There is no question that COVID-19 has brought tremendous suffering around the globe. We have lost over one million humans to the pandemic. Some who have been infected have long-lasting and devastating symptoms. People have lost their jobs and some go hungry or don’t have a place to live. There has also been significant mental and emotional stress and strain, even for those who have been able to keep their jobs and homes and stay healthy—trying to homeschool children and work, managing isolation and boredom, longing to see friends and loved ones. In the United States, it has also been a time of significant social and political upheaval.

It is possible that, for some, pandemic living has also given us a glimpse of a way we might do things differently moving forward.

And yet…

It is possible that, for some, pandemic living has also given us a glimpse of a way we might do things differently moving forward. In this post, we reflect on some of the unexpected gifts the last year has brought us. As authors of the book The Joy of Science: Seven Principles for Scientists Seeking Happiness, Harmony, and Success, we’ve written about ways that over-burdened, over-worked, and over-stressed scientists and engineers might retool their lives to center joy and creativity while also managing competing expectations from work and home. When we caught up with one another recently, we found that the two of us—unbeknownst to the other—had doubled down on some of the strategies and commitments we recommended in that book. We talk about some of the struggles we’ve faced, and how we’ve met them, below.

First: We’re Doing Alright

Roel: It feels important to me to write about some of the opportunities the pandemic has provided. But I do so with trepidation, because I’m aware of the human suffering that the pandemic has caused, and will continue to inflict, ranging from the physical, social, and economic points of view. I’m also well aware that as academics we are in a privileged position because a lot of us can work safely from home and have relatively secure jobs compared to, for example, small business owners.

It became crystal clear to me very early on that if I was going to make it through, I’d have to take really good care of myself, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Jen Schneider

Jen: Exactly. We wrote in our book about how academics go through different “seasons” of their lives—how the challenges facing a junior faculty member with small children are going to be really different from a senior faculty contemplating a career change, say. It’s the same thing here—you and I might be able to employ these strategies more readily than someone with school-age children who is untenured or whose job isn’t secure or who has been sick. We stand in solidarity with all of those who are just doing the best they can to survive, get by, and come out the other side of this thing.

The Value of Having a Practice

Jen: Still, I think it’s interesting that both you and I returned to practices for well-being that we’ve been cultivating for a long time, to deal with the stresses of academic life, as a way to cope with the stresses the pandemic has brought. This was a tough year for me in a lot of ways—I have ageing parents who had terrible health crises that coincided exactly with the start of the pandemic, and I’m also a parent to two high-school age kids, one of who was a senior. Losing her senior year and all of her activities has been devastating for her, and I often was her parent, counselor, cheerleader, and life coach! I’m also a university administrator, and trying to lead and comfort others through this last, terrible year was so much harder than I could have imagined. It became crystal clear to me very early on that if I was going to make it through, I’d have to take really good care of myself, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. After a few weeks of sitting in front of all-day Zoom meetings, I knew something was going to have to change. I quickly created a “self-care” to do list that became as important to me as my to do list for work.

Roel: No question: Managing the wellbeing of ourselves and of others has been one of the challenges posed by the isolation caused by the pandemic. All day Zooms are tough. But I’ve also been grateful for the ways video-conferencing has allowed me to continue my habit of connecting with others. The explosive growth of opportunities for video-conferencing, and our increased ability to take advantage of these opportunities, has created new habits for interacting with others. When connecting electronically, distance is not a factor anymore, and I have found that even though my immediate social and professional interactions have become poorer because of the lack of in-person contact, they have also been enriched because I interact both socially and professionally with friends and colleagues that are far away.

Keeping Connected

My intention is to talk once a day with at least one friend or colleague, often in an unplanned way, and I’ve reconnected with colleagues and friends with whom I had lost contact, which has been a delightful and unexpected outcome of the move to video.

Roel Snieder

Roel: My intention is to talk once a day with at least one friend or colleague, often in an unplanned way, and I’ve reconnected with colleagues and friends with whom I had lost contact, which has been a delightful and unexpected outcome of the move to video. In addition, I like to think about the added capacity and access we’re building individually and as a society, too, as a result of this forced change in our behaviors. Many of us have been teaching remotely by offering classes through video-conferencing tools, or by offering fully online classes. Our increased proficiency to use these tools, both at an institutional level and as individual teachers, likely will give a huge boost to online learning. This will increase the flexibility of students to take classes where they want to take them, and it might even allow for increased “a-la-carte” education where students mix and match classes offered at different universities.

Jen:  I love hearing that you set that intention, because I’ve done the same thing. I can be on the introverted side of the social spectrum, but also don’t feel very good if I remain too isolated; I really need to feel like I’m part of a community. Like you, I make sure that I text or talk every day to a friend or family member, even if it’s just to check in or send a funny TikTok. It’s on my to do list! If I can’t check that box at the end of the day, I really make an effort the next day to do it. I also really love taking walks with people to catch up (masked and outside!) and hope that’s a habit I can take into the future with me. I don’t think I had realized how much I love walks outdoors before this year.

And like you, I also think that some of the skills and infrastructure we’ve built during this time might make things more flexible and accommodating moving into the future, allowing more people to work from home, allowing us to organize events with people from around the world and not just those who have the resources to travel, and—this is a biggie—maybe allowing us to stay connected in ways that don’t have quite as big an impact on our environment. We have a lot of work to do to figure that out and to center joy and well-being as we move forward with making changes more permanent.

Staying Centered

Jen:  Another practice you and I both had before the pandemic was meditation—we provide some easy ways to think about meditation and developing a meditation practice in the book, but now there are so many apps and YouTube videos that provide community and support. I really committed to meditation this year more than I ever had before; the stress of caretaking and the state of American politics were so intense, and I needed to fully commit to a practice that would allow me to slow my thoughts and disconnect from them. Meditation provided that. I started meeting regularly with my local “sangha,” a Buddhist group that meets to meditate over zoom a few times a week. This has provided a sense of connection, community, and peace at a time that I needed it. It’s been the starkest example of putting my own oxygen mask on first—if I take the time to meditate, I can be there to care for others. If I don’t, things are much more likely to fall apart. It’s been essential.

Roel:  My experience has been similar. I really saw a need this year, among my students and colleagues, for moments of relaxation, so I stepped in to lead regular online meditations at my university. As an unforeseen side-effect, these meditations are now the nucleus of a small online community of friends that meet several times per week. Readers, these meditations are open for anybody! Please join us through www.mines.edu/meditation. Managing ourselves has become even more important than it was before the pandemic, because the uncertainty and anxiety of the pandemic can take its toll on our wellbeing. Habits such as regular outdoor time, frequent social interactions (safely done by meeting outdoors, or using electronic means), and managing our mental hygiene—what do our thoughts dwell on?—are even more important now than they were before the pandemic.

Roel and Jen: The reason these activities and habits are called “practices” is because we practice them in times of calm, so that we can draw on them in times of stress and upheaval. We strengthen these habits of care and presence for the well-being of ourselves and of others. Our book The Joy of Science offers many tips and tools for developing these practices. The interesting question is: do we retain these habits once the pandemic is over? If we do so, we may come out of the pandemic, both personally and socially, equipped with better habits to build a better world—one that works for more of us, and that recognizes our whole selves—than we had before the world was changed by COVID-19.