Category Archives: leadership

Breathing Through It

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From my Insta tonight (@chenger91):

Happy Weekend, friends!

Wishing us all an energetic balance of rest, fun, productivity, and connection. All I want to do is write jar smiles!! 🤪🥰😂

Thanks to Coach Eric and (guru) Pierre at Ethos who led the elite human performance class today—I didn’t die, YAY HOOEY!! 😁

Our current government sows chaos in practically every domain of socioeconomic systems, and the fallout may take years to realize. Morbidity and mortality could be staggering. And yet, here we are. We stepped into it together and we’ gotta figure out together how to get out. It will take all of us doing differently from what we have done to date—I think we have proven much of that isn’t working, yes? 🤨🙄

This is an opportunity. We get to re-invent and co-create. Unlike those in charge now, we can ‘A5R it’—take a thoughtful, critical, and wise look at things, keep what’s working well and revise the rest. All good change requires iteration. It’s an infinite game. We start by bringing our best, most creative and compassionate selves to the front. Easier said than done in distress. So we do what we can.

Like Pierre taught us today:
1. Control our breath, and expand laterally.
2. Focus on microgoals (like the next breath).
3. Speak positively to ourselves (AND ONE ANOTHER!).
4. Envision the successful future.

It’s not rocket science. But it is humanity, so it’s messy. Still, we’ got this. 👊🏼👍🏼💪🏼👏🏼

@eric.koetting
@debarpierre
@ethostrainingchi

ODOMOBaaT: One Day, One Moment, One Breath at a Time.

The Insta post included the photos below, all notes written for friends in distress.
We could all do a better job recognizing, validating, empathizing with, and exploring one another’s distress, no matter what the geopolitical circumstances and environment. Most people don’t lash out for no reason. We have all spent too long ignoring others’ distress. This has to change.

Invitation to Witness

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Thank you for sharing.

What a privilege to be allowed into your life, your world, the space and time you inhabit in your own unique way. I know not everybody is invited; please know I do not take it for granted.

Your experience is your own and I cannot truly or fully understand, perhaps. But I can imagine. I will always do my best to be present to and for you–your joys, accomplishments, discoveries, epiphanies, sorrows, pain, and suffering. I will do my best to monitor and mitigate my own judgments and projections, and simply hold the space with and for you.

While I imagine how I might feel in your shoes, I will try harder to imagine how you feel in your shoes, and attend to that. I will be sparing with my advice and generous with the validation, though I know I stumble at that sometimes.

This witnessing, when mutual and reciprocal, nourishes my soul in ways I can hardly articulate. We take turns and also do it simultaneously, depending on what’s happening. We’ve been through a lot, not necessarily together, but each with the other witnessing. It is an act of volition, something we do on purpose for each other and our friendship. I feel the strength and support in real time, and the realization of the profound importance and impact of your seeing me is only fully apparent in hindsight. Wow.

How would we live, how would the world feel, if we all considered ourselves reverent witnesses of one another’s lives? If we attended to our collective psyches and hearts as if we were all kindergarteners crossing the street hand in hand?

What if we all just cared about each other a little more overtly and intetionally in this witnessing way?

Healing Through Connection Turns 10 This Month

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Dear Friends,

Oh my goodness. It’s been a decade. Holy cow. I’m in the feels, people.

I published the very first post here on April 14, 2015, The Premise. Reading it again now (I can’t remember the last time I read it), I’m proud that I can still stand firmly and proudly behind every sentence. At that time, I had only begun to speak nationally on physician burnout and well-being, culminating in multiple memorable and rewarding collaborations until right before the pandemic. That work carries on now without my direct participation, still championed by colleagues whom I admire more than words can express. My own work in wellness has since touched other professions including design, law, and state and federal judiciaries. How humbling to be invited into these spaces; what a privilege. Every opportunity teaches me, broadens my perspective, and reinforces my Premise:

“Patients and physicians have control over one thing above all else: our relationship with each other.  Relationships live and die by communication.  Barriers on the obstacle course of patient-physician communication loom large and formidable. Our system fails us over and again. And it falls to each of us, not the system, to find our way to connection and healing relationships.”

I thought our healthcare system was broken a decade ago; and here we are, worse off still in too many ways to count. Now more than ever, it is our relationships that will save us. It’s another paradox, connection: So important and fundamental, such a necessity, and also kind of mundane. It can happen in the smallest of moments–a glance, a fleeting facial expression, a passing vibe, a shared language–which can be lifesaving and also taken for granted. It can also require collossal effort–tremendous self-restraint, courage, and tenacity–to achieve it across deep and complex conflict and separation. I submit that both/all forms of connection are equally valuable and necessary for us humans to thrive. The longer I live, learn, practice, and write, the more I believe this to my bones.

It did not occur to me until today to do something big and special for my 10th blog birthday. Honestly I had thought of sunsetting the whole thing before the renewal date rolled around last month. But since I had not made any plans or decisions, I paid the fee and here we are.

So let’s have some fun this month, eh?

I think I’ll try to post daily. Nothing too labor intensive, no obligations, no rules. It’s my birthday party and I’ll write if I want to. I have 100 drafts waiting to expand and engage, four occurring just in the space of this morning’s commute.

It really is all about Connection: This blog, medicine, health, wellness, relationships, life.

How ironic: The world feels more divided and polarized, separated and divergent now than I can remember in my lifetime. And yet in my life personally, I feel more connected to people everywhere now than ever. What is that about? How fascinating and wonderful! Let me attempt to explore it and share in the next 28 days, yes?

Healing Through Connection. Connecting in all possible ways, for the good of us all. It’s what we live for, I’m convinced. So let’s dive in, celebrate, and see what emerges! Oh, this could be fun. See you tomorrow!

Love,
Cathy