Author: Allan Johnson

Change in higher education is no longer episodic. It is perpetual, structural, atmospheric. It arrives in policy revisions and leadership reshuffles, in curriculum redesigns and shifting student demographics, in technological expectations and spreadsheet logic. Most of all, it arrives in the body — in that silent bracing of the shoulders during a Teams meeting, the unnameable unease in a Monday morning inbox, the quiet dread that the next institutional strategy document will require yet another translation of one’s real work into metrics that cannot hold its meaning.

In such a climate, mindfulness may seem like a footnote — a luxury, even — when there are frameworks to draft, students to support, REF narratives to align, and budgets to cut. But it is precisely in these conditions that a mindful approach becomes not peripheral but foundational. Not because it offers escape, but because it restores clarity, orientation, and above all, sovereignty. Amidst structures that shift faster than our capacity to adapt, mindfulness can return us to an inner ground not defined by performance, but by presence.

To work in higher education today is to live with paradox. We are tasked with fostering curiosity while meeting key performance indicators. We speak of critical thinking but must constantly justify our existence in market terms. The university is both a sanctuary and a machine. We are both scholars and service providers. Amidst these conflicting roles, it is easy to lose the thread of meaning — to forget, even temporarily, why we entered this vocation at all. Mindfulness does not resolve these tensions, but it allows us to hold them without being torn apart.

A mindful academic is not one who detaches from institutional life, but one who sees it clearly. Who feels the anxiety in the department corridor and does not immediately try to fix it. Who senses the slow burn of cynicism and greets it not with shame, but with inquiry. Who can pause — even for ten seconds — before responding to an email designed to provoke defensiveness. These small acts of awareness are not insignificant. They are the quiet acts of resistance that keep the inner life intact.

Too often, change is experienced as assault: something done to us, without context, without conversation, without care. And this is not a fiction. Many of the recent reforms in higher education have been rolled out in ways that ignore the deep ecology of academic labour — the tacit, the affective, the relational, the slow. But mindfulness shifts the question from “How do I survive this?” to “How am I relating to this?” That shift, though subtle, is liberating. It does not pretend we are in control. But it reminds us that we are not powerless.

The mindful stance begins not with technique, but with intention. Intention to remain human in systems that reward efficiency over empathy. Intention to listen to our own rhythms, even as deadlines crowd the calendar. Intention to keep the heart involved — not as sentimentality, but as epistemology. Because what we know best, we know not only with our minds, but with our bodies, our histories, our breath. Mindfulness reclaims this wider field of knowledge. It reminds us that awareness is not passive. It is participatory.

There are, of course, practices that can support this reorientation. But they must be approached not as productivity hacks, but as subtle forms of remembrance. A minute of breath awareness before opening Outlook. A quiet noticing of where tension gathers during a faculty meeting. A walk between classes without headphones. These are not grand interventions. But they are portals. They invite us back into the moment — not as an end in itself, but as the only real site of agency.

One of the most transformative insights mindfulness offers is that thoughts are not facts. This is especially important for academics, whose professional currency is thought. We are trained to critique, to problematise, to map the terrain of argument. But when the voice of critique turns inward — “I’m not keeping up,” “I’m not doing enough,” “They’re doing it better” — we often fail to notice that we’ve mistaken a mental habit for a truth. Mindfulness interrupts that identification. It lets us witness our thoughts without becoming their echo.

This witnessing is not neutral. It is infused with compassion. And here, the academic temperament often balks. Compassion sounds soft, indulgent, uncritical. But in fact, it is fiercely intelligent. It sees clearly the pressures we face and refuses to compound them with self-punishment. It recognises that behind every unfinished chapter, every late reply, every missed funding bid, there is a human being doing their best. Compassion is not about lowering standards. It is about recognising that the standards are often inhuman.

In times of institutional change, one of the most disorienting losses is continuity — of roles, of relationships, of the unspoken rituals that once grounded our days. The colleague who retired early. The leadership team reshuffle. The erasure of departmental histories in the name of agility. Mindfulness helps us grieve these losses. Not as obstacles to progress, but as meaningful ruptures that deserve acknowledgment. In a system that moves on quickly, a mindful approach says: pause. Remember. Honour what is passing. Then continue.

This approach also helps us work with the emotional aftershocks of change: resentment, fatigue, numbness, resistance. These states are not signs of failure. They are signals of care. We feel angry because something matters. We feel exhausted because we have been trying. We feel resistant because something in us still hopes for authenticity. Mindfulness does not silence these reactions. It makes space for them. It lets us feel the texture of our own responses without becoming stuck in them.

Importantly, mindfulness also allows us to identify the places where our energy is leaking. In academia, overextension is a status symbol. The performative exhaustion, the boast of back-to-back meetings, the quiet competition over who is more overwhelmed. But this way of being is unsustainable — not only for the individual, but for the system. A mindful academic notices the cost of this mode. Begins to ask different questions. Not “What more can I take on?” but “What can I offer fully?” Not “How do I keep up?” but “What pace honours the depth of my work?”

There is also the matter of hope. Change can corrode hope if we feel it is always top-down, always reactive, always beyond our influence. But mindfulness offers a different kind of hope — not rooted in outcomes, but in presence. The hope that comes from showing up fully. From refusing to be numbed. From choosing integrity, even in constrained circumstances. This is not naïve optimism. It is clear-eyed commitment. A belief that how we show up — in teaching, in supervision, in conversation — still matters. That meaning is made not only in policy but in presence.

Over time, mindfulness begins to reshape our sense of time itself. The academic calendar is relentless — term to term, year to year, punctuated by reports, reviews, and rankings. But beneath this calendar is another rhythm: the rhythm of thought, of growth, of maturation. A research idea may gestate for years before it finds form. A student’s confidence may bloom long after graduation. A team dynamic may shift only through months of quiet effort. Mindfulness tunes us to this subtler tempo. It reminds us that real change is not always visible — but it is always unfolding.

The mindful academic, then, is not simply calm. They are attentive. Responsive. Able to hold complexity without collapse. Able to lead without dominance, to follow without resentment, to rest without guilt. They do not escape the pressures of higher education. But they move through them differently. With more breath. More choice. More humanity.

And perhaps that is the most radical gesture of all — to remain human in a system increasingly governed by algorithms, audits, and abstractions. To remember that behind every module code is a learner. Behind every spreadsheet, a colleague. Behind every institutional statement, a set of lives trying to do something worthwhile. Mindfulness restores this remembrance. It makes us better educators, better thinkers, better companions in the work of change.

So the next time change arrives — and it will — try pausing. Try noticing what rises. Try letting the breath anchor you for a moment before the next decision, the next document, the next demand. You are not a machine. You are a mind, a body, a history. A presence in a changing world. That presence matters more than you know.

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