Why did you become a school counselor? Most people will say it's for the kids. I'm right there with ya but I say to that, why? What about the kids drives you to wake up every morning to come to work in a super hard job that has some serious pitfalls?

You probably (hopefully) say you love your job. What makes you love it? What makes you strive to better your practice for kids? Recently, I had the opportunity to be a guest on the Cutting Edge Conversation podcast. We talked about the book I was currently reading, my love for Dr. Pepper, and how I finally jumped on the apple cider vinegar bandwagon. In the middle of the conversation, something happened. I remembered my why. I think you can even hear it in my voice. 

But this post isn't about my why. This post is about your why. If you've lost yours, or never had it, I recommend this TED talk as a place to get started. It's titled "Why Great Leaders Inspire Action." As we know, counselors are leaders within your building. If you want to change outcomes for students, we can't just work with students, we must also work with the adults who guide the students' days. 

So unless you know your why, it might be hard to inspire others to change. Here are some sentence starters that might help you:

• I decided to be a school counselor because ____________________________________.
• I wanted to (insert answer from above) so that kids could __________________________.
• I think this is important for the world because _________________________________.

Then, make a list of all the things you get to do at work everyday that fulfill your why. If you've been struggling to find the time to be a school counselor because of all the other responsibilities heaped upon you, think about how you can find your why even in lunch duty, test administration, volunteer coordination, or the other random things on your plate. Find your why each and every day and don't give up on it. 

Now, go write that why down and post it somewhere. Remind yourself of your why every day, even when you feel you may have forgotten. Especially when. 

I would love for you to comment below with your answers to the sentence starters above. Who knows, you might inspire someone else's why. 

Groceries to get, emails to respond to, to-do lists, phone calls to make - does this sound like your brain? Me too. It's the same for kids too. They are thinking about mom snapping at them this morning, the assessment coming up, what they'd rather be doing (lunch), what they should be doing, friend drama, home drama - the list goes on. We are in such a go, go, go moment in the world, it's no wonder that we are all kinda crushing under the pressure. 

That's why I love the new book from Julia Cook, Be Where Your Feet Are. While mindfulness is the underlying concept for the book, it differs from other favorites because  it really focuses on mindful action. There is no sitting in a zen pose and deep breathing. I may be a yogi-wanna-be but I don't always want to zen out and, for some kids, I think this approach is much more relatable. 

So what exactly is mindful action? I thought I made it up but a quick google shows some other great minds out there ;) When we are in action, particularly actions that are more rote or when we have high levels of feelings related to the action, our minds are elsewhere. We're thinking about the future, the past, the where-we'd-rather-be, or we are ruminating with self-talk about our feelings. 

What if we didn't? What if we thought about what we're doing? Say you're washing the dishes. It doesn't take a lot of thought and you might even have some strong feelings about the dishes or the people that left them for you. Thoughts are all over the place. Focusing on the actions that we are taking both in the mundane and in the intense can give our brains time to rest and allows us to do better.

In the book, the boy has distracted thoughts all over the place that cause him to forget permission slips, mess up on a test, and play a different trombone song than the rest of the band. He can't focus long enough to do each thing well. His mom helps him to learn how to "be where his feet are." She suggests he breaks his time into chunks and give each thing all of his brain. 

It's a great perspective and I think kids will respond to the drawings and humor within the book. The text is slightly long for younger readers so you may have to support their attention with some "be where your feet are" practice. For example, on page 26 the book says "Give yourself a mindful moment and make your feet and brain a team," it might be helpful to take kids through a short mindful movement. I like to have students move slowly and feel the way that the air feels on their skin, the earth feels on their feet, and the words sound in their brain. Kids really like it too!

Be Where Your Feet Are also has a great solution focused counseling example when the main character's mom asked him about the one thing he had done well that day and helped him to find an exception to his area of concern. Overall, I think you'll really like it. In the next book, I would love to see Julia Cook add more racial diversity in her characters, especially the protagonists. You can see more about the book and hear from the author on the National Center for Youth Issues website and on her author page.

To celebrate the release of the book, NCYI has given me 3 copies to give away! Like all giveaways, members of the VIP list are automatically entered. If you'd like an additional entry, leave a comment below about Mindful Action. I'll choose a winner on Monday, August 6, 2018.