Academic Life: Stress and Self-Care

  I've had conversations with two different students this week about GPA's.  Both students are exceptional students with a high A in my class, and both are extremely worried about keeping their GPA up.  I can totally appreciate that.  I felt the exact same way about wanting to graduate my doctoral program with a perfect 4.0 since I took several hits from life in my earlier college degree programs. I wanted to prove to myself and everyone else that I was the same honor's student I had been back in high school and that I'm a great academic. Well, the 4.0 didn't quite happen.  I ended up with three A-'s that killed that.  But, you know what?  Nobody cares.  The final diploma is the only thing that actually matters.  So, I let both of these students in on that secret - no one sees your exact grade in a class except for you and your professor (and maybe your advisor).  Everyone else just sees the final grade.  So, it doesn't matter if it...

  This past week has been full of distractions.  A lot going on, and too much to keep track of.  I found myself making mistakes and causing confusion rather than providing clear instruction and support to my students.  It was not the best of weeks.  So, how did I handle it?  I took a breath and chose to respond rather than react.  I took responsibility for the errors and did my best to correct the problems, realizing that I'm just as human as my students are.  We are all human; and, we all make mistakes.   I still feel like things are spinning a bit out of control.  So, for this week I will be focusing on reminding myself that there is only one thing I actually have to do - breathe.  Everything else is secondary.  Sometimes, finding our breath, centering, and reminding ourselves that nothing matters past this moment is all we can do.  This breath matters.  This moment matters.  Step by step, breath by breath, mom...

Covid infection rates are rising.  There's a lot of division in our society. And, I can't even with reading with comments on social media posts these days.  Every week feels like it's worse than the last.  Overwhelmed, tired, and discouraged.  With everything that's going on it's very easy to get caught up in the negativity of life, caught in a rut, and simply escaping into whatever our favorite comfort coping mechanism is.  But, this just keeps us going in circles, not making any real progress or feeling better. So, this week let's try to change our focus.  The brain is naturally geared towards focusing on the negatives in life.  It's called a negativity bias, and it allows us to avoid negative and unpleasant situations.  However, the brain can also get a little.... let's say get a bit over-zealous in applying this thinking strategy. When this happens we find ourselves trapped in negative thinking and often fail to even appreciate the good things...

  So, I don't know about ya'll, but this semester is already off to a rocky start.  Instead of jumping into a brand new semester and academic year full of energy, hope, and excitement I've spent the last two weeks simply trying to breathe.  This is by far not the best time for a major asthma episode, and it has thrown everything into chaos.  Add in issues with the bookstore, late add's to classes, and all of the usual fun and fanfare that a new academic year brings... and, I'm exhausted.  And, I'm betting I'm not the only one struggling to get things on track.  So, I thought the best thing to do for today is to remember a few things that can help while we're in survival mode: 1) A fresh start is always available.  - If things didn't go as planned, use the afternoon to breathe and regroup.  And, start again fresh in the morning.  You don't even have to wait until tomorrow morning.  You can start fresh with your next deep breath. 2) Go slo...