Women Doctors Showing Up for Ourselves
As Female Physicians, we show up for our patients EVERY DAY - but why is it so hard for us to show up for ourselves mentally?
What does this even mean? I think it means having a commitment to be aware of the thoughts that are creating our reality. It is being open to the idea that we do have the power to change our thoughts. It's also being patient and showing ourselves grace so that we can buy into this.
So, where do we start?
Let me offer this sticky game. Kind of a catchy title. The sticky game can also be called the resistance game. So what I want you to consider doing, is to go to a quiet space, close your eyes, and allow your thoughts to just run freely. I want you to be the observer of your thoughts.
Is there a thought in particular that keeps showing itself brighter than all of the rest? Is this a thought that potentially creates an unsettled feeling in your body? If so, we can call this sticky game success. You have identified a thought that feels sticky. Showing up for yourself mentally is going to require you to decide if you keep wanting to think of that thought. That's all I ask of you today. Just decide if you want to keep thinking about it. This alone is showing up for yourself mentally because you have created awareness.
What is your sticky thought today? Sometimes it's super useful to share our thoughts. Let's go ahead and put them out there. After all, this will create even more awareness, and we will be showing up for ourselves even more.
Showing up for ourselves emotionally. Now, what does that mean? Just like with our thoughts, showing up for our emotions means that we have to be aware of them. Did you know that by identifying the emotion that you are feeling, you can decrease the intensity of it by at least 50%?
The problem is that no one ever told us that we had to become aware of our emotions. In medical training, it was more the norm to suppress what we were feeling. There was no time to process the emotion; we had to move on to the next patient. We had to get through the next 24 hours of this call. There was no time for emotions, at all.
But, that all can change now. Showing up for ourselves emotionally is figuring out what emotions feel like in our body. What does it feel like to be angry or frustrated or sad or happy or excited? Once we can become aware of our emotions, we can actually start to process them. Processing our emotions means that we are not distracting ourselves from them, we are not reacting to them, and we are not resisting them. Instead, we are just allowing them. The more often we are able to allow the sensations of the emotions in our body, we have all the power. Showing up for ourselves emotionally by allowing our feelings is available to us.
Showing up for ourselves physically. Now, this one is super fun for me. I love to show women how showing up for yourself physically will make it a little bit easier to also show up for yourself mentally and emotionally. Let me explain. One of the biggest reasons why I recommend exercise is to help increase the endorphins in our body. Endorphins alone just make us feel better. In fact, in the workouts that I lead, we have a stress level indicator before and after each workout. On average, stress levels decrease by at least 50% every workout. Hello endorphins!
Showing up for yourself physically means we are taking care of our body the best way we know how. It is going to be different for each and every one of us. I think the main point here is to know what your goal is and why you have that goal. Asking yourself, is my will strong enough? I see this all the time; someone will want to lose weight, however, their reason why is because they think they will be happier. But what if happiness is available to you right now?
We have to go deeper. Perhaps we want healthy aging, improved blood sugar control, improved cholesterol, reversal of osteoporosis, and increased lean muscle mass so that we can carry our groceries when we are 90. Showing up for ourselves physically means having an epic reason why setting a realistic goal and having a plan to get there are all available to you right now. How do you want to show up for your physical self? It’s available to you right now.