The doorless room with no windows!

The doorless room with no windows!

What comes to mind when you hear phrases like ‘Stuck and helpless’ or ‘anxious and depressed’?

Imagine being in one or both situations yet clueless on how to help yourself? And when you tried, it felt like being in a room built without doors or windows, let alone keys to them.

Perhaps you resigned to acceptance; giving up on the hope to ever find answers, be free, or truly happy, and then when you weren’t looking, some super woman comes around and hands you the power to create a door.

Hahaha! I can almost see you jumping, or simply mouth open and short of words!!!

It happened on 16th May with Dr. Nwife. Yes! She was the super woman at our May webinar session on Dealing With Anxiety And Pressure In The Pursuit Of Excellence In Medicine.

Check this out ̶ “Thank you Dr. Jummy for the session. It was awesome and gave me perspective. Dr. Nwife was in no rush and ready to understand me. In fact I’ve started applying the things she said and it’s been wonderful after just a few hours. I’m happy I’m a member. Thank you for your sacrifice.” Participant Dr. Kemi.

I totally agree with Dr. Kemi!  Dr. Nwife maintained our community goal to ensure a safe environment that encourages our members to open up and share on their journeys.

See below, snapshots from the session:

Get this sorted first!

As a physician who is at a critical season of her journey, you should settle the ‘why’ behind your medical pursuit as it provides you the blueprint for your journey and saves you a ton of road blocks.

You must also settle on the trajectory you want your career to tow; do you intend to get to the zenith of your career? If you aren’t, you might have to prepare for possible feelings of inferiority complex; a mental state you do not have to deal with.

However, in the midst of high expectations, it is disrespectful to ignore the essence of who you are; your peculiarities in relation to your environment. Having to deal with the pressure from high expectations of family or society is common. But it becomes a problem when you begin to lose yourself to this pressure such that you yield to expectations of you, and consequently live life beneath who you really are.

Based on experience and observation, decisions born from or in connection to passion and a genuine desire to give back is your best shot. When the options from which you choose and decide are inspired by gender bias, a preferred specialty or concept expected of you by family, yet the image of your preferred self doesn’t align with any, I can say that you are almost setting yourself up.

What next?

Now you have these sorted! You know why you will or will not choose a specialty. You have taken the time to adequately research the dynamics of your pre-loved specialty and it resonates immensely with you such that you are happy to embark on it.

Kudos! You are well on the right path and here’s why:

•  You will not be taken by surprise because you will not be totally caught off guard when your own challenges present themselves.
• You are already aware that despite doing research, your journey will present challenges unique to only you. At this point, your mindset is already prepared and empowered, and when maintained, will get you over many hurdles.

Here comes the storm!

You have now embarked on your journey full and pumped to conquer and suddenly a storm erupts from now where! How do you stand, fight and conquer so that you have your own victory dance? What do you do?

Identify! Identify!!! Identify!!! What exactly has tampered with your perfectly up and running mental wellness? Is it a limiting belief or attitude to your current challenge?

When you have done this, next is to go all out to invest in breaking them. That’s right, yank them off!!

Some tips to get you started

Develop soft skills: amongst others are essential skills like assertiveness, negotiation, communication. Wherever you find yourself, endeavor to understand the dynamics of the work environment, so that you can position yourself to interact and blend in.

Seek self-awareness and embrace your weaknesses; they are part of who you are. Never ignore internal conflicts and conversations; they have the potential to paralyze your personal growth if ignored.

Update your mindset: strive to maintain the “I don’t know yet” attitude to your learning. It empowers your mind to approach learning as progressive rather than an obstacle. Also comparison can be healthy when it is done in relation to your past and your preferred self.

Lifestyle: because you have identified the limiting patterns around your mental wellness, you are empowered to prepare; you are able to ask yourself ‘Why does this stress me? What can I do to change the story?’

You are proactive to identify those activities that stir up positive energy and challenge the negative feeling, and build habits around them. This is the core of taking ownership of your mind!