Here and Now: Buddhism, Mindfulness, and Burnout

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I wrote a post for Maria Accardi's great blog, "Librarian Burnout," that was published last week. 

"Last year, I wrote a post on my blog about the routines I’ve built to avoid burning out professionally. Shortly afterward, Maria approached me about writing a guest post. In her invitation, she said something that struck me as particularly apt..."

Head on over to Accardi's blog to read the rest. 

You Are Not Your Job: Identity and Impostor Syndrome

I spend a lot of words and space on this blog giving you advice on what to do with yourself professionally. Today I want to talk about something outside of your professional lives. I have something important to tell you:

You are not your job/profession.

That might seem obvious at first. "Of course I'm not my job," I can almost hear you saying. But there have been days in my professional life when things were going Titanic-Sunk-By-An-Iceberg bad for me and I felt like a complete failure not only as a librarian but as a person. I think that happens when I let myself get too wrapped up in labels, which I still do even though I haven't had a day that bad in a while. I'm giving you advice here that I need to hear as well. I need to hear it regularly. Take, for example, my Twitter bio:

"I've a distrust of labels, but these generally apply: librarian, feminist, Buddhist, rad fatty, nerd, academic, & usually she/her/hers."

It's hard for me to separate myself, and my sense of identity, from my twelve years in the field and a couple of years before that preparing to enter it. It's also hard to separate my sense of self from all those other descriptors (metadata?). But it's important for me to try, because - as I already said - I am not my job. And trust me, I know this is going to sound weird coming from the writer of a blog that is 90% about librarianship and higher education and related fields. But the other 10% is important. Let me tell you why...

Just had my first lesson. Love that frustration of learning something new. pic.twitter.com/Wt3VdnyuLu

— Jessica Olin (@olinj) August 4, 2015

I've started taking guitar lessons recently. I've only had one lesson so far, but I love it. I love learning new things, things that stretch me just a little but not too much. And learning to play the guitar is definitely that. I had lots of different kinds of music lessons when I was growing up, both at school and outside. I studied violin, clarinet, piano, and lots and lots of voice lessons. I have vague memories of being taught to sight read music, especially in piano and voice, so learning to play guitar is syncing up with that dormant part of my brain that I used to use so much when I was younger. Learning guitar is so much fun.

More importantly, though, this is something I'm doing just for me. It feels odd that this half hour lesson every other week and 15-30 minutes of practice every day isn't in service of my health or my religious practice or making something for a friend or my profession. But it feels good.

Now onto the reason why I wanted to tell you about my lessons. I'm no expert on impostor syndrome, but I wonder if some of that phenomenon is tied to how we form our sense of identity. For example the reason I resisted calling myself a Buddhist for so long is that I felt like I was faking it and I didn't want to be a bad Buddhist. I had daydreamed up this nightmare scenario about someone who was raised Buddhist suddenly quizzing me on the life of Siddhārtha Gautama or the Four Noble Truths. I eventually let go of that fear, more because I studied a lot and have a solid base of knowledge. I think I would have been better served by letting go of my attachment to that label, and I wonder if the same thing could work for librarianship. Maybe, just maybe, if we stop basing our identities on "librarian" and start letting each other just be, maybe we can get over that feeling that we're faking it. Having something in our lives that is just for us can help, I know.

What do you think? I know this is a nascent thing, but seriously, I want feedback on this pet theory. And thanks.

Preventing Librarian Burnout

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Months back I read an interesting piece on Inside Higher Ed. "Can I Do the Same Thing Over and Over Again?" by John Warner (if you don't follow him on Twitter, you should - very thought-provoking) and it resonated, but I wasn't sure what to do with it.

That is, until now because I'm thinking about librarian burnout ("a psychological term that refers to long-term exhaustion and diminished interest in work."), so John's piece applies. I admit that I flirt with burnout from time to time, but have learned to recognize the signs of impending doom and have (mostly) managed to avoid it. But I know lots of people who can't avoid it, or don't know what to do when they see a pit opening up beneath them.

A small group of us have only just started talking about creating a space/place where librarians can turn for resources to combat burnout. We're not sure what shape it will take or how it will evolve, but we know we need something. So, to get the cliche ball rolling I thought I'd share a few things I do regularly to avoid burnout:

• Get out of my building every day. Sometimes I do eat lunch at my desk since I've gotten in the habit of using my lunch hour to browse Tumblr or catch up on blogs, but regardless of whatever else is going on I get not just out of my office but out of the library. A walk to the bookstore for chocolate or around the outside of the building to get some sun or even just out to the front steps to have a different view for a minute or two. Making this routine is key to it helping, so when I say every day, I mean EVERY DAY.
• Make time at least once a week to engage in some kind of professional development. I need to learn new things, need to. Even if it's just reading a blog post written by someone I admire or participating in one Twitter chat or another, I make space in my schedule. I do this on the clock, and encourage my staff to do it as well, but I know for some this might have to come during off hours.
• Straighten my office every day. I have a teensy office, but I can still lose stuff in there if I'm not careful. Putting things away and neatening piles helps me notice things I need to do the next day. This process also serves as a mental transition between work and home. (I also have it decorated in ways that make the space more "mine" and recommend that, but I know personalization isn't always allowed in shared spaces.)
• Meditate daily. There is so much science behind this cornerstone of my Buddhist practice that shows how much it can help. Even just being still and doing nothing - not listening to music or watching television or anything - has been shown to have amazing benefits.

The things that John Warner mentions are important to think about as well. Even if you are stuck doing the same thing day in day out, how can you let your love of the work and the ends it achieves help you when you are feeling the slog of it? What do you do to avoid burnout?

I know this piece is about ways to prevent burning out, but I'd also love to hear how people recover.