Summer stress and a ProfCon nudge

Hi friend,

I hope you’ve been well since we last connected! 

It’s June, so if your life revolves around the Northern Hemisphere’s typical academic calendar, you may be enjoying a slightly slower pace. Still, I can’t tell you how angry I used to get when people assumed I was off for the summer. For many of us, our summer vision represents an unattainable mix of uber productivity and extreme leisure. This balancing act can cause stress, which may in turn lead to rumination.

Unlike productive worry, rumination doesn’t have much benefit. It merely makes our brains think we're doing something in a misguided attempt to alleviate discomfort. In a sense, we feel threatened, so our brains go into overdrive to try to protect us and get us back to safety. But we can’t think our way out of a feeling. 

So what might we do instead? 

First, how about noticing that we’re having an anxious thought? Sometimes this is easier said than done because we need to pause long enough to observe what’s going on in our head. Luckily, the more we do it, the easier it becomes.

Second, let's get curious about the anxious thought and the sensations connected to it. What may have triggered it? What does it feel like in the body? What color best describes the experience? The goal isn’t necessarily to get rid of the discomfort. Maybe we can just let it be there and see what it tells us.

Finally, we can choose our next move. Is there any action to take as a result of what we’ve discovered? If so, let’s do that! If not, we’ll simply note that we had an anxious thought and return to our desired activity.

There’s also evidence that we can draw on the emotional and physiological states of others to help us calm our nervous system (see work by Katherine Zee, for example). So I want to put in one final plug for the STANDOUT Professor Confab (ProfCon), a pilot program designed to offer structure and social support for junior faculty, postdocs, and other early-career researchers.

The initial phase of the ProfCon pilot went really well... We were all grateful for the bump in productivity from the focused work sessions and for the wisdom and encouragement shared during the informal group sessions. The next round starts next Tuesday (11 June 2024). If you're an early-career researcher, please consider joining us, and I hope you'll spread the word regardless.

In closing, I’d like to leave us with a piece of advice from Well on Your Way, my book for assistant professors: The next time we hear someone griping about faculty who work only six hours a week and get summers off, rather than spontaneously combusting, maybe we can simply set that schedule as a stretch goal? (p. 35). 

Thanks so much for being here. And most of all, thanks for being you.

Take good care,
 
Elizabeth Odders-White