When I was invited to do a short, before-school workshop for teachers at a local school, as part of their well-being week, I jumped at the chance. We hear a lot about pupil well-being – and rightly so, in my opinion – but I also believe there has never been a more important time to focus on the holistic well-being of staff. Despite being at risk of feeling over-worked, under-appreciated and stressed, teachers are often so focused on the emotional well-being of their students that they completely forget to make time for their own.

So, we spent a really fun and productive hour together, when I outlined what positive psychology was and then did some interactive exercises about character strengths. One comment that stuck with me was the acknowledgement that we often lack the ‘vocabulary’ for strengths, as people so rarely think about their own. 

Following the session, I got some great emailed feedback collected by the person who booked me: “Thank you so much for asking Adele to school. I’m sure that this won’t be the last time we ask her to visit us.” “Adele was awesome.” “Really good, I enjoyed the session.”

And tallying with my perception that teachers almost always put their students first: “Already printed off the VIA website resources and used it yesterday with two pupils – following that one parent took the list home with them as they were also fascinated!”

But my favourite one came the following week: “I sat with a couple of people at lunchtime today who attended your talk last week.  They were both raving about you and said you were very inspirational.  One said she couldn’t stop thinking about what you’d talked through!”

To me, that just cemented what a difference an hour can make in terms of gaining a new, more positive focus.