Welcome to the Classroom Narratives Healing in
Education podcast, the space where education
meets resilience. I'm Dr. Joey Weisler, and in
each episode, we dive deep into the personal
stories of educators, students, leaders, and
frontline advocates who are navigating the complexities
within modern education. Whether you're just
starting your teaching journey, Or are a seasoned
professional looking for inspiration, we'll
explore how to foster meaningful change, prevent
burnout, and build trauma -informed communities
within our schools. Now, let's take a seat at
the front of the classroom as we get started.
Welcome back to the podcast. Today, I'm so inspired
to have Kim Brooks with us, who is a former elementary
educator turned wellness entrepreneur. And through
her work from yoga and breath work to personalized
coaching, She's on a mission to help teachers
and leaders move from burnout to flow. So we're
going to take today to dive into her story, her
strategies for energetic freedom, and just understand
how wellness and healing can work one breath
at a time. So I wanted to start today's conversation
by asking to share a little bit about your
journey from classroom teacher to wellness advocate
and what inspired that shift. Yeah, so. I was
an elementary teacher for 18 years. I taught
third grade, I taught fifth grade, and I was
a reading specialist and literacy coach. And
I did that in Maryland. And then I was also an
international teacher. So I taught in Morocco
and in Taiwan. And I was one of those teachers
that loved teaching. It was my everything. And
that was also my downfall. I think over time,
it was just you keep saying yes to things and
you keep doing more and giving more. And it's
fine when you're in your 20s. But then as you
get older and as I've learned in the work that
I do now, it's like when we are living in that
heightened state of stress and we are in that
fight flight mode constantly, our body never
gets that chance to rest and digest and relax.
Our body thinks that we are being chased by a
tiger all the time. So it's like those bodily
systems that are supposed to function normally,
they are shut off while we are quickly supposed
to be defending ourself, attacking the lion,
and then coming back into our normal state of
being. So when we're not coming back into our
normal state of being, that's when we start having
health issues occur. So I feel like for me, that
over time that just started happening, then it's
like, When can you actually call the doctor?
When can you take off work? So you just keep
pushing through, pushing through, pushing through.
And still saying yes, because I really loved
the things I was saying yes to. And teaching
internationally really shifted my perspective.
I love traveling and the people that I met while
I was doing that were just like I found my people.
And then while teaching internationally, my dad
had gotten sick and I decided to move back to
the U .S. I went right back to my district and
I went back as a reading specialist. And after
like a couple of weeks, I was on the path to
burnout. It's like once you've experienced that
different lives, that freedom, that flexibility,
less testing, it was hard to go back. And I thought,
like, how did I ever used to stay here until
8 p .m. or 9 p .m.? And it was like. I just couldn't
go back to that anymore. And during that time,
I decided to enroll in a yoga teacher training
program just to deepen my practice. I was like,
while I'm job hunting, maybe I'll do this alongside
so that I can make sure that I'm sticking to
my practices while I'm doing this very new, hard
thing. And then that just evolved in itself and
opened different doors. I deepened my relationship
with myself. I really went back to my why for
teaching. And even though I knew teaching isn't
exactly what I wanted to do anymore, like it's
still embedded in everything that I do. That's
so inspiring because I'm remembering my first
year of teaching too. Like I felt that when I
was the teacher who stayed until 8:30/9 o 'clock
at night and admin wouldn't come down on me and
say, there is no reason why you should still
be the last car on this parking lot at 9 p .m.
And I would say, I have. every reason to still
be in this class until 9 p .m. And you're referring
me back to a conversation from earlier, both
this year and last year, respectively. One was
from Erin Shook, who talks about teacher burnout
and putting the teacher's needs before the student's
needs for us to actually survive the job that
we do, because we are always in that fight -flight
mode. that we never come down from. And Pamela
Rosenblum from Fall 2024, she was one of our
opening segments here, she's a trauma therapist
who goes back to the works of Basil van der Kolk,
who says that our trauma is stored in the body.
And when we never come down from that heightened
emotion, that trauma is going to be released
in different ways that can eventually turn into
something like PTSD. And I know we use the word
trauma very loosely from time to time, very trivial,
but it is my belief that first year teachers
and what they are dealing with in a classroom
on a day -to -day basis is a form of trauma because
it is something that does get stored in the body.
