LELA House

Tag: self care

  • Reading and Journaling Improve Mental Acuity

    Reading and Journaling Improve Mental Acuity

    My first job out of college was as a hall director and director of minority affairs at a small college. I later added early alert coordinator to my list of duties. I loved it, but ever restless, I left to pursue full-time graduate studies. While in graduate school, I taught composition and African American studies courses. I spoke one day with a mentor, explaining to her I wanted to work in both the academic affairs and student affairs sides of higher education. I loved my co-curricular work in residence life, and I loved my teaching work. She told me doing both would be impossible. I understood her point, but I never accepted her premise.

    Before completing my doctorate, I got a job directing a writing center at a different university. To say I loved my work would be a gross understatement of the truth. Writing centers are magical places that support writers, readers, learners, students, faculty, and anyone who stops by. I got to teach courses, work with students and faculty directly on their writing, supervise a staff of students and professionals, plan the trajectory of a campus-wide service, and dip my toes in the activities of the other services under the academic resource center umbrella. Plus, I had amazing colleagues. I neared the nirvana of working in both academic and student affairs. But I got swept by a tide of restlessness that propelled me in a swift trajectory from position to position.

    Next I worked as an assistant director of the academic resource center, which was a great dual appointment between the student-facing center and the faculty development center. I also served as the campus plagiarism czar. Then I became a high school teacher, the hardest job I’ve ever had. I loved my students, and I loved teaching them, but I didn’t love the thing that is being a high school teacher. Everyone told me my second year would be better, but one person, my department chair, told me I should stop. She said, “Roshaunda, your passion for your students and your expertise are clear. But you don’t like being a teacher, so you shouldn’t keep doing that to yourself.” I belatedly realized she was right. I left teaching high school a worn out wreck. Reading and journaling helped sustain me, but they didn’t make me fit into something I wasn’t designed for. I figured I must only be designed to run writing centers, so I got a job running the writing center of a large online university. I loved it, but I got restless. Now I’m a life coach and writing coach who supports educators through coaching and various reading and writing activities.

    During this decades-long cycle of gaining experience and managing restlessness, I read and journaled. At various points I did them habitually or sporadically, depending on my mental and emotional state. Once I started teaching high school, however, reading and journaling became daily habits that I’ve realized I need. Reading and journaling helped me understand myself better, improve mental clarity and focus, increase empathy, and enhance my creativity and problem solving ability.

    Self Knowledge. As you read, you learn what you like and resonate with as you explore authors, characters and genres. Journaling helps you discover trends in your thoughts and behaviors as you track your personal development over time. Regular journaling creates a historical record of where you were, where you hoped to be, steps you took, and where you are now.

    Clarity and Focus. Reading forces you to concentrate for extended periods of time and practice following storylines and arguments, thus improving your clarity and focus. Journaling helps you transfer ideas from your head to paper, which opens up mental capacity to think, process, and solve, rather than using up all of your mental space for storage. Increased clarity and focus also yield improved ability to understand and pursue your goals.

    Empathy. Reading about other people’s lives and struggles helps you put your own challenges into perspective and empathize for others. Writing from your own perspective, then rereading and reflecting on it, helps you understand other’s perspectives more readily. Journaling about gratitude similarly improves your ability to put yourself into someone else’s place.

    Creativity and Problem Solving. Reading improves your analytical skills and memory. Following a complex storyline or argument requires you to store, recall, and reconfigure information. Reading also opens you to various types of problems and ways to solve them you may not have experienced in your life. These lessons boost your creativity and problem solving acumen in everyday life. Exploring your thinking and psyche through journaling reveals and produces patterns you didn’t realize existed, which unlocks your creative problem solving in all areas. Also, playing with words and language and style boosts your creativity. Boosts in creativity spill over across your entire life.

