Self-Compassionate Professor

Dr. Jia urges us to create more space in our careers and lives: space for recovery, rest, compassion, self-compassion, and more. She shows us that space is not absence, but presence. Find Dr. Jia at publishedMD.com or email her at [email protected]

Dr. Felice Russell describes how she navigated the difficult relationship she has always had with academia, leaning on self-trust, leaps of faith, and one-degree shifts to make the many career decisions that have gotten her to the place she is now: a school librarian who feels settled and content both at work and at home. Find Dr. Felice Russell on LinkedIn.

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Marny Requa explains that life transitions such as becoming a parent and menopause are not just short-term changes and then everything returns to "normal." They are major life transitions that deserve to be acknowledged, honored, and planned for. However, as Marny explains, we are not doing these things well on institutional, cultural, nor societal levels. She tells her own story about how she internalized these larger societal notions as a professor transitioning into parenthood, the challenges it presented, and the importance of giving ourselves grace. Marny also shows the huge positive impact available to our society if we shift our thinking and see life transitions for what they are (see the resources she mentions below). Find Marny at [email protected], on Instagram @worklifeshifts , or  linkedin.com/in/marny-requa

Marny offers these resources for exploring this topic further:

Nancy Schlossberg on life transitions: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gYXeH2MnzatL3oIeglQGG_kRDBLIx5-l/view 

Neuroplasticity & father's brains: Abraham et al academic article linked here: https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1402569111

Slate article on neuroplasticity that mentions the above research here: https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/06/fatherhood-makes-men-better-at-work-and-at-home-research-shows.html

Center for Parental Leave Leadership website for resources on support during parental leave: https://cplleadership.com/

North American Menopause Society: https://www.menopause.org/

"Time is so precious," says Dr. Martha Kenney. In this episode, Martha describes the importance of finding your why--a process of pausing, going inward, getting re-acquainted with yourself, and naming your values. Once you know your why, you can allocate your time accordingly, aligned to the intentions you have for your life. Martha explains that her faith softened her to this process. And ultimately, as she explains, time management cannot work well until you know your purpose.

Happy Equinox!! Welcome to the Spring 2024 Season of Self-Compassionate Professor!

First, I talk about how honoring the change of seasons invites a more intentional approach to work and life generally: 1) helps us to see beyond the academic calendar, 2) opens us to a sense of spaciousness, 3) gives us a sense of "punctuation" between seasons, 4) gives us permission to let go and let the seasons inform our timelines, and 5) anchors our daily, weekly, and monthly planning in seasonal goals, strengthening our commitment to seasonal goals.

Secondly, I discuss the importance of detoxing (broadly defined) during early spring so as to ready yourself for the season.

Dr. Dan Lair, Associate Dean of Faculty and Student Affairs at the Metropolitan State University of Denver, talks about the benefits of perceiving our academic work as “just a job.” Specifically, Dan explains what work means to him, the pitfalls of tying your job to your identity, the impact overwork by his academic spouse (me!) has had on him, and surprising findings from his institution’s attempt to address faculty workload issues. He shares simple advice for dealing with overwhelm and breaking the culture of busyness. 

Burnout and betrayal expert, Lora Cheadle, discusses how self-betrayal often masquerades as burnout, how we can begin the process of healing from self-betrayal, and how to "dance" our way to authenticity.

Dr. Cynthia Ganote describes hiding her artistic interests in graduate school, believing that if her academic community found out that she sang, acted, and danced, she would not be taken seriously. When she took her tenure-track job, she put all of her energy and effort into it, letting go of her artistic work completely. While on the outside, Cynthia’s academic career appeared incredibly successful, on the inside, her spirit was dying. Cynthia describes the messages her body was sending at that time and how she came to eventually listen. In this way, Cynthia stresses the importance of “internal belonging”—belonging to yourself, behaving authentically, and letting the messages coming from within guide you in the career discernment process. Find Dr. Cynthia Ganote at [email protected]. 

And join us in the SELF-COMPASSIONATE PROFESSORS Facebook group! 

No matter the career decisions in front of you--big or small--making choices from a place of wellness is key to paving a self-compassionate career path. We invite wellness when we invite slowness, connection to self, and connection to inner wisdom. Find your own self-compassionate career path in the Sabbatical Program, which begins September 1, 2023. Register here: https://danielledelamare.com/?page_id=1047

I explain how to know when boundary work is needed, how to use Christina Maslach's six sources of chronic stress (workload, values, reward, control, fairness, community) to find your boundary gaps, and I offer a meditation by Karla McLaren about how to feel an embodied sense of boundaries. Please remember to leave a review of the podcast!