Re-Igniting Your Love of Veterinary Medicine
Let’s explore the difference between external fear and internal fear and how you can use that knowledge to your benefit.
Tune into the latest episode of the Q 24 hr, Your Daily Dose of Vet Med Success to examine how you can improve and shift your inner-story!
I would love to hear how this impacts your day in the comment section of the video and as always you can reach me at pamela@healthyselfdvm.com.
This was the question a client asked me as she grieved over the body of her beloved pet who we had just euthanized.
In a flash I had some thoughts on how I CAN do this every day and I wanted to share them with you.
Take a look at the latest episode of Q 24 hr, Your Daily Dose of Vet Med Success to dive in.
Let me know if these thoughts help you to put our world into perspective and maybe even help you to feel empowered. You can reach me at pamela@healthyselfdvm.com .
During the latest ‘Q 24 hr, Your Daily Dose of Vet Med Success’ I share with you what is at the cornerstone of my success in veterinary medicine!
Success, for today, is defined as having a framework to handle the emotional and stressful issues we face every day.
So enjoy the video and please leave your thoughts in the comment section of the ‘Q 24 hr, Your Daily Dose of Vet Med Success’ or reach out to me directly at pamela@healthyselfdvm.com.
As always, you can set up a 1:1 call with me to explore what you are wanting to create in your life at https://calendly.com/healthyselfdvm!
During today’s (3/1/18) ‘q 24 hr, Your Daily Dose of Veterinary Success’, I speak about a TED Talk titled The Gift and Power of Emotional Courage that I came across a few days ago and found incredibly insightful and interesting.
In this talk, Dr Susan David discusses many things, but one of them is the idea that emotions are data points to be used for guidance, not as inherently good or bad.
So watch the video and let me know what you think about it in the comment section of the ‘q 24 hr, Your Daily Dose of Veterinary Success’. We will be talking about it in the days ahead because it is full of actionable ideas.
And, as always, please reach out to me to talk about this more at pamela@healthyselfdvm.com
Ok. Big breath here…
I am doing a daily FB live post every weekday at 5:30 am EST and I invite you to join me!
In these vlogs, I will highlight the successes we each experience, as well as ways to reignite your love of veterinary medicine and celebrate you, my amazing colleagues – whether you are a doctor, staff or management.
You can view the 1st ever Q 24 hr, Your Daily Dose vlog on the Heal ThySELF DVM Facebook page!
To be honest with you, I was surprised how nervous I was doing today’s video. I have done other live videos, spoken in front of groups, and created this newsletter for months now. I believe I was nervous because I feel so passionately about speaking up about my love for this profession as well as wanting to uplift and support all of you.
As of this morning I had not decided on a topic, several kept presenting themselves. As I watched the clock tick away at my available time, I noticed that I was feeling physically ill-a headache had started behind my left eye, I was a little nauseous and I was jittery. From experience, I know this is my bodies way of telling me this thing I am thinking about is a good thing, but that I need to ACT not sit and wait.
So I turned on the camera and did it extemporaneous. I could feel my symptoms dissolve. Not totally, but much less uncomfortable.
This is the extra lesson for you, my subscribers. Your body holds the key to your happiness. Your body’s sensations and your emotions are your GPS to the life that you want. Start to notice the emotions and the sensations that accompany your thoughts and actions. Lower vibration emotions like anger and sadness are indicators that you need to tune into another way of thinking or acting to get where you want to go. Uncomfortable sensations can mean the same thing. This week, begin to notice how your body feels and what emotions you are feeling. How are they related to your actions and experiences?
Here is a tip I learned early on as I was starting to tune into my own personal GPS. When you have a decision between two things or two ways of thinking about something say each one outloud as you put your hand over your heart. Pay attention to how your body feels as you say the thoughts. Does your body feel bigger and more relaxed or does your body feel cramped, tense and small? The answer that makes you feel bigger and more relaxed is the one that is right for you. It is your GPS pointing you in the right direction. Practice tuning into your GPS this week and let me know how it feels to you.
You can always reach me at pamela@healthyselfdvm.com or schedule a 1:1 session here to see how you can use this technique and others to create the life you always wanted.
Today I got a wild hair to create a vlog for your viewing pleasure! In this video, I examine the importance of maintaining boundaries while layering in the concept of energy awareness.
The boundary discussion was first introduced in my blog titled ‘Where Are You On the Boundary Continuum‘ where my coach, Jana Kellam, explores the different forms of boundaries within relationships.
Please view the video by visiting this link.
And, as always, please leave me comments about how these concepts and ideas resonate with you with you at pamela@healthyselfdvm.com.
If you would like to talk one on one with me, set up a time here for a free 1 hr conversation where we discuss how you can create healthy boundaries and become more aware of your energy profile!