    Through years of reading and journaling – years of honing my insight, clarity, empathy, and creativity – I realized I am desperately passionate about education in all its facets. I want to know everything about PK-12, higher ed, public, private, secular, religious, students, faculty, administrators, and anything else education has to reveal to me. I want to understand how and why we as individuals, families, institutions, and as a nation journey through our education system. I strive to know what we mean by good education and knowledgeable citizenry. I am called to create ways to support educators and learners both inside and outside of classrooms, regardless of how impossible the task may seem. Restlessness didn’t propel my job changes; desire did – desire to experience, understand, and grow the field I love. I’ll recognize my next leap for what it will be, a strategic step in my transformation journey.

    * * *

    I am doing a 31-day series on reading and journaling as self care for educators. Each day of the series has bonus journal prompts. Click to join the LELA House family of educators committed to nourishing their reading, writing, and creative souls. You’ll receive a link to the journal prompts and gain early access to upcoming LELA House ideas, courses, and products. You only need to subscribe once. I will add a new worksheet each day to the access link.

    Roshaunda D. Cade, Ph.D. is an educator, writer, and creator.  She offers life coaching and writing coaching to educators, as well as other opportunities for educators to practice self- care through reading and writing. Check out her LELA House website to learn more about her services.  Roshaunda lives in St. Louis, MO with her husband and teenage children and enjoys reading, writing, dancing, and pushing her creative boundaries.  

  • Reduce Stress Through Reading and Journaling

    Reduce Stress Through Reading and Journaling

    Studying for my doctoral comprehensive exams was beastly. I don’t recall how many books I had to have mastered, but it neared 100 – a collection of primary, secondary, theoretical, and other texts. Directing my comps study was a professor whose literary interests aligned with mine, actually the only person in the department with significant overlap in our areas of study. He guided my book selection and preparation, and I thought I could be honest with him.

    I thought wrong.

    I had three comprehensive exams: a foreign language proficiency exam, which I recall; a written exam, which I seem to have blocked from my memory; and an oral exam, whose horrors sometimes haunt me. Prior to my oral exam, I told my director my areas of challenge, hoping he could impart some wisdom to propel me forward. In his defense, he probably did, but I don’t recall. I remember the experiences of the oral exam, however.

    It began well enough. The panel of professors asked questions about the books on my list and the field generally, and I answered them. One professor asked why I wanted to study 19th Century American literature as opposed to British literature. I told her because I enjoyed it and I didn’t particularly enjoy British literature. She pressed. I didn’t have a proper answer, so I talked a bit about how I could relate to the experiences in American literature more. I may or may not have said something along the lines of “Some people like chocolate; some don’t. There’s no accounting for taste.”

    After limping over the hurdle of taste, instead of regaining ground, I got run over by busses hurtling toward me at ferocious speeds, with my comps director sitting maniacally at the wheel. He asked questions about every area of challenge I had disclosed to him. Every single one – like he had studied a list of my shortcomings to publicly flagellate me with them at the earliest opportunity. In hindsight, I recognize this maneuver exposed me to the gaps in my understanding of the field, and believe me, I rectified those gaps. At the time, however, it just turned a stressful situation even more so. Despite the difficulties, the panel decided I had displayed sufficient knowledge to pass. I relaxed my tensed shoulders, thanked everyone, and prepared to leave. Then my director delivered the coup de grâce.

    He stood and offered a speech about how comps directors normally chair their students’ dissertations, but that he refused to do so and would not work with me again. I did not understand why, but by the time he finished his speech, I didn’t care. I definitely responded with something along the lines of “What a relief. I didn’t care for working with you either.”

    I thought my stress would end with the completion of my comps, but it became more pronounced. I needed someone to chair my dissertation, but no one in the department shared my literary interests; moreover, no one wanted to work with me. I drifted in doctoral limbo for the next several years with no direction on how to move forward to complete my degree, growing more stressed and more detached from the department with each passing semester. I turned to my old friends reading and journaling, who had pulled me out of previous quagmires.

