My daughter was 4 weeks old when I began medical school. Saying it was the hardest time in my life will forever be an understatement. I did what all guilty mothers do, I put my needs absolutely last. After all, I was already taking time away from my child to purse my dream, I could not take any more time away from her. Not even 20 minutes a day!! The worst part, I didn’t’ snap out of it for another 14 years…
The year my daughter turned 14, I decided to leave my position at UT Southwestern Medical center as Assistant Professor in the Division of Hospital Medicine and enter my integrative medicine fellowship. My goal was to learn how to provide holistic care for my patients that utilized the best of western medicine and complementary therapies. I didn’t realize the fellowship would teach me a valuable lesson about my own health as well. Experiencing self-care practices such as guided meditation, the healing power of food and botanicals, the power of the breath, moving meditation such as QiGong, and many others, put me on a new path of understanding. I learned that it was OK to prioritize myself, no matter what, without guilt. I also learned that it wasn’t as hard to incorporate these practices into my life as I had thought. Most importantly, practicing self-care wouldn’t take me away from my children. In fact, it would give me the opportunity to pass on this understanding to them…the most critical piece of all.
Every day, I strive to help my patients reach the same understanding. Once they believe that they are worth it and that it IS possible to make these changes, good things keep coming to them and to those around them. I hope you can believe that you are worth it and don’t wait 14 years before you make that positive change towards self-care.