The Tower - The Burn Out Card

Now most sources discuss the Tower as a sudden change that brings upheaval into one's life. I suppose that makes sense. Some examples would be a sudden break up, a sudden job loss, an unexpected and negative health diagnosis. This can be true of teaching as well - a student can become ill, hospitalized, and miss two months of school or a student can be pulled out of school expectantly by his or her parents for a variety of reasons. Those example are actually some things I have experienced this year.

However, I don't necessarily feel that the Tower needs to represent a sudden change. When I look at the imagery of the Tower, I think about all of the things that can test our foundations. Looking at the card closely, you see lightning striking and a fire spreading, but you also see a very sound structure standing upon a mountaintop. To me, this is so important. As teachers, we face many stressful situations. We can have stressful interactions with students, parents, colleagues, and administrators. We can feel stressed by lesson planning, grading, uploading artifacts into the new evaluation system, trying to comply with new demands and deadlines. The list could go on and on. But I feel that this card is trying to tell us that we need to view these things as tests to find out how strong we are. When this card shows up, we need to reevaluate our core beliefs and values when it comes to teaching and when it comes to our lives. Which of these things that cause us stress are out of our control or within our control? Which of these things have to do with our personalities and shadows and the way that we perceive certain situations?

I feel that the Tower can also represent feeling out of control and feeling like everything is falling apart. When that happens, it is really time to take a big step back. In fact, take a day off if you need to and use that day to assess your current situation. For me, this card represents burn out. Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed by my duties, by my responsibilities, by the weight of high stakes testing, by the awful situations that some of my students are facing, so on and so forth. When this occurs, it is a signal that I need to take some time out to meditate, relax, and get clear on what is really bothering me. Is it teaching or is it some other factor?

We all feel burned out from time to time. Here are some suggestions for what you can do when you feel burned out and think you may want to reconsider another school or another career field altogether:

• Get grounded and meditate. I can't stress this enough. Even if you hate the thought of sitting still for more than 1 minute, I highly recommend giving it a try. Doing this can really help bring clarity to a situation.
• Do something fun. I usually feel burned out when I feel like my work/life balance is out of control. This is especially true if I am feeling stressed out at work AND at home. So it's important to do something nice for yourself. 
• Write down your reasons for feeling burned out. Then go through your list and cross out the things you have no control over and put a check mark next to the things you do have some control over. Then write some possible things that you can do to change the things you do have control over so that you can be happier or less stressed.
• Spend time out in nature. I find hiking a trail or walking along the beach to be very relaxing.
• Exercise, get enough sleep, and eat healthy. You have to take care of your basic root chakra needs if you want to be successful in any other task in your life!
• Slow down. It's great that you want to do so much to be the best teacher you can be, but don't bite off more than you can chew. Take baby steps instead of trying to rush in and do everything all at once.
• Write a list of your core values and beliefs. Write down why you wanted to be a teacher in the first place.
• If you REALLY feel like you want to quit, write a pro and con list for the reasons why you should stay or leave the profession.

Don't get down on yourself if you are feeling burned out. It happens to the best of us. Remember, the Tower card is a reminder that our foundation, our true core center, is unshakeable. No matter what life throws at you, you are strong, capable, and able to overcome anything!

All my best,

Amy