll dive into the multiple factors that contribute to burnout, emphasizing that it's rarely just one thing causing your stress, anxiety, and burnout. Instead of viewing it as an insurmountable mountain, we'll show you how to break it down into manageable pieces and provide you with a free tool to making lasting change.

TOPICS COVERED:

Explore Root Causes of Teacher Burnout
Recognize Burnout Gradually
Learn from Personal Experience: Insights from overcoming burnout.
Break Down Burnout Complexity
Holistic Teacher Burnout Recovery
Recognize Warning Signs: Identify physical and emotional signals.
Tackle Burnout Gradually: Practical steps to make recovery manageable.
Boost Self-Awareness: Understand its role in identifying burnout triggers.
Embrace the Journey: It's a process; focus on progress, not perfection.
Personalized Burnout Solutions: Tailor strategies to regain balance and fulfillment.

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE:

Take the FREE Teacher Burnout Roadmap to Burnout Recovery Quiz - Take this short, fun, and informative quiz to discover what you need to sustain your teaching career and begin burnout recovery. This quiz will help you understand what support systems you need, how to prioritize your mental health to live a fulfilling and energized life as a teacher, and what drives your self-care.

RELATED RESOURCES:

Join the Waitlist for Automate Your Classroom Course - Learn the step-by-step roadmap TO creating a sustainable teacher task simplification and automation system to beat burnout, squash stress, get back YOUR time, and sustain your career in education
Missing Assignment Google Form to Automatic Email Template - Your Go-To for Teacher Communication Simplification is in this Google Form to Automatic E-mail Guide
FREE Parent Communication Documentation Form

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RELATED EPISODES:

Episode 4: The FIVE Must Have Methods to End the Stress Cycle
Episode 68: Turning Struggles into Strength: Using Teacher Burnout as a Catalyst for Change [Teacher Pep Talk]
Episode 66: The Magic of Mindset to Avoid Back-to-School Burnout
Episode 6: The Game Changing Method of Healing Burnout with Inner Work with Ce'arra Richards

MORE ABOUT THE RESILIENT TEACHER PODCAST:

The Resilient Teacher Podcast is the show that will give overwhelmed educators the support, tools, and mindset to reduce teacher burnout and keep teaching sustainable. Each week, Brittany Blackwell, M.Ed. & her guests will share inspiration and actionable steps to avoid or recover from the dreaded teacher burnout. You'll be inspired to individualize self-care and learn to prioritize your well-being and mental health, all while making a bigger impact on your classrooms and community.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Exploring the Branches of Teacher Burnout

[0:00] There's a saying, like a tree, your problems, they have branches. And the solutions, those lie in the roots. So today we're going to be talking about digging deep into those roots to find out what exactly is causing your teacher burnout. And if you're a subscriber to the podcast, you know I'm all about individualization. So this isn't just some one-size-fits-all thing that we're talking about. We're going to explore, much like a tree's branches, the problems that we face as educators, those can spread in different directions, from, overwhelming workloads to the demands of our modern education system and even our personality and personal life struggles. And just like those trees solutions lie in the roots, we're gonna talk about how understanding the root causes of burnout is really the key to finding those lasting solutions. I often say let's not waste any time, but today I'm really jumping into it. So if you're not sure if or where to really start on your burnout recovery or prevention journey, this episode is for you. And stick around to the end because I'm going to give you a free library of resources specifically for taking your next steps on your burnout recovery journey.

Taking Your Next Steps on the Burnout Recovery Journey

[1:08] So let's get into it.

Ignoring the Signs of Burnout: A Weight Loss Journey

[1:24] So I relate burnout recovery to my journey with losing 100 pounds over the course of the past year.

So let me explain that a little.

You see, when I first started my weight loss journey, I knew there was something not right, like I could physically see the changes in my body.

[1:38] But the catch was I was so preoccupied with everything else that was happening in my life that I didn't truly grasp the extent of the issue.

It's like burnout, right? Creeping up on teachers.

For a long time, I didn't even see the weight creeping on.

And even when I did, I just thought like, it's a little weight, I'll handle it later, I'll get it together.

And that's similar to how we do with burnout. A little anxiety creeps in, we're like, oh, there's that, we'll deal with that later.

And we just keep going. But just like every extra pound, those little anxieties, those stressors, those pile up.

We continue to push forward, believing like we can manage it all.

The Toll of Neglect: Recognizing the Weight of Burnout

[2:18] Yet beneath the surface, it's building.

And the toll that it's taking on our wellbeing, that becomes increasingly apparent.

You see, I was worried about work, my personal life, all those daily demands that come with it.

Meanwhile, my health was taking a backseat. I didn't see the gradual weight gain when it started.

I didn't see the unhealthy eating habits or the lack of exercise creeping into my routine.

And when I finally felt the weight taking a toll on me, it was too late.

