As Halloween approaches, marking the beginning of the holiday season, the added energy and excitement that it brings out in our students often translates into heightened stress and feelings of burnout in our staff. This is exactly the right moment to help staff think deeply about how they are taking care of themselves, before they find themselves out with the flu or too tired and stressed to enjoy their own, personal holiday celebrations.

An activity that I often do to open Spark Decks’ Self Care for Youth-Serving Professionals workshops is a meditation called “My Perfect Day.” I learned a version of this from Courtney Pinkerton, a life coach and author of the book, The Flourish Formula, and have found it to be extremely useful and effective with educators. Before I explain the why, let me describe how the activity unfolds.

I start by turning up my spa playlist (there are many to be found on YouTube) and asking everyone in the room to push their chairs back, uncross their legs and put their feet flat on the floor while uncrossing their arms and resting their hands gently on their laps. I invite them to either close their eyes or quietly look down towards the floor. When everyone has shifted into this “unwound” position, I lead the group in taking three, slow, deep breaths – in through the nose, out through the mouth. I often turn off the lights.

I now invite participants to either return to a memory of, or envision a yet-to-occur, “Perfect Day.” To guide them, I slowly ask the following questions:

• Where are you?
• Is it sunny, rainy, foggy?
• Is it warm or cool?
• Do you feel any breezes or warmth from the sun or a fireplace?
• What smells do you notice?
• What are you wearing? Blankets? A bathing suit?
• What are you doing? Standing, sitting, moving, laying down?
• Are you eating anything?
• What sounds do you hear?
• Who are you with? Or are you alone?

Lastly, I ask them to notice how they feel in their perfect day and to remember that feeling as they open their eyes and return to the room.

Next, I ask participants to quietly stand up and find a partner – someone they don’t yet know. After introducing themselves, I ask them to share their perfect days and try to find three common elements between the two days. When they are finished, I ask each partner to find another set of partners, so that everyone is in a group of four. Between them, I challenge them to find two common elements. Depending on the group size and time, I may then ask the foursomes to find another group and see if they can find a common element amongst all eight of them.

I have done this activity dozens of times, and the same themes always emerge: water, nature, and often, quiet. And I always point out that this is pretty much the opposite environment as the one that we, as educators, work in; we are mostly indoors, around concrete, in buildings where it is loud and busy.

As participants return to their seats, I ask them to think about why we opened our Self Care workshop with this activity. Why is it helpful to know, define, and remember our “Perfect Day?”

Of course, this is the key purpose of the activity: to understand that we all have a place where we are calm, relaxed, and happy. That if we can just take a minute to step out of the our actual environment, take a few deep breaths and return to that Perfect Day, we can release so much of the tension that WE DON’T EVEN REALIZE WE ARE CARRYING.

The meditation takes less than five minutes. But that brief escape has the power to help us recenter and ground ourselves as we return to the stress of our workday.

Yesterday, before I ran this meditation, the group had been working on creating timelines of the major milestones in their lives. Almost everyone in the room had a “What’s Next” stone as their last step, as if the whole group were on the edge of launching into a new, but yet unknown, future.

After the meditation and sharing, one of the participants pointed out that he felt reconnected with his “What’s Next” stone. That it helped him see where he should be heading… more time outdoors, more time with family, more time to breathe.

I invite you to do two things: First, I encourage you to try the Perfect Day meditation, either by yourself or with your staff. Open your next meeting with it! Notice if you can see a difference in everyone’s demeanor before and after the activity.Secondly, I invite you to check out our Self Care for Youth-Serving Professionals Spark Deck. Pull one of the 52 cards each day and try to implement the practice on the card. Or shuffle through and select one that jumps out at you. I think you will find that, while you may not be able to have a Perfect Day every day, the micro-practices on the cards will help you on your journey.