How to tide over daze? Professor of Psychology told you…

Do you feel confused and lost amidst dramatic changes? Have you encountered gender-biased comments? Are you suffering from increasing anxiety due to the unexpected epidemic crisis? What should you do? How to adapt yourself to the new environment?

Today, we have invited Raquel A Stuart, Acting Associate Dean within the College of Liberal Arts at WKU, who has been serving as a psychology professor for numerous years. She has told about her secrets as an experienced scholar and practitioner.

1st. It is important to introspect yourself 

Raquel believes it is important to introspect yourself whether in a challenging circumstance or different relationships. The problems you meet and most importantly how do you go through it will serve you throughout your life. It might explain her motive to write her first book The Audacity of Self: Dare to Put You First, in which she emphasized the idea to put yourself first. As she clarified, it doesn’t mean you should be selfish, but to care about yourself. As a professor, she plays a role as “giver”. She is expected to give motivation, encouragement, and comfort to others. But prior to that, she will make sure herself to be well cared to maintain those positive energies inside before she could pass on to others.

2nd.It is significant to clarify your purpose 

Consistent with her first point of view, she believes, it is significant to clarify your purpose. The purpose should come from the bottom of your heart. For example, she really wonders, what is the expectation that students have for WKU？WKU as a Sino-U.S. jointly established higher education institution, it is sharply different from traditional universities in terms of English-teaching vibe, American interactive course, overall atmosphere, etc. One needs to be equipped with confidence and courage to overcome those difficulties. Based on that, as a professor, she will dedicate to teaching, to challenging students, to unleashing their full potential by leading them to a fully engaging mindset.

3rd. Never allow anyone to demean you, just because you are female

As a female dean and professor, she also has some messages to share with females. She is the first female dean, specifically the first black female in this role at WKU. But just like she told, “I never focus on my gender. I am the person who is qualified for this job, I happen to be a female. My focus would be how to benefit students and faculty.” As she reiterated, “Never allow anyone to demean you just because of your gender. You are the only one who can decide who you are and what you want to be.”

4th. Learn to reset yourself, embrace the new normal 

Facing enormous uncertainties of life, it could be hard to maintain upward momentum. But sometimes, uncertainty is part of life. What we need to do is to reset ourselves. Every time we go through a trauma, we need to reset ourselves and embrace the new normal. It can be hard to walk out of comfort zone, but we have to, we could not go back to the things where they were. Just like driving a vehicle, we could not look back but move forward. “You don’t need to wear masks in the U.S. in the past, but now you have to. It is a new normal, one needs to reset their perspectives towards this new phenomenon, otherwise, he puts his life in risks.”

5th. Review yourself on the following questions 

She encouraged all people to introspect themselves and question themselves occasionally to know themselves. One could ask himself/herself the following questions:

What will be my new normal look like?

What will I start doing?

What will I stop doing?

What will I keep doing?

What will I improve that I am now doing?

See it, believe it and do it right now!

Writer:Alisa Lai,Sibo Xu