And so I mentioned that because in that first
year of teaching, I loved yoga in college. And
even during pre -teacher training, I went a couple
of times a week to just sit there and focus on
the breath. I did yin. And yin is when you sit
back on the little rug for an hour. and stare
at nothing but your eyelids and just count sheep
until you just relax and focus on the breath.
But when I began my first year of teaching, I
full quit everything about yoga because I said
to myself, well, what a waste of time and money
if I'm going to go there and just continue to
be aroused with my emotions because I'm focused
on what I need to do when I get home and what
Monday is going to look like if I'm doing yoga
on Sunday afternoon. I said, it's not going to
benefit me if I can't. quiet my thoughts and
focus on rest. And that's what yoga is. It's
a breathing practice. So I completely abandoned
it. And I felt that trying to engage in self
-care or self -wellness would be counterintuitive
and hurting me in a way because of that. So for
other educators who do that, where they're abandoning
their wellness out of fear of causing more anxiety,
what would you tell them, Kim? Yeah, I mean,
I think that's really common and not even for
just the reason that you shared, but there's
a multitude of reasons why we put our health
and well -being to the side. And really, it's
that time piece. And we're not valuing ourselves
as much as we are valuing our students and others.
And there's almost like this codependence kind
of thing that happens to where it's like you
don't want to let your students down. And when
we should really be focusing on like empowering
our students and giving them the skills and the
tools and the things that they need to help them
so that we can step away. We're just there as
like people to guide and facility learning for
them. But we get our heartstrings pulled and
we become so attached. And we're working with
students who have so many things that maybe we
didn't experience ourselves. And so it's hard
to manage. their energy and their emotions, and
then look at some of the things that they're
going through and think, how can I go to the
gym when this just happened? So there's like,
you're laying in Shavasana and you're silent
and all these thoughts are coming up and these
emotions that you stuff down because we show
up at work with our mask on, our happy face,
and we push everything to the side and we completely
forget about it. And then we lay there in silence.
It becomes like a scary place to be because you
don't know how much you're going to let out when
you do find those little pockets of silence and
connection with yourself. It's scary to walk
in the door and show up for 60 minutes and be
with yourself. That's confronting and that is
hard. And I had very similar experiences. I would
always dip in and out of yoga. Like it was always
there for me throughout teaching, but sometimes
it was more consistent than others. And it's
like the thing that I needed the most, I just
didn't do. My suggestion for anyone who's new
is if you can't attend a 60 minute class, just
take 10 minutes in the morning and just stretch
and breathe. Just building in small moments where
you're actually caring for yourself, where you're
actually. nurturing yourself because what's the
phrase you got to put on your oxygen mask first,
right? And so it's really true. I mean, you can
walk in as a literacy coach. I was in many different
classes and you walk in the door and you feel
the energy, you know, that energy that you feel
and what person's room compared to another person's
room. And so when we are taking care of ourselves
and we're happy and nourished and healthy, that
is spreading outward. And it makes a huge difference
for ourselves, but also everyone around us. I
mean, as reading teachers and literacy teachers,
that's kind of the standing argument here on
the program that we are immersed into so many
more conversations that can morph into really
touchy -feely topics than, let's say, the math
teacher who's teaching the quadratic formula,
right? It is what it is in math, and the numbers
are logically formed. But in English and humanities,
especially when we ask those questions, well,
what do you think? And how do you feel about?
It can cause a spur of emotions that can really
sometimes even heighten that state of trauma
that we're already in, right? If we're in trauma
from the day to day, from just being an educator,
sometimes when a student solicits information
about themselves, because they're trying to connect
to a topic from a story, for example, that can
heighten our sense more that. We're getting these
insights from students that maybe we are or are
not ready to know about and take action with.
So for educators that are in all different types
of classrooms and situations, what could be kind
of a twofold question? What could be a first
step that they can take to both protect their
energy and what are even just some breathwork
practices that they can introduce to themselves
and their students starting today? I do square
breathing, which is you can think of it as a
square inhaling. You count for four. You hold
your breath at the top for four. Exhale for four.
Hold the exhale for four. And then you can keep
going around in that square. Maybe you increase.
Do a five count. For some people, holding your
breath can feel really like stressful, scary.
