Residency Mindset Journal / Aug 2022:
Hey Residency Community,
We wanted to let you know that this issue will be the last of Residency Mindset Year One. All of the issues up to this point will be compiled into a free ebook for all subscribers.
We’re revamping our website and taking a month to focus our energy! That being said, we’ll be back in early October to launch Residency Mindset Year Two. Thank you for reading and supporting, and we hope you enjoy the last issue of Year One!
Table of Contents:
I. Mindset: Well-being in Every Moment 🌤️⛅🌥️
II. Featured Practice: Taking a Breath 🌊
III. Residency Mindset Program: A Vision for Therapy and Well-being 🌐
Mindset: 🌤️⛅🌥️
Well-being in Every Moment
In last month’s issue, To Infinity and Beyond, we talked about the importance of living in strategic awareness of our daily experience and decision-making. In a way, that also serves as a good analogy/description for mindset in general. We’re continually strategizing consciously and/or unconsciously throughout our lives, but what are we strategizing for?
Well-being in Every Moment ✨
Through well-being practice we’re looking to run counter to the stream of status-addiction, comfort, and avoidance. Feeling an emotional high isn’t the same as well-being and this is very important to perceive in ourselves over and over again. Instead, well-being is a kind of healthy balance and a capacity to tolerate, understand, and transform all the different experiences that come with being a human being.
Self-understanding is founded on the capacity to perceive and accept reality with a greater sense of non-judgment alongside strategic work. Non-judgment has to be driving our self-perceptions and our growth mindset, or else the pressure of transformation will be too much. The mindset of experiencing well-being in every moment isn’t about always feeling good, but about finding a certain peace in non-peace and confidence/faith within uncertainty. In moments of discomfort or suffering, our interpretation of our experience can end up influencing the experience itself.
Well-being results from conditions; one of those conditions is the influence and guidance of our mindset. Well-being practice is mindset-in-action that sets effects in motion. A practice like therapy is putting the intention of emotional healing in action. As practice goes on, we learn to essentially practice better and growth becomes more efficient and directed.
As important as consistency is, it has to also be rooted in reality. When it’s time to divert some of our energy to pursue well-being in a new area or through a new method, then personal evolution itself becomes the practice. The point of consistency IS personal evolution, not attachment to routine. Practice is a form of personal evolution, or a direct expression of it.
Practice to Evolve
Consistent practice over time is an investment in personal evolution. We act as the guides for that evolution, often against the powers that be. Practicing builds the confidence we’re looking for when we would otherwise be lying and distorting reality. This kind of understanding requires us to see through a lens of compassion in a way that goes way beyond the average amount/status quo.
Trauma makes self-care and self-regulation more difficult (and at times impossible). It’s a cruel kind of feedback loop, but we can transform this situation to make our patterns feed well-being back to us over time. When we find ourselves in a position/state where we truly don’t have control over our choices then it’s time to reach out to others and seek professional help. Though difficult, this is often the time for personal breakthrough because the discomfort pushes us to finally seek help and new strategies.
One of the reasons we talk about the importance of learning to tolerate greater emotional discomfort is that discomfort-aversion leads to disconnection from reality and the ability to live a sustainable lifestyle. When we perceive ourselves and cause/effect in real-time, we can gradually learn to guide the patterns toward well-being. This is a process, not of judgment, but of work, healing, and practice. ✨
Featured Practice:
Taking a Breath 🌊
Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts.
Although inhaling and exhaling are the work of the lungs, and take place in the chest area, the stomach area also plays a role. The stomach rises with the filling of the lungs. At the beginning of the breath the stomach begins to push out. But after inhaling about two-thirds of the breath, it starts to lower again.
Why? Between your chest and your stomach there is a muscular membrane, the diaphragm. When you breathe in correctly the air fills the lower part of the lungs first, before the upper lungs fill with air, the diaphragm pushes down on the stomach, causing the stomach to rise. When you have filled your upper lungs with air, the chest pushes out and causes the stomach to lower again. That is why, in former times, people spoke of the breath as originating at the navel and terminating at the nostrils.
Your breath should be light, even, and flowing, like a thin stream of water running through the sand. Your breath should be very quiet, so quiet that a person sitting next to you cannot hear it. Your breathing should flow gracefully, like a river, like a watersnake crossing the water, and not like a chain on rugged mountains or the gallop of a horse. To master our breath is to be in control of our bodies and minds. Each time we find ourselves dispersed and find it difficult to gain control of ourselves by different means, the method of watching the breath should always be used.
Our breath is such a fragile piece of thread, but once we know how to use it, it can become a wondrous tool to help us surmount situations which would otherwise seem hopeless. Our breath is the bridge from our body to our mind, the element which reconciles our body and mind and which makes possible oneness of body and mind.
Thich Nhat Hanh — The Miracle of Mindfulness
Calm and Ease — Guided Meditation by Thich Nhat Hanh
A very soft and quiet guided meditation led by Thich Nhat Hanh. It’s a nice introduction to this form of mindfulness meditation. Try it out!
Residency Mindset Program: 🌐
A Vision for Therapy and Well-being
Allowing ourselves to feel, or go back and feel, is very important. When we experience trauma/prolonged stress, our minds and physiologies disconnect out of self-preservation. Once the trauma situation settles, our minds are imprinted with the experience. Time may dull the memory, but it won’t dull the effect without conscious commitment and work. Breaking through the fear and discomfort patterns through therapy allows for a greater experience of well-being.
We’re happy to report that our first Residency Mindset Therapy Program participant is over 12 sessions in, and things have been going smoothly. 🏄♀️
This is currently a small program, but we’re happy with its direction and scalability. Working with therapists who do this professionally takes pressure off of us and allows us to do what we do best — act as mindset guides as well as financial and logistical connector pieces on behalf of those in need.
Over the next year we’re looking to expand the program to as many participants as we can. More to report in October! Happy Year One!
This journal provides general information and discussions about health, wellness, and other related subjects. The information and content provided in this journal, or in any linked materials, should not be construed as medical advice, nor is the information intended to be a substitute for professional medical proficiency or treatment.
If you or any person reading this journal has a medical concern, you should consult with your health care provider or seek other professional assistance. Never ignore, postpone, or stop professional medical advice because of something you have read in this journal. If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor or emergency services immediately.
