Teachers in Transition - Episode 50 - How to Manage Stress While There is so Much Uncertainty

We are experiencing a global phenomenon right now, and it is impacting the health and wellbeing of thousands of individuals worldwide. It is also affecting the economy because of the uncertainty around global markets.

There isn't a lot the average person can do about any of it except to stay informed and do what he or she can to protect themselves and their loved ones.

In this episode of "Teachers in Transition," Dr. Kitty Boitnott urges her listeners to pay attention to the medical experts and follow their advice based on facts and scientific evidence. Filter out the messages from news pundits and government officials who have a reason to either exaggerate or downplay the effects as they exist right now.

Do what you can to protect yourself by following some of the recommendations personally. For my part, for the time being, I will curtail travel and wash my hands more often. I will fist bump friends and colleagues instead of shaking hands. And I will do what I can to protect others from my germs by coughing or sneezing into the crook of my arm instead of my hand.

For facts about the disease, check out the link to a post from the Johns Hopkins Medicine Page:  https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/2019-novel-coronavirus-myth-versus-fact

Stay safe. Stay well. 

Transcript

Kitty Boitnott: 0:01

Are you a teacher who's feeling stressed out and overwhelmed? Do you worry that you're feeling symptoms of burnout or are you sure you've already gotten there? Have you started to dream of doing some other kind of job or perhaps pursuing a whole different career, but you don't know what else you're even qualified to do? You don't know how to start a job search. You just feel stuck. If that sounds like you, I promise you're not alone. My name is Kitty Boitnott. I'm a career transition and job search coach and I specialize in helping burnt out teachers just like you deal not only with the stress and overwhelm of your day-to-day job, but to consider what other careers might be out there waiting for you. Join me for"Teachers in Transition." In some episodes I'll be speaking to stress management techniques and how you can manage your stress on a day to day basis. In other episodes I'll be talking about career transition. What tools do you need to be successful in a job search when you're moving from one career into a totally different track? These are questions that you need answers to and I can help you find those answers. My name is Kitty Boitnott. Welcome to"Teachers in Transition." Welcome back. This is episode 50 of"Teachers in Transition." My name is Kitty Boitnott, the owner of Teachers in Transition and Boitnott Coaching. If you've listened to me before, you know that each week I alternate topics between stress management and career transition and this week's topic is stress management and what occurs to me to talk about with regard to stress is what's going on in the world right now and that we're all I'm sure very, very aware of what's going on and our health community as well as our economic community and that is the impact of the Corona virus. So I want to offer the disclaimer. I am not a physician, I am not a medical expert in any way, shape or form. I am a trained stress management coach and I do have an understanding of the impact of stress on our overall health. In fact, what I tell my clients is that stress gone unmanaged will make you sick. It's not a matter of if, it's just a matter of when. Because when you experience a stressful event, what happens is your immune system becomes compromised. And that's part of the reason. If you've ever noticed that you experienced some stressful event, this, that matter, whether it was a major event or a event, if it caused you stress with almost like clock work within seven to 10 days, you will come down with a cold. You might feel bad and, and come down with flu like symptoms. You might even develop sinusitis, bronchitis, but like clockwork, you'll wind up with some kind of respiratory issue. It's part of being human. Um, in my case, when I'm particularly stressed, I experience gastrointestinal issues. Um, and I remember, uh, when I was much, much younger, many, many years ago, we were experiencing in my town at the time, um, arson, there was someone who was going around different apartment complexes, setting fires in the laundry room. And there were a couple of people who actually died because they weren't able to get out of their apartment before their apartment was overcome with smoke or flames. And we got word from the police community that our apartment complex was based on the pattern that they had determined might be one of the next apartment complexes to be targeted. And w I remember going to my roommate's parents' home for dinner that night. We talked about it. We even made contingency, uh, methods for getting out of, we lived in a third floor apartment, so we rigged up a rope that we'd be able to use to climb down from the third, third story window if, if we found that we couldn't get through the stairwell because of smoke or flames. And I thought I was handling all of that just fine. And I came home after we had had dinner and I got ready for bed and I went to bed and within an hour I was throwing up everything that I'd had for dinner. And I am certain that it was nerves. It was fear. It was, you know, concern about what if we were the next apartment building to be targeting. The good news on that story is that the person who was starting the fires was aggressive before he ever got to our apartment complex. The irony is that the young person who was setting all of those fires was also on the fire crew and he set the fire so that he could help put them out there figure and all kinds of people in the world. Right. But that was my first experience with having a physical or at first experience I'm aware of there may have been others that I just didn't connect of physical manifestation of fear or worry and concern. Now given the scope of what's going on in the world right now, I'm recording this on Monday, March 9th, maybe by Thursday when this drops, things will have settled down and all the world will be all right again. But at the moment, um, the stock market is down 2000 points and that's on top of all of the losses for last week. And so if you have money in an IRA or stock market or 401k or even your, your your retirement, they were going to whatever retirement plan you may have that is concerning. Hopefully that will sort of start to set itself right again before too much longer. But then on top of that news, the reason for that news is the underlying concern. Worry about the economic impact of the Corona virus. Having whole countries having to close down whole cities and Italy apparently just closing down a major portion of their country because of the sudden outbreak and the drastic number of illnesses that have spiked just in the last week. And we are getting all kinds of messages from all kinds of messengers. And what I would like to suggest today is that the information you pay attention to be information that comes from medical experts, not pundants on the news, not people who are trying to downplay even more than you want to listen to somebody who's trying to scare the bejesus out of you want to get the facts. You want to be armed with