I hate to fail. I don’t like to think of myself as a failure. I hate when I overpromise and underdeliver. And that is exactly what I am doing this week with this blog.
I had planned on sharing another blog about boundaries, this one from a different perspective to last week’s. I had it all planned out in my head. It was going to be good. It was going to make you salivate with excitement and possibilities! And it was halfway down on paper and then… then I didn’t finish it (wuh, wuh). I put too much on my plate (new and exciting ideas I wanted to play with while they were fresh so I could bring them to you), and it all got in the way of finishing this week’s boundaries blog.
So, here I sit with a choice. I can beat myself up and pull an all-nighter to get the blog done and out today, but know it won’t be the best because I don’t work well under that kind of pressure.
Or I could skip a week and not share any new ideas that might inspire you this week. Not what I like to do with my colleagues.
Or I could write a blog about my failure, and in doing so, learn from it and let you experience working through the angst of feeling like a failure. In failing to finish the originally planned blog, I created a chance to learn about myself. I created the chance to be vulnerable. I created the chance to learn what it is that makes us human.
I played with the idea that I failed. What story did I tell myself? In the veterinary field we are all highly motivated, results-oriented people. Lives depend on us — whether actual life and death situations, or keeping the doors open and paying staff.
What words do you hear when you have failed at something? Do you hear “I am stupid” or “I am lazy” or “I am a failure”?
Take a minute and consider if these things are true.
Are you stupid? I bet you can find evidence that you aren’t.
Are you lazy? Look at your calendar and I am sure you can see that you aren’t.
Are you a failure? Well, when asked directly like that, it is very obvious that you are not a failure.
You succeed despite having setbacks. You know that even when things don’t work out the way you wanted, you will survive. You are a rockstar badass who continues to learn and move forward with grace and compassion.
And, another important point I want to make here. Any words that follow “I am” are extremely important and influence your beliefs about yourself. So when you say, “I am a failure” or “I am depressed” or “I am sad” you can start to take on those qualities as a full-time persona. Your brain hears those words and says, “Ok. You are sad. Always. Here is how you will go through life.” So be very careful what words follow “I am.” Try inserting the word “feel”. As in “I feel sad.” Your brain interprets that very differently and allows it to be a transient emotion vs a way of life.
So, for today, I feel like I failed you. But I guess in failing, I actually was able to grow as a human and shed light on something that you may be grappling with as well. Failure. So this blog is experiential learning for me as well as for you. Failure is just a way to check in with how you talk to yourself and how you view life. Use the sense of failure as a challenge to grow. Admitting when you have failed and moving on with the lessons learned is powerful magic.
Let me know how you deal with failures. Please reach out to me if you want to explore new ways of framing failure in your own mind so that you can live the life of your dreams. I can be reached at pamela@healthyselfdvm.com.
Until next week!
“Good fences make good neighbors (clients and co-workers too!)”
Ok! Today we are going to start a discussion on boundaries. (Yeah! Huge roar from the crowd!!) And I say START the discussion because this is a topic that has many layers. We will be revisiting this topic and coming at it from different perspectives so you can find a way to think about this concept that works for you.
Today I am inviting you to watch a video titled Hump Day RelationTIP #16: How Are Your Boundaries. This video, by my life coach Jana Kellam, is an episode from her weekly Wednesday Facebook Live video series (hence the video’s Hump Day reference). Within this video, she talks about boundaries in relationships, because really, EVERYTHING is a relationship – you with yourself, your co-workers, your clients and your romantic partner.
So I invite you to watch this video as the beginning of our discussion on boundaries. Here are some ideas to watch for in the video:
You will also find a link to her e-book series “Lessons from Jove”, based on the equine facilitated experiential learning (EFEL) work with her beloved horse, Jove. This lesson reiterates the video’s message with some added wisdom from Jove. Feel free to check it out as well!
I hope you enjoy Jana’s video and I’ll see you next week with a deeper look into boundaries, energy profiles and creating the way you want to be seen in the world.
And, as always, please leave me comments about how this idea of the boundary continuum resonated with you at pamela@healthyselfdvm.com.
If you would like to talk one on one with me, set up a time here for a free 1 hr conversation where we can talk about your boundaries and how you can create healthy ones.
Last week I invited you to download and print my New Veterinary SELF-Care Oath. Click here if you did not get to it yet – it is still available to you!
Everyone in the profession including receptionists, technicians, assistants and management can benefit from this oath. It speaks to our SELF-Care-keeping that part of us that is spiritual, soul, and higher self aligned and healthy. No matter where you spend the majority of your time in the veterinary office, this oath is for you.
