Part of my message to an overwhelmed student earlier today, slightly edited:
A million years ago I dropped a class around midterm time, and I was fretting that I had made the wrong decision, turning the situation over and over in my mind.
One of my professors looked hard at me in office time and asked, "What's wrong?"
I told him that I had dropped a class and was very concerned that I had made the wrong decision. I started to describe my academic load, my hours at the pharmacy, and --
Prof. G interrupted me, gently, and said, "Stop thinking for a moment. How does your body feel? And, I know you are worried, but do you feel -- in your body -- regret or relief?"
I took a breath. "Relief," I said.
"Then," he said, "you made the right decision."
----I don't know if my little story helps you or not, but I like to remember it, and sometimes retell it, to put me in that headspace of too much going on and looking for inner guidance. The story also puts me in touch with my students in a similar dilemma without any judgment.
I mean, the only things I really did wrong that long-ago quarter were to put too much on my plate and then to take too long to realize that I was undermining myself by doing so.
