The Minimalist Educator Podcast
The Minimalist Educator Podcast
Episode 049: Integrating Nature and Mindfulness for Teacher Wellbeing with Sybil Hall
Discover the secret to a balanced and fulfilling life alongside Sybil Hall, an esteemed educator and author of "Burn Bright, Not Out: 35 Lessons that Cultivate Teacher Wellbeing." Sybil opens up about her evolution from elementary school teacher to an international literacy consultant, sharing how her morning routine of yoga and coffee with her husband has been a cornerstone of her well-being. Gain practical insights into how small, manageable steps can transform into cherished rituals that set a positive tone for your entire day.
Explore the profound benefits of nature in alleviating burnout as we take you on a sensory journey from the man-made landscapes of Dubai to the wild forests of Belgium. Learn the difference between wild and landscaped nature and how immersing yourself in these environments can heighten clarity and focus. Get practical tips for incorporating nature into your daily routine, regardless of your environment, to enhance calm and creativity.
Finally, we delve into the practicalities of integrating mindfulness and nature into classroom settings, boosting well-being for both teachers and students. From the calming effects of indoor plants to efficiently managing class time with timers, get actionable strategies for creating a serene learning environment. Plus, discover the importance of digital decluttering for mental clarity, and how establishing a routine for digital cleanup can significantly reduce stress and improve focus. Join us for an episode packed with valuable insights and practical advice to help you cultivate a minimalist and balanced lifestyle.
Sybil has been dedicated to education for over two decades, working in five countries. She has served as an elementary teacher and instructional coach, demonstrating her passion for positively impacting students and teachers. After publishing her first book, Burn Bright, Not Out 35 Lessons that Cultivate Teacher Well-being—a project she undertook while teaching fifth grade—Sybil started on a new journey. She transitioned into international literacy consulting and embraced roles as an author and entrepreneur, committed to helping educators thrive. As a creator, Sybil is currently engaged in several innovative projects: she is the founder of the Teachers Need Teachers Magazine and Dashboard, expanding the Burn Bright series with additional books, audiobooks, and journals and promoting financial literacy for women through her podcast and membership program within the Female Finance Collective.
To connect with Sybil or learn more about her work, visit www.sybilhall.com/book or find her on LinkedIn or Instagram. Listen to the podcast on your favorite podcast platform or YouTube by searching for Female Finance Collective.
This episode is sponsored by Plan Z Professional Learning Services.
Buy The Minimalist Teacher book on Amazon.
Follow on Instagram @PlanZPLS and @minimalist_ed_podcast
The Minimalist Educator Podcast is a Plan Z Professional Learning Services adventure.
Welcome to the Minimalist Educator Podcast, a podcast about paring down to refocus on the purpose and priorities in our roles with co-hosts and co-authors of the Minimalist Teacher Book, Tammy Musiewski-Borneman and Christine Arnold.
Speaker 2:On today's episode of the podcast, we talked to Sybil about teacher social-emotional literacy and well-being. We also discussed her new book Burn Bright, not Out. We also discussed her new book Burn Bright, Not Out. Sybil Hall has been dedicated to education for over two decades, working in five countries. She has served as an elementary teacher and instructional coach, demonstrating her passion for positively impacting students and teachers.
Speaker 2:After publishing her first book, burn Bright, not Out 35 Lessons that Cultivate Teacher Wellbeing, a project she undertook while teaching fifth grade, sybil started on a new journey. She transitioned into international literacy consulting and embraced roles as an author and entrepreneur, committed to helping educators thrive as a creator. Sybil is currently engaged in several innovative projects. She's the founder of the Teachers Need Teachers magazine and dashboard, expanding the Burn Bright series with additional books, audiobooks and and promoting financial literacy for women through her podcast and membership program within the Female Finance Collective. To connect with Sybil or learn more about her work, visit wwwsybilholecom backslash book or find her on LinkedIn or Instagram. Listen to the podcast on your favorite podcast platform or YouTube by searching for Female Finance Collective.
Speaker 3:Welcome to today's episode of the Minimalist Educator Podcast. Today, christine and I are speaking with Sybil Hall, who is the author of the book Burn Bright, not Out 35 Lessons that Cultivate Future Wellbeing. How timely and needed. Thanks for being here with us today, sybil.
Speaker 4:Yeah, thanks for having me. You're absolutely right. Now is the time right, absolutely, and how are you today? I'm doing very well, thank you. It's kind of a rainy day in Colorado, which we don't have too much, but doing well.
