“What day is it?” asked Pooh
“It’s today.” squeaked Piglet
“My favorite day,” said Pooh
A.A. Milne
As a veterinarian, I never thought I would learn something useful from Winnie the frickin’ Pooh! Yet, in this moment, I’m grateful for this quote as it reminds me of mindfulness, which is a POWERFUL tool I use to manage veterinary stress!
Believe it or not, Winnie the Pooh was a master of mindfulness, and the brief conversation between Piglet and Pooh shows that Pooh, in fact, understood the importance of living in the present moment.
For what is each day but “today”? Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and the others are just names given to describe what “today” is. In truth, yesterday has passed and tomorrow may never come. Therefore, we can make a conscious choice to enjoy today. Speaking of which, what will you do with today? Will you enjoy it?
When you wake up each morning, do you feel that today is the newest, best day of your life? Are you looking forward to whatever it is you’re about to do today?
Is “today” your favorite day?
In this short article it is my intention to provide you with a few reasons why mindfulness could completely change your experience as a veterinary professional. I will also give you a few suggestions on how to become more mindful in both your personal and professional life!
GM PowerNote: Our mission at Get MotiVETed is to increase the awareness of the importance of personal development and mindfulness as tools for increasing personal and professional fulfillment and wellbeing. If you haven’t already, check out my article titled “The Major Key to Your Wellbeing is YOU”.
Why I Believe in Mindfulness as a Necessary Tool for Managing Veterinary Stress
As a veterinarian and human, I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing ALL 3 categories of wellbeing:
I know what dark days and dark moments feel like. I know what burnout feels like. I know what suicidal ideation feels like. I know what feeling unfulfilled at work feels like. I how it feels to doubt the decision to become a veterinarian. I’ve been there. In fact, I was there from the time I graduated in 2013 until November of 2016.
Today, I enjoy my veterinary life. I enjoy everyday – even the ones that would have made me miserable back in 2013 to 2016.
My discovery of personal development and mindfulness are largely responsible for that shift.
3 Awesome Reasons to Consider Practicing Mindfulness to Combat Veterinary Stress
- It’s a FREE tool – rather self-explanatory, it is a very cost-effective way to decrease your stress level and improve your life experience. As largely underpaid professionals and often overworked, we can’t argue with free! Commitment and effort are your only investment!
- You can do it anywhere and just about at any waking moment – whether you’re doing a spay, explaining food allergies for the 10th time in one day, giving vaccinations, reading a fecal, doing a nail trim, eating lunch, spending time with your loved one, or simply walking out to your car, you can practice mindfulness and enhance your life experience at any time.
- It’s EFFECTIVE! – whether you’re looking for anecdotal proof of its effectiveness or evidence-based, scientific proof of its effectiveness, you will have no problem discovering the proof you seek. There are even Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) courses out there that could really help to manage veterinary stress.
Common Barriers to Mindfulness that Veterinary Professionals May Face
You may be thinking, “Mindfulness has worked for other people, but it probably won’t work for me,” or “Mindfulness is one of those weird woo-woo things that just isn’t my style or cup of tea,” or “I don’t have time to sit and meditate for 15 hours a day,” or “I don’t feel like learning anything new.”
I get it. As veterinary professionals, we’re already pressed for time. The last thing we need is more work to do, right? Wrong!
By doing the self-work that we’re suggesting, you will very quickly find that you have more time to do all that you need to do! Furthermore, just a few minutes of deliberate mindfulness each day will drastically improve your mindfulness skill.
You may also think that you’ll probably do it wrong. With mindfulness, there is no right or wrong. The effort you’re putting forth makes your mindfulness attempts a guaranteed success. The only way to fail is to not try or to give it up because you don’t think it’s working!
These are all natural barriers to have and natural things to think, and I certainly thought them before I started my mindfulness practice.
My mindfulness practice is VERY informal and probably subpar at best. I’m no Buddha or Monk I assure you! But even with my unpolished practice of mindfulness I still reap the benefits of it!
If you have any of those thoughts, I encourage you to go ahead and try it anyhow! It’ll feel a little weird at first, but with time, you’ll become a rockstar at it!
If Dr. Hawley can do it… well, you know the rest!
3 Tips for Veterinary Professionals Who are Just Getting Started With Mindfulness
- Learn how to meditate – mindfulness and meditation are not the same thing. They’re closely related, but different. In my opinion, meditation makes my ability to be more mindful much easier. It allows me to do mindfulness better and for longer stretches of time. A great place to start with your meditation is with an app called 1 Giant Mind. This is the app that I used to go from zero experience with meditation to feeling competent as a beginner meditator.
- Use free and/or paid learning resources – there are audiobooks, YouTube videos, ebooks, and lots of free online resources to help you become more mindful.
- Do it NOW! Ok! Here’s your first mindfulness assignment: I want you to take notice of your breath. Feel it at the tip of your nose. Feel it all the way down through your trachea and into your lungs. Now I want you to think about this very moment. You are somewhere reading this article. Where are you? Take a moment to look around you. What do you see? Do you see anything that you’ve never noticed before? In this very moment, you are in a particular mood. Before reading this article, perhaps you had a different mood. What type of mood do you want to be in when you close this article? That’s it! You were just being mindful of the present moment. But wait! How do you feel about your first mindful practice? Do you think it was stupid? Weird? A waste of your time? Something you want to investigate further? Remember, there is no right or wrong! However, by simply paying attention to what you think about it, you ARE being mindful.
If you want to learn more about mindfulness please check out “Exploratory” our Get MotiVETed University podcast! We have two podcast episodes on mindfulness, where we go into a bit more detail on how we use mindfulness in our personal and veterinary lives! The podcast is totally free and has really good information there that you may enjoy! We try to make our content fit into the category of “Edutainment” which is the mixing of education with entertainment so that it’s not completely boring. We know how the wellbeing stuff can be!
So go ahead and find your inner Winnie the Pooh, and make today your most favorite day, everyday! Veterinary stress is no match for YOU! And for you true Winnie the Pooh fans out there, enjoy the video below!
