Medicine by its nature is a demanding profession. People’s lives are in our hands every day.
So how can mindfulness help us as doctors to shoulder that often heavy burden?
๐๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ง๐ถ๐ญ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด ๐ต๐ฆ๐ข๐ค๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ถ๐ด ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐จ๐ฉ๐ต๐ด.
So that niggling worry about your patient that is keeping you awake at 3am even though you safely handed over care to a colleague and know that you provided excellent care while you were at work- well that’s the sort of ruminating thought that practicing mindfulness can help you to deal with.
Mindfulness ๐ฑ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ ๐ป๐ผ๐ take away disorganised systems or workplaces that need better management or support.
That isn’t a reason however, not to use mindfulness training for individuals to help them to better manage the stresses that naturally come from working in such a dynamic and stressful field.
It’s ๐ป๐ผ๐ an ๐ฆ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ- just because we teach mindfulness to individuals, doesn’t mean that the healthcare system can’t also change to better support clinicians as well.
Likewise, self awareness is an often overlooked part of being a healthy, well rounded human.
Our ability to know our capabilities and have a good respect of our own abilities is one part of self awareness. But so is the ability to check in with ourselves and know what we need in order to function optimally.
In order to do this, we need to have a baseline level of function that isn’t dominated by stress, worry and rumination.
For many of us, our baseline level of function is very ๐ด๐บ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ข๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ต๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ. That is, we’re running on adrenaline and cortisol every day and even when we do come to rest (on holidays or days off) it can take us a little bit of time to actually slow down.
For many, self awareness is an innate thing that doesn’t need too much practice. But there are many others (ourselves included!) who do need to keep an eye on our baseline level of self awareness- it does begin to get a bit out of kilter when we aren’t meditating regularly or eating healthily, making sure we exercise and nourish our relationships outside of work.
Our self awareness is often intimately tied to our self care practices- and when one goes a bit off course, often the other one does too.
We can help you to check back in and reflect on we’re you’re at with your level of self awareness as well as building a plan for what you’re going to do when you notice it’s drifted a bit off course- while you’re with us on one of our retreats.
We’re not super human just because we’re doctors. We all struggle with this stuff.
