We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one. – Confucius
Mindful Practice in intensive retreat trainings with over 400 physicians, medical educators and other health professionals from all over the globe, Ron Epstein and I began to ask ourselves- why wait for our colleagues to come to us? If the need for building resilience among our colleagues is pressing, and the tools for helping improve quality of care, quality of caring, and our own well-being are effective, relevant and accessible, why delay offering this training to more professionals? So we have decided to take Mindful Practice trainings into regional settings, offering it in a new, multi-modal, and engaging way. We already have two trainings scheduled for San Diego and Boston this winter. We will soon announce a workshop next fall in the Pacific Northwest, and, in 2018 in the Midwest and Europe. Our goal is to reach 10,000 health professionals, and we believe that we can. We realize that in order to achieve this goal, the 4-5 day intensives near Rochester are simply not possible for many of our colleagues. Therefore, we have designed our new offering to include a single weekend course followed by 4 online sessions in the two months following that are designed for participants to still experience the depth of the work, create community, and incorporate what is learned into daily practice.
Through our Mindful Practice programs, we’ve created a worldwide community of physicians, nurses, psychologists and other health professionals. They are energized to take direct action to explore their own experiences, share with others, and engage in self-care for the purpose of improving the care they provide to patients and their families while enhancing the meaning they derive from their work. Together, they are exploring with rigor, joy and challenge their very real personal experiences of patient care and teaching, exploring themes of burnout, uncertainty, errors, grief, attraction, and other dynamics of the clinical life, all held within a container of mindfulness. They are stretching their capacities to listen deeply, not only to each other, but to their own hearts and minds.
When will it be the right time for you to begin the professional life you have worked so assiduously for? To deliver the care you so strongly believe your patients deserve? To derive the deep meaning and satisfaction that you so much need to not only sustain yourself, but to energize you and activate you toward compassionate action, and motivate you to continue to learn and grow? Will it be now, when you realize that now is the only time you really have to step into your new life, the one you have been living all along, but now find yourself awakening to?
Please have a look at our regional courses, our Mindful Practice Website and Facebook page, our intensive retreats, and much more about Mindful Practice. Consider joining us, as we come to your backyard.
