Author Archives: Catherine Cheng, MD

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About Catherine Cheng, MD

I am a general internist in Chicago, Illinois, mother of two, almost native Coloradan, and Northwestern alum. I want to leave the world better for my having lived, by cultivating the best possible relationships between all who know me, and all whom I influence. Join me on this crazy, idealistic, fascinating journey! Look for new posts on the 10th, 20th, and 30th of each month. Opinions posted here are entirely my own, and in no way reflect the opinions or policies of my employer.

Love Notes for Lightness

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It’s too easy to get sucked into anger, sadness, despair, and even hopelessness these days. So much conflict, assumption of malice, and utter disconnection, my goodness.
But in our quieter moments, we can find equanimity a bit more easily.
Play, humor, and lightness help us get there.
It’s okay to let ourselves laugh and poke fun. It doesn’t mean we don’t care, it doesn’t diminish the weight of the world’s problems.
It helps us cope.
Lightness liberates creativity and connection, which are key for solving the problems that distress us the most.
Let’s see what light I can call forth tonight, yes?

  1. Assuming NO CONSEQUENCE, whose house would you drunkenly break into to swap bedroom furniture with, and what would you write on the ransom note?

2. On the nearest piece of paper, QUICK: Assign each of your friends a character from the Muppets, Sesame Street, The Simpsons, or South Park. Imagine you all go camping in winter.

3. What if there were a chain smoking, cocaine snorting, sexually deviant squirrel looking in your window every day? What story would it tell its friends about you?

4. I think I will try to cultivate a dance habit. Every day, at least one song. Whatever mood or playlist speaks or calls to me, so long as I move my body accordingly.

5. Rule #6: Don’t take yourself so damn seriously. — The Art of Possibility, B and RS Zander
We have serious work to do but we can be light in our approach.

6. Make sure you can always be made to laugh. It ensures you can still access your humanity. And it’s contagious so you can make people around you feel better. That’s good.

7. What do you call a dear with no eyes? No ideer. What do you call a deer with no eyes and no legs? Still no ideer. –As told by my niece. I still laugh.

8. Sometimes we just need some serious absurdity to shake us out of a funk. What is the most preposterous combination of animals you could assemble at a fairy coronation?

9. The next time you walk down the street, try strutting like you’re on a runway. Why not? The world IS your runway. Own it! Let loose your awesome self.

10. When you get stuck, play. Step away from the serious grind and put it down, even for five minutes. It’s like pressing your mental reset. Try it!

11. Who is your comic relief spirit animal? Do you relate more to Tom or Jerry? Road Runner or Wiley Coyote? Mickey or Donald? May your inner cartoon idiot keep you humble and fun!

12. “Dolpins are assholes,” I’m told. I wonder what other cute animals are actually a total menace? Besides humans, that is. We are definitely not as cute as we think

Okay friends, this may be the least coherent, most nonsensical set of jar smiles I have ever written. Must get to bed. I can hardly wait to see what I come up with tomorrow!

Love Notes for Revival

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Today I notice people taking charge, exercising their agency to make their own lives better.
We often don’t control our circumstances. We may not even have much influence.
Still, we can almost always choose our response. Fight, flight, advocate, exit, other.

When exit it feasible, ambivalence hovers: stay or go? Which way does the balance of risk/benefit tip?

For any of us challenged with stagnation, burnout, or low energy and fulfillment otherwise, may something among these twelve love notes bring ease and movement.

  1. Rest and recovery are essential and necessary for balance and health. May yours be regular and effective, recharging you to full wattage!

2. Wishing you the time, space, light, and bandwidth to be with your wholeness, to bring back into the fold those parts that may be exiled. It’s worth the effort.

3. Revival looks different for each of us, I think. May your achieve yours in your way, at yor pace, to the extent you need. And may you help others do theirs. We are here to help one another.

4. I hope you never, ever experience burnout. But if you do, I wish you everything and everybody you need for it to be brief and mild. May meaning always outweight stress.

5. What lies asleep within you that now stirs to wakefulness? How will you foster its arousal and engagement, its integration with your expansion?