    Reading reduces stress. Losing yourself in the pages of a book and focusing on the characters’ problems rather than your own is relaxing. It simultaneously helps you practice gratitude as you connect with and examine what is happening in the book and subconsciously compare that to your own life circumstances.

    Journaling also reduces stress. Writing about your emotions helps you to address them, which helps you to see negative feelings in context (rather than out of proportion). It also helps you focus on what you’re grateful for, which improves well-being by helping you see what resources, support, and joy you have in your life.

    As you read, you connect with and examine the action taking place in the story and the interior world of the characters. This external analysis hones your ability to clarify your own thoughts and feelings. Similarly, journaling is a great tool for investigating and reflecting. Writing without judgment and without censoring, journaling allows you to access and entertain ideas and emotions you normally hide, even from yourself. When you journal regularly, your brain skips the preliminaries and takes you right to the meat of what’s going on inside you.

    Both reading and journaling also help you sleep better. As part of a nighttime ritual, these acts can signal your body it’s time to wind down and relax. Having screen-free time before bed improves sleep, and curling up with a physical book or journal is a great way to accomplish this. Journaling before bed helps you move your worries from your brain onto paper, which reduces the mental noise that may keep you up at night.

    In addition to my pleasure reading and journaling, I read my bible and kept a devotional journal. The spiritual reading and writing centered me, encouraged me, and strengthened me to stay on my path.

    Completing my doctorate took more years than it should have, but I probably would have given up if not for reading and journaling helping me to stave off the stress. Unfortunately, I didn’t recognize reading and journaling as self care and didn’t associate them with my stress reduction and eventual success. I abandoned my habit of reading and journaling daily when life got better. Now, however, I recognize both practices as vital to my well-being and engage in them proactively to lead my optimal life. If I can, so can you.


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    I am doing a 31-day series on reading and journaling as self care for educators. Each day of the series has bonus journal prompts. Click to join the LELA House family of educators committed to nourishing their reading, writing, and creative souls. You’ll receive a link to the journal prompts and gain early access to upcoming LELA House ideas, courses, and products. You only need to subscribe once. I will add a new worksheet each day to the access link.

    Roshaunda D. Cade, Ph.D. is an educator, writer, and creator.  She lives in St. Louis, MO with her husband and teenage children and enjoys reading, writing, dancing, and pushing her creative boundaries.  You can follow her at roshaundacade.com, lela-house.com, and on Teachable, Medium, Youtube, Pinterest, and Instagram. 

  • Journaling and Reading Offer the Benefit of Risk in the Safety of Privacy

    Journaling and Reading Offer the Benefit of Risk in the Safety of Privacy

    My friend had planned an escapade and somehow convinced me to go along. I would get permission to spend the night at her house. I spent much of my time at her house, anyway. I ate dinner over there, probably as much as I ate at my house. Check. After dinner, we would take our sleeping bags out to their backyard fort to sleep under the stars. Check. Then we would sneak out of her back fence, walk halfway to her boyfriend’s house, and meet him and his best friend at a predetermined location for my friend and her boyfriend to do whatever it is 8th grade lovers did in the 1980s.

    We executed steps one and two flawlessly. I’m surprised I made it through dinner without tipping off her parents, though. I had on all black, because I figured I needed to be in ninja mode if I were sneaking out of houses and walking through town in the middle of the night. And I was jumpy. Her parents probably chalked it up to my being an 8th grader, as 8th graders are not known for their rational behavior.

    Things got dicey once we got out to the backyard. We hauled our gear into the fort with no difficulty, but as we descended the fort’s ladder prior to leaving the yard, my friend’s dogs started nosing around us. At the time she had three basset hounds. Two were named Bonnie and Clyde, but I forget the name of the third. All three were related in some weird incestuous way my friend assured me was normal for dogs, but I remained skeptical. I suppose the dogs sensed our nervous energy, because they wouldn’t leave us alone. They wanted to play, nipping at us, yipping, and making it impossible to leave out the back gate.

