"People Who Need People..."
The connections between emotions and physical health astound me. Actually, they scare me because your body can be experiencing one thing even though your mind is in another place. For example, my mother had surgery today that went well. I had every reason to believe it would go well. I could easily talk about how it was most likely going to go well. But I felt like crap all day, just exhausted. When I get stressed, my body starts to shut down. I can sleep easily but not rest. I slept last night but was dragging all morning. Now, a few hours after hearing the surgery has gone well, I feel very, very different. I feel a bit physically tired, somewhat worn out, but more normal than I have all day.

It helps, though, that when I came into the office, all the students waiting to see made me feel better, too. Today is our deadline to drop classes, and advisors have to sign such forms. A few of my advisees wrote to me today asking for signatures, which was quite annoying since it was last minute. If any one student thinks I am talking about them, know that it was more than one--more than two--who asked. That did not help my mood. But, when they were here, they didn't play games and were accountable and appreciative. I had other students here, too, some wanting to talk about papers due this week. All felt like they had no idea what they were doing when they were actually on track. It felt good to see them on track and convince them that they just needed to keep going. Then, there's the student who just wants to say hi because they were in the building and had time free and thought the best was to spend it would be by talking to me. Sure, when I'm busy, that can be stressful, but it's office hours, so that's why I'm here.

And I needed that today, people just wanting to talk, people being honest, people believing that I could make them feel better.
- posted by Nels @ 5:57 PM | | | Link |