Higher Vibrations in Higher Education

Fire Up: Balancing the Solar Plexus in Your Work Life

An introduction to the solar plexus: Associated with fire, the color yellow, self-discipline, and core work. A time to recommit to work life balance.
- Niyama: Tapas, fire, discipline, commitment
- A perfect time to re-investigate yearly intentions, resolutions, etc.
- To resolve means to do something steadfastly. Can you rest steadfastly as well? Take breaks? Create boundaries?
- I share an excerpt from my book about the gut-punch that is my own mental chatter about how stressed I am or am not "allowed" to be
- Mantra: I can do hard things
- Cued through a plank meditation

Extension’s worthy endeavors: Being mindful of the mission to educate and serve

Dr. Ahlishia Shipley embodies her roles within Family and Consumer Sciences and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) when she posits that, to invest in a healthier society, we start with families: “Families are (one of) the most important piece to society. That’s where people are built.” Yes. Yes, indeed. More about the people, policies, and programs within this episode. Key takeaways are that:
Relationships are the key to Extension work.
Need help maintaining relationships: A tool can be to say “I’m sorry how can I fix it?”
Remember: One kind interaction might lead to something decades down the road
Overall goal summarized: Wide and lasting impact on health and communities
Education as an equalizer
How to flourish at work: Engage in worthy endeavors
“Alignment of our hands to our flourishing spirit”
Some things need to be done yesterday, but taking care of our own health remains a priority.
Dr. Ahlishia Shipley is a National Program Leader (NPL) for Family and Community Health in the Division of Family and Consumer Sciences within the Institute of Youth, Family, and Community. She provides leadership for the Rural Health and Safety Education Program, the Extension COVID Immunization Training and Education (EXCITE) Program, and supports initiatives focused on health equity and well-being across the research, education, and extension mission areas. Dr. Shipley joins NIFA from the National Institutes of Health, Center for Scientific Review where she was the Scientific Review Officer for the chartered study section, Lifestyle Change and Behavioral Health providing leadership for the peer review process for extramural research applications focused on chronic disease prevention and health promotion. She previously served as an NPL for Families and Health at NIFA.

Samma Says: This is your permission slip to take time to rest

Babe- if you need a permission slip to rest, let this be it. You are allowed to take time away from work. True time away from work. Nobody at the end of life said they wish they worked harder.
Overworking before you leave work isn’t taking rest
The fact that you have a lot to do when you return is called job security
Asteya (yama- ethical principles) of non-stealing ... from yourself and your familty
Scarcity and fear let us think we can be replaced: Can we change the narrative to know that we are a valued member of the community?
What would you do with an extra hour a day… an extra breath?
It’s not about time management, it’s energy management
You are a worthy member of the community you serve. 
How will you embrace the weekend, the evening, vacation, sabbatical?
Microbreaks, detaching from email on phone, environmental cues to help you with your intention
Smile and know that behavior change is hard.

Using Science and Extension to Open our Minds and Hearts

Dr. David Buys is an associate professor of Food Science, Nutrition and Health Promotion and state specialist for Mississippi State University. His expertise spans farmer stress and health to opioid misuse and participatory research. I left with so many take-aways but two in particular: There’s opportunity to “open our minds and our hearts” and, no matter where you are on your life or career journey, “we haven’t arrived yet… we’re still on the journey.” This helps me think through, ok, it’s no longer, “Now what? It’s, now anything!”
 
As we try to define a Cooperative Extension Health Specialist, he describes his job as an Extension specialist like a healthcare provider generalist or primary care provider: “I take what walks in the door.” Extension has to continue to be responsive and robust.
Consider expertise: Different titles for different states but agents/ county-based educators are the experts. Specialists—slow down from wanting to “bring” curriculum-- invest in people.
Nurture relationships, communicate the relationship process in your tenure and annual reviews—Some Extension work doesn’t fit nice and neat into a table – storytelling as a way to communicate “impacts”
We struggle with the emotional energy of “the job” and how to turn off and turn to family
There are many right paths to get you to the job, there aren’t a lot of “wrong” paths. Take your major and your time.
Show up whole at work: Bring our perspectives, and leave anxiety at the door
Reminder: We love what we do
The system is the people.
More people want expansion, connection, diversity, inclusion, love, than the louder voices that say, “be scared of how you and what you think” and “restrict yourself." We start this change one lab or team at a time.
Follow Dr. Buys on twitter @DrBuys

What you are Creating Matters: Sacral Chakra Visualization, Mantra, and Meditation

The sacral chakra is associated with creativity, birthing ideas, sensuality, connection.
Some of these terms can seem "not for me". Suggestions for rethinking the narrative- we're all creative beings.
Create but let go of outcome—even if your lecture flops, ok. If your grant doesn’t get funded. Ok. You are still ok.
I share a bit about my infertility journey as it relates to vibrational energy, reflection, and compassion for self and others.
Jump to minute marker 9:55 if you want to get straight to the practice.