You can skip breath holds, but just sometimes
that counting. helps you to focus. And that's
another one that's great to teach students. Something
that I tell teachers when you are feeling that
it's important to get to know yourself and what
your sensations are. So when you start to feel
that stress coming on or you're seeing things
in the classroom and it's like bringing some
anxiety, like maybe they're talking when they're
not supposed to or something's happening that's.
Should it be happening? Or maybe you're sensing
an argument that's about to unfold. If you are
feeling that, just pausing the class. And if
you need it, they probably need it too. And just
maybe turn off the lights, maybe do some breathing.
For some kids, lights can be scary. So just being
really mindful, getting to know your students
so that you know what is supportive for them,
but also getting to know yourself. in the same
way that you would get to know your students
and realizing, okay, during this class, this
is when I am most stressed and I am most stressed
with this situation or this particular student.
Getting to know that particular student can really
help. This is also something I share with educators.
You have agency over so many of your choices
and giving kids the power to have agency over.
Like we are the... adults in the room, but we're
human and they're human. And it's not like we're
right and they're wrong. It's like understanding
that they have a voice as well and they're going
to have emotions and they're going to have responses
to things that we say. And when we're not protecting
our energy and we're snapping. Quickly, we're
not thinking about what we say. And so when a
kid turns around and immediately fires something
back to you, like, obviously they're going to.
You just yelled at them or said something or
caught them off guard. And this isn't how you
normally are. And there's this energy exchange
happening. So protecting your energy is just
something that should be a daily practice. And
you can even physically just wipe your arms,
wipe your hair, wipe your body, like physically.
Feel the sensation of getting rid of something,
shaking out your hands, shaking out your legs.
It's like this intention that you're setting
to clear whatever negative space or even clearing
the energy from the class before. Like you might
play some music or just create your own personal
thing that helps you feel grounded throughout
your day and be consistent. It doesn't have to
be the same thing every day, but be consistent
with after every class or after this thing. I
love that you brought up that word of grounding
techniques because it's really hard to think
about it in practice, but it's necessary that
when teachers are dealing with something in the
moment, that's going to really spark them up.
And I was actually very good at this. It's grounding
where before you respond, you stop, place yourself
in the moment, and this takes a matter of split
seconds to do. Those split seconds can be a matter
of fireworks or not to come off in your classroom.
Rounding yourself, gathering, quickly assessing,
okay, what am I doing? Okay, the sixth period,
I'm staring at the situation over here. It's
going on between the student and me. And we can
redirect it either this way or that way. And
taking the time to just within seconds, analyze
the situation and putting yourself in the moment
and gathering what you want the outcome to be
and working towards that works so much better.
They had my first year mentor in teaching said
to me, you got to yell at those kids. They got
to look at you and say, oh, he's going to blow.
And I'm happy to say never once in my entire
career did I ever raise my voice at a student.
I actually had a student say to me once he put
his feet back and said, Mr. Weiser, I want you
to yell at me. I looked at him and I said, but
why? What is that going to accomplish? You're
going to be upset. I'm going to be upset. And
no one's going to be happy. Why would I do that
to you? And I will tell you that student walked
away with his tail between his legs. And generally,
in situations where I could see something brewing
in my classroom, I would just approach the students
and say, hey, I just want you to know that I'm
listening. What can I do to help you? And that
totally redirects the whole conversation from
screaming at a kid, what's wrong with you, and
punishing them. Mm -hmm. Yeah. I mean, I think
it's just realizing that they are people. They
might be eight, they might be 10, they might
be 16, but this is like the part of their life
where they are learning how to interact with
other people. And so we just need to be a really
good example of that. And I wish I could say
that I never raised my voice or never yelled,
but that is absolutely not true. I have evolved,
but you have those moments. And I will say that
I would go back and apologize to my students
and have those conversations if I overreacted
or something like that. And I feel like that
humanness is important because sometimes we do
lose our cool. Sometimes we do see an unsafe
situation and like we react because. it's dangerous.
Or if there's a fight or something like that,
we just get into high gear. But just realizing
again, and this is where like a lot of the work
that I do is on acceptance and self -compassion
and self -love and all of that, because so often,
and I would do this where I would have this situation,
I would feel so bad about it after. And sometimes
it would be the next day before I went and said
anything to them. Once we had an email, like
in my email. and say something later because
it would just like tear at me. And I'm like,
I can't believe I did that. I can't believe I
ever reacted. Half the time the kid did not even
care. And they're like, what? That happened?
