"Mindfulness"

Radiology residents are trained to recreate an entire picture of their patient through history and imaging. Not only the traditional planes of sagittal, coronal, axial, but the situational, the past surgeries ,medical problems, labs. Considering all the evidence , be mindful and the diagnosis surfaces. . . or the case feels messy. As you move up in your training, more often you think, hmmm, there's more to this diagnosis and off to the evidence we go, to google and lectures and ofc my coach Christoph Agten, MD. We learn and we train to become mindful, to be comfortable in the blindspots . We allow ourselves this uncomfortable space to learn and with each baby step, we walk. That “inkling” that makes my residents dive back into the case and be with the uncertainty, is their access to the diagnosis.

That skill of mindfulness is taught by the expert Agustin (Gus) Castellanos, M.D. He's humble and he's a master and as he takes you through his authentic experience , he hands you tools to learn how to master your mind just like him.

“Mindfulness”, according to Gus is ,“to know this moment as it is, with all its messiness, beauty, and ambiguity”. How many of us beat ourselves about a perceived error we’ve made or over a bad outcome, or an obstacle we can't seem to push past? Imagine you could call that out, as it manifested and Soothe the reality behind the harshness: the fears, concerns, worry. Our never-ending need to do it "the right way, the “perfect way”, like we in medicine are trained to do, is a constant source of burnout.

Gus teaches recovery, an essential skill in the healer's anti burnout toolkit. Self compassion, contextual change, collaboration and belonging in our community are all in the kit. Gus makes it portable taking you through techniques of mindfulness- which by the way, “can be practiced by anyone- regardless of their religious beliefs or faith, race, ethnic background, economic status, or level of education.”

In the spirit of not judging myself, I left myself back in my class Georgetown University Creator Institute. I wasn't convinced I had the complete story of Burnout. At first I beat myself up, as I could have had it done already, but I just wasn't done researching. So with the guidance of my Professor Eric Koester and his amazing team, I'm about to embark on an even deeper dive into the evolution of Burnout with my focus on Belonging at the Table of Medicine. We are going to talk Equity, How microaggressions and subconscious biases of gender, race, and privilege serve to undermine safety and mental wellness of us healers. I am getting my groove back and truly appreciate all of you supporting my discovery. I wish for you a mindful journey, all for your own.

#mindfulness GrooveMDJennifer Tam, MD Padraic Cyril Mc FreenKellie Lease Stecher, MDPringl Miller, MD, FACSHieu Bui, MD MBA FACHEAnne M Richardson