A Quiet Teacher

  The antidote to overthinking is action, there, I said it.  It is not a secret but it is not easy. Depending on how you dealt with overthinking before, you might have some tools that you discovered through your own experience how to snap out of it and start the action mode as soon as possible. It takes a few things to be ready before you can prompt yourself into action. First, you need to know what you want to do, and how much time you have and write everything down on paper.  It might sound complicated but you already thought about all these many times you can start to sort the information and turn it into a structure for you to work on.  Writing your thoughts down on paper is crucial because that's the first step to managing ideas and actually materializing them into reality. Once you start the process, you will notice that your overthinking will start to subside and it improves your mood because you know the real work has begun.  It works for me to do the pl...

If you are a quiet person and highly sensitive, you have a huge tendency to be an overthinker. This is not to be mistaken with deep thinking.  The former causes anxiety while the latter makes you feel you are twice as intelligent. Naturally, your brain is more apt to identify patterns and make connections. However, if you have a debilitating fear of failure, you also may be a perfectionist at the same time. All this is a perfect recipe to create confusion and anxiety. Therefore, it is imperative to adopt a mindset that allows you to move along with progress no matter how small it is. Don't spend so much energy trying to avoid mistakes when sometimes they are bound to happen due to lack of focus and worry causing you to have thought paralysis. So, calm down and say to yourself a few times with conviction that every practice you make is progress.  Now we are moving away from the traditional practice that makes perfect. Progress will slowly inch you closer to your goals. This min...

 Teachers' lounge, cafeteria, or canteen can be a tricky place for quiet teachers. You love to enjoy your food in peace without having to listen to conversations that have nothing to do with you. Having conversations is not something to be avoided at all times, but sitting at a table with a group of people when you are trying to eat and not planning to socialize can be too much or overstimulating. Here is what you can do. Sit with someone that you are comfortable with and with whom you are familiar with the topics that you would usually talk about, or if that is not possible, you can still choose to sit alone while acknowledging people around you, for example, say something like, "Hello", or "I'm sitting right here today". More often than not, people will understand that your need to sit alone is a matter of preference. It is important to remember that you always have the freedom to choose what is best for you and not try to fit in but it makes you feel out ...

Your emotion is your best asset and ally.  However, it will be a little bit challenging when you are a  quiet and sensitive person at the same time because your emotion needs more regulation work compared to others. Let's say you lose it in your classroom especially when trying to control or manage students' misbehaviour. On normal occasions, it is rare when your emotion gets the best of you (in school) which in itself is not a good thing because those emotions are usually bottled up for quite some time.  That happens not because you numb the feelings but because you try to suppress them every time you feel like you need to let them out. You need to learn how to manage your emotional reaction but on that special day, when your emotion reacts too fast before your executive brain can suggest anything to do, you need SOS steps. First,  you need to get back to your senses quickly and start the process to calm yourself down. Second, leave the scene (step out of the classr...

When you are not in the mood in the morning to carry a wide smile on your face and greet everyone in the staffroom with an energetic "Good morning", this is when you need to know what to do to calm yourself before you start the day. Your staffroom is your sanctuary. A place for you to rest and recharge before going to class or a quiet place in the morning for you to focus on planning. However, the place can get too loud in the morning because everyone is at their high energy as they are getting ready for the day. What you can do is find a relatively quiet place like a discussion room. Sit down comfortably, play calming music, close your eyes, and do the 4-7-8 breathing. To me personally, you need to recenter and ground yourself first so that you can calm down slowly and focus on what to do on that day. Not doing this will cost more energy to get your focus back when you are going to be distracted for a whole day. This can hurt your productivity and it makes things worse when ...