A new professional competency
Learning wellbeing strategies can drastically improve your work experience.
I’m a veterinarian. In my profession one gets used to long hours.
Well, at least one is supposed to.
When I graduated I was sorely unprepared for the real life challenges of a veterinary surgeon.
Of course, you get to treat animals. But nobody prepared us for endless days, constant worry of failure, calls in the middle of the night, and the emotional toll of supporting people – owners – through sickness and death of their furry, feathery and scaly family members.
Only since I started using Inquiry Based Stress Reduction as a tool have I found peace with this profession. Being a veterinarian was hard for many years, leading to resentment, compassion fatigue, and my leaving positions.
For the last 6 years AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) has hosted a Wellbeing Summit – a conference dedicated to acknowledging and addressing the stresses that veterinary professionals face on a daily basis.
I don’t think its really a vet med only problem.
How about your profession?
Ever heard of stress? Burnout a problem? Do people suffer from mental distress, leading to substance abuse, ill health, quitting jobs?
Yes, of course.
It seems more like a generalized epidemic to me.
At the AVMA summit Dr Elisabeth Strand stated that wellbeing should be treated as a Professional Competency.
This seems exceedingly sensible to me.
Being well is an outcome of the ability to look after yourself; to have and be able to use efficient self care methods. Personal wellbeing means knowing what is good for you, knowing where your limits are, but also how you can transcend them and grow.
One of the most important pillars of wellbeing is self knowledge. Only if you know yourself to at least some degree can you support yourself.
People who are well in this way are more productive, more inspired and enthusiastic, miss less work hours, and need to spend less money recharging off work.
Unfortunately, none of these tools are commonplace information or knowledge that is taught in our education system. I do however believe that it is changing.
One of the big concepts in the wellbeing arena is of course mindfulness.
It’s a much used word and has many methods under its umbrella.
There are simple breathing meditations, the practice of presence, Yoga, Thai Chi and a host of other movement practices, to name just a few.
IBSR – the Work of Byron Katie – is one of the most powerful processes I have come across. It’s impact is simply amazing.
Inquire into your stressful story and emerge with more peace, more energy, more joy.
This is what you will find in The Leaders Work – named after The Work, and stating that in order to change our workplace culture, we have to lead the way with self knowledge and self care as one of our most important tools.
