I am excited to share my thoughts about Finding Your Authentic Voice in Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) based on the three-day training I received recently. SEL is a powerful way to build resilience, empathy, and emotional intelligence in students, and it is becoming increasingly popular in schools and organizations worldwide.
On April 3rd, 2023, I participated in a fantastic session led by the amazing Theodora Bogiou, where we explored finding our authentic voice as educators. The session focused on identifying the most common reasons why we hold ourselves back from spreading our message and discussed how we can become better leaders in the education industry.
We engaged in some really engaging activities, such as sharing true stories and recording videos of our future selves, which helped us gain valuable insights from our own experiences. As a group, we had some really insightful discussions that helped us discover our true selves and learn how to communicate more effectively.
On the second day of the training, we discussed five reasons that prevent us from sharing our authentic voice. Overanalyzing and over-intellectualizing our business instead of making a choice, saying “I don’t know,” becoming too attached to a specific idea, being a perfectionist about our business, and telling ourselves, “Who am I to do this work for these people?” are some of the common reasons why we hold ourselves back from sharing our authentic voice.
We learned that all high achievers use their “inner voice” and asked ourselves what it was costing us and if it was serving us. By doing so, we were able to discover what was holding us back and how we could overcome our limitations.
Overall, I believe that the three-day training on social-emotional learning was an incredibly valuable experience. It helped me gain a deeper understanding of myself and others and equipped me with the tools I need to be a better leader and educator. I highly recommend exploring exSELlens for more resources and information about social-emotional learning.