Over my last decade in academia, I have been given many opportunities to work on cutting edge science and engineering projects in a field that brings me great excitement and joy. However, despite the interesting projects and great colleagues, it can be hard to truly thrive and work at your best when you are left with uncertainty. During my doctorate, this often took the form of a lack of clarity on what I was trying to achieve. Particularly towards the start of the project, I felt lost, confused and unsure of whether I truly belonged in academia. Over my five years of being a postdoctoral researcher, I adored the opportunity to work in a fantastic team on work I was passionate about, but this was continuously shrouded by the precarity of the short, fixed term contracts. This brought a great source of stress and anxiety from the lack of stability and constant search for the next few months of funding.

In recent months, I have been appointed onto a Lectureship. This has been my aspiration for as long as I can remember, providing me with an opportunity to combine my passions for teaching and research, as well as offering a more secure future. However, each role comes with its own challenges. In this current financial environment, no job is truly secure and the unending challenge of completing every task to a high standard within the timeframe can be exhausting. However, I have found that I can face these challenges with more calm, composure and courage when using mindfulness techniques during my day. This is my story of how I began using mindfulness to help me manage stress in academia.