facts that are based on evidence and then you want to do what you can. What's within the realm of your possibility and your responsibility. Do what you can to take care of yourself and your loved ones. Now, I was at a Toastmasters meeting this weekend where we were fist bumping instead of shaking hands, shaking hands has always been the way we passed off the stage for one another. Now we're bumped bumping fist or bowing or elbow punching, whatever, in order to avoid unnecessarily exposing one another to germs. It may or may not be on our hands. This is the time of year when a lot of people have allergies or blowing their noses. They're sneezing and coughing has nothing to do with Corona virus, but they're still conscious of the germs that they may be spreading. And there is the possibility that there might be somebody in the Greek who had a relative who just got that from an Italian vacation and maybe they picked up the virus there or they were in China on business and you know, unwittingly brought back the virus. So the point I'm trying to make is one of my friends who've made the comment wasn't so much, she was worried about picking up the virus for herself. She has a 91 year old mother who was living with her. She doesn't want to be taking the virus home with her to possibly pass to her elderly mother for people who have parents in nursing homes. I know my mom is no longer living, but there was a time when she was in a nursing facility because she was recovering from a along illness and had this kind of virus hit her nursing home. It was like it has in the nursing home in Washington state. It would be terribly concerning for me and my siblings. So the point I'm trying to make is that during this high stress time, we are all at high alert because we're worried as a community, as a global community about how to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe from this particular threat. And I want to urge you not to be paying attention to crackpot theories that you might see on Facebook or Twitter or any other platform. I want you not to be paying attention to the people who are for political reasons, trying to downplay the threat that may be facing us all. I want you to listen to the medical experts that people who have been trained in this area who can give you good, solid advice on how to keep yourself safe. And then I want you and then those around you safe as well. And then I want you to consider what you can do individually that can help to minimize the potential for carrying or spreading, um, illness amongst your, your friends, colleagues and loved ones. So I have heard from medical experts that if you are ill, you should contact your doctor. Don't go to work just to be on the safe side at least until you can in fact get tested, which may or may not be any time soon based on information that I'm here. So monitor how you feel and certainly if you're running a temperature for whatever reason, you need to stay home from work if you came and know. Having said that, some people don't get aid if they don't go to work. And that's tough to read. We need to look at how that works for an occasion like this when it's in everyone's best interest for you to stay home, so paid medical leave may be something we need to be taking a serious look at, but washing your hands more often, being aware of when you call for sneeze coughing into your elbow and instead of into your hand. These are just basic things that medical experts are saying that we can do to help protect ourselves in other people and to the extent that you can maybe curtail some of your travel for right now, especially if you're in a high risk group, like someone with a preexisting condition that might make you more vulnerable to the virus or someone who's in the age group that the doctors have determined are slightly higher risk. I'm in my late mid to late sixties and so I am in the group that they say if you're in your sixties seventies eighties you're at a higher risk for contracting the disease and not coping with it as well as if I were much younger. Apparently the illness has little effect on very young children or teenagers or young people. It's as we are older and have other underlying health conditions that may impact us that we need to be mindful. So for myself, there was a conference that I had thought about attending in California. I'm not going, there was another reunion of a group of my friends that I would need to travel by air to get to and then would be with people from all over the country. Um, I decided not to go to that either. And there's another conference coming up in may and haven't registered for yet and I think I'm going to wait and see how things have panned out by later in March or early April before I make a decision about whether to go to that conference or not. Conferences are being canceled for the very reason that they don't want to bring together large groups of people where you might be in close quarters. And then danger of unintentionally spreading germs that may contain the Corona virus. So my ultimate message is in order to try to manage your stress level during these stressful times, remember the importance of taking deep cleansing breaths during the day just to help calm you to be more mindful in the moment about being grateful for the things that you do have that are going well and pay attention to those things you have control over as opposed to the things you have no control of. And be sure that you continue to get the sleep that you need so that you can be well get the nutrition that you need from good whole foods, whole grains, whole fresh vegetables, some exercise so that you are in better shape than you might be if you're not getting at least 30 minutes of rigorous exercise, even if it's just walking around the neighborhood or taking the dog for a brisk walk, um, drinking the water that you need. Um, being sure that you drank certain teas that are strong and antioxidants that might be able to help to build your immune system. Cause here's the thing. Your immune system will be depressed if you succumb to stress. So be careful about succumbing to the stress, be armed with facts, not fear, and follow the directions of the experts who know what they're talking about and can give you good guidance as to how to navigate through these particular turbulent weeks and months ahead of us. That's it for today. I hope that will have helped some. If you're feeling stressed about the Corona virus or the stock market or anything else that may be going on in your life. Practice good self care strategies. Remember there are some things we can control and other things we have to let other people control. You can only do what you can do to protect yourself and your family, so do that. Until next time. That's it for today. So there you have it, an episode of"Teachers in Transition." I hope you enjoyed the information and I hope you'll plan to come back. Please subscribe to"Teachers in Transition" so that you can be alerted of future episodes. And let me know if you have any questions or topics that you would like me to specifically cover in a future episode. I'm more than happy to help with individual questions as well. So email me at KittyBoitnott@BoitnottCoaching.com. If you are interested in finding a new career or just enjoying your life more, this is the place to start. Hi, I'm Kitty Boitnott and this is"Teachers in Transition."