The Flow State - April 2026 II
- Erin Clair
- Apr 19
- 3 min read
Dear Community,
I think most academic deans will tell you their jobs can be frustrating. We are in charge of a lot, but we are also pawns in other people's plans. We don't get to decide our budgets, but we get to deliver the news of other people's decisions. We can create programs that transform the future of higher education, but we also get to work for years on proposals that come to nothing.
The other morning I was riding the train into Boston and feeling beat down about the challenging parts of my work. As per usual, the cars were packed tight with professors, administrators, and students heading to the stops for Brandeis, Tufts, Harvard, Boston University, MIT, and Northeastern. It feels surreal, even years into this work, to realize that I am one of these academics heading to one of those places. Me. Erin from Hayes Street in Painesville, Ohio.
If you had told me when I was in high school that I would one day be an academic dean in the city that's the intellectual center of the world...well, truth be told, that never would have happened. I don't think there was a person on earth who could have predicted this, including myself. Sure, I earned every single step it took to get here, but this wasn't my goal. I didn't really have a goal, honestly, other than continuing to go toward what felt right to my soul.
I think maybe one lesson I am to learn is that what feels too challenging is not really my business. My job merely is to keep going toward the things that feel right to me, challenging or not, and not worry much about the outcomes. That's how I got here in the first place, and that's how I'll get to whatever else I'm supposed to go. Maybe these words will help you with whatever feels hard right now. I don't know. I'm just a girl who ended up on trains and planes headed to Boston.
New Podcast Episodes
Episode 34. Raj Raghunathan: How to Be Both Successful and Happy
This episode features Ray Raghunathan, author of If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Happy? and the creator of a Coursera course on happiness that's one of the most popular MOOCs ever made. We discuss why happiness and success often do not go hand in hand, because we so often chase the wrong things.
Episode 35. Kostadin Kushlev: Our Digital Devices and Our Happiness
Joining me in this episode is Dr. Kostadin Kushlev, an Associate Professor of Psychology at Georgetown University who runs the Happy Tech Lab. He studies how smartphones, social media, email, and constant digital connectivity affect our happiness and health. It’s not all doom and gloom, though! There’s also practical advice for how to use digital devices to enhance our lives rather than make them more stressful.
This Week's Classes
Tuesday, April 21 @7:30pm EDT: New Video Release (watch here)
Thursday, April 23 @5:30pm EDT: Music Power Yoga at Waverley Oaks Athletic Club (Waltham, MA)
Thursday, April 23 @6:30pm EDT: Vinyasa Yoga at Waverley Oaks Athletic Club (Waltham, MA)
Saturday, April 25 @4:00pm EDT: Fascia Release Yoga at The Inferno (Fitchburg, MA)
Sunday, April 26 @10:30am EDT: Power Yoga at Waverley Oaks Athletic Club (Waltham, MA)
With Gratitude,
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