    We eventually got the dogs into a far recess of the yard and sauntered over to the gate with about as much cool as Baby saying, “I carried a watermelon” in Dirty Dancing. We dashed open the gate to make a break for it, but the dogs bounded through before we could shut it. Two stage whispering 8th grade girls and three yowling basset hounds took to the neighborhood streets that night. I’d never seen my friend’s dogs move more quickly than a jog, so watching them bolt through the streets like they had zombies at their tails mesmerized me.

    The dogs separated into two different directions. My friend went after the duo, pausing long enough to shake me out of my reverie and shoo me after the other one. At that point in my life, I’d never had a pet – not a fish, not a hamster, nothing. I ran after that dog with no idea what I would do if I caught up with it. It turned out I would do nothing. In the time it took me to catch up with one dog, my friend had caught the other two, corralled them in her yard, and found me still running after the last dog. She collared it, and we rushed back to her yard, lamenting our long-past rendezvous time.

    We eventually made it out of the back gate only to find my friend’s boyfriend and his friend standing on the other side of the fence waiting for us. About 30 feet away from my friend’s back gate was a median marking the entry to the neighborhood. We settled there, with my friend and her boyfriend on one side of the neighborhood sign, and his friend and me on the other. Despite my ninja gear and nerves, we spent the entire night in our neighborhood, never venturing beyond territory we explored every day.

    Yet that was the riskiest thing I’d ever done. I was certain my mother would kill me if she found out. My mom did a lot of things, but one thing she didn’t do was play. I don’t know that I’ve ever told her this story. If I don’t post any more blogs, you’ll know what happened.

    What I planned to do that night was stupid and deserving of my mother’s ire. What I did, however, really wasn’t that dangerous. I never left my neighborhood. I literally was never more than a few minutes walk from my house. I wasn’t alone. Even when my friend and I separated, I was always within shouting distance of a neighbor who knew me. It wasn’t that late. We probably left my friend’s backyard around 10p and returned around midnight.

    I took risks, and I learned from them. But I did so in a relatively safe atmosphere. Certainly we risked detection and punishment, and we also risked violence (sexual, physical, and other) from the boys we met. I don’t mean to minimize this, but in our particular neighborhood, at that particular moment in history, with people we knew, the likelihood of a poor outcome was reasonably low.

    Writing and reading can seem similarly risky, but done in the safe atmosphere of a journal and your own personal space, the danger is low. Be honest. Be curious. Don’t censor yourself. Your journaling and reading are for you.

    Many of us understand the risks of writing. What if someone sees what I write? What if they don’t like it? What if they don’t like me? What if I offend them? What if I’m not good at writing? What if this is bad? Who am I to write on this subject? Who am I to consider publication? All of those fears from your internal critic can keep you from writing, but a journal isn’t a public forum. A journal is a private, safe, judgment-free space for you to write out your heart. To try out new styles. To test out new genres. To tackle unusual ideas. To dive into your soul. To find out who you really are.

    Reading comes with its own risks. What does it say about me that I only read this genre? What will it say about me if I try out different genres? What about genres I’ve always been afraid to try? What if I fall behind on my necessary reading by pursuing pleasure reading? What if this is frivolous? What will I learn? How will that change me? Who will I become? Those fears also stem from your internal critic, but your personal reading time is your safe, judgment free space to reinforce neural pathways. To explore. To think. To wander. To dream. To learn. To grow.

    If I could go back to 8th grade, I wouldn’t agree to traipse around town to meet up with some boys, but I also wouldn’t erase our adventures that night. They showed me parts of myself I didn’t know, and the risk was worth the reward. Likewise, you are worth risking confrontations with your inner critic to gain the benefits of transforming yourself through the safe spaces of journaling and reading.

    * * *

    I am doing a 31-day series on reading and journaling as self care for educators. Each day of the series has bonus journal prompts. Click to join the LELA House family of educators committed to nourishing their reading, writing, and creative souls. You’ll receive a link to the journal prompts and gain early access to upcoming LELA House ideas, courses, and products. You only need to subscribe once. I will add a new worksheet each day to the access link.


