to blog or not to blog?

Image courtesy of six0six design

I realise it has been a long while since I last posted here, despite many a good intention and several ideas for blog posts (which I will be following up in the coming months – I won’t let myself off the hook that easily!). In the mean time I’ve completed all my academic work for my doctorate in addition to passing the clinical components. I have also co-organised the Blogging for Postgraduates workshop at the PsyPAG conference, stepped down from PsyPAG and handed over to a new Chair, secured myself a qualified clinical psychologist post with a neurodevelopmental disorders service down in England, and also found myself a new flat to rent down there. Phew, busy times. I had a holiday or two and did some non-psychology stuff in amongst all that. Hence the absence from this blog!

Now that I’ve finished my doctorate, I’ve had a little time to reflect on all sorts, including my own career development and journey so far and within this, my experiences to date of blogging and what others with varied levels of blogging experience have shared with me. These reflections will be the subject of this post.

I first started blogging almost a year ago now in October 2012 after having considered it for some years. This was basically because I think about a lot of stuff and like to share my thoughts in case they may be of any use to others and also to hear what other people think too. Blogging seems to be a great way of showcasing your own ideas and thoughts on a subject to a potentially wide audience in a way that discussions within our own personal and professional spheres may not allow so broadly. I really like the idea of this and try to expose myself to as many different perspectives and viewpoints as possible, as I think that this is the way we learn and develop (I’m a Vygotskian at heart!). Sure, we can go so far by discussing things with our supervisors / managers / colleagues, in the teams we work and / or research in, with peers in our field and even at multidisciplinary conferences. However, blogging and social media open our worlds even further to people and viewpoints we may never otherwise encounter. I love that and indeed have made connections with some highly valued friends, colleagues and collaborators because of this who I would not otherwise have known (you know who you are!).

I also think creating content is a great way to reflect on something and construct a tangible record of your thoughts, observations and perhaps most importantly, bring together a record of existing resources on that subject. So for me personally, my blog has functioned a little bit like an online ‘scrapbook’ where I can put down information before it goes out of my head! I enjoy reading blogs such as The Introspector, The Thesis Whisperer, and The Cyber Psyche (plus too many others to mention, check out who I follow on here) in order to further my own knowledge in areas such as mental health, therapeutic approaches, academia and psychology in the online sphere. Along with using Twitter as a microblogging platform, these blogs help me stay up to date with current research and resources and also provide the impetus to reflect on specific topics or phenomena. Therefore, part of the function of my own blog posts thus far has been to provide information and signpost to resources, as well as generating thoughts and reflections from my readers.

However, as I look over the content of my blog posts over the past year, I have realised that they seem to have mostly featured reflections on the process of studying as a doctoral student and training as a clinical psychologist. In addition, I have covered specific topics such as, for example coping with being a caregiver to someone with an illness or disability. Feedback on my blog has overall been positive, but I have been told that it lacks a coherent focus, which I fully agree with. When I think about what makes a good blog, a clear focus is one of the criteria that comes to mind, and thus part of the development of this blog will be the task of clarifying my aims and remit and remaining within these. It is likely that my focus will evolve to centre more upon my area of work and research interest – psychological aspects of caring for a significant other who has a disability or illness. However, I still need to work this out.

As you may or may not know, my forays into blogging were part of a joint exploration with my friend and former PsyPAG colleague Emma Davies, who has been writing an excellent blog herself on alcohol research, psychology, teaching and other things. As well as learning about ourselves and reflecting on our own experiences of blogging so far, we are really interested in what others working and/or studying psychology have experienced as bloggers or blog readers. We’d like to know more about why you blog, and why you don’t? What sorts of blogs do you read? Plus a number of other questions.

Therefore, we would like to invite you (whether you write blogs or you just read them, or both) to complete a brief anonymous online survey we’ve put together on this subject (which has received ethical approval from Oxford Brookes University, registration number 130744). We plan to analyse the findings in the coming year and hope to share them as an article in The Psychologist publication, who kindly sponsored our Postgraduate Blogging Workshop that we organised at PsyPAG 2013, along with the excellent BPS Research Digest blog. Thank you in advance and as ever, I invite your thoughts, comments and feedback on this blog too.

Getting a round tuit…

Image courtesy of http://mouthmotions.blogspot.co.uk/

Happy New Year and welcome to 2013!

As you may have guessed, one of my New Year’s resolutions was to get blogging again. Therefore, I thought I would make this the subject of today’s post. I actually wrote this post a week or so ago but hadn’t got round to publishing it (story of my life!) when my postgrad colleague and Vice Chair of PsyPAG, Emma Davies, reminded me of an agreement we’d made to both try and regularly post on our blogs and to reflect on what we learn from it to inform a potential workshop on blogging for psychology postgrads at this year’s PsyPAG Conference in Lancaster in July. So here goes…

Somebody once made me a ’round tuit’ as a very thoughtful gift. It served to highlight the importance of re-evaluating my priorities and how I think about how I spend my time. There are so many pleasurable, fulfilling or nourishing activities that I put to the bottom of my list and never get round to, because I prioritise those tasks which produce direct results and usually those that others benefit from.

Before Christmas I was feeling very burnt out and resentful of how much I was doing for other people as it was taking up most of my time. After going to work in a demanding job focused on helping to meet others’ needs, I was coming home and then making, ordering and wrapping things for others. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the festive season and all that goes with it. However, I was prioritising things that would ultimately be for others and leaving my own needs until everything else had been done, which only just got done! I was foregoing cooking and eating a decent meal at a reasonable time, washing and packing my clothes before going away and things that make me feel good like a relaxing bath in favour of things for others. Anyone could have probably told me that this would result in me feeling drained, annoyed, resentful and stressed. I just didn’t see it at the time.

If only I had ensured I had a balance of things I was doing for others and things I was doing for me, you live and learn the hard way! It really highlighted the importance of looking after yourself, making time for things that recharge your batteries and give you pleasure that are not simply those that we see as ‘productive’. The product is greater wellbeing, lower stress levels and the ability to keep functioning well so that you are in a place to be there for others.

I think many psychologists and others in the caring professions put others’ needs before their own – it lends itself well to the job! In all seriousness, it can be detrimental and we are some of the worst at prioritising our own needs despite advising those we see and care for to do this very thing. I am going to try and practice what I preach and set an example. Instead of prioritising tasks for others’ direct benefit or those that are justifiable by their yield of an end ‘product’, I am going to try and spend at least half an hour a day doing something simple and pleasurable for me. Whether that is sitting on the sofa to enjoy a cuppa (and I mean really enjoy it and not let my mind get caught up in other things) or painting my nails – I’m going to endeavour to have more of a balance because I don’t want to wind up feeling bitter and twisted again any time soon!