Temporary Hiatus
This academic year has thus far directed my online writing to other topics and my mindful work to in-person activities, so I'm on temporary hiatus from The Mindful PhD. I hope to return to it soon. Thanks for your patience & your continued support.
Use the Facebook or Twitter links below to be notified of new postings.
Follow
The Mindful PhD
Nancy Chick is an Assistant Director at the Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt University and an imperfectly mindful Ph.D. in English.-
History
- Sitting Down & Staying Still
- A Room of One’s Own
- Homing In
- Reading Here & Now
- In Case of Emergency
- On Another Planet
- It’s About Our Students
- Looking into the Fire
- Up in the Clouds
- Revisiting Boice
- The Continual Unfolding of Our Work
- About Time
- Busy-Shaming
- Opening Our Eyes
- Daydream Believer
- Time, the Superbowl, & Bandwagons
- After the Honeymoon
- Doodling & Knitting
- Enduring Effects
- Support for Stressed Students
- 2013 Top 10
- Difficult Discussions
- Inspiration, Creativity, & New Ideas
- Gratitude Journals
- Labyrinths & Learning
- Reading Like Bruce Lee
- How It Works, IV
- How It Works, III
- How It Works, II
- How It Works, I
- Stories of the Slow Professor
- This Embodied PhD
- Playing with Others
- Being Fully Present in the Classroom
- Reducing Stress
- Paying Attention
- The Easy Way & The Easier Way
- A Beginning
Topics
- anger
- app
- attention
- awareness
- be here now
- body scan
- breathing
- cancer
- classroom
- compassion
- creativity
- doodling
- emotional regulation
- emotions
- faculty
- fingers
- fixed vs. growth mindset
- focus
- gratitude
- GRE
- happiness
- learning
- lovingkindness
- MBSR
- metacognition
- multitasking
- narrative
- neuroscience
- open-monitoring
- pain
- perceptions
- practice
- reading comprehension
- resilience
- self
- silence
- slow
- snowglobe
- stress
- students
- teaching
- Time
- two-minutes
- warrior
- writer's block
Category Archives: News
2013 Top 10
I just realized this will be my last entry for 2013.* As my social media feeds fill up with Top 10 Lists, I thought I’d pause at the end of the year and offer my own. Since my blog is … Continue reading
Difficult Discussions
Several recent campus conversations have focused on facilitating difficult discussions with students in and out of class. I’ve long taught multicultural American literature and women’s studies courses, so I appreciate how hard it is to effectively navigate these moments. As … Continue reading
Posted in News
Tagged calm, difficult discussions, emotional regulation, self-awareness
Comments Off on Difficult Discussions
Inspiration, Creativity, & New Ideas
In “The Science of Inspiration” (2013), Eric Ravenscraft highlights the neuroscientific view of inspiration, epiphanies, and “‘a-ha’ moments”: “When you make a new connection between two ideas, it’s not just a metaphor. Your brain is literally restructuring itself to accommodate … Continue reading
Posted in News
Tagged creativity, inspiration, neuroplasticity, open-monitoring
Comments Off on Inspiration, Creativity, & New Ideas
Gratitude Journals
It’s the Thanksgiving break on campuses in the United States, and I’m recovering from another surgery, so this week’s post will be brief. I’ve been enjoying the daily “I’m thankful for…” posts by many of my Facebook Friends this month. … Continue reading
Labyrinths & Learning
I’ve been reading everything I find about mindfulness, but I’m eager for more evidence-based work on its effects on learning in the college classroom. As my previous posts indicate, recent years have seen a lot of scientific research (especially in … Continue reading
Posted in News
Tagged creativity, labyrinth, learning, writer's block
Comments Off on Labyrinths & Learning
Reading Like Bruce Lee
I teach literature. My students read a lot, and I want them to read well—closely, carefully, attentively. I’ve always heard that the best readers were read to when they were young and then read voraciously when they were growing up. … Continue reading
Posted in News
Tagged attention, GRE, reading comprehension, warrior
Comments Off on Reading Like Bruce Lee
How It Works, III
This is the third of four posts about how mindfulness works, or the documented effects and how they occur. The first was about attention regulation, the second body awareness, and now we turn to emotional regulation. A man riding a … Continue reading
Posted in News
Tagged emotional regulation, emotions, narrative, practice, resilience
Comments Off on How It Works, III
How It Works, II
This is the second of four posts about how mindfulness works, or the documented effects and how they occur. Last week was devoted to attention regulation; this week explores the increased body awareness, the ability to notice small, subtle changes … Continue reading
How It Works, I
My recent posts have been focused on issues of stress, mostly because I’ve seen the effects on my own life and worry about colleagues, students, and friends. Some of you have asked me to clarify how mindfulness works: what it … Continue reading