These days, it seems easier than ever to get caught up in the negatives. We’re surrounded by scary news, new routines that are less than ideal, and a world of unknowns that can weigh heavily on our minds and anxiety levels. Now, more than ever, I think that a positive attitude is what we need to steer us in the right direction and teach our students to do the same.

So without further adieu… here are 4 Ways to Stay Positive this year.. and help our students do the same!

1. 1. Surround yourself with positive people

The people we choose to surround ourselves with can play a big role in how successful we are in this respect. Motivational speaker Jim Rohn goes so far as to say that we are “the average of the five people you spend the most time with”. Now while I might not be able to hang around some of my role models, it doesn’t mean I can’t channel their energy in the classroom!

Ellen is one of my most favorite people- and I am constantly showing my students clips from her show that showcase the values of kindness and positivity. There are also tons of clips of young kids making a huge impact, plus you know you’re likely going to get a laugh if you tune into any of her episodes!

2. Start positive affirmations with your class

I try my best to get into this routine at home- but I actually find that it’s not until I start doing it with my class that I really get into a good habit of doing this!  Find a podcast or website with some affirmations that you can use to start, or click below to grab my 35 Days of Affirmations in the Classroom freebie! Say these out loud with your students, then write them down and post it where you can all see it throughout the day. This can also be an awesome time to remind each other to be kind to ourselves as well!

3. Take Ten

I should probably work out a better name for this one as it usually turns into “Take 15” or “Take 20”, they just don’t have quite the same ring! The activity itself though is my favorite time of the day! I watched a Ted Talk by Shawn Anchor- a positive psychologist with a great sense of humour- and I’ve been hooked on his idea ever since! If you have a few extra minutes, his talk “The Happy Secret to Better Work” teaches us all about how positive mindset can big time increase our creativity and happiness! Every day our class does 5 things together as a group, usually with some zen music and low lighting so everyone can really settle in and focus:

• Practice Gratitude: Think of one specific thing you’re grateful for today. Your students will more than likely start out with things like family, friends, school, maybe even food and water. But as you continue this practice throughout the year, you’ll find that your students (and you!) start to subconsciously scan your environment for tons of things to be grateful for!

• Relive A Happy Memory: Take 5 minutes to journal or just think about a recent happy memory. Remembering how you felt in this moment will start to make you feel as happy now as you did then!

• Meditate: There are tons of great meditation apps out there that you can use for this. We use GoNoodle in our classroom but the Calm app also has some free features you can use. (In the past they have also given free trials to teachers to use in their classrooms).

• Random Acts of Kindness: We think of a handful of things that we can do to make someone else’s day, then we make a promise to ourselves to try to do at least one that day. There are all kinds of reasons to teach our kids to be kind, but check out this added bonus from Dartmouth Edu:

 “Engaging in acts of kindness produces endorphins, the brain’s natural painkiller! Perpetually kind people have 23% less cortisol (the stress hormone) and age slower than the average population! “

(Click here for some other awesome RAK Health Facts to teach your students: https://www.dartmouth.edu/wellness/emotional/rakhealthfacts.pdf)

• Exercise: We end our session with some sort of physical activity- usually a fun dance with Go Noodle. Right now while it’s still nice out, we have been doing this activity as part of our outdoor classroom so we’re actually able to do some running/exercises outside before we get going with our work.

4. Find some good reads by positive authors who know their stuff!

My recent favorite has been Neil Pasricha, a Best-selling Canadian author and entrepreneur who literally wrote the books on how-to live intentionally and positively! Neil Pasricha knows positive mindset inside and out. He took a really tough, heartbreaking year of his life and chose to turn it into something positive- a website called “1000awesomethings.com”. He promised himself to find and write about one awesome thing in the world every day and to share it with others. This blog took off and has turned into a best-selling book “The Book of Awesome” which he has since followed with others such as “The Happiness Equation” and “You are Awesome”. These books and his Ted Talk, “The 3 A’s of Awesome”, will no doubt leave you feeling inspired and ready to take on the world, one awesome day at a time!

Conclusion:

  Our jobs have never been easy… and this year comes with even more hurdles for us to jump through as teachers. But we were made for this! Use these 4 tips to help yourself and your students feel good and maintain a positive attitude, even when things get tough. Let’s be strong, stay positive and use these obstacles to teach our students how a positive attitude and a growth mindset can get us through anything that comes our way!