Category Archives: Self Care

Turning Deadlines From Enemies to Energizers
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Turning Deadlines From Enemies Into Energizers

In a recent Chronicle of Higher Education piece, James M. Lang and Kristi Rudenga discuss combining intrinsic motivation strategies with extrinsic motivators that have come under scrutiny, like deadlines, grades, and punitive course policies. 

These recommendations speak to the moment many educators find themselves in: We’re no longer in the acute phase of the pandemic, where instructors and students are doing the best they can amidst historically challenging circumstances that necessitated changes to many educational norms. Now, we’re grappling with a gray area that’s just as challenging, as we try to decide which educational norms need to be reinstated and which “pandemic lessons” should be integrated into our practice moving forward.

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Teaching in Tough Times: How to Counter Languishing and Burnout in Higher Education. An image of a match burning down then becoming a seedling.
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Teaching in Tough Times: How to Counter Languishing and Burnout in Higher Education

A quick note before I move into the post–if you find that your feelings run deeper than just your work, or that the challenges you face are pervasive or problematic across other areas of your life, I would encourage you to seek professional counseling or therapy with a licensed mental health professional beyond the recommendations for approaching your work outlined below.

We all likely know the feeling by now, even if we might still lack the specific terminology to explain it. We’re tired, despite sleeping relatively well. We’re feeling “off,” but we’re not sick. We’re feeling lonely or disconnected, though we still get along with our coworkers and students. We may forget project details or course deadlines, or just find it hard to be excited about starting a new endeavor or covering topics in the classroom that once interested us. Is this burnout, or something else? Continue reading →

The Power of Mindfulness

I recently participated in Interactive Health’s webinar on “The Power of Mindfulness” and it reiterated a theme that’s been in my heart, “living in the now.” This message has resonated with me because that’s what we’ve been talking about at my church recently. So, hearing it again, through a secular medium, was emphatic. I bet the idea of being present seems almost impossible to most of us; well, at least for me, it does. Our minds are constantly wandering back and forth. We focus on the past. We think of what we could have done, or said, or what we did do or say. This leads to feelings of regret, guilt, and shame. We focus on the future, wondering whether we’ll get that new job, or that raise, or whether that relationship will ever get better, and the list could go on. This results in feelings of fear, anxiety, and depression. But here’s some advice, how about just be present? Live in the now! This quote by Bill Keane helps put things in perspective, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.” Being present isn’t about being careless or mindless or totally ignoring the past or future. It is about channeling our focus and awareness effectively. We acknowledge the past to understand what is and use the present to shape what will be.

So, how can we be present?

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