I often neglect my well-being—mind, body, and spirit—while advancing my academic career. As a woman of color education, balancing work and life feels overwhelming. My personal and professional life is tangled, pulling me in troubling directions. Rest seems wrong, and rest feels like luxury.
I am so caught up in meetings and deadlines that on a typical day I often skip lunch. I forgot to drink water and didn’t even go outside for a breath of fresh air. My self-care plan is “out of sight, out of mind.”
Now, in my 40s, I realize that this is worse. I struggle with muscle stiffness, neck pain, mental health issues and chronic fatigue. The hardest part? My six-year-old daughter says, “Mom works a lot.”
Enter The Slow Life: A Reformation Revision
The slow movement, which focuses on the slow movement of food, promotes a lifestyle focused on mindfulness, sustainability and quality over quantity. It encourages us to slow down and make deliberate decisions in a world that often values speed and productivity. This philosophy emphasizes the importance of relationships, well-being and balance.
For women of color in academia, lifestyle practices provide ways to cope with the enormous pressures of teaching, administration, funding, and publishing. These pressures are exacerbated by systemic challenges such as microaggressions, tokenism, code-switching and the responsibility to teach students from similar backgrounds. This leads to cultural taxation and invisible work demands, leading to increased stress and burnout. A slow lifestyle encourages self-care and helps us reconnect with what is truly important, improving resilience and mental well-being.
Invisible Burdens Women of Color Carry
Women of color in academia often face unique challenges that remain invisible to many of their peers. For example, the heavy workload of service work, especially teaching students of color, often contributes to feelings of short-termism and burnout. Although training is important and rewarding, it takes a toll, contributing to feelings of alienation, invisible work and racial war fatigue. The emotional and intellectual work involved often detracts from time that could otherwise be spent on research, teaching or personal activities. Addressing these issues requires a deeper understanding of systemic barriers and intentional efforts to promote equitable learning environments.
In addition, women academics of color often face challenges related to tokenism within predominantly white academic settings. Their roles can be considered symbolic, leading to the expectation that they represent all ethnic or racial communities. Faculty of color are often called upon to address student concerns about racism or to lead diversity, equity and inclusion, a responsibility not equally shared by their white colleagues.
In addition, microaggressions—subtle but hurtful racist behaviors—can create an environment where intellectuals of color feel compelled to constantly assert their power. This experience highlights the need for systemic change to cultivate an inclusive environment where women of color can thrive and contribute their valuable perspectives.
The Slow Living Solution
Slow living principles offer women of color a solid way to reclaim their time and energy, enabling them to focus on their well-being, passions and purpose. Adopting lifestyle habits can help us navigate the often demanding demands of academic life with greater purpose and balance, which can increase self-efficacy.
Mindfulness practices such as morning meditation or a walk in nature can provide valuable moments of peace. Setting boundaries, saying “no” to extra responsibilities and taking mental health days are some strategies that allow academics to maintain their energy. Deliberate time management helps reduce stress and ensures alignment with personal values, creating a more satisfying academic experience. Institutional support for mindful practices can be critical to promoting the well-being and retention of experienced women of color by creating environments that prioritize self-care, work-life balance, and mental health.
Living slowly improves job satisfaction by aligning daily activities with long-term goals. Reflecting on work can help identify opportunities that bring purpose and joy, such as prioritizing collaborative projects that align with personal values. A model that demonstrates this intentional approach to transformational leadership in education. This model focuses on leaders who encourage collaboration, promote shared goals and emphasize personal growth and well-being. Creative women of color can use this model to engage in work that aligns with their values and is supported by institutional leadership, fostering meaningful collaboration and reducing the likelihood of feeling disconnected or burned out.
Incorporating slow life into academics can promote negative outcomes across departments and institutions. Creative women of color who prioritize well-being and balance set a powerful example for colleagues and students. These changes can foster a culture that values mental health and personal fulfillment as much as professional success. In the long term, the associated goals of a low life can encourage educational institutions to rethink the metrics of success, emphasizing sustainability, collaboration and social impact.
From individual change to institutional change
A slow life cannot thrive in a vacuum. For creative women of color to succeed, institutions must provide meaningful support. Structural changes can transform individual efforts into sustained culture change—and, honestly, wouldn’t academia be better for it?
Institutions can improve the well-being and retention of women of color through several structural changes. Implementing flexible work policies, such as remote teaching and flexible hours, helps faculty manage their professional and personal lives. A holistic approach to management and promotion that values work-life balance, quality of teaching, training and community impact promotes inclusion. Training programs and employee engagement groups provide valuable support and collaboration. Additionally, dedicated mental health services help reduce burnout. Programs such as the Advancing Faculty Diversity initiative at the University of California celebrate (and fund) the contributions of DEI faculty. Finally, promoting collaborative work can change the metrics of success to prioritize impactful contributions, beneficial intelligence and institutions.
A Paradigm Shift Worth Discovering
After years of limiting myself, I realized it was time for a change. Although it was impossible to move to a quiet country house, I found that small daily habits can change my busy life. I started by walking: Every morning, I would take a 10-minute walk in my neighborhood, paying attention to the rhythm of my steps and allowing myself to fully immerse myself in the present moment. I started typing slowly, breathing mindfully and speaking deliberately. These simple changes introduce mindfulness, make me feel less productive and help me prioritize quality family time.
Embracing slow living in my professional life has been a game changer. It has helped me focus on well-being and redefine success as living better than doing more. As academics, we should celebrate lifelong learning and incorporate slow living into our lives. After all, if we are too busy to take care of ourselves, what are we really working for?
So here’s my challenge to you, dear reader: Take a deep breath. Go slowly. Break away from the email chime that sits in your inbox. Speak with purpose. Let’s rewrite the script that tells us to rush until we hurt. Our jobs, families and, most importantly, we deserve it.
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