152. Heal and Recover with Kindness and Compassion

The Mindful Healers Podcast with Dr. Jessie Mahoney and Dr. Ni-Cheng Liang

Our habitual thought patterns play a big role in physical and emotional healing and recovery.

In many of these episodes, we share our direct life experiences with the hope that being vulnerable and sharing will help you and those you care for live a healthier life of more ease.

In this episode, Jessie shares her own recovery and healing journey after her recent surgery.

She specifically shares many of the habitual and long-held thought errors that came up for her frequently and how she has learned to navigate them with more nimbleness and grace than she used to.

Some of the beliefs discussed include:

• Less pain medicine is better
• Faster healing is better
• There is a right time frame to heal
• Being able to do more sooner is better
• Getting off pain medicine sooner means you are doing better
• Rest not productive

If you are in medicine you will likely recognize that many of these thought patterns were taught in our surgical rotations as medical students. The culture of medicine also glorifies getting back to work faster as a more noble and worthy achievement. The justification is that it is important "not to inconvenience patients and/or colleagues" even for personal health and healing. Is this true?

What if slow healing is complete healing?

What is the cost of rushing and urgency to heal?

What is the physical and emotional cost of some of the above-mentioned beliefs?

Mindful Tips for Optimizing Recovery and Healing

1. Practice mindfulness, loving amusement, and self-compassion.

2. Accept the situation as it is and embrace it all with loving amusement, grace, and flexibility.

3. Show up with wonder about the human body and its ability to heal.

4. Trust yourself. Others may think you should do things a certain way but you know you and how you feel.

5. Pause to listen to others and be curious. They may have wise and helpful insight into your habitual patterns that you are missing and they almost always have your best interests at heart.

6. Ask for and accept help. Receiving help is a strength, not a weakness. It is connecting and is very often a gift to those helping you too.

7. Recognize pain as a message rather than a problem.

8. Let go of judgment about and resistance to the speed of your recovery and/or underlying medical situation. You can accept and not like it without judgment and resistance.

9. Remember slow healing is complete healing. There is no rush or urgency. There is no there there. When you slow down to heal, deeper connections with loved ones can grow, personal growth and learning can happen, and a new sense of peace, presence, and joy often follow the initial discomfort.

10. Discomfort with rest, slowness, and patience is expected. "Of course", you are intermittently frustrated and/or disappointed with the situation.

11. Set an intention for your recovery and be intentional about how you approach your healing. Perhaps try love, kindness, or trust.

12. Ask yourself good questions about your healing, progress, and decision-making along the way.
    1. What would love do?
    2. What would kindness do?
    3. What would trust do?
    4. What would you tell a patient/friend in the same situation?
    5. What are your loved ones/friends telling you?
    6. What if it is going exactly as it is supposed to?
    7. What if you are doing a great job?

13. Don't forget the five pillars of healthy healing: rest, nutrition, exercise, sleep, and less stress.
14. Try Slow yoga with Jessie for healing and recovery. Gentle/Yin/Restorative is a vastly underutilized super effective tool to help with healing and recovery. Check with your doctor first of course.

We all have to heal and recover at some point.

Treat yourself and others with kindness, patience, compassion, and mindful intention.

A world where healing is approached with the above tips would be much more "well."

If you want help with recovery and healing, physical or emotional, reach out for mindful coaching with Jessie and/or join her for a retreat.

Learning and practicing these skills before you need them is strategic, efficient, kind, and loving. www.jessiemahoneymd.com.

If you want to develop a mindfulness practice or need a mindfulness speaker or experiential offering for your group, reach out to Dr. Liang. www.awakenbreath.org

*Nothing in this episode should be considered medical advice.