Ending Physician Overwhelm

Send us Fan Mail Hello, friends, and welcome to another episode of Ending Physician Overwhelm . This week, we’re tackling a topic that resonates deeply for so many of us in medicine: the challenges of navigating relationships with our employers. We’re not talking about the individuals you work alongside every day, but the employer as an entity . What happens when your values, mission, and vision f...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s topic—self-compassion—feels especially timely. I’ve been navigating my own challenging season recently, and I wanted to share some reflections and tools that have been helping me, in the hope they’ll resonate with you too. In this episode, we discuss: The January Blues : How the transition into the new year often brings a lull after the holidays, leaving many of us grappli...

Send us Fan Mail Description: Deep breath, as we dive into a reality that so many physicians face daily: navigating situations over which we have so little control. From overwhelming inboxes to unrealistic expectations from patients and systemic challenges in healthcare, we discuss the emotional toll this lack of control can take—and how we can respond with intention and self-compassion. Together,...

Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary: Happy New Year, friends! As we step into 2025, I’m sharing my word for the year: Integration. It’s a concept I believe we’re all seeking, even if we haven’t quite named it. Integration is about feeling present, grounded, and whole—showing up as your full self at work, at home, and in your body. In this episode, I explore what it means to cultivate integration as a...

Send us Fan Mail In the final episode of 2024, we reflect on the year that’s passed and look forward with intention to the year ahead. As physicians, the end of the year often brings heightened perfectionist tendencies, alongside a desire to make sweeping changes. Instead of falling into the trap of magical thinking, we walk through a healthier, more intentional process to close out the year and s...

Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary: In this episode, we explore the role thought errors play in shaping how we interact with our inboxes, particularly through electronic medical records (EMRs). These common patterns of thinking contribute to moral injury, burnout, and the overwhelming sense of always needing to be “on.” See how these beliefs keep us tethered to our inboxes after hours, why patient p...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we dive into the conflict between wants and needs—a dynamic that significantly impacts how physicians manage their time, energy, and priorities. Inspired by insights from The Gap Versus the Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy, Megan unpacks why physicians often prioritize external demands over their own personal goals and desires. Key Topics Discussed: 1....

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we dive into the pervasive challenge of managing the harsh inner critic many women physicians face. We explore the origins of this critical voice, how it develops, and its impact on our lives. Let’s also talk about compassionate strategies to identify, understand, and quiet this inner critic, so you can learn to live life with less negative noise. Key Takeaways: U...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Ending Physician Overwhelm , we dive deep into the real reasons behind our struggles with setting boundaries as physicians. It’s not just about finding time for lunch or stepping away from work—it’s about uncovering the deeply ingrained patterns and thoughts that keep us stuck in cycles of guilt, overwhelm, and exhaustion. Dr. Melo shares personal anecdotes, lik...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I explore the concept of Human Giver Syndrome, a term coined by Emily Nagoski, PhD, and Amelia Nagoski, DMA, in their groundbreaking book Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle. This deeply ingrained societal expectation pressures women—especially women physicians—to be endlessly selfless, cheerful, and giving, often at the expense of their own well-bei...

Send us Fan Mail Connection is something most of us are lacking. Which is weird, because most of us are surrounded by people daily. But it’s not just people that give you connection. It’s being able to show up, be yourself, ask for help, be vulnerable, and support others that creates connection. We need a balance of give and take. Period. And most of us aren’t getting that, but we need that. If yo...

Send us Fan Mail How do we take care of ourselves when we have BIG feelings, when we are used to taking care of everyone else. I’m not talking politics today, though I acknowledge that I, and many of you, have some big emotions right now, which are not limited to disappointment, but too numerous to mention. If you struggle with hard times, like most humans do, this is one to lean into. I’m sharing...

Send us Fan Mail Feeling a bit fiery today, but I want you to sit with this one. I am done believing that I should look, work or speak a certain way, based on internalized norms passed down from generations of patriarchy in medicine. I don’t want to practice that way, I don’t want to speak that way, and I don’t want to receive my care that way.  But in order for us to change the dynamic, WE are go...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when you clean up other people’s messes? They don’t get to solve the problem (and learn) They don’t get to experience the consequences (and learn) You feel exhausted, and internalize that you SHOULD be the one who fixes ALL the problems. In today’s episode, I’m going to walk through what this can look like, and invite you to think about these challenges differently. Y...

Send us Fan Mail Ok, who else here likes to feel in control? Likes it too much, I mean. As in, tries to take control of every situation and then wonders why she feels so stressed, tight and yell-y. Today I’m talking about the idea that you can have complete control or complete freedom, but not both. Although this too is an illusion because we can’t actually control much of what we try to control....

Send us Fan Mail Trauma responses are very real, and very challenging for us as humans. Especially if you are judging yourself for experiencing them. Today I am talking about how trauma shows up in our lives, including in ourselves and people around us. We’ll talk about seeing trauma as “too much, too fast,” and often with too little support/resources, and the ways that can manifest in your life....

Send us Fan Mail Were you a great resident? Me too Were you the one that was kind, flexible, accommodating, hardworking? Me too Were you the one who left residency and worked and worked and worked, looking for validation, wanting to hear that you could take a break, that you could get the help and support you needed to take care of patients exactly the way that you wanted too, and not the way that...

Send us Fan Mail Do you struggle to get your notes done? How often have you told yourself that you “just need to be more efficient” or “just need to be better at time management?” How’s that working for you? Today I take a deep dive into why procrastination, with *special* attention to our notes and inboxes, is not a simple math problem. If it were, a timer would help you 100% of the time. Instead...

Send us Fan Mail What if you could use your medical expertise differently? Today I sit down with Dr Amy Fogelman, Board-Certified and Harvard-trained Internist and the CEO and Founder of High Rock Experts. Dr Fogelman shares her journey through burnout and how it led her to recognise how she could use her medical expertise in more sustainable ways as a Medical Expert Witness and a business owner c...

Send us Fan Mail We think of stress as this thing we carry. But what IS it? Stress is an emotion; a feeling. It probably gives you some physical sensations in your body (headaches, eyelid twitches, stomach upset). And we try and treat stress by getting organized (journals, planners and apps, oh my!), doing yoga, promising that we’ll meditate (“I’ll just download this app and start meditating every...

Send us Fan Mail “I should exercise more” This episode is not for those of you who already LOVE exercising. Those of you who are runners, for example, and strongly identify as such. Or Cross-Fitters. You are welcome here, and yet this episode might not make sense to you. Because today, I’m talking to those of us who were not athletes, who put exercise on our calendars and then don’t do it, who thi...

Send us Fan Mail How much of your day do you feel is in service to Epic and the almighty EMR? The tech is supposed to serve us, right? Today I am thrilled to be joined by Dr Michelle Flemmings, an ER Physician with past Hospitalist Experience, who moved into the technology space, helping to shape medical technology to fit the users, not the other way around. She shares her journey from pre-EMR med...

Send us Fan Mail Food is complicated; I know it, you know it. Today, I invite you to consider how you are fueling your body, and how it’s working for how you feel? Do you fuel your body often enough, and with foods that help you feel good in terms of energy, and overall effects? Or are you eating on the go, grabbing whatever’s easy, eating so quickly you barely taste anything and soon after having...

Send us Fan Mail Yes, yes, you know. You should sleep more. And most of us WANT to sleep more; or at least feel like we have slept more. Today is part of my “4 Pillars” or “Back to Basics” series for September, and today we are talking sleep. But rather than give you a prescription, literally or figuratively, I want to talk about what’s getting in the way of you getting to bed, what it’s costing Y...

Send us Fan Mail Do you get stuck in “right way” energy? Today I'm sharing a little bit of my own anxious internal environment and talking about “right way” energy. IT’s that internal voice that tells you that there is only one right way to do things. We'll talk about where this kind of energy comes from, what it creates for us in our lives, and what it keeps us from having in our lives....