    Roshaunda D. Cade, Ph.D. is an educator, writer, and creator.  She lives in St. Louis, MO with her husband and teenage children and enjoys reading, writing, dancing, and pushing her creative boundaries.  You can follow her at roshaundacade.com, lela-house.com, and on Teachable, Medium, Youtube, Pinterest, and Instagram.

  • Stories as Powerful Self Care

    Stories as Powerful Self Care

    My students were working on invention and thesis statements in class one day. I had 17 variations of the following conversation in one class period. It’s a wonder we had the opportunity for all of those discussions between the blasted bells.

    Student: I don’t know what to write about.
    Me: Have you thought about it?
    Student: I can’t think of anything.
    Me: Fortunately for you we’ve dedicated this entire class period to invention.
    Student: Oh.
    Me: Have you tried any of the invention strategies we talked about yesterday?
    Student: No.
    Me: Why not?
    Student: I didn’t think about it.
    Me: Why not?
    Student: I don’t know.
    Me: Well, why don’t you think about it right now?
    Student: Like right now?
    Me: Yes. This is the time for you to think about it. You won’t think about it later if you don’t think about it right now.
    Student: I would.
    Me: Really? That’s great to know that you’ll think about it later after you’ve done some good thinking on it right now.
    Student: So I have to think about it right now?
    Me: Yes. Which invention strategy seemed good to you yesterday?
    Student: I don’t remember what they were.
    Me: Go ahead and look that up in your notes.
    Student: We were supposed to take notes?
    Me: You’re always supposed to take notes.
    Student: Oh.
    Me: Tell me what you remember from our discussion yesterday.
    Student: I don’t know. I guess the circles.
    Me: Tell me more about the circles. Help me understand what you’re talking about.
    Student: You know.
    Me: No, I don’t. Explain to me what you mean about the circles. What was important about the circles?
    Student: You put your ideas in the circles and then more ideas in more circles.
    Me: Do you mean mind mapping?
    Student: I guess.
    Me: Well that’s a great invention strategy. What else can you tell me about mind mapping?
    Student: I don’t know what it is.
    Me: Sure you do. You just said mind mapping had circles with ideas.
    Student: OK.
    Me: So in mind mapping you just put a bunch of ideas in a bunch of circles? You have one idea over here and one idea over there. Is that how it works?
    Student: No.
    Me: Oh, it’s not? Then tell me how it works.
    Student: You put your big idea in a circle in the middle. Then you put an idea that relates to the first idea in a circle and you connect it with a line.
    Me: Oh, I see. How many circles do you need to have? Just one or two? And what is it called again?
    Student: It’s mind mapping. And you have as many circles as you have ideas.
    Me: That’s cool. So, what’s your idea?
    Student: I don’t know.
    Me: Really? You don’t know what your idea is? I certainly don’t know what your idea is. If you don’t know what your idea is are you sure you have one?
    Student: Yeah. I have an idea.
    Me: So you do know what your idea is. That’s good, because I can’t read minds. Tell me about it.
    Student: I don’t know if it’s good.
    Me: Well tell me about it, and we can figure out together if it’s good or not.
    Student: But I don’t want to tell you if it’s not good.
    Me: But if you don’t know if it’s good or not, how do you plan to find out if you don’t tell me?
    Student: I don’t know if it’s what you want.
    Me: What I want is for you to express your ideas in a coherent manner that other people can understand. But if you’re concerned that your idea isn’t what I want, wouldn’t I be the best person to share the idea with?
    Student: I guess.

    Student finally tells me the idea.

