How to Find Your Way in Academia with PhD Candidate Lauren Mason

Lauren Mason is the creator and academic behind the platform Lauren Finds a Way.  Her academic Instragram includes curated content while her youtube channel shows more of the day-to-day PhD student vibes. Her goal is to share nuance behind the beauty of education. Lauren encourages us to embrace all parts of you and reminders to create patterns and habits that help you ground and find stillness within the ebbs and flows of academic life.

We also talk about:

• "From my experience, I had a vision in my mind what is an academic, what is someone with a PhD like. I weighed myself against that and thought, I don’t fit that mold…We don’t all look the same or act the same…that’s one of the benefits of academia right now"
• Now (through social media) we have access to a huge group of people pursuing a similar path
• Loving the emphasis on learning in academia
• We’re arriving at a time where people are becoming more transparent about experiences in academia (we get access daily to so many experiences)
• Journalism major, decided to switch to psychology … wanted to gain expertise in something and then write about it rather than various topics
• As an undergrad research assistant one of the things that helped me stand out was bringing research to them
• When we have aspects of ourselves that people think “oh people with a PhD don’t have that” when we share it inspires others to take the chance, and not feel shame
• When we compare ourselves to others it robs us of opportunity to shed our own light
• The goal is to try to maintain balance—off balance in PhD journey for sure. One thing she's strict about (and shares openly) is that she doesn’t work on the weekend… Structured time away from work is one of the healthiest things she's done for herself
• "And I think out of everything, all the lifestyle changes I’ve made to try to help with mental health, I think movement has been the best one, and the most impactful"
• Lauren challenges herself to be authentic- sometimes we have highs and are acknowledge for our work but sometimes there are lows—along the way, transparent and authentic promotes health in the community
• I get to choose how I want to use my time today, how I want to be creative today
• Too many things on the plate in one day, not achieving very much at all…grant ourselves the ability to focus on one thing actually increases our productivity
• Maintain health: sometimes we get out of balance, strategies to get back into it. Have grace with ourselves… let it go when you haven’t achieved or made a mistake
• "Find myself gasping throughout the whole day, can’t catch my breath, mind is racing"… journals and lists help her find limits
• Becoming more conscious (that we’re not taking care of ourselves); small challenges to do it, 5 min break, feels difficult reinforces it’s ok to take up space, change situation that you’re uncomfortable in and make yourself more comfortable
• Learning to say no during PhD has been a journey; say yes to any opportunity that comes your way… pressure with developing your CV, you should take it and run with it… that isn’t working for me anymore
• Start to rethink "I’m doing enough to meet my requirements… saying no has become liberating"
• "Academia has a way of breaking you down… no one is going to build me back up, I have to build myself back up"
• End of PhD is almost an identity crisis... we don’t even know what we know anymore Identify your skill set instead of parts that are missing
• Remind yourself what you do, what you’re capable of doing. You have an idea of those things (skills) and you can communicate that with others
• Flourishing: Waking up excited for the day is a good sign… feeling calm… feeling connected with those around me and in my community…laughing a lot, and in a lighthearted way
• Writing, sharing, connecting, sharing your light with others…

More at:

https://www.instagram.com/laurenfindsaway/

https://www.youtube.com/@laurenfindsaway