I created it because I was failing at veterinary medicine. I was overwhelmed and depressed and could not find joy in my job any longer. As a profession, we are very hard on ourselves. We work very long hours, we are perfectionists, and we see every pet as our own. Management has the daunting task of keeping everyone happy, being the “buck stops here” place and guiding the business into a healthy future. They may not directly heal a pet, but they sure are critical to that successful outcome.
So how can you use this oath?
First, print it out and use the statements as affirmations. Explore for yourself what areas you are weak in. Do you feel responsible for the outcome of a case? Are you able to allow the client’s to grieve in their way and not take on their turmoil? Are you able to know that you did the best you could every day, even when others are yelling at you or the outcome isn’t what you had hoped?
These are some of the areas that Heal ThySELF DVM addresses.
We cannot control what happens to us, we can only control how we deal with it.
Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, in a veterinary hospital can benefit from this Oath.
In the coming weeks, the program that fleshes out the action steps to take to achieve the ideals written in the oath will be rolled out!
Here is a sample of what we will be delving into in the coming weeks:
– What is a boundary and how do you create healthy ones?
– How can you empathize with clients or co-workers without being pulled into their turmoil?
– How does the “not my circus, not my monkeys” idea apply within a clinic setting?
I am SO excited for you to experience a new way of being at your job. I want you to feel as excited and optimistic as when you were just starting out. I know that applying the techniques of SELF-Care will allow you to fly and create the life that you have always wanted.
So, if you haven’t received your copy of the oath you can download it here.
And let me know what you think of the Oath. Is it helpful to you? How are you using it. Let me know at pamela@healthyselfdvm.com
Subscribe here to receive the weekly Heal ThySELF DVM Chart Notes. You will receive an ebook I created titled “5 Tips for Workplace Happiness, A Simple Easy Guide for Veterinarians” that is yours free as well!!!
Till next week…
Once upon a time I was about to be fired because the staff felt I was cold and uncaring. I felt so misunderstood. That I was cold and uncaring was so untrue that I felt betrayed by my co- workers.
The real story is that I went to work every day exhausted, depressed and overwhelmed. The continual parade of sick and dying animals, demanding owners, staff friction and the euthanasias was beating me down.
I was abusing food to punish myself for not being perfect. I was waking up at all hours of the night gripped in fear about recent cases and migraines were a common occurrence. I was resigned to be miserable the rest of my life, but dammit, I still went to work and saved lives.
I cared so much about my clients’ and patients’ lives that I was losing mine.
I cared so much that I had nothing more to give, I had given it all away.
As caregivers and healers we all have the tendency to continue giving even when we are empty.
Have you ever felt that you have nothing more to give and that there is no enjoyment in your career? Do you abuse food, alcohol, exercise to try and soothe the parts of you that are hurting?
Well, I decided that this work situation was the wake-up call. I could either ignore it and continue my self destructive ways at another job or I could use it as a challenge to try and become someone my co workers could trust and find a way to save myself at the same time.
I have realized that the problem was not just my job, it was the way I had been taught. I was trained as a scientist to use only my medical knowledge.
This whole other part of veterinary medicine-the need to deal with the emotional environment of a veterinary clinic- is untaught territory for us.
If you have ever felt like you are ill equipped to handle the emotional challenges you face every day you are not alone.
I took a look at the veterinary oath. Our current oath only mentions our medical, scientific knowledge as tools. It does not even mention that whole other part of being human-humanity-compassion, self-care, boundaries, empathy. What would change if we had an oath that required us to take care of ourselves as well as we do our animals?
We all find ways to deal with the stresses we encounter every day. I know that you probably have coping skills that usually work for you. But maybe you have still felt depleted and hopeless.
To combat those feelings of hopelessness and defeat, I started to learn how to listen to my higher self, the part of me that is my soul, my spirit, my emotions.
The really amazing thing to me, is that as I started to focus more on listening to my higher self I found that the challenges at work were dramatically lessened. I didn’t have to find ways to deal with my poor emotional state because I didn’t get into it in the first place.
That lead me to create a SELF-Care Veterinary Oath just for you. It is the Oath I wish I had taken at graduation and the one that I wish our curriculum and CE was centered around just as much as advances in medicine.
My purpose in writing the SELF-Care Oath is to give you something tangible that you can refer to when the challenges of our profession are draining you. Each statement in the oath can be used as an affirmation to lay the groundwork for achieving the life you have always dreamed could be yours. Print it and hang it in a prominent spot so that you will see it often.
The perspectives and tools that work for me can work for you as well. I will be having a continuing dialogue through my newsletter about the steps I took to recreate a life I love. So often we put everyone and everything else before ourselves and this has to change.
Has there ever been a time in your live where this was true? Have you given so much of yourself that you do not know who you are anymore and have no enjoyment in your career?
Let’s put humanity back in the veterinary clinic where it most definitely belongs. This Oath is the doorway to a whole new outlook on the profession and life.