Speaker 3:Awesome. How about you, Christine? I am?
Speaker 2:doing really, really well. I think my first question for Sybil today you talk a lot in your book about your morning routine and how the activities you do in the morning have, like, really changed things up for you and made a huge difference. So I'd love for you to tell us a little bit about your morning routines and, like your schedule, how you schedule that all out being a mom and working and a wife and everything else.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely, thanks for asking. My morning routine is like my gold. It's truly a ritual now and it's an evolving ritual. But basically I was teaching fifth grade in Brussels, belgium, during COVID and, like many of us working around the clock because I was working at home didn't have any boundaries Kids are going to school at home and it was crazy times.
Speaker 4:But my body started hurting because I wasn't moving around the classroom anymore, right, as teachers were so active we're up all day long, all over the place, up and down, and I was sitting in, sitting in front of a screen, and so literally my lower back and my leg, I started getting bad sciatica when I was sleeping and such, and so I was like I've got to do something about this. And so I started doing yoga, which I have done a couple times on and off in my life, and came back to it and I needed to figure out like when I was going to do that. So I started in the summer because that was feasible for me, but I just didn't know how I would fit it in my day. You know, I wake up, I get ready, I'm with the kids Off, we go to school, nighttime stuff starts. So I decided to wake up earlier and put yoga into my mornings, and just 20 minutes every day a week, and it was working so well for me. The pain started going away. And then it was really cool because my husband started joining me and so then we turned it into yoga and coffee and so all of a sudden, that was the beginnings of this beautiful morning routine that I actually look forward to. So when I go to bed I think, yay, tomorrow morning I get to wake up and have coffee with my husband and do yoga. So that's really where it started and it just helped my well-being throughout the day.
Speaker 4:So after those two events, I can, you know, get my own kids breakfast ready, head off to school, and I found that I was just in such a better place and was able to be so much more present with my students and colleagues around me because I was taking care of myself and giving myself a little bit of love and self-care every single morning before work. So that's really where it started. When I was writing my book, I also added an hour of creativity time onto that morning routine, and so there's a lot of research around getting into flow, which is another thing I talk about in my book. And when we're sleeping, our brain is actually in a state that's really close to flow, and so it's easy to go from sleep to flow. If you don't like, get out your cell phone and trigger yourself out of it. And so I started writing right when I woke up for an hour every morning, and then we had our coffee and yoga.
Speaker 3:So it's evolved over time, but the morning routine has been just transformational, like the number one thing for learning to love myself and take care of myself each and every day, in a small, joyful way really I love that you mentioned you started with the 20 minutes right, so like it doesn't have to be a full hour long class, or a lot of yoga classes are 75 to 90 minutes, which, like for me, I can't tune in that long. But you know, just started something that's manageable to fit it into your day. And then you mentioned how it's. It's now your ritual, which I feel like can you kind of talk a little bit about, like the difference between like a morning routine versus the ritual?
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely so. When we think of a routine, it's a process that we go through, right, and it's a systematic process and it becomes routine, it becomes normal. It's just kind of step by step how you do it. When we think about a ritual, we think about some other elements on top of that routine, right, so the ritual includes the routine, but it also has this emotional aspect and also a desire aspect, which I guess is an emotional aspect as well. But there's a motivation, there's an excitement for it. So if we think about rituals we might participate in or go to, there's something you look forward to. So there's that anticipation, there's something that bring you joy in the moment. Right, there's something that you don't want to miss. Where a routine can be very step-by-step, it's a habit. Where a routine can be very step-by-step, it's a habit. It doesn't often have that kind of social and emotional and excitement necessarily around it as much as a ritual might.
Speaker 3:And I'm guessing, like you just do this everywhere you go, then right, it's just the thing that you always do. I did want to ask you, though, so you mentioned then, so you were getting up a little earlier to do the 20 minutes, and then you have the coffee and then an extra hour for creativity time. Like, how do you, do you not sleep very much? How?
Speaker 4:does that work? Actually, I'm a huge sleeper. I am pretty much asleep by 9 30 every night. Uh people, my friends will tell you, like Sybil's already in bed. If they're like texting late at night about the next day at work or something, it's like you won't hear from me. I actually sleep eight to nine hours every single night, so it's getting to bed early, it's having a little bit.
