Below is a posting I wrote for a weekly writing site called Slice of Life I am posting it here, too, as it is a nice wrap-up to the year’s activities with mindfulness.
From my Slice of Life reflections
Starting last summer at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center‘s Summer Institute on Social Emotional Learning for Educators (yes, I know it is a mouthful!), I began working with mindfulness practices – for myself, and later with my students and also the faculty on my campus. It has been a wonderful year! Today is our final faculty gathering – a lunch to celebrate all we’ve accomplished this year. The focus was on building community, wellness, and helping us tap back into the enthusiasm we had when we began teaching… what’s meaningful for us in this work…
We met every 2 weeks over the lunch hour for the academic year and tried something new each session, using activities at GGSC and other things including meditating with music, art, and movement. We took a field trip together for a buddhist meditation day to hear Tara Brach, and invited speakers from Canada and Philadelphia to speak to us about mindfulness and well-being in higher education (Thanks Jill Grose, Paula Gardner, and Robin Boudette!) One session we spent in pairs, strolling together talking in the woods – this being such an odd site apparently, that security stopped by to find out what these faculty members were doing – lol!!! We wrote intentions on garden stones to carry in our pockets for the semester, and some of us joined a weight loss challenge in order to get healthy.
In my college reading class, we practiced mindfulness in many different ways as a supplement and support to aid studying, focus, and emotional health while learning. I incorporated it both fall and spring semesters (with a little trepidation) but in the end, survey results showed 100% of students found value in the practice and voted to “keep it” as part of the class.
I’ve been able to share this with different audiences this year – students and faculty from local and regional campuses, graduate education students at their orientation meeting, and soon to my own group of instructional designers, looking at how this fits into course design, beyond delivery of content.
What did I learn/gain from this year? Personally, I gained so much… peace of mind and heart, a renewed enthusiasm for my work with faculty, a promise to take better care of myself, and confidence in using the techniques with students. I lost 11 pounds, my cholesterol went down 40 points and my triglycerides are back in the normal range. I got a FitBit and started moving every hour from my computer- even if I have to march at my desk during online meetings. I have become an advocate for slowing down the frenzy, saying “no” to overwork and meaningless tasks, challenging assumptions about what work should look and feel like, thinking about my teaching(and professional life) in a more holistic fashion – head, heart, body!
I can say that last year at this time, I was as close to burnout as I could get – unhealthy, unhappy…and this year, as we prepare to close out the year, I am profoundly grateful to my colleagues (Kerry, Fred, Noel, Mike, Annie, Jane, Barb, and Harry) and students for helping to make this experience possible – What a joy to have done it together! What will next year bring? I’m not sure yet – I want to stop and just enjoy this moment, right now…breathe…
