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.
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