Greetings from Mexico City

I thought I would say hi this morning. I have been in Mexico city with my baby (21-year-old-damn- amazing-young-woman-baby), and my wonderful significant other Sandy. 

What have we done so far in our week?

Mescal tasting

Wondering the markets

Frida Kahlo museum 

Tamayo museum (contemporary art)

Diego Rivera mural museum

Wonder amazing parks

Ballet folklorico (I scored front row center seats--the clicking of heals and almost the could feel their sweat!--amazing)

The great temples (they are technically not pyramids) of Teotihuacan

Wondered around Roma, Condesa, Coyoacan a few other neighborhoods

Went to a cat cafe, twice!! 

Pet a ton of dogs, a pug named Coco being my fav, in case you need to know (important info for some of you, I know!!)

I had a great massage.

Have eaten our butts off, never thought I would want to take a day off from mole, but here I am...

And today, our last day in this amazing city, a salsa making class. I am sure I am missing something.

And yes, I have written each day, making it just short of 21 years of daily writing. There is always, always time for writing!

I am happy, healthy and well....On Tuesday, off to Lima, Peru for three days as Sandy and Rebecca return home. Lima, one of my happy places--then off to Santiago Chile for two weeks.

I will write about it more in a subsequent post or two, but in Santiago, I will be finishing the last residency and other requirements for my MFA in Creative Nonfiction--a bucket list idem for me. Yeah, I have been doing an MFA on the site :). 

Saludos all!

It Is Ok to Love Academia

A few weeks ago, I had a suck day. That is the only word for it, suck. A two-hour program meeting that morphed into three-- some hard discussions and poor decisions, IMHO. We are about to search for a new dean, and frankly, I worry about how the administration is going to approach it. We have interim leadership next year--I am concerned.

There were other annoyances, of course, and if I don't contextualize them well, I can feel really bummed out. 

But, in spite of these annoyances, I love being a professor.  Yes, it is easy to say when you are tenured. Yes, it is a position of great privilege-- I do not take that for granted.

Still, I love academia. My job is busy and full, no question.

But, is it really alienated labor, as some suggest?

I have had a lot of hard jobs when I was younger: 
busboy
chemical plant laborer
darkroom tech, when it was sort of like being a chemical plant laborer
lamoman (ran the lamination machine in a graphic arts house--lot of burns and small scars for memories)
residential counselor for abused, abandoned and neglected children
therapist in multiple residential treatment facilities
multiple social work positions, direct services and admin

Some good times--but all hard jobs. Really hard jobs. Really hard, 40-hour plus a week jobs where I did not pick my schedule and had three weeks or less of time off a year.

Today? On my worst days, my job is reasonable. It is not soul crushing. It allows my body to continue to heal from my two total knee replacements. It is not alienating. Some of my other jobs, well, yeah, they were alienating. I could be fired on the spot, at will, for little cause. Like, that day.

In social media discussions of higher education, being pro-academia is viewed suspiciously. There is a lot of shaming of those who have positive feelings toward higher education. I have seen a lot of very tentative celebrations of new positions and tenure--this pisses me off. We should not be afraid to celebrate success. There is a huge difference between rubbing our triumphs in others' faces and life-affirming celebratations. We can celebrate and still be of service to those who need help--they are not mutually exclusive.

Yet, there is nothing wrong with loving the academe, in spite of its problems. Our leaders do not become evil, flesh eating zombies (trigger warning on link--not for those sensitive to gore) the moment they move into administrative roles. I have been an administrator--its not an easy role. 

Yes, we have a lot of work to do to make universities better places to work, but there is little value of dismissing the academe out of hand.  Doing so plays into the agendas of those that wish to dismantle public higher education. Consider that, please.

So, if you love higher education, the academe, in spite of its problems. Go ahead, love it. 

Cognitive Rehearsal Tool #1: The Index Card/Sticky Note

I am sorry--I am asking you to buy very expensive, high tech tools--index cards or sticky notes. Not electronic cards, but actually physical cards or notes that you can carry with you, practice, and be disconnected from your electronic devices.

When you have a belief, perspective, attitude, cognitive challenge/disputation that you wish to more totally own (believe deeply, feel, etc.), write it (or them) down on several index cards (or sticky notes, if it is simple and short). Place the card/notes in your kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, office, and car. Try to read the cards every time you see them. The more we practice our new beliefs, in various contexts and  at various times, the more likely they are to sink in.

Simple tools are good tools.

Oh, and and the notes and cards work best if they have dog doggies or kitties on them. Trust Dr. Rich--he know of such things. 

Cognitive Rehearsal

Over the last few years, I have posted many tools designed to help scholars challenge the beliefs and internalized chatter that gets in their way. One tool that I have not really explored directly before is cognitive rehearsal. I actually have presented many tools that actually include cognitive rehearsals as a key component or step, but I want to explore the method a bit more directly in order to help you consider its value.

Cognitive rehearsal is simple--it entails repeating, practicing and performing, literally rehearsing the beliefs that you wish to hold. Cognitive rehearsals differ from affirmations as not all cognitive rehearsals are designed to affirm. They can be, for example, simple instructions to self that you wish to internalize, disputations of irrational beliefs that hold you back, perspectives that you wish to adopt, intentions for thinking and behavior, or steps you wish to memorize to help you persist through your processes. 

A key principle underlining cognitive rehearsal is neuroplasticity--the brain, and our beliefs, are far more plastic, or malleable to change, than we once thought.

I will be writing a few more posts over the next few weeks suggesting tools for helping you implement cognitive rehearsals.

Writing on the Weekends.....

....is not stressful or taxing if you have worked through the beliefs, self-talk and schema, and the associated emotions,  that lead writing to feel like work.  When you write in a sustainable manner on most days, writing can nurture your life. When it becomes free of judgement and expectation, when you use carefully crafted processes that work for you, it can be a pure joy, or at least a "neutral" activity.

And if you have not achieved this state? Please, don't write on weekends.

Until you do.

Spontaneity and Openness to Compliment Rituals and Habits

Only a couple of days ago I wrote about the importance of habit and ritual- I have done so since the start of this blog, almost seven years ago. I advocate the crafting of processes that we can engage in over and over, day after day, in a sustainable, healthy way. This type of repetition has lead many scholars to success--it is one of the keys to mine.

However, that does not mean that we can't be creative, have periods of time that are more open and spontaneous. For example, I write every day, in a highly ritualized, prescribed manner. But during the summer, and usually once a week during the academic year, I like to go on drives for a "writing day." I don't write the whole day, but I take my writing sessions "on the road" going to random coffee houses, libraries, even piers and parks all over the Puget Sound area. I will use these days for primary articles, or let myself write whatever I want. I have multiple writing sessions, or just write a few minutes here and there.

Days like this help keep me fresh, and prevent me from being bored with my daily habits, and feeling good about my daily writing allows me to let it rip when I feel like it--the two work hand in hand. One of the many interesting paradoxes and surprises of the writing process.

Rituals: For When Writing is NOT going well

Why should we engage in writing rituals? The purpose of writing rituals is to habituate our writing, to make that time feel off or wrong when we do not write. Rituals are supposed to make you feel a bit anxious if you do not engage in the desired behavior! When your writing is going well, when you are consistently settling in and using your writing sessions efficiently, you may tell yourself that you do not need to do rituals, believing that they are somehow superfluous now that "you got this!!"

However, engaging in writing rituals before each session is not for when things are going well, but for when you are not wanting to write, when there are more reasons for you to desist than normal. You want to construct a writing life that is sustainable over time--rituals are a key aspect to this habit.