We talk about this ๐ฎ ๐น๐ผ๐ on our retreats.
Compassionate boundaries are as much about being compassionate with yourself and your own discomfort as you have to hold a boundary as they are with the person who you holding that boundary for.
We get it, we’re doctors too. We know how hard it can be to say no to a patient request and end up still being at work late into the night as you finish notes, write scripts and other tasks.
Few people go into the health and healing professions without a desire to help others.
The issue is that if you run yourself into the ground, you actually end up not being able to help anyone. Compassionate boundaries are an acknowledgement of the fact that you are human- with basic human needs and the same 24 hours in the day every other human has.
You simply ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ป’๐ ๐ฏ๐ฒ ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ผ ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐น๐น ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ถ๐บ๐ฒ. It doesn’t matter how much you wish you could be.
Try to remember, that ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ด๐ข๐บ ๐บ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ- ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐บ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ง๐ข๐ถ๐ญ๐ต ๐ด๐ข๐บ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฏ๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ ๐ด๐ช๐ฏ๐จ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฑ๐ด ๐ฅ๐ฐ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ. You don’t get extra time in the day because you pile more on.
Yes, this means making hard decisions sometimes and yes this means letting patients down sometimes. Obviously you need to be mindful of triaging what tasks and requests can wait until the next day, which ones you need to action immediately- but perhaps also, which ones you could safely delegate to someone else?
How could you integrate compassionate boundaries into your own life?