Stress-Less Physician

When we’re mentally in someone else’s business, or in God’s business, we’re not present in our own lives. And we’re taking on an incredible amount of stress and accountability. Along with personal overwhelm, this can create strain and negatively affect our relationships. But as physicians, it’s our very job to help people. Add to that the normal relationships of being a friend, child, parent, spou...

We tend to reflect on certain things in the past as being better, aka “the old good days”. That reflection typically revolves around experiencing things a certain way that we no longer can now. An example is one I’ve been thinking about lately: how much has changed since the pandemic. Things I had once taken for granted, such as going out to eat or making vacation plans aren’t as easy or certain a...

Setting aside time each day to literally do nothing is a fundamental practice to cultivating awareness. In order to coach ourselves to more fully understand our own thoughts and emotions, we need some quiet. We need to create space in our lives to calmly reflect. Busyness and distractions don’t allow for the deeper reflection sometimes needed to work on our beliefs, attachments and typical reactio...

Throughout our lives, how and when something is presented affects us differently. We’re always growing and changing and how we think about things and process situations evolves over time. Furthermore, I believe there really are not that many new ideas, there are simply different ways of presenting them. One person’s manner of speaking appeals to one group while another person’s style appeals more...

The quest to increase productivity and stop procrastinating is seemingly never ending. We all struggle in one fashion or another to accomplish everything we need to. And like so many struggles in life, how we  think  about, and thus approach tasks greatly impacts our results. As I sought to restructure my thinking, I discovered that flipping my thought process about the enormity of tasks...

Lack of sleep can affect multiple facets in both our physical and mental health. Studies have linked sleep deprivation to weight gain, chemical imbalances, thinking of food as a reward, and slower mental processes. It has been proven over and over that getting better rest is integral to lowering stress and increasing our ability to function in optimum health. But how do we actually achieve better...

Whether we realize it or not, rules influence every aspect of our lives. Especially those  unwritten rules  that everyone seems to know and abide by anyway. But what exactly am I talking about when I say rules? It’s not things like obeying speed limits or following proper procedures. I’m talking about those rules that affect how we think, what we believe, and ultimately, how we act. Thos...

Burnout is a frequently used term in our society. But what exactly is it? What goes on inside your brain and your body when you experience burnout? What are some signs that you’re burned out and need to make changes? In this episode, I open up about my experience with burnout. I had pushed myself and my mind to the point that I had to get away. I needed a sabbatical. And even though it wasn’t easy...

We all have a life expectations manual. It’s the unwritten one that dictates how we feel life should be. Our manual outlines internal expectations for how others should think, how they should behave, and what they should understand. We often don’t even realize our manual exists but it’s there.  The problem with this manual is that it is often unrealistic. The truth is, adults have the ability...

How we experience emotional pain in life is connected to the source or cause of the pain. This birthed the concept of clean pain vs dirty pain. But what exactly is clean pain? What is dirty pain? And do the differences between them hold a key to how we work through each type of pain? In this episode, I want to share the powerful concept of clean pain vs dirty pain. I have personally experienced em...

Does your To Do List cause anxiety and overwhelm? Are you having a physical reaction just from reading that last line? If so, you are definitely not alone. Taming your To Do List is, perhaps, one of the biggest sources of stress in our lives. It seems to never end. The moment you cross off one thing, another – or maybe even two things – take its place.  Now, I admit, I love to make lists beca...

Throughout our lives and careers, we face times we’re stuck… things we wish we could do over… big and small ways we long to go back and choose over again. But despite those inner yearnings, the “I have to” factors of life interfere. The question is… Should they? What if you could make different choices, while still maintaining the things you don’t want to change? More than once, I’ve asked myself...

Focusing on what we can’t control increases anxiety and stress. And there are certainly plenty of things we can’t control right now. That’s why I want to help us to all focus on what we can control. Focusing our energy on what we can do something about is empowering and freeing. In this episode, I explore how we cannot control circumstances but we can choose what we think about all that is happeni...

