Getting emotionally literate is a highway for access to our full potential. What blocks us to some extent is our intense investment in our left brain activity. Over-identified with our work, we run the risk of becoming actively de-skilled in being simply ‘present’: here, now. Just in touch with all of ourselves, and open to being in touch with the Other. How to check whether this is what’s going on for you, at least a little?
Continue reading “Emotional literacy…”Ever catch yourself questioning whether you belong in academia? Whatever your automatic response to this question is: an inch of distance changes your space, your pace and also how you breathe…
Especially given the Covid19-context, causing higher stress levels in general: if you crave an academic year in which you’ll have full access to your time and energy for your research, teaching and core responsibilities instead of let’s say… self-doubt and self-defeating dynamics, this post will help you on your way.
Continue reading “Belonging: Space, Pace and Breathing…”In counseling, the mother of all interventions is meeting up. Getting together. Sitting down, face to face. By really arriving, here and now, willing to be near whatever is up, both the counselor and the coachee enable themselves to relate. To be present. Being seen, heard, acknowledged, especially regarding the stuff that is derailing, is vital if we want to grow. In life, however, …
Continue reading “To connect or disconnect”Quick question: have you ever felt ashamed of yourself after having presented a paper, sat in at a faculty meeting, after giving a lecture or following some other form of academic performance? Have you ever felt ashamed of who you are? Probably not something that you’d like to admit… But very useful to acknowledge nonetheless. There’s golden data in this, in terms of reaching your highest potential. Want to find out why?
Continue reading “Shame on you!”Authenticity is strongly connected to congruence. Congruence is all about saying yes when you feel yes, and saying no when you feel no. Let’s raise our awareness in this respect and see how it demands both a realistic, real and honest perspective on what is alive in us, right now.
Continue reading “Expired bus tickets…”
Have you ever physically, or verbally, or both physically and verbally pointed the finger at someone? Well, if you are a human being, you will probably have pointed many fingers at various Others during your life. I know I have.
Continue reading “Pointing the Finger”
Working with groups of academics, practicing ‘saying no’ turns out to be such fun, every single time: “Let’s just practice saying ‘No’. One, two, three: ‘No.’ One, two, three: ‘No’. One more time, one, two…, three… ‘No!'” Faces light up. Saying ‘No!’, very obviously, is fun. And let’s face it. The importance of knowing how to say ‘no’ cannot be overstated in an academic career.
Continue reading “On Saying ‘No’: the Art and Magic of Declining”
Have you ever felt like you were ‘bracing before impact’ the moment you decided you should be opening your inbox? Maybe you were* dreading the people who expected to hear back from you. At other times, you may have felt nervous because you were expecting a peer review or a response to an application for research funding. If your experiences resemble mine then you know that the phrasing in those emails can affect your day (to put it mildly)…
Continue reading “Our inboxes: why academic ‘suffering’ needs accepting, not fixing…”
There we were.
In the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
For the ‘Night of History’, the ‘Nacht van de Geschiedenis‘.
If you stop and think about it for a moment, if you slow down to such an extent that you can catch up with yourself: do you feel you belong in the academy?
Continue reading “From feeling like an imposter… to…belonging…”