self-love image
Look, I know that memes and inspirational-themed social media pages can make self-love seem like some utopian thing, but if you've started the journey towards it then you know it's anything but. I mean sometimes when you have moments of triumph ; triumph over past traumas, triggers and other things that may be weighing you down, it feels like utopia. And then here comes more "junk" that you now have to sort through, store in it's rightful place or get rid of all together. This ongoing process is tiring; but rewarding. It can get depressing at times, but it can also bring a lot of joy. Each day is different. I always thought of my self-love journey as something personal and semi-private. It wasn't until I honed in on the fact that my job as a Pre-K teacher was really affecting my mental, that I even realized how important this journey was to my teaching.
As Educators, it is so important that we take care of our mental health. We work in a field that can have a major impact on the brain and our overall well-being, so take care of YOU first ! If you aren't okay then your students aren't either, and with the conditions that many of our students are growing up in today, they need us to be okay. They need our minds to be in a place of consciousness.
As I continue teaching the youth I am positive that this list will grow, but for now here are a few things that my 'Journey to Self-Love' taught me about being a Black Female Educator (BFE):
Understanding my temperament:
There are four main personality types that exist. They are Sanguine(enthusiastic, active, and social), Choleric(short-tempered, fast and irritable), Melancholic(analytical, wise and quiet),and Phelgmatic(relaxed and peaceful). These stem from Hippocrates; a Greek physician, who believed that moods and emotions were dependent upon the presence or absence of four bodily fluids: (blood-sanguine, yellow bile-choleric, phlegm-phlegmatic and black bile-melancholic). Personally I can be any one of these four temperaments, or a mixture depending on the situation, but most of the time I am Phlegmatic and Choleric 1.
Knowing this about myself makes it easier to pinpoint these temperaments in children, and be proactive in my response to unpleasant situations or behaviors.
There are four main personality types that exist. They are Sanguine(enthusiastic, active, and social), Choleric(short-tempered, fast and irritable), Melancholic(analytical, wise and quiet),and Phelgmatic(relaxed and peaceful). These stem from Hippocrates; a Greek physician, who believed that moods and emotions were dependent upon the presence or absence of four bodily fluids: (blood-sanguine, yellow bile-choleric, phlegm-phlegmatic and black bile-melancholic). Personally I can be any one of these four temperaments, or a mixture depending on the situation, but most of the time I am Phlegmatic and Choleric 1.
Knowing this about myself makes it easier to pinpoint these temperaments in children, and be proactive in my response to unpleasant situations or behaviors.
This is similar to temperament. Knowing what my triggers are allows me to respond to my students v. reacting to them. For example, hearing students tease one another is a trigger for me. It takes me back to when I was a child and peers would tease/make fun of me (as many of us can relate to). If I hadn't recognized this as a trigger, it'd be very easy to react to the students doing the teasing instead of taking my personal feelings out of it, and using the situation as a teachable moment for the students involved and for the class as a whole. Knowing your triggers allows you to hold yourself accountable and prevent finger-pointing or looking at others (children included) as the cause for your anger, disappointment, agitation, or sadness.
Not compartmentalizing myself:
At the beginning of this post I referred to myself as a BFE (Black Female Educator). Those three words by themselves hold so much weight and in the current state of the world that weight is getting more cumbrous by the second. Before starting this blog I played with the idea of making it anonymous so that people wouldn't associate the 'B' and the 'E' - Black and Educator. With this being my 3rd blog post, the idea of it being anonymous seems laughable, but to me that's just reflecctive of the journey itself. Each day you are transforming into a better version of the person you once were. This allows you to see parts of yourself that you couldn't see before. I had to take the words ‘Black’, ‘Female’ and ‘Educator’ and sit with each word individually to conclude that I am not just one. I'm WHOLE; which means that I'm not just Black or just a Woman or just an Educator, I am ALL THREE and therefore I shouldn't try to keep any of them hidden.
Society loves to provide boxes for us to put ourselves into, but you nor I should be restricted to one box, or a box at all for that matter. It's perfectly okay to be multifaceted in genres that "don't go together."
"People will always put you in a box that they think you fit in, and it's up to you to not fall into it." - Tricia Helfer
Sources 1. https://www.cleverism.com/temperament-type-can-influence-career/
This BFE is my co worker and if i turn out to be half the educator you are becoming i will be proud. I see you growing so much in the 3 short years I've known you. And growth absolutely looks good on you!!!
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