I was already at the highest weight of my life. I was sluggish.

My energy was low. And it was too late to do anything really proactive.

And if I'm honest, doing anything at all seemed like just...

[3:01] Too much. Like there was no way out of it. And it was going to take way too much to actually get healthy. And the fact that I'd never been quote unquote healthy, that was a real deterrent from me actually taking action. I know a lot of teachers who get to the point of burnout and they think it's way too much. I can't get out of this. So when I finally decided I have to do something where it's going to get worse no matter how hard it is, I sat down and I was like, Is it the amount of sugar? Is it the lack of exercise? Is it my PCOS? How did this happen.

[3:36] Again? Truth is, it was not a singular thing. It was literally all of those things.

And so when we look at all of the reasons we get to burn out in the first place, there's no one thing. We could say it's the workload. And yeah, that's causing a lot of your issues, no doubt. We could say it's post-pandemic uptick in behavior. And sure, That's a struggle too. We could say it's our perfectionism or our people pleasing and all of those are valid.

We could say we're overworking, not taking enough time for authentic self-care, we're over committing, all those things. And I'm not saying that's not true.

I'm actually telling you it is all of it. Every student, every program, every curriculum, every expectation.

It's all a part of what leads teachers to burnout every single day.

I didn't gain a bunch of weight because I liked sweets other people might gain weight because of something completely different, Maybe they have a hankering for chips every day and they overeat. It's because of.

[4:34] Multiple things and Solutions to multiple problems that feels impossible, right? We have a hard time, Solving this big problem of burnout because we give big problems one label We say I'm burned out, but there's no one thing that makes you burned out.

It's a bunch of smaller things that make you stressed or anxious, which leads to burnout.

Take whatever label you're putting on it, burnout, stress, and instead, I want you to say, can I break this down into 10 smaller pieces because that becomes significantly more manageable.

Breaking Down Burnout: Tackling Multiple Challenges One by One

[5:11] Like if I tried to change everything about my health after years of neglecting it, I would not be able to sustain that long term. And I promise you, I tried.

[5:20] I see it time and time again. Teachers want to fix all the problems all at one time and they get overwhelmed. The last thing you want to do is have burnout recovery be yet another source of stress. Recovery is more about finding your way back to a balanced, fulfilling teaching experience. It's not about adding more weight to your already heavy load. Instead, it's about shedding those layers of stress one at a time.

And so I didn't start losing weight by starting a strict diet, exercising every day and drinking a gallon of water. I actually tried that multiple times and it's just it's too much at one time and I couldn't keep it up. Instead, it's about breaking down those big challenges into smaller, more manageable pieces. And that was what allowed me to start losing that 100 pounds over the course of this past year, and how I was able to get started with addressing my burnout as a whole. So let's rewind a little. We talk about burnout being a cycle. And we've talked on the podcast about how there are steps to it, how.

Recognizing the Warning Signs of Burnout

[6:25] Insidious it is, because it happens slowly over time, how being in burnout starts to blunt your ability to deal with any normal stressors of everyday life. But there are warning signs that it's about to go down. It's amazing what our bodies will tell us. So often, we will ignore our symptoms. Like I saw the scale creeping up, and I was like, man, I'll worry about that later.

And then I started having heart palpitations. And I was like, dang, my anxiety is through the roof.

My knees hurt, my body hurts, my blood pressure's high, and I kept giving.

[6:59] All these different reasons as to why that was happening, instead of recognizing that I was not at the root of it.

I needed to do something then, so it wasn't something that I felt like I couldn't get out of.

And that's part of the reason why teachers burn out.

We ignore the symptoms. Like stress turns to anxiety. We ignore the stress.

We push through that anxiety.

And then we overload our nervous system and we end up burned out.

Treating Burnout: Addressing the Root Cause

[7:23] If you were an athlete and you push through a hard season, you might end up with a sprain or a pulled muscle.

And if you don't rest and recover from that sprain, it's going to turn into a torn ligament or a worse injury where you're going to be forced to rest and recover.

The same goes with burnout.

If you don't do something about it when that initial anxiety creeps in, your body's going to shut down.

[7:47] The World Health Organization doesn't recognize burnout as a medical condition.

So you might go to the doctor being sick 50 times or being lethargic or feeling inadequate, and they'll treat all of those symptoms.

Maybe they'll give you something to make you feel more energetic. Maybe they'll give you something for stress or anxiety or depression. But if you're not getting to the root of it, the real root, you're just treating symptoms. The root of it, like what's happening in your brain, like with the thoughts that stem from those systems of belief about your level of productivity or your worth, what your mindset about perfectionism or people-pleasing is, because often there's some type of attachment or trauma or something else that's driving that behavior, that messaging, that conditioning that maybe we received as a child or as a person.

[8:38] Like for me gaining weight, sure, I was overeating. I wasn't moving my body.

But at the heart of it.

