Back to school: Tips for managing your mental health - Part two

Back to school: Tips for managing your mental health - part two 

Managing your mental health is crucial for SBMs throughout the school year. However, it is even more important at the beginning of the school year. Following on from the previous tips in part one, we have created four more tips for SBMs to apply to their work and home lives.  
 
Start managing your mental health and avoid any burnout with our next round of tips.

Create down-time  

Within your busy schedule create down time that is much needed for managing your mental health. This is vital to do after work every day; however, to protect your mental health further, find time during work to have some down time. Doing this will help reduce stress levels as well as increase productivity.  

After work, it is about doing whatever you like to get work out of your mind. This time is just as crucial as working hours so that SBMs can be energised without worrying about their workload. During work, take small breaks and leave your office. This could be to take a quick walk outside for some fresh air or going to talk to staff to have some interaction throughout your day. This will help your state of mind and allow you to get on with your day in a more productive way.

Exercise

Physical activities are a great way to cope with anxiety and stress. Now the time to return back to school is here, SBMs should make a plan on when they can fit some exercise into their days. Regular exercise helps with energy levels during the working day, sleeping better, as well as helping to feel more relaxed with a positive mentality.  

Any form of exercise works so this can be going for long walks, walking around the school yard during lunch, cycling to work, or joining a gym to go to after school hours.  

To keep yourself interested in exercising, create a group to exercise with and make a competition with yourself by timing your exercises and trying to beat your personal best. Invest in a stopwatch to beat your personal best and have fun with exercise.

Set aside time to reflect

The beginning of the school year is the perfect time for SBMs to reflect on the way they work and make any changes needed to improve their mental health. This is vital for SBMs, so they don’t reach a burnout point from the workload. Reflecting on how SBMs have managed work previously allows them to consider what worked well last year and what didn’t for them personally. It is best to focus on just yourself and not think about the school to take the correct steps to achieve a better state of mind.  

SBMs can stick to what worked last year and create solutions for what didn’t work, considering what brought the most stress. Reflecting is a key skill to develop and improves mental health as it’s  a weight off your shoulders. To remember what you need to work on throughout the year, take notes and keep them safe.  

Be familiar with your feelings and practise mindfulness  

To work towards managing your mental health, you must start to think about your feelings and be familiar with them. Notice what triggers which emotion for you during your working day and discover how to control them. Note down how you are feeling now that school has begun again, and then note down what you can do to change this if it’s a negative emotion. For example, if you are feeling down and stressed, think about what makes you happy and calm and do it. Keep this up throughout the year to ensure you look after yourself.  

Another great way to connect to feelings and have a stable mind is to practice mindfulness. There are many apps to help with mindfulness. Headspace is a great app that allows you to take a breather when needed with various exercises to calm thoughts and be in a positive mindset. 

Consider how to integrate mindfulness into your school too for students and staff to join. You can plan to do mindfulness activities within your school and give a mindfulness journal out to your staff to use in classes. Stock up on mindfulness books to educate your staff so they can pass the correct information to their students. 

Due to the busy work schedule that comes with going back to school, SBMs can feel defeated, and stress can take over. We hope that these tips will encourage more SBMs to put themselves first for once and manage their wellbeing to be more productive.  

If you are struggling with your mental health and your job is becoming too much, we advise you to seek help. It’s okay to ask for help from trained professionals. The NHS mental health website is a great place to start. 

Need more helpful tips for managing your mental health? Take a look at our part one blog now.