Three passionate, dynamic voices pioneering pathways forward for
SEL implementation in education!
June 2026: The Art of the Finish -
Closing Strong and Finding Your Summer MUSE
Heather Lageman and guest xSELerater, Tasha Manigo-Bizzell
As June arrives, we invite you to take a literary approach to the end of the school year, finally getting to the final chapter of a book you've been writing all year. The pages are filling up fast, the energy is intense, and everyone is racing to bring the story to a meaningful close!
Often, we sprint to the final page, slam the book shut in exhaustion, and then wonder why we feel depleted all summer instead of recharged.
This June, let's shift the narrative. Let's close the chapter intentionally and use summer to take ownership of the various aspects of your personal wellness by simply looking at what has worked for you and what has not. What inspires you as you move toward a new, and hopefully more exciting, school year?
The Art of the Intentional Ending
🍎Thank you, Teachers! You've given everything this year. Every lesson, every relationship, every pivot, every late night. You've been curator, connector, guide, and gardener all at once.
True wellness is a manifestation of the life you have created, and your individual degree of wellness is influenced by everything you do. Every action or inaction, every dream discovered, deferred, or discarded, contributes to a life well lived or a lifeless well. As June winds down, it is time to honestly assess: What has this year given to you? What has this year taken from you? And what do you need to restore this summer?
Focus on the finish that purposefully commits to your own wellness by:
1. Naming Your Harvest: What grew this year? Not what you planted, expecting results, but what actually bloomed.
That unit that surprised you.
That student breakthrough you didn't see coming.
That collaboration that energized you.
These are the seeds worth saving for next year.
2. Assessing Your Wellness Honestly:
Check judgment at the door. Look at this simply as the data that is your starting point, and rate yourself truthfully on a scale of 1-10:
Energy levels
Sleep quality
Stress management
Nutrition
Movement/activity
Emotional wellbeing
3. Closing the Loop with Students:
They won't remember every lesson, but they'll remember how you made them feel. Take time for intentional goodbyes. Let them know what they've taught you. Give them something to carry forward.
4. Designing Your Summer Restoration:
Summer isn't just "time off.” It is your opportunity to become a more brilliant version of yourself. Amplify what you love. Celebrate your awesomeness. Be your authentic self. What does your ideal self look like in August? That's who you're becoming this summer.
The Restored Leader
🍏Thank you, Leaders! Yes, your summer looks different. While teachers restore, you're planning, budgeting, hiring, and building the infrastructure for next year. It's easy to feel like you're climbing a mountain while everyone else gets to rest at base camp.
Your wellness matters, not just for you, but for everyone you lead. You can't model balance if you're perpetually burned out. You can't inspire brilliance if you're running on empty. Exhausted leaders create exhausted cultures, and you have the power to recharge and bring energy, inspiration, and empowerment to your culture.
Focus on the finish and lead forward by:
1. Conducting an Honest Inventory:
Not just of your school or program, but of yourself. Where are YOU right now?
How has this year filled your cup physically, emotionally, and mentally?
What has this year cost you physically, emotionally, and mentally?
What patterns keep showing up in your stress levels, sleep, and eating habits?
When was the last time you felt truly rested?
Take the time to deeply reflect. This truth is your foundation.
2. Identifying Your Focus Points (For School AND Self):
You can't address everything over the summer. What are the 2-3 high-impact changes that would make the biggest difference-
For your school/organization?
For your personal wellness?
Both matter. You need strategic priorities for your work AND for yourself.
3. Building Sustainability Into Your Systems:
If you're the only one who knows how things work, you've built a system that requires you to be exhausted. Use summer to:
Document processes so knowledge doesn't live only in your head.
Develop and empower other leaders so they can make meaningful contributions.
Create rhythms that allow you to actually rest during the school year.
4. Finding Your MUSE What inspires you?
What energizes you? What makes you feel alive outside of your leadership role? This summer, reconnect with that. Your inspiration is what will sustain you through every season of the new year.
As Brené Brown notes, many of us have a toxic relationship with exhaustion. We wear our tiredness like a badge of honor and compete over who's most burned out. Suffering is not commitment. Let’s end that narrative now.
What is your narrative right now? The life you have is the one you created. The life you want is the one you should live. If it doesn't exist, create it this summer!
Closing strong doesn't mean collapsing at the finish line. It means crossing it with enough energy left to actually enjoy summer, restore your body and mind, and return in August as someone who can thrive, not just survive. Summer can be about becoming a more rested, balanced, sustainable you.
☀️June Commitment for Teachers
Finish your year with intention and start your summer with purpose:
Complete your harvest reflection - What grew? What taught you? What are you planting next?
Assess your wellness baseline - Rate your current state honestly: energy, sleep, stress, nutrition, movement, emotional health
Set your summer wellness goals - Who do you want to be in August? What needs to change to get there?
Commit to ONE area of focus - You can't overhaul everything. Pick one place to start: nutrition, sleep, stress management, or movement.
☀️June Commitment for Leaders:
Set yourself up for organizational AND personal success:
Honest inventory - Assess both your school/program AND yourself. Where are the gaps?
Dual strategic priorities - Identify 2-3 priorities for your organization AND 2-3 for your personal wellness
Build sustainable systems - Document, delegate, develop others so you create a culture of care for everyone, including you
Schedule restoration - Block real time off. Protect it. Celebrate it. Model the wellness you want your staff to practice. You will all be grateful for the gift of true time off.
Stay tuned for next week, when we’ll be posting The Educator's Summer MUSE Challenge, an 8-week wellness journey designed specifically for educators and leaders. Each week focuses on a different aspect of personal wellness:
Week 1: Your Future Self
Week 2: Finding Your Sweet Spot
Week 3: How Do You Show Up?
Week 4: Getting Unstuck
Week 5: The Burden of Responsibilities
Week 6: Letting Go of F.E.A.R. (Taking Risks & Trusting Yourself)
Week 7: Be Your Own Best Friend
Week 8: Asking For What You Want
By the end of 8 weeks, you'll have developed practical tools to help you live more empowered through simple acts of intention.
Your wellness isn't just about one thing. It's not just nutrition, or just exercise, or just sleep, or just stress management. What you eat affects how you sleep. How you sleep affects your stress levels. Your stress affects your food choices. Your movement affects your mood. Your mood affects your relationships. Everything is connected.
This summer, you're not just "taking time off." You're restoring your whole system.
This year is almost over. You made it. Now finish strong, rest well, and use your summer to become the person you want to be when you return, the brilliant self who enters August restored, inspired, and ready to thrive.
Challenge yourself to move beyond what is familiar. Give yourself permission to do something different. Your Summer MUSE Challenge begins now. We can’t wait to see what you will create!
This resource draws inspiration from Muse Wellness Company's “The EmPOWERed Soul: Inspiring Wellness Through Simple Acts of Intention” series. Their holistic approach to wellness, addressing nutrition, sleep, stress, movement, and overall lifestyle, aligns perfectly with what educators need as they transition from school year exhaustion to summer restoration. Learn more about holistic wellness approaches at musewellness.com.
Your xSELeratED June Bonus Resource!
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