I was eating for comfort. I was storing my stress in my body as fat to protect me.

When I was burned out, I was overachieving because I perceived that I only got love and affection when I achieved something. I received the messaging from society that rest is lazy.

And so that's what ends up happening to teachers often, is that we stay stuck and we don't take any real action because we're not getting to the root.

We talked about this back in the sustainability series about how sustainable teaching, it has three main components. We've got mindset, we've got action, and we've got support.

And so even if you're taking action, you could still feel exhausted because at the end of the day, you're wearing a mask. You wear it every day. You're like, it's fine. I'm fine. Everything's fine. But then we continue to people please. We overcommit. We keep pushing when our bodies are they're saying, there's a fire.

So at the end of the day, it's not that you need to do maybe more yoga or quit your job.

The root might be in your belief about your level of worth or productivity that you're so attached to that you feel like you have to prove yourself and that's what's wreaking havoc in your life.

Addressing the root cause of weight and exercise issues

[9:54] So sure, like I could stop eating sugary foods. I could work out.

I did that for years, but I always ended up right back at being overweight.

And I creeped up further up on the scale each time because I was never addressing the root of why I was using food to comfort myself, why I didn't prioritize exercise.

I was never truly addressing that mindset component. So when people say, do some yoga or go for a walk, yeah, those are great for regulating your nervous system and getting out of difficult stress responses, but at the end of the day, those actions, they're not going to address those default thought patterns or narratives in our mind based on burnout and emotional stress.

Those things are not going to go away with going and doing more actions.

So it's not as easy as do step one, rest and recover, or the infamous saying like just do self-care.

It's learning how to recognize what your body is telling you about the root of it all.

Learning how to rest and recover when you're a doer, a goer, an achiever, and really untangling that so that you can actually take that action.

Learning how to listen to your body before it's an overload.

Regulate your nervous system when it's an overdrive, and then getting to the root of the mindset.

Steps to take for burnout recovery and lasting change

[11:14] So here's what I want you to do.

If you're at this point where you're like, I know I'm burned out, where I can feel burnout creeping in.

[11:20] I want you to, number one, find that root cause. Which of those spheres of sustainability are impacting you most? Is it your mindset that's impacting you from taking action?

[11:30] Are you lacking the support where you feel like you can't take action?

Do you not know what action to take?

Understand that treating your symptoms alone, that's not sufficient.

[11:42] It's essential to really get to those root causes, such as those deeply ingrained thought patterns, those beliefs to achieve that lasting change. I know that it can feel like you've tried everything, but just because you've tried different strategies and your current strategy doesn't allow for the time and the space to rest and truly recover, that doesn't mean that there is not a strategy for really taking gradual restructuring of a sustainable teaching practice or preventing you from ever hitting those critical levels of burnout again. I want you to be attentive to those early warning signs of burnout. Just as I noticed about my weight creeping up and then later experiencing symptoms like anxiety and high blood pressure, I want you to be aware of those physical and emotional signals that your body is sending. Because if you've been working towards burnout recovery with different methods, then you're probably not at the root. And oftentimes, when we get to this place of severe burnout, we don't have that executive functioning capacity to make a plan and execute that plan to reach our root cause. Remember, if you've been trying these different methods and you haven't reached that root cause yet, it's OK. Recovery is, it's a journey. And sometimes it takes time to be able to get to the heart of the matter.

Breaking down burnout into smaller, manageable pieces

[13:05] Acknowledge, you know, burnout, just like my weight gain, that wasn't caused by one singular factor.

It's often the result of multiple interconnected issues. So instead of labeling your burnout or stress as one overwhelming problem, I want you to consider breaking it down into smaller, more manageable pieces. Think of it like dividing a big task into smaller, actionable steps.

And if you're still stuck, like I get it. Like I said, when you're in burnout, your capacity for being able to determine what your root cause is and really make a plan, that's compromised.

And that's why I created my free Burnout Recovery Roadmap quiz, because I want you to have a method and some strategies to help you start recovery.

So whether it's addressing your mindset or simplifying your teaching approach or seeking the right support or just infusing more joy and flexibility and freshness into your routine.

[14:00] I built this quiz to help guide you. Just taking the quiz alone, that's meant to help you become more aware of some of those root causes of your burnout, what your needs are for the season. And then there's this comprehensive library of resources tailored to your unique season in your burnout recovery. So this is going to give you some action steps to take to be able to address those root causes and help you in making those more meaningful changes. And I want to say this. The Burnout Recovery Roadmap Quiz, that's not a one-time tool. You can retake it as your journey unfolds and as new challenges arise. It's here to support you every step of the way as you get to your root of your unique burnout.

You can grab your Roadmap at teachingmindbodyandsoul.com slash quiz or head over to the link in the show notes to learn more. But don't forget, you are a resilient teacher. We are in this together. You got this.

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