Tips for Adult SEL, by Heather Bushelman
How many of you replay your entire day within your mind in the moments before you fall asleep? Your actions, choices, mistakes, successes? Daily reflection is a vital component in evolving and changing habits. As educators, we teach our students to reflect constantly about their behavioral choices, emotional state, and academic progress. A crucial part of adult SEL is learning to reflect about our own daily habits and make changes as needed to develop responsible decision-making. Using the thinking, feeling, acting, (TFA) questioning technique allows us to do just that.
- What are you thinking?
- How are you feeling?
- How are you acting?
These three simple questions force us to look within ourselves and become self-aware of our outward behaviors thus realizing how our thoughts and feelings affect our actions. The answers to these questions lead us into understanding how we truly feel about different situations, people, and issues. Adults can become more mindful of their daily reflection time versus these thoughts taking over our minds before bedtime which could cause insomnia, stress, anxiety, or other health issues.
During this time that is crucial for educators to practice SEL for themselves, reflection starts from within to ensure adults are taking care of themselves. So...put these questions around your home and workplace so you can reflect throughout your day!
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