Speaker 4:I'm not very good at the night routine, but trying to at least not have screens for a half an hour before bed. So I find that I fall asleep pretty quickly most of the time not all the time and then I'm waking up, depending on the time. I feel like that was like 5am to 6am that I was doing my creative time, and then the quick yoga and coffee. And then my kids are teenagers now so they need a little less of me in the mornings, but I still really cherish that morning time with them. I have a senior and a sophomore right now and I'm loving working from home now for the first time and giving them breakfast every morning. It brings me so much joy because I know that it's limited, like they're going away to college soon. So you know, I'm making sure I still have time for that as well.
Speaker 2:Another thing I really enjoyed reading about in your book was the importance of nature and how pivotal that is in our experience moving away from burnout, and also how you organized your book, the lessons and the tips, into the seasons. Can you tell us a little bit about that connection with nature and the seasons and the cycles?
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely so. This book was born in the Belgian forest. I was very lucky to live right in the Sonian forest, the school was right there, and I had just moved, our family had moved from Dubai to Brussels. Okay, so we were only in Dubai for two years and we really noticed the lack of nature. That doesn't mean they don't have gorgeous beaches, because there are amazing beaches in Dubai and other than that around your compound and such, it's all landscaped right, it's like perfectly cultivated, so there's lots of greens and roses, but it's all man landscaped right. So I go from that man-made landscape to Belgium, to this wild forest that has vivid four seasons. It's a very temperate forest, so it's very wet in Belgium and so it completely transformed me and made me really realize how connected I need to be and how much better I feel when I'm connected to nature. And so walking every day with my husband and dog and spending time riding in the forest really helped me see how my rhythms as a woman, as a middle-aged woman, right, really connected and was the same as what was happening in the forest.
Speaker 4:So, eckhart Tolle, do you guys know Eckhart Tolle? I love his work. The New Earth is one of his books and he talks about the difference between wild nature and landscaped nature and how our brain just sees the landscape nature and we don't get necessarily all the benefits of nature as we do in a wild nature where there's vines growing up, a tree in a different pattern or where there's moss bunches that you could jump on right. And so I did a lot of meditation out there and just realized that's a lot of why Dubai wasn't the right fit for us, because I needed to be where I can be connected to nature, and leaving that forest was so hard. But what we've learned from it is that my husband and I need to connect with nature every single day, and so when we moved back to the States, we had to find a house that had at least a little bit of nature and a trail near it. Like that's our number one with location thing now, because we understand how important it is to connect with nature.
Speaker 3:It's such an interesting story that you tell too, because now I'm, you know, I'm living in Hawaii and surrounded by nature, which feels so different from, you know, living in a metropolis like Singapore, which also, you know some very man-made, beautiful lush gardens, but it's not quite the same as just being outside and like oftentimes, you know, like right now the birds are chirping and whatever, and people always comment about the sounds that they hear in the background, um, and it just brings that sense of calmness, almost, and like that connection. And so you mentioned how, um just changing some of your routines earlier in the podcast, um, how your social and emotional self got better when you brought in some of your morning yoga and changing your ritual. How did being in nature change who you were, for yourself and for those around you?
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's your story about the birds. So in Dubai I actually used to have on my computer birds chirping in my office and another coach was like I love that you do that. And she started doing it and I didn't even think about that till you just mentioned that, Tammy. I was like, oh my gosh, I obviously needed it when I was in Dubai and had to find it myself. Thankfully we have technology to help us with that now, right.
Speaker 4:So connecting with nature, like you said, is a huge calming effect. So when I say it heals you, it brings me into a calmer state very, very rapidly. So it's actually a good way to get into flow as well. And so if you're wanting to do some creative writing for an hour, if you're wanting to do some creative writing for an hour, if you're wanting to do some hardcore lesson planning for an hour, whatever you might want to do like hardcore and be in flow, getting out into nature first gets the brain ready for that.
Speaker 4:But I would say, for me, the number one thing is, even if I walk outside of my house right now to get some fresh air which I do every day at around 930 or 10am just the actual act on our body, the sensory act of our body of getting outside changes things up in the brain, right.
Speaker 4:Suddenly, another sense is heightened.
Speaker 4:You feel the air, right, you feel coldness, you see different things, and so I talk a lot in my book about how the senses, my senses, were activated in the forest and are when I go out into nature, and so it calms me, but it also heightens me in a way that we're human, we're supposed to use all five senses frequently.
Speaker 4:We don't use a lot of our senses as frequently, right? So if I'm out in nature and all I can see is trees and broken logs and things like that, and then I hear horses go by, my brain hears the trotting and it takes me to wow, those people are on horseback riding. And then I hear kids playing or falling off a bike over there, right, and so I'm not seeing any of that. I'm not relying on my eyes Like we rely on our eyes all the time. I'm all of a sudden using the sense of hearing to put pictures in my minds of these different things going on. So I also feel like the forest really helps you build clarity and focus by learning to use all of your senses together better, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it absolutely does. I'm wondering for our teacher friends who are in the classroom or in the school building all day what are some ways that we can hack into this and use this idea of nature and cycles and senses to help us every day?
Speaker 4:one thing I miss so much actually this is going to sound so weird because it was like it's bothered me so much but is taking my kids outside to the playground for recess. Like, in a way, it would drive me crazy day in and day out to have to do that. But we can shift that because that's something out of our control. Every day I'm gonna have to take them out for recess. I might have duty one day, I might not. We can shift our mindset about that and be like okay, it's my opportunity to get outside for a few minutes. I'm going to take my kids, drop them off. If I don't have duty, I'm going to go on a walk around campus and then come back up. Because what am I really going to accomplish in those 15 minutes? Anyway, I'm going to run into someone in the hallway and talk to them, or I'm going to get upstairs and get started on something and then have to stop. I'm going to check my email if I, even though I shouldn't and then feel like I have to respond to an email. Right, we're like, instead of using that 15 minutes to recharge outside, we think we have to go do something inside, and a lot of times those inside things are not going to actually be what we should be doing at that little break opportunity. So I would say, taking breaks if you can outside is huge.
Speaker 4:My husband is a science high school science teacher and every single day he walks around campus at either lunch or at a prep period and I would do that with colleagues in Belgium as well. So I would say, try to get out there. I know not everybody has nature right there either. You can also meditate with when you're looking at plants. So I can intentionally meditate when looking at plants.
Speaker 4:I've done that with my students too. I would tell them to look at something natural in the classroom and then we would do some short meditations. You can also bring it inside. So I don't know if you remember this, christine in the classroom and then we would do some short meditations. You can also bring it inside. So I don't know if you remember this, christine, in my classroom, when you walk in and there's like no students, I always have the board up with a nature scene and then some nice calming music. Again, nature calms, and so you can. You can bring that into your classroom as well. Um, in in ways like that too. It's not exactly the same, but it does does have some of the effects absolutely.
Speaker 2:I was just thinking about the extreme bringing nature into the classroom and we had to have the windows open in the winter time during covid. That was a little bit extreme. We don't need to go that far, but I love that message there. And so often teachers, we, we don't take a break right, we just stack the day end to end to end. And actually if we took that short walk as an opportunity, it would do us so much good, wouldn't it?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I thought it was interesting how you mentioned the flow state when you're out in nature and this makes sense to me now because I go often for long walks and that's where I get into like I might be listening to music or a book or something, but that's where I get really great ideas. And then I get home like, oh, I need to like write this out or like jot this down, and so how and you mentioned to when, right when we wake up, we're kind of like very close to a flow state, and so that worked for your creativity time how can again like how can teachers kind of tap into that in their classrooms, Because it oftentimes flow states get interrupted, so like, how can we like capitalize on the time usage or something Like do you have any thoughts about that?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm so glad you asked because I started really seeing the benefits of flow when I was writing the book and I thought that exact thing how am I going to get into flow more often when I'm with my students? Because how incredible can that be right, if the teacher's in flow, the students are so much more likely to get in flow as well. And so one way that I did that was using timers. So I was always a teacher who oh, it's time to go to PE. Sorry, guys, hurry, put all your stuff away, run, you know, or just leave it there, or, oh my gosh, I can't believe you know the hour's already gone. So I started using timers and one of the main reasons I started using timers like on the big screen and the kids can take care of it all for you. But I started using timers really because I was found sometimes I didn't close my lessons or I didn't close my science block, right, and there's so much research about the beginning and the end, right, you remember the beginning the most, the end, the next most, and then everything that happens in the middle, and so I, as an intentional teacher, was like I have to make sure I close every single time. Even if it's five minutes, two minutes, I can't just run the lineup to go to PE. So I started using timers for that reason and it was so effective and the kids knew why I was using it and it made cleanup and share, or whatever I wanted to close with, super fast and efficient. But what else it really allowed me to do was it allowed me to get into flow. But what else it allowed me to do was it allowed me to get into flow. Because the thing about flow is you actually lose track of time. So you are actually in a flow state when you are just feeling good, putting it out there and you lost track of time. You're just doing the thing. You're 100% present with whatever you're doing so teaching, in this case, working with students and I didn't have to worry that I was losing track of time because I knew that timer would go off for me. I knew I'd get to do a five minute close and then I knew we could calmly line up right.