6. When your energy wanes and your lids and limbs feel laden and heavy, may you inhale the breath of renewed spirt. May it lift you.

7. OH I just wish for you to feel that surge of energy every day that makes you happy to be alive among the rest of us! Let’s see where you get it from today!

8. Things you do for fun, people who bring you joy – Never sacrifice these for more productivity or money. We never think we will, and yet we too often do. Just wanna remind ya.

9. No matter what you’re doing through, may the steady rhythm of self-efficacy and hope beat sonorously from the core of your soul, filling your tank reliably full.

10. What’s your latest fun new hobby? How are you growing some new neural networks i that infinite potential of brain you have? What is possible for you?

11. However your batteries get charged, dear one – That is wht I wish for you every day. So you may run on FULL and expend yourself freely and generously on the rest of us!

12. How do you energize? I hope you have multiple, indepdendent ways – like your back-up generators in all different parts of the house!

I think I need to mind my metaphors better, and stop mixing them!
Happy weekend, dear readers. Hope we all get to relax and revive at least a little.

Love Notes for Balance

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Tonight’s post inspired by Ginny Clarke @ginny_clarke on Instagram:
“True power moves from stillness. Real productivity flows from presence.
When you’re always in motion, you cannot hear your intuition. When you’re constantly busy, you cannot receive inspiration.
Your soul didn’t come here to be a productivity machine.
Find the stillness within the storm.”

Balance is a dynamic state, I have said for a long time. I have learned four iterative lessons from five months of slackboard balance practice:
1. Activate the core
2. Relax
3. Feel it more than think it
4. Consistency, even if infrequent, yields results over time.
And of course, good music makes everything easier and more fun.

Head over to my Instagram page @chenger91 and check out the slackboard story highlight reels. I record every session, though I don’t necessarily post. I learn a lot from watching myself and seeing progress from a different perspective. Standing on one foot on a two inch strap, shifting weight and moving in the sagittal plane while maintaining center of gravity in the midline coronally–FUN to train! And I’m getting better, which is gratifying.

Wishing all the dynamic balance that allows us to stay strong and soft, rooted and flexible, stable and mobile, all in a great cosmic integration, within ourselves and among one another.

The next twelve love notes below; which ones resonate with you?

  1. Light and dark, masculine and feminine, hard and soft, left and right. We each and all possess both. It is up to us to find the beneficial blend.

2. Persist until you yield. Go until you rest. Repeat. Find the rhythm that works. And in the process, may you find meaning and connection always.

3. Today may you feel a better integration of the disparate parts of yourself – the parts that are apparently in conflict. They are all part of your whole. They each have a place.

4. Sometimes we swing too far to one side or the other. It’s normal. No big deal. We can learn to manage the momentum and velocity better each time.

5. Extremes are rarely sustainable. Nature tends toward mutually beneficial balance in the long term. But storms still happen, and can alter the landscpe. Hang on. We can ride it.

6. Most things take practice for proficiency. We are born with a sense of symmetry but not necessarily balance. The latter can be trained. But we must engage.

7. May that which feels imbalanced for you find its way to a stable center, at least for a little while. May it let you rest and gain a new perspective, such that deviations from center diminish.

8. When did we learn to take turns? Such a brilliant concept. Fairness. Recipirocity. Mutual respect and accountability. Offer. Receive. And back again.

9. Do you prefer to stand on your right or left foot? How would training the opposite benefit you in ways you may not expect? Now I’m not just talking about slackboards.

10. Even the scorched forrest grows back more lush than before. It just takes time. So we can practice patience. And advocate consistently. From all sides. Just maybe leave the matches at home.

11. May the forces that push and pull you out of balance, both intrinsic and extrinsic, find you increasingly stable and resilient to their disruptive influences. May your roots ground you.

12. *sigh* So many moving parts in thls life! :O Is it not amazing that we can move through it all with any sense of balance and stability? So pat yourself on the back–you’re doing great!

Oooo, fascinating. I had no idea so much political inuendo would emerge in this set! Is it obvious? Not sure I’ve ever written anything like that before… Maybe I will try my hand at allegory one day. 😉