A fresh start

Hey friends,

Welcome back to another entry. It’s the last day of January and we just finished taking our Neuro midterm last weekend! This semester is a little different from last semester—organ systems-based versus intro science/foundational courses. I think I want to start posting more consistently on this blog starting now.

It’s a fresh start!

A couple of weeks ago, the site that I usually publish my newsletter on was shut down. My laptop from college suddenly shut down as well. It’s a sign!! And it’s the Gregorian New Year and the Lunar New Year and there’s just a lot of freshness which is wonderful. It’s nice to start fresh internally but also to have external factors that can confirm/give yourself “permission” to re-evaluate and improve.

Because I don’t have too much time to journal nowadays, I’ll keep these writings relatively stream-of-consciousness and unedited. Please excuse any rambling or discombobulated thoughts. :)

What have I learned in medical school?

Well, most immediately—make sure to SAVE stuff on your computer to an external drive, or to the cloud, or wherever. I keep a LOT of stickies on my laptop (if you’ve ever seen my computer, you know that my entire desktop is full of stickies) and those don’t save automatically. And sometimes files don’t either. And for my newsletter, I sometimes just wrote the entries on the website itself without saving it to a doc—this I do not recommend. The only reason why I have some of the newsletter posts I really enjoyed writing is that it was an email newsletter, so there’s some record of it in my email. THANK GOODNESS.

TLDR: Save stuff, just in case life happens.

Um… videos??

I really want to make more vlogs!! I have so much footage from last semester that would be so fun to share. This semester is rapidly picking up, but I don’t think that’s an excuse for me to not edit. It’s just an impetus to think of new ways to share. Need to work on that. 

Oh yeah, back to medical school.

Medical school has been truly formative, not just because it’s where people begin to develop into “professionals,” but because it’s taking place during a time when (most) people are beginning to truly “adult” for the first time. A lot more self-motivation is needed because there is so much freedom with your time. It’s a period of making new friends, learning how you retain the massive amounts of information you learn each day, discovering how you function in a new environment, and getting to understand yourself better. No matter the experience—good, bad, neutral, stressful, fantabulous, anxiety-provoking—it’s all part of the human experience.

The human connection is powerful.

Most people who go into medicine, I think, are very empathetic individuals. Perhaps chronic overthinkers, or just people who take on other people’s feelings and feel with them. Does that make sense? I just mean… to take care of someone, you have to try to relate to them and see things from their perspective. But there is a balance to be struck, and I’ve learned so far the importance of compartmentalization in school and in life.

How I’m approaching overthinking

I generally try to solve my overthinking by…you guessed it…more thinking. But I’ve learned that you can’t solve issues by doing more of what caused them in the first place. So instead, I've found some new strategies that have been really helpful!

1. Give yourself permission to feel emotions.

   It’s natural to want to get over an unpleasant emotion as soon as possible, but that’s super difficult. Things take time, and when you accept that fact, you’ll reduce any excess stress that wanting to “get over it” is potentially generating. I think a lot of us nowadays want change to be instantaneous, but emotions and habits aren’t that simple. Give yourself the permission to feel and dwell on that feeling for a little—but not too much (see Tip 4).

2. Take note of your thoughts, but know that they don’t define you.

   Nearly everyone gets intrusive thoughts from time to time. Approach them with curiosity. If humor’s your potion of choice, commend your imagination for being so active, and laugh! Most importantly, ask yourself, “Is this thought helpful?” If the answer is no, then maybe it’s a good idea to ignore it.

3. Count it down.

   Mel Robbins has a nice technique of counting down to recalibrate your mind. This could be before presenting in front of a class or before starting a patient interview or when you’re just trying to focus in lecture. Basically, you just count down “5, 4, 3, 2, 1,” which sounds a little like common sense but has been helpful in preparing my mind to focus.

4. Foster a growth mindset.

   Situations are often how you view them. Try to see things in a way that is happiest and healthiest for you. When you make a mistake, think of it as an opportunity to learn and change for the future. This is much easier said than done. You really have to know yourself and identify how you handle situations before you can improve. The more challenges you face, the more opportunities you have to learn about yourself. Yay!!

5. The human connection is powerful.

   Trust takes time to build, but when it’s there, it’s the greatest feeling in the world. Most people think of trust as interpersonal, but there’s an element of trust that’s intrapersonal too. Trust in yourself takes time to build too. Explore your values, reassess your priorities, and be kind to yourself.

It’s getting near 11pm now and I need to wake up early to review some Psych Med lectures tomorrow!! And maybe go to the gym (still on the Caroline Girvan streak). So that’s it for today! As always, thank you for reading.

Love,

Caroline