Speaker 4:So much of the energy the kids have in our classrooms is our own energy. We really want to figure out how to make a calmer environment. We have to set up things for us as the teacher that make us calmer, and then we can help the whole classroom of kids do whatever it is calmer, right? So timers, I mean it sounds simple, but if you start using them systematically all the time, it is that simple and it does help a lot. And then it's just the awareness. And I love to learn about flow, I love to learn about anything neuroscience-based, and those things are really hard for me to grasp onto and understand and especially be able to tell back to people. So I'm always learning. So just becoming aware a lot of people haven't heard of flow becoming aware that there is neurochemistry that we can activate intentionally to be, you know, 300 times more productive, they say, when you're in a flow state than just a regular state. So that's a big part too.
Speaker 2:And then just like learning about it and trying things out, definitely have heard somewhere or read somewhere that the teachers were the energy conductors of the room, so you have a huge dynamic to play in that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I love that that way to say an energy conductor.
Speaker 2:Not sure where I heard it, but heard it somewhere. And speaking of being dynamic, a well-being for teachers is not something that you just reach and then you've got it forevermore right, like it's something that you always have to move with change, with be adapting and being flexible. Can you tell us a little bit about how it's not a static state that we can reach?
Speaker 4:how it's not a static state that we can reach. Yeah, well-being is just what we need to be thinking about all the time. So in schools we call it social and emotional learning, right? We know that we have to teach our kids how to be socially, you know, active in the way we want them to be or need them to be, and emotionally, at that developmental stage or with the situation, with the different people around them, etc. And a lot of times we don't teach ourselves those important social and emotional skills. And so that's what really well-being is. It's really learning to take care of yourself.
Speaker 4:Now, we're human and ourselves. We never stay who we are. We're changing all the time, whether we want to or whether we pay attention to it or not. We're changing right, and so our wellbeing has to be looked upon all the time. We need to be thinking.
Speaker 4:This morning routine is serving me well right now, but it will be okay if it needs to change. Right, because I will be changing in some way. But taking it all completely away is probably not okay, because I need it for my well-being, right, because I need it daily, day in, day out. We all have days of imposter syndrome of like what am I teaching? Can I really do this? And I'm getting observed?
Speaker 4:Today we all have the highs of like everything going really really well, so we just really have to monitor our own social and emotional state. And that's why I put both lessons for the teacher and for their students in the book, because I know a lot of times we have a hard time taking care of ourself, but we will do it for our students, and so there's actually double the amount of prompts for you to use with your students in the book. And that's intentional because I know teachers will do these things with their students and it's going to help their well-being or emotional habits as well. So that's why that's intentionally in there. It's a journey, it's not a destination.
Speaker 3:And that's very strategic too, right. So like, sneak it in there, it's like for your students, but it's also for you. We've just got another minute left, so we always ask our guests for a pare down pointer. It might be something that you had mentioned earlier, or just something that you know that you would buy, buy every day. So what would your pare down pointer be for our listeners today?
Speaker 4:My pare down pointer is don't forget about your digital life. We need to declutter our digital lives too, because they are where we spend a lot of time and they can give us a lot of stress and take a lot of our cognitive load. That feels messy If your desktop's messy, if your inbox is messy, whatever it is. So what I like to do is once a month I schedule into my Google calendar just put it on the last Friday of the month, whatever you wanna do, and that's digital declutter time. And then when I get to that date I decide, oh, it's email cleanup, oh it's downloads folder cleanup, it doesn't really matter, but at least once a month I'm cleaning up my digital life a little bit too, and that relieves cognitive load and it brings down that calm also when you get to your screen and needing to do something.
Speaker 3:That's an awesome tip. Yes, I got to schedule it in. I do it randomly, but anyway, thank you so much for being with us today, sybil. It was such a great conversation that we had with you.
Speaker 4:Wonderful. Thank you for having me. I really enjoyed the conversation.
Speaker 2:Today's episode was brought to you by plan z professional learning services forward thinking educator support.
Speaker 1:find out more at plan z pl servicescom be sure to join tammy and christine and guests for more episodes of the minimalist educator podcast. They would love to hear about your journey with minimalism. Connect with them at planzpls on Twitter or Instagram. The music for the podcast has been written and performed by Gaia Moretti.
