Before you walk into the exam room, the surgical suite, your office, the classroom, there is a moment. While you may not recognize it right now — and I’ve been there — I promise it exists.
Despite having not urinated in hours…
Despite feeling like you can’t quite catch your breath…
Despite having not eaten since the day before…
The phones are ringing off of the hook, and the clients keep coming!
Yet…
The moment is there.
Your Response Dictates What Happens Next
When you begin to look for this moment, you will most certainly find it.
The moment is after the door has closed behind you and you wait for the client to walk in the room.
The moment is after the pet’s name has been called and Fifi Rodgers begins to walk towards you from the lobby.
This moment can exist even before you call the pet’s name.
Even more so, this moment can be created as pre-veterinary and veterinary students settle into their seats, and the noise begins to fade.
This moment is chosen to be focused on as you walk into a new hospital after getting out of your car and introducing yourself as the new sales representative of your veterinary-related company.
This breath of intention exists before the surgery drape is opened and before the scalpel blade is placed on the skin.
This release of tension can occur when the scared 140lb rottweiler is beginning to ‘act up’ or more accurately go into fight or flight mode when the ‘alien humans’ have abducted him for what can only be known as science experiments and a violation of his kind as he locks fearful eyes with the husky that is busy singing the song of his people while locked away in his new cage.
No matter who you are or what role you play within the veterinary profession, this moment exists for you!
You Have Plenty of Time — Make the Time
Now, at this moment be it 10 seconds, 30 seconds, 60 seconds, 1 Mississippi, and perhaps its as much as two minutes, there is enough time to bring your awareness inside of your body, into your breath, into your heart, into the present moment, and to your mind. In this moment, you will find your amazing opportunity to Release and Recommit.
You can consciously release the events that have led up to this moment to whatever degree you desire. You can release the cases, the people, the animals of today and of yesterday, and even the stuff you brought from home — like the stressors you’re anticipating for tomorrow.
The aforementioned along with the muscle tension, the mental worry, the emotional anxiety, the frustration, and the mistakes all fall away when you bring your awareness to releasing, scanning, and recommitting with your true intention. Focusing on the breath — our true life force — and shifting to a mindset of what exactly brings you to this moment, you can create and maintain a positive sense of serving and optimum veterinary wellbeing.
Recommit to the intentions you would like to have with the experience that you are about to create. Moving into intention and creation rather than reaction and panic shifts the way the brain is functioning.
“Less amygdala, more prefrontal cortex” -C. P. Oliver
This simple exercise of noticing the moment can help you reset and recharge to continue with your day. Use this exercise throughout the day to simply release tension at the end of your day as you transition into home life or promote sleep.
“Release and Recommit” Use This Mantra Throughout the Scan, and Your Day!
1. Stand with feet hip distance apart (hip points=bones not flesh)
2. Taking 1–3 deep breaths in through the nose, into the belly and release.
3. Relax your facial muscles including between your brow and your ears.
4. Allow your tongue to fall away from the roof of your mouth.
5. Allow the shoulders to relax, roll the heads of the shoulders back and the shoulder blades to hug the spine.
6. Moving your awareness through your chest and into the abdomen.
7. Reaching through the crown of your head add length to the spine while creating space between the ribs.
8. Tuck the tailbone down, lifting the thighs while relaxing the buttocks.
9. Put a slight bend in the knee (avoiding hyperextension of the knee).
10. Ground through the 4 corners of your feet.
*Wiggling your toes and lifting or repositioning your feet to really get a feel for uneven distribution of weight.
If time allows bring the awareness through your body in reverse order — monitoring for a hyperextended knee or tension returned to shoulders that raised or a brow that furrowed.
Slowly bring your awareness out of your body, setting a renewed intention for your next interaction, conversation and so forth. Reassure the rotty with firmness rather than anger and resentment. This will ensure that both you and the rotty go home with less anger and resentment for each other. Offer empathy to the person on the other end of the conversation. Practice self-compassion to boost confidence or integrity that you value allows you to go on with your day and your career in a way that matters most to you.
You have the unique power to make choices in every minute of the day that other people may look over, chalk up to poor X, make excuses for Y, be unhappy with Z. By shifting toward this level of mindfulness you can enhance and enrich the way you experience your work, your relationships, your life.
Changing the way you think, speak and act makes all the difference in the world and truly will shape how the events in your life unfold. How one chooses to serve their clients, patients, students, colleagues, partner or spouse, and children is within your capability.
“Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.”
-Gandhi
Noticing the heightened level of ‘lightness’ you bring into a room, how you feel re-energized at 5 pm, the tone of voice throughout the day can be renewed with each new class, case, phone call.
Offering yourself the chance to reach the level of integrity that is your highest possible self and consciously choosing to operate from that place of being and knowing the skills (as there are many, and mindfulness is simply one) in order to reach that state consistently.
You begin to identify the traits skills and qualities that you value, that you seek out of the interactions you choose to have and that go well for all involved. Your current and future positions require and begin to embody them by choice and through repetition habits are created and eventually second nature and then default states of being mindful and operating from higher viewpoints.
You will begin to notice when your thoughts, words, and actions are supporting your intentions or not — whether you are truly seeking to connect with someone or inadvertently seeking to fueling a fire.
“Be the Light”
You begin to lead from a place that supports you and your teams (your work or family team) improving performance and fulfillment rather than being filled with negatively charged emotions that depress you, migrate outward and spiral into all sorts of poor decisions that continue the cycle of poor veterinary wellbeing through overeating, numbing, self-medicating etc.
Recognizing that we can only change ourselves, I always say, “Start where you are.” By understanding that the veterinary profession is unique and can be very provocative and challenging and by implementing alternative methods to improve well-being, it becomes as simple as making a choice, taking 10–60 seconds (no one needs to know this is all for you it’s not obvious that you’re doing anything), recommitting and building on from there.
When we don’t possess the proper coping skills and lean on the negative ones — like eating fatty foods, drinking alcohol, lashing out — we are doing an injustice to our friends, family, patients, clients, coworkers, and society. More importantly, we are doing an injustice to ourselves.
Like it or not, we must cultivate the proper coping skills to create an existence of reduced stress, increased awareness, and truly fulfilling moments.
-Renee Machel
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