Page 23 - CJOct24

A State of Stress: Self-Care Strategies for Combating the Effects of Burnout

you are the only person on your team/in your school/ other person to function as a sounding board. By incor-
in your circle of influence who is voicing concerns or porating self-care strategies in your work and personal
calling out issues. You are brave for the sheer fact that life, you will begin to see small but important changes in
you have empathy and recognize humanity. Your cour- your physical, mental, and emotional health.
age will look different day to day, and sometimes even
moment to moment. That is okay.
NOTES
Recognizing Humanity
Seeing people as humans rather than commodities 1 Merriam-Webster Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.
reminds us that each person is facing their own lived com/.
experiences each and every day. We approach life and 2 Jessica Nápoles, “Burnout: A Review of the Literature.”
our actions differently when we live in a space of hon- Update: Applications of Research in Music Education 40, no. 2
oring and celebrating all people. In modeling this in (2022): 19-26. doi.org/10.1177/87551233211037669.
our own lives, we nurture it within our own singers and 3 Jessica Nápoles, et. al., “Burnout and Impostor Phenom-
those around us. This also fosters space for us to learn enon Among Undergraduate Music Education Majors.”
from one another and create deeper understanding, Journal of Research in Music Education (November 2023).
building an impactful, never-ending cycle of growth. 4 Jessica Nápoles, et. al., “Burnout and Perceived Agency
Among Texas Choir Teachers.” Journal of Research in Mu-
sic Education 71, no. 3 (2022): 283–96.
Self-Care Mentoring Strategies 5 Devlin Peck, “Teacher Burnout Statistics: Why Teach-
Some of our greatest assets are the others in our ers Quit in 2024,” n.d. https://www.devlinpeck.com/
fields. Specifically as choral educators, we are often content/teacher-burnout-statistics.
the only ones in our school, and our mentors are often 6 Elizabeth D. Steiner and Ashley Woo, “Job-Related Stress
another arts teacher who gets the school but not nec- Threatens the Teacher Supply: Key Findings From the
essarily our subject or situation specifically. Creating a 2021 State of the U.S. Teacher Survey,” n.d. https://
network for mentoring and collaborating is important. www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_
Having a group of people who understand what it’s reports/RRA1100/RRA1108-1/RAND_RRA1108-1.
like to be in your shoes and are able to offer advice, pdf.
sympathy, and help you to find humor in the situations 7 Dan Harris, host, “For the Burned, Fried, and Exhausted
you end up in will be a large part of completing those with Dr. Amelia & Emily Nagoski.” Ten Percent Hap-
tense emotion cycles. Find your support, whether it’s pier with Dan Harris (podcast, 2022). Accessed January
another chorus teacher in your district/a neighboring 20, 2024. https://www.tenpercent.com/tph/podcast-
district, your undergraduate cohort, or a group of peo- episode/emily-amelia-nagoski-409.
ple you talk to online that all met in a chorus director
Facebook page.
Make sure you find people who are unbiased to ex-
press your thoughts and feelings to. If you are able, find
a therapist or counselor. Surrounding yourself with
those you love who have no connection to your profes-
sion will give you space to find parts of yourself that are
not solely weighed in what you do for work.
As singletons in our own environments, whether it’s
at a school, church, or community choir, often we keep
our stressors and issues to ourselves. Sometimes, the
most beneficial thing we can do is to reach out to an-

CHORAL JOURNAL October 2024 Volume 65 Number 3 21