SUMMARY

In Radical Hope: Attention Management for Mental Health (Part 1), Michelle Kinder explores how the way we direct our attention shapes not only our inner world but also our relationships, choices, and sense of meaning. Drawing from research, lived practice, and the book Indistractable, Michelle reframes attention management away from productivity hacks and toward well-being.

Through powerful metaphors, like the flashlight that illuminates what we choose to notice, she shows how even small shifts in focus can reduce anxiety, restore energy, and bring us closer to the life we want. Listeners will learn how traction versus distraction is defined by alignment with our deepest values, why time management is often really pain management, and how simple discernment questions can help us right-size what deserves our attention.

This episode is an invitation to reclaim our focus as an act of radical hope. By choosing where we shine our mental flashlight, we gain agency in our responses, open space for connection, and ripple out more presence to our students, colleagues, and communities

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction to Attention Management for Mental Health
05:04 Understanding Traction vs. Distraction
10:49 The Role of Internal and External Triggers
17:22 Pre-Commitments and Structuring Attention
22:40 Shifting from Problem-Focused to Outcome-Focused
30:52 The Power of Attention Filters
38:31 Radical Hope and the Choice of Attention

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SUMMARY:

The way you see students today can change a trajectory tomorrow.

In this episode of Oxygen for Educators, 2023 National Teacher of the Year Rebecka Peterson sits down with Michelle to talk about choosing the good without slipping into toxic positivity. Rebecka shares how listening to understand, not to be understood, changed her teaching and her students’ outcomes. She tells the story of her “one good thing” practice that trained her brain to notice what is working, then create more of it. From there, we dig into why principals set the tone for an entire building, why teachers quite literally hold our democracy, and why front-loading connection is not a luxury - It is the work.

Practical takeaways you can use today

• Front-load connection. The time comes back to you a hundred times over.

• Train your attention. Capture one good thing each day to rewire what you notice.

• When the world feels big, get small. Focus on who is right in front of you.

• Hold a yes and mindset. Hard work, and meaningful work.

• Tell your story to students, then schedule 5–15 minute student story slots.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Finding the Good in Challenging Times
02:55 Introducing Rebecca Peterson: A Teacher's Journey
06:00 The Impact of Personal Stories in Education
08:47 The Role of Relationships in Student Success
11:42 The Power of Listening and Understanding
14:52 Transformative Experiences as a Teacher of the Year
17:50 The Importance of High-Quality Educators
20:47 Navigating Trauma in Education
23:26 Empathy and Democracy in Education
26:28 The Practice of Noticing the Good
29:20 The Yes And Profession: Balancing Challenges and Purpose
32:21 Closing Thoughts: Gratitude and Hope for Educators

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Oxygen for Educators is proudly sponsored by Tacky Box.

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SUMMARY:

In this Oxygen for Educators Radical Hope episode, Michelle Kinder gets practical about “coping flexibility,” the everyday skill of noticing when your go-to strategy is no longer serving you, then choosing a better fit for this moment. Educators already live flexibly in classrooms, yet many of us go rigid with our own wellbeing. Michelle names the two big lanes of coping, problem focused and emotion focused, and shows how to choose between them with less judgment and more curiosity. You will try a brief nervous system check-in, then learn four simple practices, Awareness Pause, Strategy Swap, Coping Playlist, and Opposite Day experiment. This is not a magic fix, it is a kind, doable way to suffer less, model resilience for students, and keep moving with hope.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Flexibility beats perfection, notice what helps right now, not what used to help.

• Match the tool to the moment, problem focused when you can act, emotion focused when you cannot.

• Run the flexibility sequence, assess, select, monitor, then adjust.

• Try the four practices, Awareness Pause, Strategy Swap, Coping Playlist, Opposite Day experiment.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Understanding Coping Flexibility
02:49 The Two Types of Coping Strategies
05:58 The Importance of Monitoring and Adjusting
08:32 Coping Flexibility and the Nervous System
10:54 Inner Dialogue and Coping Flexibility
13:54 Practical Strategies for Coping Flexibility
17:28 Self-Care vs. Self-Blame
20:03 The Wisdom of Coping Flexibility

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Oxygen for Educators is proudly sponsored by Tacky Box.

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