As I ventured through seasons of burnout and depression, I couldn’t forget that sunny memory in my soul. If I knew it once, I’ll know it again.
Tag: anxiety
Book Trail: The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter
Look no further if you need a punch in the face. I need one every so often. You and I didn't need a book to tell us that our life is softer than it once was. This book is cool in the way in connects who we evolutionarily were to who we are, and it's … Continue reading Book Trail: The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter
Newsletter #11: Difficult Decisions Are An Art We Get To Practice
(This is my weekly newsletter email. Join here.) Do the harder thing. As best I can, I've given perspective when asked. Since sharing my story here, the most common request I get is for advice regarding medical school. Having been accepted, people want to know if they should go. Their situations are different than mine, … Continue reading Newsletter #11: Difficult Decisions Are An Art We Get To Practice
An Uncomfortable Reality—I Needed Those Depressions
I made it 28 years before the first depression. It was a good run. The darkness descended spring semester of my third year of medical school, the hardest year by my count.
What I Know About Regrets
“Ask yourself”, my ninth-grade football coach called through the evening roar of early autumn secadas, “Have I emptied the tank today?” He'd ask the question with one “gasser” left in the conditioning portion of practice; sun already set, us already spent. The whistle would shrill, and I’d give it everything I had for the next … Continue reading What I Know About Regrets
Newsletter #9: Tales from the Trash Diaries
Most mornings I walk a loop around my neighborhood. No variations, always the same path. It sets my rhythm, a Nadal-like tic of superstition. What varies (rarely the weather here in Santa Barbara) is how much trash I encounter. Sometimes a minuscule Twix wrapper, other times an entire outfit (pants, shirt, and hat), I've come … Continue reading Newsletter #9: Tales from the Trash Diaries
Would I Still Go to Medical School?
If you could go back to the few months before starting medical school, with what you know now, would you still do it?
Anxiety’s Surprising (And Unlocking) Opposite
But, there’s a distinction worth noting: we cannot control our thoughts. Yes, we can reframe our thoughts and test cognitive distortions—an invaluable practice—but the original thought is out of our purview.