Faculty Guide to a Balanced and Harmonious Career

Michele DiPietro is Executive Director for Faculty Development, Recognition, and the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, and Professor in the School of Data Science and Analytics at Kennesaw State University, USA.

"The Faculty Guide to a Balanced and Harmonious Career weaves together faculty narratives about joy, difficulty, perspective, and community with mindfulness lessons from yoga philosophy and practice. Facilitating alignment of the body, mind, and spirit, this book offers anchors for transformative discussions in faculty learning communities about burnout and renewal."Katie Kearns, Professional Development Hub (pd|hub), University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, USA"The Faculty Guide to a Balanced and Harmonious Career is the book you didn’t know you needed. In the noisy world of work-life balance research, Dr. DiPietro provides a challenging and refreshing perspective on how to attain and sustain a balanced and harmonious career. He deftly balances conventional evidence-based principles with the chakra system, inviting readers to consider the relationship between the body and the mind and, more importantly – and systematically – how a system of seven energy centers provides a pathway to professional fulfillment. This Guide is firmly rooted in the reality of faculty life and the myriad of identities, goals, and tensions associated with it. Dr. DiPietro weaves an elegant tapestry of experiences –their own and others’ – to demonstrate the vulnerability and power of agency. Critical practices like engaging in creative recovery, cultivating trustworthiness, stating one’s path, amplifying other voices, and challenging injustices are brought to life differently, here. This is not a “how to” book, but a “how to become” companion. It is that rare treatise that invites, encourages, and empowers faculty and faculty developers to know themselves and thrive in the ever-changing landscape of higher education."Brian Smentkowski, Vice President and Chief Academic Officer, University of Alaska, USA"The Faculty Guide to a Balanced and Harmonious Career brings a much-needed formula for wholeness to the world of academia. With DiPietro’s keen eye and open heart, engrossing stories are carefully combined with erudite scholarship on the chakra system, to highlight the inner world of those who work in academia and provide the backbone of learning for our society. The insights in these pages will unite a world that is fueled by passion but plagued with discontent. Not only does the book highlight the areas of difficulties that are so common in university life, it gives you concrete tools to survive and transcend those problems, opening the way to changing them for the better. I hope everyone in and out of academia takes time to read this important work."Anodea Judith, Author of Eastern Body-Western Mind, Wheels of Life, Chakra Yoga

• CONTENTSForeword viiiPreface xiiiAcknowledgments xxIntroduction 11 How do we lay a strong foundation? The ground chakra 122 How do we nurture our passions? The desire chakra 463 How do we grow our agency? The power chakra 714 What is the role of love in the academy? The heart chakra 995 How do we cultivate our voice? The throat chakra 1256 How do we build a fulfilling vision? The third eye chakra 1487 What kind of consciousness will best guide us? Thecrown chakra 175Conclusion 202Index 208