Samma Says: Help is just one ask away, and we might be the answer.

This 5 minute reminder and meditation to check in on the notions that:
- Most people are just trying to figure it all out
- "We're all divine having a human experience"
- We'll do things imperfectly
- Support is a healing modality
- A moment of rest and breathing might help you check in with what you need, ask for help where needed
- Someone on your team might need help, too. Does this fit within your capabilities? If not, can you share what is feasible
- Let's be a bridge from research to practice!

Overworked and underwhelmed: The 6 faces of burnout and what we can do about them

Dr. Jacqueline Kerr is in the top 1% of most cited scientists worldwide. But in 2018, she experienced severe burn out. To survive and start to thrive, she shifted out of academia. Now, she is using this burn out to fuel change in her career, her messaging, and what she's offering to other scientists, especially to moms in research. Some key takeaways are related to:
Advocating for multilevel burn out prevention
Embracing the “mediocre man mindset” for products
A vulnerable share related to her experience; validating the differences between being tired and overwhelmed and burn out
Knowing that there are six faces of burn out, do you see one of them in the mirror?
More offerings from Dr. Kerr here: https://www.drjacquelinekerr.com/
Her TEDxMcMasterU,  "How To Stop Burnout Before It Starts" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YY0gVnVPoQ

Samma Says is Zoom (literally?) killing me: Strategies for more ease in web-conferencing

The chemical factory that is my body is so stimulated. I talked to my husband for hours about how to fix my schedule. It’s only webconferencing that’s the problem. I can be endlessly fueled by my work if it’s not on back-to-back Zooms. I’m breaking the cycle going forward. But, in the meantime, when I have to be on I will:
Acknowledge that our bodies haven’t caught up with technology. When we’re on Web-conferencing and only seeing people from the torso up, it alerts our body to “are we f^@king or fighting?”
Stop performing, turn off self-view
Just laugh
Take breaks
Tune in for more with Fionna Boyle in an upcoming episode. Find her on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/maritimemomentum/

Paying it Forward: Embodying the tripartite mission of research, teaching, and outreach with Dr. Debby Good

Dr. Deborah (Debby) Good is tenured faculty of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise at Virginia Tech. She embodies the tripartite (three-part) mission of land-grant universities via her research, teaching, and outreach.
We dive into insecurities in being “on” (looks, words, deeds) in web-conferencing, in front of the classroom, and in any community with which we interact. The conversation walks us through the journey of not knowing what the scientific process really looks like and then becoming a key driver of discovery and training students over time.
 
Key takeaways are:
Don’t let someone else’s opinion get in the way of your flourishing
Check in on how much the construct of your identity is tied up in being a professor, an academic, a person with a PhD
Engage in undergraduate research (as an undergraduate scholar or mentor [grad student, post doc, PO])
Thank a professor who has meant a lot to you
Being a bit more casual with mindfulness is ok (an especially important reminder in new years, seasons, semester, jobs, etc.)
One of her favorite moments in research, “when you are the only person in the world who knows this discovery.”
One thing they don’t tell you about tenure conversations is that updates to the faculty handbook makes things looser and tighter over time.
More about TOUR scholars: https://www.hnfe.vt.edu/TOURS.html
More about Dr. Good's research: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=GnJUkJoAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Your PhD program teaches you to think: Your heart and gut teach you how to live

Dr. Justine Dowd wants you to "heal from the inside out"...and it all started with her own journey. In this episode we discuss that:
- Your PhD teaches you how to think and earns you freedom
- There is a healing-- recovery and rest-- that most of us need during and after pursuing a PhD. Self-compassion can be a large part of that process
- We all might benefit from being careful with commitments so that we can create space for the things and people we love
- Sometimes we get invaluable guidance. Like this one to check in on: "What are your strengths and passions? Are you going into medicine because you want to be a doctor or because you like helping people?"
- We’re addicted to the cycle of grant, paper, work, reward. We're addicted to success as defined by a broken system
- More rest could create a culture of health
Dr. Dowd's holistic health coaching: https://www.justinedowd.ca/heal-from-the-inside-out