Season 8 Episode 115
Check out this episode as we discuss the power of resilience, how breathing changes stress and increases your control, why mindfulness is magic, and why you don’t want to disconnect from your core values!
Show Notes:
Episode Summary:
If you are like most teachers, you struggle to juggle it all. Your to-do list is long, and there are hundreds of things competing for your attention. It’s no wonder that many of us feel overwhelmed and exhausted.
Join us today as we welcome our Guest Molly Shreiber, former teacher and owner of Challenge to Change Incorporated, which empowers teachers and students to live mindfully and embrace health, happiness, and a positive mindset.
In our discussion we talk about the power of resilience, the importance of breathing, mindful education, and how disconnecting from our core values causes dysregulation.
Don’t miss this powerful episode as Molly shares why she believes mindfulness is magic!
In this episode:
This is a summary of the key things we discussed in the show, not a word-by-word transcript of the show. for the best experience, we encourage you to listen to the episode.
Introduction to guest:
We are delighted to welcome our guest, Molly Schreiber. Molly is a former elementary school teacher in Dubuque, Iowa. In addition to a Master’s Degree in Education from Western Illinois University, Molly is an E-RYT 500 yoga instructor, a Registered Children’s Yoga Teacher, and a certified sound healer.
Molly’s heart has always been in education, and working with students and school personnel remains at the core of her mission. Molly is CEO of Challenge to Change Incorporated, which offers teachers a variety of ways to implement mindfulness education into their schools and classrooms.
Challenge to Change holds a core belief: the power to change and create a fulfilling life resides within us. That is also a core belief of ours at Inspired Together Teachers. We are delighted to welcome Molly to the Inspired Together Teachers Podcast.
Discussion topics:
Molly’s Powerful Story of Finding Mindfulness, Being Present, and Her Breath
We begin the show by inviting Molly to share her personal story, and what caused her to start her company. It is a heartbreaking story, but also a story of resilience. Molly shares how she first started with yoga, and how she began to understand the power of breathwork and mindfulness and how it was making her a better person. She also shares the tragedy of the death of her young husband and how in a minute, everything in the world changed.
She developed her goal of raising healthy, happy children. She needed to recreate her entire life.
Molly returned to her job as a first grade teacher. She found a missing link in education, people were so much more hurried and anxious and needed some kind of relief. Texting was becoming more and more prevalent. She realized that the emotions and feelings of the adults were bound to trickle down to children.
Molly then created her company, Challenge to Change, Inc. They work with over 216 schools with mindfulness education. They are also working in workplaces, trauma facilities, and juvenile deliquency centers.
Molly discusses the need for mindfulness tools to help us to keep coming back to ourselves. Tools like breath work and visualization will help us to keep regulated.
Using Simple Mindfulness Education Practices That Have Big Impact
We often talk about living with intention on this podcast. We call it The Inspired Life. The idea that change comes from within is a powerful one. You’ve said that it isn’t something we find externally—it is a choice we make every day.
Understanding that we have choices in how we act and react can be transformative.
Molly gives examples of how teachers can make small choices that could have big impact in their lives.
She says the number one tool is our breath. We can learn to use an anchor breath to help us control ourselves. She describes how they teach this to students and how teachers can teach it to their students. Molly calls breath the greatest technology we have.
Another example is a “yoga nap”, where they put eye pillows on the students eyes and they listen to a story that relates to a lesson they’re taught or a tool they have been taught. It is a way to help regulate their energy. There are free resources for this on Molly’s website www.challengetochangeinc.com. We’ve also linked to it below.
Mindfulness Practices for Teachers
Molly is a Mom with active children as well as a successful business owner, author, and podcaster. She understands what it means to be busy. In her advice for teachers, she offers the idea that you need to know who you are and what is important to you, and what your core values are. When you become disconnected from your core values, you become dysregulated. Dysregulation leads to many emotions and feeling and even has impacts on our bodies. Stress is one example.
Molly shares the 6 Seconds in Emotional Intelligence model as a model they use. This model incorporates KCG- know, choose, give.
The first step is “K”, knowing. We have over 70,000 thoughts a day, and the human default is to notice the negative. When you really know yourself and your core values, those negative ideas won’t rock you so much. You can stay regulated when you are living your core values, you understand and control your feelings. The emotions won’t take you down a negative road or create neural pathways that are negative and which then connect you to negative patterns.
The “C’ is making healthy choices. For example, we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with. The people we hold closest to us affect how we act and think. What is the nature of your interactions with others? What is your “lounge talk” and how can you make the choices that are healthy for you?
“G” is giving of yourself. Who are the people you really want to give to? Who are the people in the different roles in your life? Who do you want to be closest to you? Are those the people who are getting the most energy? How do you want to give of yourself to others in a way that is healthy for you?
One of the best things teachers can do is to take a pause, or take a step back and pull yourself out of a situation for a minute. It is simple, but allows you to stay regulated.
Another good idea is to keep a gratitude journal, or just simply write down what you are grateful for each day. Gratefulness practices keep you focused on the positive things in your life.
Mindfulness is Magic.
If people would walk away with one main idea from today, what would you want that idea to be?
Molly’s suggestion for the one thing she would most like the audience to take away from this discussion is “mindfulness is magic.” It can help teachers and students. She shares examples of how students used mindfulness strategies to deescalate and self-regulate.
Conclusion:
Molly’s website has many free activities and links to useful resources. She also has videos on You Tube and on all of the social media channels.We have linked to those below.
Recap:
Mindfulness has an important positive role in helping teachers and students. Mindfulness doesn’t have to take a lot of time or cost a lot of money. Simple things such as being present, breathing, and learning to take a pause can help you avoid dysregulation. Understanding exactly who you are and being in alignment with your core values is also important because when you stay connected to yourself, it is easier to make the choices that will keep you healthy.
Quote:
” Mindfulness is magic.”
Molly Schreiber
Related Episodes/Blog Posts:
The Inspired Together Teachers Podcast Episode 7 Prevent, Eliminate and Reduce Stress
The Inspired Together Teachers Podcast Episode 26 Who Influences You?
The Inspired Together Teachers Podcast Episode 47 Creating Your Life’s Vision
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Website: https://www.challengetochangeinc.com/
Email: molly@challengetochangeinc.com
You Tube: Challenge to Change Inc.
Tik Tok: Challenge to Change, Inc.
Instagram and Facebook: Challenge to Change Inc
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Connect with the Inspired Together Teachers Community:
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Inspired Together Teachers Network Facebook Group
Linked In: Inspired Together Learning
More About Inspired Together Teachers:
Are you a teacher struggling to balance your best work with your best life?
If you are dedicated and caring but often overwhelmed and exhausted, join us at Inspired Together Teachers. We’ll give you inspiration, strategies and tips that help you navigate life’s challenges as a stronger, more confident, and more joy filled person, both in and out of the classroom.
Inspired Together Teachers will give you practical tools to experience more of what matters most in your life.
Co-hosts Paula Schmidt and Michele Vosberg are award winning educators with the experience and skills to help teachers thrive in life and work. They’ve taught at all levels, worked with thousands of teachers, and conducted workshops around the world. They are also the authors of the #1 best-selling book The Inspired Teachers Journal: A Weekly Guide to Becoming Your Best Self.
Paula and Michele would love to have you to join them on their quest to live inspired lives.