I think about wellness often and the unique aspects of being a physician that make preserving our wellbeing even more important. Of course, this COVID-19 pandemic has tested all of us and the things we turn to for wellness and our escape from medicine, may not be available to us right now. After work dinner and drinks, early morning group fitness classes, and young professional networking events have been replaced by Netlfix© and dine-in, home workouts, and Zoom “wine” downs. We all had to dig down deep inside to find new venues for wellness and if we were lucky, our institutions provided resources to help us during this crazy time. What this pandemic taught me was that there are things I still needed to work on to build my resilience even further- and I am totally okay with that. Working on ourselves to better ourselves should be a continuous goal- everyone has room for improvement.
As a single woman living in the city, my nights and weekends were always filled with social events. I felt very isolated and realized how much of my free time was being occupied by my friends and the events I attended as part of my wellness routines. I miss my morning classes at bootcamp and will never complain again when my alarm wakes me up at 4:25am to get to class- whenever that may be. Some of the things that have helped me are FaceTime and Houseparty dates with friends and family, walking outside on the few sunny days Boston has graced us with, trying to eat healthy when I can, in-home workouts which I am not a fan of to be completely honest, but most important, was being vulnerable with friends, family, colleagues, and even patients who asked how I was doing during our virtual visits. I met with a Wellness Coach provided through my institution and the lightbulb moment for me was when he reminded me to be kind to myself. I remember seeing posts all over social media about how we should be building businesses, getting in shape, writing grants, or checking off any other number of “goals” because we have “so much time” and feeling bad, but I got over that. In the middle of this crisis, all our lives have been disrupted, some much more so than others, and we are all doing the absolute best we can. I remind myself to be grateful and I started writing specific things down that I am grateful for each day.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month and as physicians, we shy away from talking about such things. It may be that we are supposed to be superheroes who are invincible, or it may be that if we did seek help and received a diagnosis we would have to declare it on some medical state licensing applications, or we may just be afraid. Mental health is one of the many aspects of overall wellbeing and there are many ways to reach out for help for those who need it. COVID-19 has had many casualties and we must guard our mental health during this pandemic. Find what works for you and do it. Reach out when you need to and remember that it is totally okay to not be okay. Protect your mind, body, and soul as these are key aspects of our overall wellbeing. I feel optimistic about our future. When we come out on the other side of this let us take all the lessons we learned and remember to never take things such as human contact for granted again.
Stay safe and stay healthy.
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