‘Seeing the forest for the trees’: A mindfulness practice for recharging

The Whisper Collective Podcast

Welcome to a series of eight episodes that focus on writing well and being well for writing. This is the third.

The English-language proverb ‘they can’t see the forest for the trees’ means that someone is so involved in the details (the trees) that they can’t see the big picture (the forest). As a PhD researcher, you need to spend a lot of time looking at tiny details. Microscopic particles, items of code, codicils, footnotes, referencing databases and commas. Sometimes you need to look at the bigger picture, like when you are editing the thesis as a whole. But the big picture is bigger than that. The big picture is your whole life, your whole community, all human knowledge and beyond, to the whole universe.

This practice comes from Chapter 4, ‘Recharging’ in Writing Well and Being Well for your PhD and Beyond.

Close your eyes, and put your work into context.

Read more of Katherine’s reflections and practices on her blog, Research Degree Insiders https://researchinsiders.blog

Read Katherine’s other books https://researchinsiders.blog/books/

Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-firth-0786b026/

Wellbeing and Self-care in Higher Education: Embracing Positive Solutions (Book series that Katherine’s book is about) https://www.routledge.com/Wellbeing-and-Self-care-in-Higher-Education/book-series/WSCHE

Find out more about the book series edited by Narelle Lemon http://www.exploreandcreateco.com/book-series-wellbeing-selfcare-in-higher-education