    Me: That’s a great idea.
    Student: So you think it’s good.
    Me: I just said I thought it was great. Do great and good mean the same thing?
    Student: I guess. Well, sort of but not really.
    Me: I think your thinking is great, but you’ll have to do some work to develop it in a way that other people can see how great your idea is.
    Student: So what do I do next?
    Me: What does the assignment say you need to do?
    Student: It says I need a thesis statement.
    Me: Then write a thesis statement.
    Student: But I’ve never written a thesis statement before in the way you’re asking.
    Me: I know.
    Student: But I don’t know how to do it.
    Me: Sure you do. What are the steps I told you to walk through?
    Student: I don’t know.
    Me: Go ahead and look for them on your assignment sheet.
    Student: Like right now?
    Me: Yes, right now.
    Student: Now?
    Me: I can see your assignment sheet poking out from underneath your folder. In the time you’ve asked me “Right now?” twice, you could have pulled it out from underneath your folder and looked it up. Yes. Right now. Go ahead and look for it right now.
    Student: You said we need the thesis statement to include the who, the what, and the why.
    Me: Yes. So once you’ve determined what those are, you’ll be able to write your thesis statement. I can help you think through them if you like.

    Student and I talk through ideas leading to answering the who, the what, and the why.

    Student: But I’ve never written a thesis statement like this before.
    Me: I know. You’ve already told me that. Are you telling me that you’ve never done anything before that you’ve never done before?
    Student: What?
    Me: You just said that you don’t do things that you’ve never done before.
    Student: No I didn’t.
    Me: Sure you did. You’re telling me that you can’t write a thesis statement this way because you’ve never written a thesis statement this way before.
    Student: Well, I haven’t.
    Me: How do you plan on learning anything new if you never do anything you’ve never done before?
    Student: I don’t know.
    Me: You play soccer, right?
    Student: Yeah.
    Me: Do you already know how to do every skill that exists in soccer?
    Student: No.
    Me: Are you telling me there are soccer moves out there that you don’t already know?
    Student: Of course. You don’t learn everything about soccer in one day. You have to learn skills and practice them until you’re good at them, and then you’re ready to learn more.
    Me: Exactly.
    Student: What?
    Me: You come to school to learn. You learn by doing new things in new ways and then practicing them. All of your schooling in your life so far has prepared you for this point. Sure, I’m asking you to do something new, but that’s only because you’re ready to increase your skill. I wouldn’t ask you to do anything I didn’t think you could handle.
    Student: But this is hard.
    Me: Of course it is. Learning isn’t easy; it’s hard work.
    Student: So what do I do next?
    Me: Keep working on that thesis statement. I’ll come back in a few minutes to check on your progress. I can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with.

    I don’t recall what story my student was trying to tell, but I do remember her elation when she discovered how to tell it. She wasn’t one of my talkers. I had a roomful of ninth graders waving their arms, calling, “Dr. Cade! Dr. Cade!” but not this student. She normally sat with her head down, chin-length bangs covering one eye and most of her face, doodling (she was a wonderful artist who gave me masterpieces on each assignment she turned in). But later that class period, she looked up and straight at me. She swiped the hair from over her eye and smiled. I remember her smile. It blossomed big and gorgeous across her face before she realized it, but as soon as she noticed, she tried to hide it by pursing her lips. The joy lingered in her eyes, however, and I walked over to her desk, smiling the whole way, ready to hear her story.

    According to Literary Terms, a story

    is a connected series of events told through words (written or spoken), imagery (still and moving), body language, performance, music, or any other form of communication. . . . Whenever you’re telling somebody about a series of events, you are telling a story, no matter what the subject nor when they occurred. As such, stories are of great value to human culture, and are some of the oldest, most important parts of life. Aside from being a part of every single type of literature, stories are at the foundation of creativity and part of just about everything we do.

    In that moment, my student told multiple stories in various ways – the story of her written words, the story of her spoken words, and the story of her body language. She communicated with me in a way that opened up part of her life, both to herself and to me. She learned she could write a new type of thesis statement, which sparked joy and creativity in her, and I learned a bit more about humanity.

