The Mindful Researcher

Earlier this month, I had two experiences that made me reflect on my relationship with time and the research process. These experiences - namely, patience and timeliness - felt qualitatively different from the sense of pressure and hurriedness that I and others often associate with academic publishing. In the next two posts, I share some first thoughts about what happened. *** A few weeks ago, I met with a colleague to discuss what to do about an article of ours that had been recently rejected by a journal. I wasn't looking forward to the meeting, mostly because I felt quite unsure about what step to take next. To give a little context, my colleague and I first started writing the piece in early 2013. The idea came from a conference panel we did together in late 2012, after which we decided to develop the conversation between our papers into a broader argument. Today, it's a 6-7 year old draft. It has been peer-reviewed four times by readers at three different journals....

A few weeks ago, an old student of mine emailed to ask for an essay I'd written about failure. He explained that a friend of his was currently struggling with the Masters program and trying to decide whether or not to continue. He said that he remembered finding my reflections on failure helpful and hoped to pass them on. So I thought I would post it here for others interested in the topic. 'Sitting with failure' was originally a plenary address I gave at the NewMac Humanities Postgraduate Symposium in 2015 at Macquarie University, and has since been published in the conference's online journal   Humanity.   This reposting feels timely. The topic of failure seems to be coming up more frequently at the university. My colleague Florence Chiew is currently working on a new podcast called  Failure Allowed,  which will contain interviews with academic staff about their experiences with failure and creativity. More on this to come later in ...

In doing research, the quality of our attention matters. It affects our ability to focus, our level of productivity and how we experience the process of working. When we’re busy or under pressure, it’s easy for our attention to scatter. Our self-awareness decreases and we find ourselves slipping into familiar habits of thought and behaviour. Like any skill, attention requires practice. And in education, the type of attention best suited to learning involves not just concentration, but awareness. When focus is combined with awareness, we’re in a much better position to respond to challenges. And we’re more likely to have an experience that is genuinely open, curious, engaged and at ease. The Mindful Researcher   is a unique four-part workshop series that offers practical strategies for how to train your attention, develop good working habits and find balance in a competitive, high-pressure working environment.   Specifically, it focuses on the role that a...

A few weeks ago I completed a new mindfulness course. For a while now, I’ve been interested in broadening my practice and learning about other styles and approaches to meditation. At the recommendation of a friend I decided to enrol in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) . MBSR is quite a well-known secular mindfulness program available in major cities all over the world. It was started in 1979 by Jon Kabat-Zinn, a molecular biologist, doctor and now prominent author and teacher of mindfulness meditation, at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. The course was originally designed as a stress reduction and relaxation program for people suffering from a variety of physical and mental health issues. Its success is evident in the program’s longevity and geographical spread. From week one, I found the MBSR program very engaging. It shook up my ideas about what meditation is, and how and why we practice. Spread over eight 2.5 hour classes ...