Temperance - Work/Life Balance

At this point in your journey, whether a first year teacher or a seasoned veteran, you may be feeling out of sync in terms of your work/life balance. This happens to all of us from time to time. But Temperance reminds us that everything must be done in moderation and that in order to create harmony in our lives, we must find a way to balance our professional lives and our personal lives appropriately.

I am just as guilty as anyone for letting work take over my life. Teaching is a very time consuming and energy zapping job. But when I let my work life take over and let my personal life suffer, this often leads to feelings of anger and resentment. This obviously keeps me from experiencing what we are all meant to feel - love and happiness. On top of that, it can also lead to health problems. Speaking for myself, I have suffered from digestive problems and chest pain when I don't have a handle on my work stress and focus all of my time and energy on work. When I look at the road leading to a golden crown in this card, it reminds me that in order to be healthy and experience joy, I need to find a proper balance in my life. If not, it will only lead to burn out (which we will discuss when we get to the Tower card).

The two cups with water flowing between them represent mixing two opposing forces to make something new or to heal us in some way. For teaching, I see this as mixing knowledge with fun. In order to create a harmonious classroom, we must find a way to balance content knowledge with fun. If there is no fun, the vibe in the classroom will be angry and hostile. If there is only fun, the vibe will be one of chaos and havoc. There needs to be a true balance of both to find success.

I really enjoy the symbolism of the Temperance card from my Housewives Tarot deck. It shows a standing mixer and ingredients such as joy, sorrow, anger, and justice. This reminds us that we must take the good with the bad and that life is a combination of positive and negative emotions. If we never felt anger or sorrow, we would never be motivated to make positive changes and better choices.

So I hope you think about what you need to do to balance your work/life situation as well as to assess how things are going in your classroom. This week's spread will focus on what we need to do to create more balance in our lives. I hope you find ways to infuse some fun into your professional and personal lives this week.

All my best,

Amy