I'm like, I felt so bad about it all night long.
But it's just, I think just approaching things
in a more human -like way and finding your people
within a school is so important. Because we can
get sucked into the teacher's lounge and sucked
into the drama and you're venting and you're
not actually resolving anything. You're just
perpetuating a cycle. So I think that's another
important thing with protecting your energy is
making sure that you are surrounding yourself
with people who are safe and people who are like
lifting you up and motivating you and inspiring
you. And hopefully you have a leader in your
school that is doing the same too. But if you
don't, just realizing like where the boundaries
are between you and that leader, because you
still have to protect yourself. And if sharing
vulnerably with someone in a leadership role
is going to constantly result in you feeling
devalued and disrespected. it's not worth it.
And either you stay and you figure out how to
work around that or you go, which is very, very
hard. But then we just stay in these cycles and
we don't figure out how to take care of ourself.
And it ends up not being great for the student.
Definitely. I think a burned out teacher does
a disservice to the students, just like a burned
out principal does a disservice to their teachers.
And I love how you had that idea of having human
connections first, because I will admit that
it also was not perfect with discipline where
my very, very first term teaching, it was so
much easier that, yes, I did not yell at the
students, but it was easier to just walk to them
and say, hey, I'm kicking you out. You're going
next door or leave a detention or a referral
on their desk or even just say to the whole class,
OK, so -and -so is still not acting right through
punishment time and give everybody a pop quiz.
What we need to do is put punishment to the side.
And just think about support. And when you approach
a situation in gaining support from those students,
whatever capacity they're in, and asking them
those questions, how can I help? How can I help?
Not what's wrong with you because that's punitive,
but how can I help? Those types of dialogues
can really salvage a relationship. And even with
principals too. If the principal sees something
that's going on with the teacher, you don't want
to go and punish that teacher. You want to go
and ask them, hey, as your leader, how can I
help? And as the classroom teacher, you are essentially
the leader of that room. So approaching it from
a way of support and understanding will help
establish the whole relationship of that classroom
climate. Absolutely. And so, Kim, I wanted to
also ask, what is one myth about teacher burnouts
that we've spoken about that you wish we could
just break once and for all and help adjust the
mindset of educators everywhere? So I think that
a common myth is that. We all end up in burnout.
And then once we're there, the only option is
to leave or have some like drastic response.
But I think burnout is very preventable. And
if you reach a point of burnout, it's okay to
also take a break and come back. I think I've
seen more and more people taking leave of absence
and things like that and coming back. And I know
there's like this guilt attached to it, but I
just think there is this, I don't know about
myth, but just this idea that if you walk away
or if you take a break or if you say, I can't
handle this, then like something is inherently
wrong with you because other people seem to be
these like superheroes that can do it all. And
you see the teacher of the year who it's like,
they just. effortlessly seem to get this which
it's not effortlessly but I think there is a
real blindfold on maybe is the word where we
are not showing our true deep selves to ourself
and to others and so I think we need to have
more real conversations about the workload and
about how to manage our own emotions and how
to really take care of ourselves. And honestly,
I had some great leaders, but they were not taking
care of themselves either because they didn't
know. It's not talked about. We aren't taught
this in college. It's not something when you're
a first year teacher, you know, you have a mentor.
I had an amazing mentor. Not everyone has that.
And I've heard such stories about their beginning
years. And it's just, I don't think it has to
be as hard as it is. Agreed. I love how you frame
that perception of superheroes because I don't
think it's the fault of looking teacher programs.
I think it's society's fault for making educators
everywhere think that they need to fulfill that
role of the superhero. I would echo that. The
truth is that education really is this oscillating
cycle. And I pulled up in front of me a diagram
from Ellen Moore. And Ellen Moore says that teaching
is kind of like a bell curve of emotions that
starts in August with anticipation. It then switches
into survival. So you go from like having this
fantasy of your class to then trying to survive,
having to teach them by September, October. And
by the end of the fall, that just turns to disillusionment
where all of those happy feelings of anticipation
you felt just turned into something that was
totally shattered. And then you have to spend
the spring semester readjusting that paradigm
and going through rejuvenation and reflection.
