Prioritising Wellbeing and Self-Care in Higher Education: How We Can Do Things Differently to Disrupt Silence

This book illuminates international voices of those who feel empowered to do things differently in higher education, providing inspiration to those who are seeking guidance, reassurance, or a beacon of hope.

Doing things differently comes with an awareness and curiosity to explore what can be. Increasingly, more and more professionals in higher education are choosing themselves, happiness, families, relationships, kindness, and compassion over arbitrary notions of institutional prestige, continuous pressure to overwork, and competitiveness with others. The chapters in this book do more than highlight flaws in the system, they call for proactive engagement in interrupting and reimagining what is broken. The authors share their own experiences as a way of encouraging readers to take small steps towards self-care, to notice their surroundings, and to embrace change as an empowering tool. The focus is on becoming the change we aspire to see, with a collective readiness to instigate positive transformations.

Sharing ambitious ideas to encourage change, this book is a valuable resource for those seeking to enhance their self-care and wellbeing in the higher education context, and for those seeking to engage with others in support of these efforts.

Narelle Lemon, VC Professoriate Research Fellow at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia, is an interdisciplinary scholar specializing in arts, education, and positive psychology. Her research focuses on enhancing wellbeing literacy in K-12 schools, teacher education, higher education, and community settings, emphasizing evidence-based practices for proactive flourishing.