How to Stay Motivated as a Teacher When Everything Feels Uncertain

Right now, teachers everywhere are facing layoffs, budget cuts, and overwhelming stress. It is a lot. And when you are constantly in survival mode, it is almost impossible to show up as the educator you want to be.

And let’s be honest, this stress isn’t just mental. The chronic stress effects you’re experiencing, like headaches, exhaustion, and tension, are real. Your body is trying to tell you something, but instead of listening, you’ve probably just been pushing through.

When your nervous system is stuck in fight, flight, freeze, or fawn mode, it’s nearly impossible to think clearly, make decisions, or feel in control. But you don’t have to stay in survival mode. 

In this episode, we’re talking about why self-regulation for teachers is the key to breaking free from burnout, how stress rewires your brain, and what you can do to reset it. I’ll also share practical ways to shift out of stress responses, find community support, and build emotional resilience so you can navigate these challenges without losing yourself in the process.

The world of education is shifting fast, and I know it feels scary. But you have more power than you think. You don’t have to burn out, you can reclaim your energy, set boundaries, and become an empowered educator who thrives, no matter what’s happening around you. Take a deep breath and press play.

Stay empowered,
Jen

Let’s keep the conversation going! Find me at:

empowerededucator.com/thrive
Instagram: @jenrafferty_
Facebook: Empowered Educator Faculty Room

Stay empowered,
Jen

Let’s keep the conversation going! Find me at:

empowerededucator.com/resources

Instagram: @jenrafferty_

Facebook: Empowered Educator Faculty Room

Empowered Educator Card Deck

Transcript

Are you feeling exhausted by the constant demands of teaching? Do you find yourself wondering if there's a way to balance both your career and your well being without burning out? Welcome to unlock your teaching potential, your permission slip, to hit the brakes, recharge and reignite your joy for teaching and living. 

I'm Dr Jen Rafferty, former music teacher, author, TEDx, speaker and founder of empowered educator. And I've been where you are exhausted, overwhelmed and just trying to get through the day, making it all work. So each week, I'll bring you short, powerful episodes with actionable tools to help you reclaim your energy, set boundaries and step into your full potential, both in and out of your role as an educator. So take a breath and let's dive in. It's time to unlock your teaching potential, because the world needs you at your best.

We're starting this episode a little bit different today. So much of the world right now feels upside down. There are insane changes happening in our academic institutions, as well as in the Department of Education, and while I had planned another episode for today, I cannot just sit here and talk about unlocking your teaching potential without acknowledging all of this craziness, the uncertainty and the unknown can feel very scary, and I know that some of you are listening right now. You may have already been informed that your position will no longer be funded at your school, and we know of the massive layoffs that are happening in schools all over the country due to predicted federal cuts in our funding, and this can all feel so incredibly heavy. 

There's so much at stake and regardless of your political views, we are all affected by this, and that's why I think it's important now more than ever to lean in, to share the vulnerability and to learn what to actually do about it. All of our kids are affected by this. Our most vulnerable students are affected by this, and they need you to show up now more than ever, and to get through this and to get to the other side, whatever that might look like, it's going to take way more than the tools that we've used before. So I'm going to break it down for you. You cannot unlock your teaching potential when you don't feel safe. 

This is Maslow 101, your safety needs to come first. And it is no secret that things are not feeling safe right now. And if we're being honest, which I always am, this even affects your physiological safety, which is that bottom level of Maslow, your stress causes you pain? It's back pain, it's neck pain, it's headaches, it's stomach aches. These physical symptoms of chronic stress are never ending, and it has to be addressed, because these stressors are not going away. In fact, these stressors are probably going to become more and more abundant. And how are you supposed to do your job? let alone reach your potential or inspire your students to reach theirs? If your basic needs are not being met, what's happening is that your nervous system is learning that this is what normal feels like which does three things. 

The first thing, the consistent overload of cortisol and adrenaline levels become so high that it causes hypertension. It causes an increased chance of heart disease. It slows down your metabolism. It causes digestive issues, it decreases your libido. It weakens your immune system and affects your kidney function. It increases inflammation all over your body, and it disturbs your sleep, and it leads to depression, anxiety and other mental health issues. That's thing number one. The second thing that it does is it creates a feeling of helplessness, because when you're feeling crappy, you think crappy thoughts. When you're feeling disempowered, you think disempowering thoughts, and you get stuck in a negative feedback loop that is fed by the constant stream of stressors coming your way, and your nervous system learns that it is completely helpless in this situation, that there is nothing it can do to help you change it so it shuts you down, and your world of possibilities becomes smaller and smaller because it is.

What it is, and you detach, and you're no longer present, and it just feels easier to stop trying. This idea of learned helplessness is happening on a massive scale, and the third thing that this chronic stress is doing is that it keeps you in a constant state of fight, flight, freeze or fawn, and this is also happening on a macro level right now, because, remember, when you're in a stress state, you don't actually have access to your prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain that is literally responsible for problem solving and decision making. When your nervous system is in fight mode, you're ready to argue and advocate and speak up, but it's not coming from a place of reason or logic. It's coming from a place of fear, and it often feels like you're screaming out into the void and it's falling on deaf ears. Those of us whose nervous systems are in flight leave. They leave the teaching profession. They leave the conversation.

Those who are in freeze feel paralyzed. You can't even speak because you feel as if you've lost your voice. And sometimes this can feel physical, as if the words can't actually come past your throat and out of your mouth,and those who are feeling in fawn agree blindly and concede, just in an effort to just try and keep the peace, because toxic peace feels safer than advocacy and potential conflict. And to be clear, there is no judgment here. We're all feeling these things, and I bet you could resonate and recognize yourself and see yourself in some of those examples. Our job, though, as educators of our children, is to spot the stuff, recognize when you are feeling this way and acting in this way, and get yourself out. Because the truth is, you are not helpless. You're dysregulated. You are activated with good reason, but your nervous system has no idea what safety feels like, and it will keep you in this activated state in an effort to keep you alive. But we cannot make any changes, any sustainable long term changes from this state of dysregulation.

You cannot control your external circumstances. Control is an illusion. You never actually had any control anyway.

But what you do have, and the most powerful thing that's in your arsenal, is your agency in how you respond to all of these external stressors. You have a responsibility to teach your body, your nervous system, how to determine what's noise and what's news. It's not that you show up without stress. That's not a thing, but use it as fuel. When you notice that you're in a state of fight. Remember that although anger gets shit done, it can't get done without intention. And while anger can fuel action, it is your responsibility to act in alignment, and that alignment can only be accessed when you use your decision making skills, when you're regulated, when you find yourself fleeing a situation.

Find community when you notice that you're paralyzed and frozen and you can't speak to access your voice, write it down. Share your thoughts with a friend who feels safe because what you have to say matters. What you want to do matters. And when you find yourself fawning and being agreeable to things that don't feel right, I encourage you and invite you to ask yourself this very simple question.

Does this feel aligned with who I want to be in this world? It's not if you find yourself in this feeling of fight, flight, freeze or fawn. It's not if you find yourself in these feelings of helplessness. It's not if you find yourself in physical chronic pain. It's when it's your biology. So instead of fighting it, lean in, understand it, love it, even it's trying to protect you. But again, you cannot make any aligned, sustainable action forward if you are consistently in survival mode you want to play the long game. That's self regulation, that's awareness, that's intention.

This is where and when you get to show up feeling grounded and unshakable, convicted in your advocacy, for your school community, for your students, for your family and for yourself. This is how we get through this is how we start connecting to each other and building bridges. We have each other. You have an entire community around you, and here within empowered educator, whether you're actively a part of our courses and classwork or if you're listening to the podcast for the first time, here, we get to non judgmentally support each other, especially during these huge changes, because feeling stuck in the inundating doom and gloom creates a paradigm for your mind to only see the doom and gloom. And trust me, you will always find what you look for, but when you surround yourself with other people, particularly educators, who prioritize their self regulation, things start to change. This is way more than stress relief. 

This is advocacy. This is activism. It's empowerment. It's a reclamation of hope, which, to me, is the most important part in all of this, your hope matters. Your students depend on your hope. Our future depends on your hope, and your aligned action, along with your hope, will make all of the difference.

So if you're listening to this and you're ready to make some change and you're ready to get off the hamster wheel of helplessness, I'm inviting you to the next cohort of the life changing, self paced class thrive, which starts on April 1st.

I am giving you the toolbox for sustainability for the months and the years ahead, because our kids need you at your best. This life is so short. You need you at your best. And there is a seat with your name on it at empowerededucator.com/thrive, and all you have to do is say yes. And although I'm not answering a question on this show today, I will end with a card from the Empowered educator card deck. 

Ha, I'm laughing, because it's always something that matches what I've been talking about. The card for this episode says, listen to your body. It's talking to you. Please listen to your body. We've shut off communication from our bodies because we've been taught to, we've been told that it's not important. We've been told that other people know better than us. Your body has all of the information. And as I said before, if you are feeling chronic pain, if you're feeling headaches, if you're feeling back pain, if you're feeling that your heart is beating faster, if you're feeling increased anxiety, if you're having difficulties breathing, that is your body screaming at you that it is not okay. That is the only language that your body has to communicate with you, and instead of listening, what we often do is just ignore it and carry on. We take a couple of ibuprofen and go about our day, or we drink a bottle of wine, or we decide to numb by scrolling on Tiktok for a few hours, your body is talking to you.

Listen to what it's saying, because it's telling you something needs attention, and if you continue to refuse to give it the attention it is demanding, it's going to shut it all down for you listen to your body, that's where the answers are, and when you're living in alignment, and you listen to your body, everything starts to feel more open. All of a sudden, the pain's gone, the fatigue is gone, the chronic shoulder scrunching that you've been so used to doing is gone. You're standing up straighter, you're breathing deeper, you're smiling more. All of this is connected, and our kids are watching us. They are watching us for how to be a human in this world. So not only do we get to make these new choices for ourselves, we get to make them for the kids who are learning. We get to make these new choices to pave a new path and create a new paradigm for all of our students who are watching us navigate this time together. And yes, it is together, and yes, I do believe in a world where we are able to build those bridges and make connections and remember our shared humanity we are all in.

This together, and big macro changes do not happen until people change, and the only person that you have any agency in changing is yourself. Remember, the most generous thing that you can do for your students is take care of yourself. So if you found today's episode helpful, be sure to subscribe so you never miss a moment of inspiration. And if you're loving the show, I'd love for you to leave a review. This helps more educators like you find the space to unlock their teaching potential too. Until next time, please remember that you are a gift to this world, so act accordingly. See you soon.