Written by Kelli L. Green

In part 1 of this series, we discussed the stress that teachers are under during these difficult times and how important it is to show compassion to those they serve.

Masks. Quarantine. Isolation. Distance learning. Discrimination. Riots. Political divides. We live in a challenging time. Education and everything we have known about it has changed over the past year. Reaching our students through a mask, a computer screen, or even through alarmed brain states have been our new reality. When faced with adversity, we need to step back and understand our own behavior. When we understand ourselves, it makes us more capable of understanding our students’ behavior.

The Brain Dealing with Adversity
Dr. Lori Desautels (2020) explained that the brain cannot handle these three things:

1. chronic unpredictability or adversity,
2. isolation, and
3. emotional or physical restraint (p. xi).

All three of these have been a part of our landscape over the past year. This is a time of chronic adversity. Each person in our community responds differently to these attacks on the brain state.

Nagoski and Nagoski (2020) provided neurological reasons and ways to adapt. The brain has three areas for us to understand when it comes to adversity: the brain stem, the limbic system, and the cortex. Our brain stem is our God-given alarm system. When presented with perceived threat, it throws us into high alert and sends hormones throughout the body quickly to focus all our abilities and efforts on survival, usually through fight, flight, freeze, or fawn.

Once the hormones have been through the body and have been used up through action of some kind, then the ability to feel emotions returns as the limbic system of the brain is able to function again. In the limbic system we are able to reconnect to those with whom we feel safe. As we feel safe, heard, felt, and seen, the brain can then return to full function within the cortex.

The cortex is the place in the brain where we are able to live our best life: working, reading, having fun, and problem solving. Nagoski and Nagoski (2020) called this the stress cycle. They explained that too often we do not take the time to complete the stress cycle.

Completing the Stress Cycle
There are so many instances of incomplete stress cycles keeping us in a state of chronic alarm. In order to return to fully functioning cortex thinking, here are a few active strategies to complete the stress cycle for sustaining compassion in the teaching ministry:

1. Be in God’s Word. Specifically, go to Isaiah 43. It is here we are reminded of one place we belong even in isolation, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine.” Our value to God is shown in verse 4, “Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you,” as the plan for a Savior from sin is laid out in these verses. The Lord connects with us by telling us exactly who he is and the lengths he planned to go for our salvation.
2. Take care of yourself. Get good sleep, take breaks, eat well, exercise, and find enjoyment. Set and keep healthy boundaries around your personal and professional lives. Receive medical and mental health supports as they are needed. Self-advocate for help when you need it.
3. Check in with yourself. Notice how you feel. If stress hormones are lingering in your muscles, you need to get them out. For some reason your brain stem perceived a threat coming through as anxiety or worry. There are so many reasons that we perceive a threat: deadlines, piles of grading, conflicts of all kinds, long evenings of responsibilities, meetings, lessons to plan and learn, individual students to find solutions for, and countless items that seem just out of our reach. Take a brisk walk, run, do an aerobic workout or anything active to work that stress out of the muscles so that you can feel again.
4. Connect with people. The best way to move into the cortex to live a purpose-filled life is to have the ability to be seen, heard, and felt by a group of people, often known as family. The fellowship of believers also serves this role. Look around. Who around you are in need of connection to complete the stress cycle? As the body of Christ, we all need to be on the lookout for people to include. Connection is healing to the brain. God created us to need one another. If you are feeling isolated, purposefully reach out to others as an act of connection.
5. Choose your thoughts. When the brain is alarmed, part of the survival mechanism is to scan the entire surrounding area for problems. This is called negative bias and is the default viewpoint of the brain stem. When we know we are not actually in a fight for our lives and yet anxiety has activated the stress cycle, we can and must choose the positive. In Philippians 4:8, we are told, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think of these things.” We do get to choose what we think. Notice your negative perseverations and stop them. One intervention that is scientifically proven is to make note of three things that went well today. Choose the positive.
6. Live in your strengths. You have been called with a role in God’s plan of salvation to a world full of people fighting for their faiths and many who still do not know about their Savior. You were created with gifts and talents that must be identified and used in your ministry.

Take time to understand how God created the brain to respond in times of adversity. Take an active role in caring for your body with the goal of sustaining compassion in your ministry. Through understanding and having compassion for ourselves, we can begin to understand and show compassion to those we serve.

Professor Kelli Green (MLC ’92) serves as a professor of education at Martin Luther College-New Ulm MN.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• FREE Virtual Conference. On February 15, 2021, Professor Green will be presenting “Trauma-Informed Christian Schools,” a FREE virtual conference brought to you by MLC’s OpenLearning. This hour-long conference includes four parts: The Research Foundations, The Educator, The Students, The School Community. If you would like to attend this virtual conference register here: mlc-wels.edu/openlearning/register/.
• Visit the WELS “Get Connected” webpages at welsrc.net/connect/.

REFERENCES
Lipsky, L. van D., & Burk, C. (2010). Trauma stewardship: an everyday guide to caring for self while caring for others. Accessible Publishing Systems, Pty, Ltd.

Nagoski, E., & Nagoski, A. (2020). Burnout: the secret to unlocking the stress cycle. Ballantine Books.

Desautels, L. L. (2020). Connections over compliance: rewiring our perceptions of discipline. Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing.