How do medical professionals live as whole people, caring for their own health and heart?
Too often we settle for delayed gratification, saying, “When I get through medical school or residency, training eight, nine, ten or more hours of work every day, I will live my life.” But this is our life, our work is living, so let us name and claim it as that and not make home and work mutually exclusive. Let us break down the barriers of our compartments and live a connected and joined life.
The recent focus highlighting the epidemic of burnout plaguing the healthcare community has sparked an emotional debate about the hardships we face and the impediments we encounter. We work in a world which values “busyness!”
How can we recharge ourselves in real time, even when we’re still on the job? After all, work is part of life—they’re not separate.
How can we slow down, quiet the noise of the world and replenish our own well-being?
Here are six ways to rejuvenate and recharge in real time:
Ritual: Just as the art of taking a history and performing a physical examination is a ritual; make taking a break a ritual.
Redirect your focus and attention: Deactivating and reactivating our goals allows us to stay focused.
Replenish yourself especially with the foundational needs of food, water, sleep and exercise
Regulate expectations, your own and that of others
Reflect on 3 good things and offer gratitude, which helps with mental, emotional and spiritual replenishing.
Respect and be kind to yourself.
Taking a break maybe perceived as a sign of weakness, but your self-care is vital. Taking a break replenishes the mental and emotional energy associated with working hard, thus improves work performance and boosts energy.
In dealing with those who are undergoing great suffering, if you feel “burnout” setting in, if you feel demoralized and exhausted, it is best, for the sake of everyone, to withdraw and restore yourself. The point is to have a long-term perspective. – Dalai Lama
REFLECT: How do you restore yourself so that you have more love and care to give in the long-term?
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Recharge in Real-Time
The very first step towards recharge and restoration is that of realization.
No one does anything or thinks of doing anything till the need for that thought or action is realized. Everything then follows naturally.
Realization requires reflection on your own actions, reactions, attitudes and essential needs.
This reflection leading to realization should become a natural daily habit, like eating and sleeping. Ideally it should be done at least twice a day, at the beginning of the day to set a tentative plan of actions, and again at the end of the day before retiring to cross check the tasks achieved. This may obviate the spontaneity of actions and reactions some of which may reveal your own negative side. Invariably everyone will plan with positive thoughts and purposeful and useful actions. Only the sick minds would plan otherwise.
The next step, as you begin your day, is that of accommodation and adjustments. It will be foolish to bang your head against a wall where there is no door. There is a time to take a stand and a time and place to let go. This will make you reconcile and relax, thus restoring your physical and mental energy.
Lastly, one cannot relax unless one’s conscience is clear. Since you started and executed your plans with clear conscience of helping everyone and harming no one, including yourself, you can close your eyes and rest. You can control only your thoughts and actions; the reactions and results are not in your control. These must be left to many factors, including circumstances and destiny.
Everyone has love and care to give and share. It is an inherent instinct of life, any form of life! One is born with this nascent emotion and gift. It is like the sunshine of a fresh new day. It becomes invisible and impractical only when it gets clouded by the mist of anger, ego, jealousy and greed. Once you do not allow these emotions
to cloud your conscience while thinking, acting and reacting, you may remain relaxed, serene and happy. These issues must factor when you take stock of the day that has passed and in planning for the next day.
Start loving yourself and sharing your joy with others. Smile and endeavor to put smile on every other face. Start with prayers for everyone and expressing gratitude for every little act of generosity. It will restore and recharge your energy automatically.
This practice however, may appear difficult. But with patience and perseverance, nothing should be impossible.
We all have been created to belong to, and to care and share with each other. Let us not forget this purpose of our lives.
The six ‘R’s listed above will surely lead to the seventh ‘R’, that of relaxation, so essential for rejuvenation and restoration of energy.