What Teachers Can Do for Their Own Wellbeing
Jakub Kumaszka
August 2026
When we talk to teachers about wellbeing, we almost never hear, “I don’t know what I should be doing.” Teachers know. They know that sleep matters, that being physically active is important, and that sometimes it would be good to say “no.” The problem is not a lack of knowledge. The problem is that a teacher’s working day rarely leaves enough space to actually put that knowledge into practice.
That is why this article is not another list of advice telling you to “sleep more and drink more water.” We want to look at what research on teacher wellbeing and resilience tells us about what genuinely helps, and what teachers can start doing for themselves right now, regardless of whether the school they work in is ready for systemic change.
Wellbeing is not just one thing
One of the largest meta-analyses in recent years, conducted by Zhou, Slemp and Vella-Brodrick, included 173 studies and almost 90,000 teachers. The authors examined which factors were most strongly associated with teachers’ workplace wellbeing. The strongest positive predictors were hope, autonomous motivation, psychological capital and a sense of professional competence. Neuroticism and avoidant coping strategies were the factors most strongly negatively associated with wellbeing (Zhou et al., 2024).
This is an important finding because it highlights something that is easy to forget. Teachers’ occupational wellbeing is not the result of one good evening habit or one holiday a year. It emerges from multiple psychological, relational and organisational factors that can strengthen or weaken one another. This is precisely why the model developed by Mansfield and colleagues describes teacher resilience as the result of personal, professional and social resources interacting with the context in which a teacher works (Mansfield et al., 2016). There is no single switch to flip. There are several areas worth investing in at the same time.
How you treat yourself in difficult moments matters physiologically
One of the most interesting areas of research in recent years has been self-compassion: the way we respond to our own mistakes, exhaustion or feelings of not being good enough. In a study by Maratos and colleagues, teachers wore heart-rate variability monitors throughout the working day while researchers examined how levels of self-compassion and self-criticism were associated with physiological responses to stress. Self-compassion emerged as a factor that protected the body from the effects of overload. Self-criticism significantly increased the risk of burnout, particularly in relation to depersonalisation (Maratos et al., 2024).
In other words, whether after a difficult lesson you tell yourself, “I messed that up again,” or instead, “That was a difficult day, and it makes sense that I’m tired,” is not merely a matter of mindset. It has a measurable impact on how your nervous system responds to stress.
This does not mean giving up high expectations of yourself. It means separating high standards from a merciless inner voice. In a randomised study involving 155 teachers, an eight-week compassion training programme resulted in measurable reductions in burnout and stress and an increase in occupational wellbeing compared with a control group (Matos et al., 2022). This is not a vague, untested idea. It is a skill that can be developed and that can genuinely change how teachers function in a demanding profession.
In practice, this can involve very small things. Notice the internal commentary that appears after a lesson that did not go well, and consciously ask yourself what you would say to a colleague in the staffroom who was in exactly the same situation. Usually, it is something much kinder than what we say to ourselves.
The kind of support a staffroom kettle cannot replace
A qualitative study of teachers in their first year of the profession found that those who coped best with the risk of burnout consistently used four strategies. They relied on genuine support from other people, set boundaries, maintained their own hobbies and practised self-compassion (Balderama et al., 2026). None of these strategies works entirely on its own. It was their combination that made the difference.
It is also worth noting that peer support cannot be taken for granted in Polish schools. In a study involving 752 teachers in Poland, the lowest scores were recorded in the area of social competencies and peer support, even though other protective factors, such as family cohesion, scored considerably higher (Boczkowska, 2023). This suggests something very practical. If you have even one person at work with whom you can speak honestly about how things are really going—not for show, not another “everything’s great” conversation in the staffroom—that is not a small thing. It is one of the strongest resources you can have.
If you do not yet have such a person, it may be worth looking for them intentionally: arrange a regular coffee with one particular colleague, join a support group for teachers—foundations and NGOs are increasingly offering them—or simply ask directly, “How are you actually coping with all of this? Because sometimes I’m really not.”
Boundaries are not a lack of commitment
Setting boundaries appears in research on teacher self-care again and again—and it is also consistently one of the most difficult things to put into practice. Teachers who see their work as a calling often feel that refusing an additional task or not replying to a message after working hours means letting their students down. Research suggests the opposite. The ability to set boundaries was one of the four key strategies that helped new teachers make it through their first year without burning out (Balderama et al., 2026).