    Literary Terms further contends that “the concept of a story is actually a bit difficult to fully cover or describe. Some would say that life is made up of a series of never-ending stories. From a simple commute to school or work, to all the events of our lives, everything has a story.”

    Stories are everything and everywhere.

    Whether we are telling them or responding to them, stories rest at the foundation of our creativity, our humanity, our very lives. Why not tap into the power of narrative that surrounds us to care for ourselves? Opportunities to read and write are ubiquitous; you already have everything you need to begin.

    ***

    I am doing a 31-day series on reading and journaling as self care for educators. Each day of the series has a bonus worksheet. Click to join the LELA House family of educators committed to nourishing their reading, writing, and creative souls. You’ll receive a link to the worksheets and gain early access to upcoming LELA House ideas, courses, and products. You only need to subscribe once. I will add a new worksheet each day to the access link.


    Roshaunda D. Cade, Ph.D. is an educator, writer, and creator.  She lives in St. Louis, MO with her husband and teenage children and enjoys reading, writing, dancing, and pushing her creative boundaries.  You can follow her at roshaundacade.com, lela-house.com, and on Teachable, Medium, Youtube, Pinterest, and Instagram.

  • Reading and Journaling as Real Life Self Care

    Reading and Journaling as Real Life Self Care

    I began reading and journaling daily when I taught high school. I started each day with my bible and a notebook, and I ended each day with my online journal and a paperback book. I’ve been beginning and ending my days the same way ever since, and I’ve tracked my evolution through my journal entries and reading choices.

    I journaled the following in 2015.

    “I had a good day. I’m tired, but I’m not completely wiped out.”

    “What a day. Parent-teacher conferences. I’ve blogged and written. I even cleaned a sink. Off to bed. Goodnight.”

    “I actually had a good day today.”

    “Today was a good day. My classes went well. My observation went really well. I got a lot of positive feedback and some good tips to implement.”

    “I had a better day today.”

    “Jesus.”

    My journal entries then were often brief. As I’ve learned to use journaling proactively to fend off stress, rather than reactively to climb out of the abyss, my journal entries now dive into my emotions and insights, not just my daily occurrences. My reading has evolved as well. In 2015, I could only handle fluff. Today, I still read fluff, but I temper it with meatier choices.

    I’m a learner. I’ve always wanted to know and understand, and I realized the more stressed I got, the more I neglected that natural inclination. I neglected it because I felt I needed to spend time on responsibilities piling up around me. I failed to recognize the less time I spent feeding my need, the less capable I became of handling my life stressors.

    Most educators are learners, like me; and while we know of many ways to learn, many of us turn to reading and writing as our first avenue of learning. The written word is a vital vehicle for people to understand one another and to feel understood. It is a transformational tool with the power to reshape individuals and entire societies, both through the writing itself and through reading the written product. Reading and writing are life-changing, revolutionary acts. As educators, we understand the transformative power of reading and writing, but we may not consider how these revolutionary acts can help us break the cycle of educator exhaustion and begin self care.

    Reading and writing are two parts of the same process; both deal with message delivery. Sometimes we read and receive messages from others; sometimes we journal and receive messages from ourselves. Either way, gifting ourselves with the time and space to read and write is a viable means of providing educator self care.

    ***

    I am doing a 31-day series on reading and journaling as self care for educators. Each day of the series has a bonus worksheet. Click to join the LELA House family of educators committed to nourishing their reading, writing, and creative souls. You’ll receive a link to the worksheets and gain early access to upcoming LELA House ideas, courses, and products. You only need to subscribe once. I will add a new worksheet each day to the access link.


    Roshaunda D. Cade, Ph.D. is an educator, writer, and creator.  She lives in St. Louis, MO with her husband and teenage children and enjoys reading, writing, dancing, and pushing her creative boundaries.  You can follow her at roshaundacade.com, lela-house.com, and on Teachable, Medium, Youtube, Pinterest, and Instagram.