Byron Katie’s  teachings have made a huge impact in my life. Once I was ready to take in everything she teaches, and ready to investigate my own personal belief patterns, how I look at life and other people, and how I think about all of that, I really have grown. And I want to share them with you. So in this episode, I relate some powerful concepts and quotes from Byron Katie. I include my th...

I 100% believe in thought work but it must be acknowledged: There are times it’s actually counterproductive. In my previous episode, titled  Thought Work: The Most Important Work You Can Ever Do , I shared many of the benefits of thought work. Now, as promised, I offer you the flip side. Before we begin, I want to reiterate that I think everybody benefits from developing the skill of metacogn...

The most important work you can ever do is thought work. Why? Because it is human nature to experience emotions at every moment, and those influence our actions and reactions in life. Circumstances become thoughts, which shape feelings, which drives actions, which creates results.  But we aren’t always fully aware of precisely what emotions we’re experiencing. There are subtleties in them, su...

Having boundaries and work-life integration can be elusive, especially for physicians. Thinking about work when not at work or falling prey to the idea that some things are a waste of time… thoughts like these are all too common. However, there is a truth that revolves around needing time to be restored. Without it, you aren’t able to present your best self to the world.  For many of us, I be...

Fear can deter us from what we really want to do because we’re unsure whether to heed it or not. Is the fear I’m feeling because there is true danger or is it simply holding me back? Are there ways to differentiate between fear that is a useful warning and fear that isn’t? In this episode, I explore the idea that if we can examine fear, we can redefine the experience. To begin, if we better unders...

Most people find it easy to have someone else’s back. As humans, we’re naturally devoted to our loved ones. But what about having your own back? This can be much, much harder. We are often unkind to and critical of ourselves. More so than we ever would be of others. We can be our own worst enemy. Through this episode, I want to encourage you to examine your self-talk and self-evaluation. I believe...

Occasional anxiety (not clinical anxiety) is a normal part of life. All those “What ifs?” creep into our brains and send us into a place of worry, fear and uncertainty. But what if anxiety didn’t have to result in feeling out of control of your life? What if it no longer caused you to miss out on things in the present? What if you could actually learn to tame anxiety and reduce it? I know it may b...

Charting or documenting is a critical part of excellent patient care. However, it often becomes overwork. That is, work that keeps you late or you end up taking home with you. If you’re stuck in the defeating cycle of completing work at night or on the weekends, this episode is for you. And although I mainly discuss charting by physicians, the principles I share in this episode can be applied to a...

People tend to shy away from the topic of self-confidence. They are concerned it is too akin to arrogance or they don’t really see any difference between self-confidence and regular confidence. But self-confidence is more complex than simply having confidence and it is not judgmental like arrogance. I’m sure I won’t surprise you when I say that true self-confidence is deeper because it is rooted i...

The two biggest issues that arise around self-care is the misconception that self-care is selfish or we simply don’t have time. Even in defining self-care it can sound like an encouragement to neglect others to indulge yourself. But proper self-care isn’t that at all. Everyone needs personalized methods and practices to reduce stress and re-energize. Without them, it is nearly impossible to functi...

I want to introduce you to some of the concepts I learned from my first coach,  Martha Beck . I found Martha when I was searching for that elusive “something”. As a dermatologist, I’d gone through many positions that looked amazing on paper but once I was in them, I was repeatedly unsatisfied. I struggled over and over with feelings of unfulfillment and unhappiness, much of which stemmed from...

“I need to set a boundary so people don’t walk all over me! I need to stand up for myself!” Ever find yourself thinking or even saying these words in the heat of a situation? Perhaps you’ve not had these specific thoughts but maybe you’ve had a similar response to an unpleasant situation. If you have, I encourage you to stop, wait, and step back.  Now you may be wondering what in the world I...