A boundary does not need to be dramatic. It might look like this: choosing a particular time after which you no longer check your email. Saying one “no” a week to something that is not essential. Giving parents clear information about when and how they can contact you. This is not distancing yourself from your students. It is a condition for having enough energy to remain truly present for them over the months ahead, not just during the first term.
Something that has nothing to do with being a teacher
Autonomous interests outside work regularly appear in research as a protective factor in teacher resilience. Not because they can solve systemic overload, but because they remind teachers that they are more than their professional role (Boczkowska, 2023). Zhou and colleagues’ meta-analysis points in the same direction: higher levels of engagement in hobbies and restorative activities outside work are associated with better coping with occupational stress (Zhou et al., 2024).
It is worth being precise here. This is not about having a hobby as a way to make your rest more productive. It is about doing something without a goal and without measuring the outcome. If you have not had anything like that in your life for a long time, a useful question to begin with might be: what did I enjoy doing before work took up all the space? Sometimes the answer is very simple—and that is exactly why it is so easy to dismiss.
So what can you actually do?
The research discussed here points towards several concrete and realistic directions that can be put into practice, regardless of whether your school actively supports staff wellbeing or is only beginning to learn how to do so.
Notice your inner commentary. When something goes wrong, pay attention to the way you speak to yourself. Try replacing self-criticism with the tone you would use when speaking to an exhausted colleague.
Find one person, not ten. Peer support works best when it is honest rather than performative. One relationship in which you can tell the truth about your day may be worth more than an entire team that exists only on paper.
Set one specific boundary. Not ten new rules all at once—just one realistic boundary that you can genuinely maintain for a month.
Protect one activity that has no purpose. Something you do because you enjoy it, not because it will be useful to someone else or look good on your professional CV.
Pay attention to how you cope with stress. Avoidant strategies, such as procrastination, denial or numbing yourself through work, are associated with poorer wellbeing more strongly than almost anything else (Zhou et al., 2024). If you notice this pattern in yourself, it is a signal to seek support, not another to-do list.
Personal work, systemic problem
None of these strategies can replace a reasonable workload or supportive school leadership. This is an important caveat, and one we do not want to overlook: teacher wellbeing is both a personal and a systemic issue, and research consistently supports this conclusion.
However, while systemic change continues to move more slowly than the people working in classrooms need it to, it is worth knowing that part of the journey can still be taken into your own hands. This is not a journey based on willpower, but on concrete, evidence-informed strategies.
References
Balderama, M., Dann, N., Guise, M., & Hegg, S. (2026). Supporting New Teacher Wellness & Mitigating Burnout: An Exploration of the Self-Care Strategies of New Teachers. Current Issues in Education, 27(2). https://doi.org/10.14507/cie.vol27iss2.2282
Boczkowska, M. (2023). Teachers’ resilience in Poland — The role of sociodemographic and professional factors. Lubelski Rocznik Pedagogiczny, 42(3), 53–69. https://doi.org/10.17951/lrp.2023.42.3.53-69
Mansfield, C. F., Beltman, S., Broadley, T., & Weatherby-Fell, N. (2016). Building resilience in teacher education: An evidenced-informed framework. Teaching and Teacher Education, 54, 77–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2015.11.016
Maratos, F. A., Parente, F., Sahota, T. J., & Sheffield, D. (2024). Wellbeing and burnout in schoolteachers: The psychophysiological case for self-compassion. Current Psychology, 43(48), 37055–37069. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-07060-8
Matos, M., Albuquerque, I., Galhardo, A., Cunha, M., Pedroso Lima, M., Palmeira, L., Petrocchi, N., McEwan, K., Maratos, F. A., & Gilbert, P. (2022). Nurturing compassion in schools: A randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of a Compassionate Mind Training program for teachers. PLOS ONE, 17(3). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263480
Zhou, S., Slemp, G. R., & Vella-Brodrick, D. A. (2024). Factors Associated with Teacher Wellbeing: A Meta-Analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 36(2), Article 63. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-024-09886-x