And finally, the summer comes like. Wasn't so
bad. Do that again. And we come back. And I echo
that where I've noticed that teaching seems to
be this oscillating cycle of burnout to rejuvenation
and it's constantly going back and forth. Kim,
tell us a little bit more about the energetic
framework and can you walk us through your company
and some of its services? So the work that I
do really evolved out of what I wished that I
had for me as a teacher. And I was a literacy
coach and a reading specialist. So I was in and
out of a number of teachers' classrooms and coaching
them on literacy. However, we couldn't get to
that unless there were other things that we needed
to deal with. There were like real struggles
and emotions and things that were coming up.
And a lot had to do with boundaries and with
really taking care of themselves. taking a day
off kind of thing where we feel that attachment
to guilt. So the programs that I do are focused
on slowing down, regulating the nervous system,
learning practices where you can build your own
personal practice that's sustainable for you.
So maybe it's not going to yoga two times a week
for 60 minutes, but. What can you do that works
with your life and your schedule? So we're working
through those kinds of things together and really
creating something to help teachers stay in education
if they choose to stay in or if they do decide
to leave feeling OK with it. And because we get
our identity really wrapped up in teacher, like
even for me, like. Even now I'm meeting all these
people and they're asking me what I do. And it's
so hard for me to detach from that. I am a teacher
and I am going to bring that up because it was
a big part, almost 20 years of my life. However,
it is not my identity right now. It was something
that I loved and it's something that I still
love and I'm passionate about. But there is this
like grieving process that happens when you leave
teaching too. So it's really bringing educators
back to that place of, safety and comfort within
themselves. So no matter what they face at school,
no matter what they face as they leave education,
whatever it is that they're choosing, that they're
feeling really supported and grounded and like
they can create this long lasting change in their
life. So the energetic freedom framework, I'm
a Reiki practitioner. So there's some energy
work in there, breath work, meditation, but it's
really detaching from some of these beliefs and
stories that are so ingrained. Like when you
were talking about your first years of teaching
and your mentor and what she said, those things
have been passed on generation of teacher over
time. We tend to start teaching the way that
we were taught. So we have to. shift ourselves
out and we have evolved so much since when we
went to school. Every year things are shifting
so fast and so teachers are expected to keep
up with it all and you have a program this year
and then two years later it's something completely
different. So being able to recognize that we
can't handle all of these things that are coming
our way but we can continue to show up for ourselves
so that we can show up for our students. I have
a lot of different offerings, but I work with
people one -on -one. And that's kind of the essence
of all of the offerings that I do. And then ultimately,
I would like to be leading my own wellness retreats.
That's something that speaks to you. That is
on the horizon. Fantastic. Thank you for that,
Kim. And finally, if you could think of one secret
ingredient that could help our educators succeed,
what would that be? I really think the secret
ingredient is just acceptance. Like we are human
and just accepting yourself and where you are
right now. If you're a first year teacher and
you're feeling like this is so challenging, it
is challenging and it's okay. And ask for help.
Just find the right people to ask for help. And
if it's someone outside of your school, get that
help from them. But it's just really. being okay
with things not running perfectly. Again, that
superhero thing, we just, I think letting that
go is important. We're not perfect. And showing
up truthfully with your kids, like, hey, I messed
up. We don't have to give them all of our personal
things going on in our life, but we can say,
hey, I'm having a really hard morning and I'm
really sorry if I am not my usual self today.
I'm trying my best. You don't have to give details.
And where can our listeners go to learn more
about you? Yeah, so I'm on LinkedIn. You can
find me, Kim Brooks. I'm on Instagram, kimbrooksyoga
.wellness. And both of those will take you to
my website. I have different offerings on there.
And then I also have a mindfulness resource on
there. Click and I have a blog with some information.
So yeah, lots of options. Kim, thank you for
sharing your story and strategies with us. To
everyone listening, remember that prioritizing
your well -being isn't selfish. It's essential,
and you don't need permission to slow down and
rest. You can find links to Kim's work in the
show notes, including how to connect with her
and explore her programs. And as always, thank
you for showing up, not just for your students,
but for yourself as well. And until next time,
take care of your energy. Lead with intention
and remember that you have the power to shape
the climate of your classroom every single day.
Thank you for joining us on the Classroom Narratives
Healing and Education Podcast. If today's episode
inspired you or made you think differently, I'd
love to hear from you. Drop a comment or review
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we can transform our scars into stars in education,
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