BALANCE YOUR WORK & PERSONAL LIFE

The perfect equilibrium between work and life seems like an unreachable goal for many of us struggling every day to “get it Maze outside CSUN Oasis all done” at the office, in our classrooms and at home. We want to succeed professionally and that sometimes pushes aside our own wellbeing, which causes our stress levels to spike and, ironically, impacts negatively our productivity, and our health and relationships.

While the primary goal of the Teaching Toolkit is to help you grow as a CSUN faculty, we want to also acknowledge that balance and fulfillment are essential to our well-being and your continued professional growth at CSUN.

On this page, we will cover:

Personal Development
Mindfulness and Intentionality
Campus Resources on Wellbeing

1. Personal Development

Why Should We Talk About Personal Development?

As a faculty member, you have a lot on your plate! You might be assigned multiple classes, which significantly increases the amount of hours it will take for class preparation and grading. You might also have to carve out time to work on your scholarship and serve on campus committees or get involved in other kinds of service-related tasks. All while you are still figuring out how to navigate work-life balance while in the midst of the ongoing global pandemic. In many occasions, when we talk to faculty, they don't hesitate to share with us their feelings of exhaustion and disconnection during these last few years.

It's not only the conversations with faculty that shine a light on the importance of discussing wellbeing publicly on our campus. Research suggests that younger faculty are more likely to experience emotional exhaustion. Jack Lackritz (2004) reported a relationship between higher numbers of students taught, time invested in various activities, and numerical student evaluations and burnout. More recently, Eriksen (2021), Sabagh, Hall, & Saroyan (2018) have also found similar research results. The literature also suggests that those who are directly involved with “helping professions” (such as university teaching) often expend a greater amount of emotional energy performing their daily responsibilities than other professionals who don't interact with people as much (Minter, 2011). Subsequently, those in helping professions are prime candidates for burnout if they are not practicing energy management.

2. Mindfulness and Intentionality

One of the most effective ways to ensure that we are taking care of our “human side” is to practice mindfulness and intentionality as we navigate our days both at work and at home.

Mindfulness refers to the “basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we're doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us” (mindful.org). While you might be rolling your eyes and envisioning some monk sitting cross-legged in a deep meditation, mindfulness can be much more than that!

Intentionality refers to the principle of “acting with thought, and with the knowledge that what we appreciate (i.e. have our intentions focused on) will grow if we keep our attention and intentions focused on it.” In other words, being intentional means getting clear up front about what you want to achieve (vision, purpose, goals) and then making decisions that align with those (www.thriveglobal.com, 2020; Turner, 2017).

How are Mindfulness and Intentionality related?

By being mindful, we can continue to navigate our daily lives in such a way that we find ourselves responding to the world around us, instead of reacting. By being more responsive rather than reactive, we are more intentional, which means that we are more likely to make choices that align with our values and goals, thus setting us up to be more fulfilled long term.

Does it really work?

Researchers have found that employees who practice mindfulness had lower levels of perceived stress and burnout, higher levels of attentional focus, perceived well-being, perceived work climate, and personal productivity (Kersemaekers, et al., 2018; www.mindful.org). In addition, faculty who are doing work that they find meaningful to them experience lower levels of burnout and higher feelings of fulfillment (Amabile & Kramer, 2011).

How Can You Practice Mindfulness and Intentionality?

There is a wealth of research that empirically supports the benefits of mindfulness in improving our mental capacity, emotional intelligence, metacognitive awareness, our social interactions, among other things. This page is about how we can purposely focus our attention on the present moment and be intentional in how we choose to spend our time and energy on work-related tasks. These practices help us stay grounded in our goals, prioritizing our self-care so that we can show up to our students the best way we can.

Select the presentation below to read through tips provided by CSUN Kinesiology Faculty, Ashley Samson. She discusses how to incorporate mindfulness and intentionality in your work routine.

3. Campus Resources on Wellbeing

In addition to the programming and support offered by FacDev, CSUN has several other offices/centers on campus that offer wellness-related programming for faculty. Here’s a list of some upcoming events:

The Institute for Community Health and Wellbeing publishes a weekly newsletter to explore resources to improve the health and wellbeing of one’s self and community. Sign up now to receive resources and announcements about events right in your email inbox!
Commit to Be Fit (CTBF) is a free fitness program for CSUN staff/faculty/students and community members. The program is led by CSUN Kinesiology students under the supervision of CSUN Kinesiology faculty.
Mindfulness Mondays offers free virtual meditation and mindfulness sessions every Monday at noon.
Wellbeing Wednesdays offers a series of workshop-like sessions addressing financial, emotional, nutritional, physical, and mental wellbeing, in order to improve the health, happiness, and prosperity of the campus community.
Healthy Matadors is a hub that aims to promote healthy lifestyles and improved health across campus through awareness of current events, education, and collaboration and to reduce health and safety risks to enhance the quality of life for all CSUN Students, Faculty and Staff.
The Office of Human Resources (who you learned about during NFF) keeps a calendar of upcoming workshops and training related to professional and personal development. You can even sign up for their monthly newsletter to stay updated on what’s coming up!
FacDev's Favorites is a dynamic list of our favorite wellbeing resources, all in one convenient location. It contains book recommendations, podcasts, and websites that we've found helpful. It will change as we update and find new resources, so check back regularly to find new tools to help you navigate your wellbeing journey!!