Decluttering Your Mind

It is nearly the end of the school year— time to relax and practice self-care before starting to think about and plan for next year. Summer is a time to take a much-needed break in order to come back next fall ready to start a new year rejuvenated for your students. It is important you prioritize self-care this summer because next year promises to be just as challenging as this one. You need to be ready to meet the needs of your students when school starts again in the fall, and you will not be able to do that if you don’t take care of yourself first. Let’s look at how to “declutter” your mind so that you can foster resilience, face challenges head-on, and make deliberate choices regarding how to go forward next year.

Declutter your negative thoughts

The first thing to consider decluttering your negative thoughts. Do you find your head filled with one or two single thoughts or strings of thoughts that keep repeating over and over? “This last quarter was terrible. Next year is going to be worse. Students aren’t going to be ready. I hated teaching this year. I was terrible at it.” This process of continuously thinking about the same thoughts, often sad or negative ones, is called rumination. It is essentially your brain getting stuck, like a skipping record, unable to go forward. According to the American Psychological Association, some reasons for rumination include:

• The belief that by ruminating, you’ll gain insight into your life or a problem
• Having a history of emotional or physical trauma
• Facing ongoing stressors that can’t be controlled

Do any of those sound familiar? But why do we get stuck in those negative thought cycles? The quick answer is that it’s not you, it’s your brain! The way our brains process memory plays a role in rumination. Memories are formed by the brain connecting experiences related to each other and creating neural networks. When people enter that negative phase and start ruminating on it, the brain lights up, activates the neural network, and remembers all the other times it felt that way. That one negative thought, based on a recent experience, becomes many negative thoughts on many experiences.

How can you stop ruminating and perpetuating feelings of inadequacy or anxiety that interfere with problem-solving?

One thing you can do is get out of the negative neural network! When you notice that you are starting down that negative neural path, stop and activate the neural network of times when everything worked out OK. What went well in the last three months? What did you enjoy about teaching this year? Even if the negative outweighed the positive, by focusing on the positive, your brain will start recalling other times when things worked out. You can “jog” yourself out of those negative thoughts by having positive memory triggers nearby or talking to friends or family about positive experiences that have happened in the last few months. In order to make deliberate and effective instructional decisions, you must declutter those negative thoughts.

The Einstellung Effect – Is your past holding you back?

Our brains often play tricks on us. It’s not easy to be objective and see through our biases. Our preconceived ideas make it difficult to see things clearly and to effectively solve the problems that confront us. When previous beliefs and experiences affect the way we interpret new events, it is called cognitive bias.

One of these cognitive biases is called the Einstellung effect. Einstellung is a German word that translates to setting, mindset, or attitude. While we already talked about how negative past experiences can “clutter” our minds; the Einstellung effect presents a different problem, that of blocking innovation and new ideas. In order to conserve mental energy, the brain tends to go straight to the quickest way to solve the problem based on past experiences and attitudes. The problem is, the quickest, easiest solution may not be the best solution. As humans, we tend to do things how we have always done them. We don’t consider other solutions because we think we already know the answer.

The Einstellung effect occurs when preexisting knowledge impedes our ability to consider other, maybe better, solutions! How might this have manifested in education during this year? Many of us go to the default mode of what we did in the past. We took what was successful in one situation (a previous year) and assumed it would work this time. Before we can look at the next school year and begin to tackle the new challenges it brings with innovative ideas, we need to get past our past experiences and the limitations of our current mindset.

How can we overcome the Einstellung effect in order to get great solutions, not just good ones? Just like with negative rumination, we need to break our brain out of its default pattern. The good news is that now that you know this is a natural tendency, all you need to do is be aware of it! Ask yourself, is this really the best way to approach this or is this my past experiences and mindset limiting me from finding a better approach? Another way that we can break out of our thinking rut is to collaborate with others! By exploring an idea or concept individually first, and then coming together with others to discuss and see other points of view and solutions, we can open our eyes to different possibilities and creative solutions.

And now for some good news!

The good news is that just like negative thoughts and cognitive biases can slow down creativity and problem-solving ability, and impact mood negatively, positive thoughts can increase mental productivity and problem-solving, enhance creativity, and improve our mental and physical health! According to the Mayo Clinic, we can learn to turn negative thinking into positive thinking with a simple process. But even though the process is simple, it’s not easy. It takes time and practice to retrain our brains! Here is how you can start:

• Identify areas to change. In what aspects of your professional life do you want to be more positive or innovative? Is it your relationship with your students? Your colleagues? Your administrators? Is it your school environment? Your teaching practices? Your curriculum?
• Check yourself. Be aware of your thoughts. The first step in changing them is identifying when those negative or limiting thoughts start to creep in.
• Surround yourself with positive people. Negative people may increase your stress level and may get you on that negative thoughts train! Choose to be around people who support, encourage, and tackle problems with positivity.
• Practice positive self-talk. You will still have negative thoughts and get stuck in ruts based on past experiences! They aren’t going to go away completely. Negative thoughts and using past experiences are how our brains try to keep us safe. But when those thoughts come into your mind, evaluate them rationally, respond with affirmations of what is good about you, and focus on what you are thankful for. Believe that you can find a better way; you just have to look!

Teaching requires that you be the best version of you for yourself and for your students. To be your best, you may need to let go of some of the mindsets and habits that are holding you back. By decluttering your mind this summer and taking the time to take care of yourself, you will be in a better mindset to handle the challenges to come!

References

• https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/26/marie-kondo-declutter-mind-time-psychology
• https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/depression-management-techniques/201604/rumination-problem-in-anxiety-and-depression *
• https://meteoreducation.com/how-does-thinking-positive-thoughts-affect-neuroplasticity/ *
• https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/positive-thinking/art-20043950