Our industry faces a mental health crisis and burn-out is a real thing. When we work in a challenging, physical and emotionally draining profession we need to look after our mental health. Mental health skills are like any other skill that can be learnt. Unfortunately there is no training for vets in this, so we have to make time to train ourselves.
Meditation:
If you are anything like me, meditation brings up the image of sitting cross-legged (i.e. cramp in one leg) and breathing deeply (i.e feeling like you are about to pass out). So I was sceptical about the Netflix series on meditation.
Episode 1 of this series (they are all short at around 20 minutes), describes that meditation is really just training the brain to become more present and less distracted (in a world full of distractions). It is actually similar to mindfulness, which is a technique I try to use. They look at the science behind it (there are hundreds of papers now looking at the benefits).
What I was really interested in, is the work looking at memory, which could potentially help with those studying.
Below is the link. I liked the analogy to thoughts being like cars and that we can change the relationship with our thoughts.
There were are few other episodes in this Netflix series, but one of them I picked out as of top relevance for vets and surgeons was ‘How to deal with stress’ (link below). They started by asking if I felt anxious about being anxious or frustrated about feeling frustrated. Ummm yes, every day. I found it interesting that a lot of our stress comes from own thoughts versus external stressors, and therefore we have the ability to change these. They talked in this episode about a ‘noting technique’. This has been scientifically proven to reduce our stress response, blood pressure response and stress hormone level response to stressful situations. This can make us less critical of ourselves, less reactive, more present and less stressed. Anything that can make a surgeon more able to cope with stress will make them a better surgeon (in my opinion). This is a good episode to learn this technique. https://www.netflix.com/title/81280926?s=i&trkid=13747225 Another episode of note was called ‘How to be kind’. What could be more relevant to vets than this. Having a mind that is constantly judging, leaves us feeling resentful to ourselves and others. We judge, compare and criticise and this does not bring any happiness to our lives. They talk in this episode about a technique that has been proven to reduce the constant stream of negative thoughts and decrease negative body image. Then the final episode of note was ‘how to explore your limitless potential’. It was around finding an inner happiness (I can’t believe I’m using the words ‘inner-happiness’ – totally un-surgeon like). But they made a good point, in that if you can cultivate these skills (they are just skills, like any other skill) then no-one can take them from you. A busy, stressful job can’t take these skills from you, other people can’t take them from you. They will help you to be less stressed, less anxious, more creative and less disconnected with the world. It is all absolutely scientifically proven, and several studies are mentioned throughout the episodes (a lot involving brain MRIs and other behavioural studies). One such study showed that by practicing mindfulness, your fluency and flexibility scores go up which increases your neural pathways, and makes you more creative and productive.
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