Friday Dec 23, 2022

You Are Not Broken: How to Re-Align Your Life and Career

“The culture needs to shift. How we're showing up and caring for others has to shift,” explains Dr. Kathy Stepien, MD, FAAP. Dr. Kathy is the founding Director of the Institute for Physician Wellness, a pediatrician, a certified physician coach, and host of the She Thrives MD Podcast. Through her physician wellness retreats, wellness training and certification program and other teachings, she has helped thousands of women physicians since 2016 to rethink their priorities and realign their lives and careers to match.

People are constantly developing and changing, so the life you created for yourself at 18 or 20 might not be in alignment with the life you want for yourself now in your 30s or 40s and beyond. If you find that your priorities have shifted, it could be time to consider re-alignment. The culture in medicine unfortunately is not the kindest to physicians and encourages maladaptive behaviors. While changes have begun to be made, there is a long way to go for the culture to be healthy for both patients and everyone working in healthcare. By taking a step back and getting back into your own body, you can reassess how you are feeling and why you are feeling that way, and then make a plan for how to make improvements. When you are stressed out and just going through the motions, it is hard to think clearly and intuitively about what you want for your life.

By taking the time to step back and reconnect with your body and mind, you will be able to access a higher level of thinking which will help you to make better decisions about your priorities and the life you want. We are constantly growing and changing, so periodically it can be very beneficial to take time for re-aligning your life with your current goals and values.

Quotes

• “It can be really hard to believe that it's possible to love your life inside of medicine.” (20:29-20:35 | Dr. Kathy)

• “Some of these problems can't be figured out just logically and rationally. We need to do some healing and we need to do some feeling forward, not just thinking our way forward.” (22:29-22:38 | Dr. Kathy)

• “Whatever cognitive shifts we have, whatever new knowledge and skills we develop, the brain, the limbic systems dialed down a bit and we actually can have higher order thinking and see things more intuitively and clearly about oh yeah, this is what I love to do, and this is actually what I don't want to be doing anymore. It opens the world up to new ideas and new potential.” (24:40-25:02 | Dr. Kathy)

• “The culture of medicine really shapes our behavior and reinforces some maladaptive patterns.” (29:21-29:27 | Dr. Kathy)

• “The culture needs to shift. How we're showing up and caring for others has to shift. Which is wonderful, because it allows us to be human beings, rather than just kind of robots who are running around hurriedly trying to click the boxes and close the chart and move out of the equation.” (30:28-30:48 | Dr. Kathy)

Links

Connect with Kathy Stepien:

Website: www.instituteforphysicianwellness.com

Instagram: @kathystepienmd

Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/physicianwellness/

Connect with Lara:

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