Finding balance and empowerment as a medic can be a tough call. It’s a profession that is highly competitive and very demanding with little space for self-care.

This is Dr Magdalena Bak-Maier’s summary from an evening as an invited guest of the Doctors’ Mess UK Charity. The Doctors’ Mess is a multi-specialty compassionate & positive medical educationalists dedicated to supporting doctors.

Balance and empowerment presentation summary

1. Grid™ is designed to support people – from students to professionals – to learn the power and magic of balance. Such balance underpins health and best performance but it is not easy to cultivate. Aiming for balance is a self-loving act. Nurturing balance is also a call to personal leadership – it is up to us what happens in our lives.
2. Grid™ divides all activities into four quadrants: personal life, self-care, work/studies, and career advocating that we always consider them together since they impact and are impacted on by each other.
3. When it comes to the narratives or stories that we hold about ourselves and our lives, our decisions and results largely stem from the beliefs we hold. Beliefs are thoughts and constructs we accept as true or existing that may lack proof. We can have positive and limiting beliefs.
4. Limiting beliefs (beliefs that hold us back) impact balance. For example, a limiting career belief “I’m never going to succeed” – changes how we show up in a given Grid™ quadrant with consequences in other quadrants. For example, I may work harder than is needed “to succeed” at the expense of my health or family. Alternatively, I may not want to study or work and my self-esteem suffers from it, I may adopt a negative outlook and I’m less fun to be around.
5. Irrespective of what our activities and beliefs are in each Grid™ quadrant, we bring three core needs to every quadrant as human beings: (a) a need for safety, (b) a need to belong, and (c) a need for pleasant experiences.
6. Covid has played havoc with all three needs. (a) The pandemic brought risks and a great deal of uncertainty. (b) Isolation has disconnected us physically eliminating a great deal of the healing modality – touch and making many people feel alone and vulnerable. (c) Lockdown has also eroded the menu of pleasant things (outings, arts, concerts, etc).
7. Therefore, if you’re feeling low, you’re not alone. There are many valid reasons to feel low. What’s key is to get support to meet those three needs and recover balance.
8. But, if you’re holding limiting beliefs for example “It will never get better”, “I don’t deserve good things in my life” etc examine their validity and work to change them. Such beliefs can keep you trapped.
9. Can we change our core beliefs people asked? Yes, but it’s a gradual process. To begin with, ask yourself if the belief you hold helps you or ultimately robs you of connection, pleasure, and greater capacity for safety. If it does, resolve to change it. Then begin to focus on action, people, and situations that counter your limiting belief. In other words, seek counterexamples.
10. If in doubt, explore these concepts with a trusted friend, mentor, colleague, family member, coach, or counsellor.

Key take-aways

1. Lives can get hectic. It is worth to stop and consider our key beliefs. Nurturing a positive mindset for life, yourself, work, and career is a healthy foundation on which we can grow.
2. The world is a generally good and safe place. There are people out we can turn to for help and assistance if we’re brave enough to seek help.
3. You are beautiful just as you are. Wholeness requires inclusion of all aspects of oneself. Each human being deserves love, kindness, and good conditions to self-realize. This includes you too.
4. Work is best done when it leaves us energized. Healthy love at work means that we love what we do and do it with love, AND can love ourselves enough to not allow work to harm us.
5. Our careers paths can take us to interesting places if we learn to listen to what life wants from us. Our hearts always know if we’re on the right path, even if minds want to deceive us.
6. It is healthy and wise to show up to oneself; be one’s own care-taker. Consult your mind and heart and aim for balance in all things.

Recommended books for further reading

These three titles will be helpful to doctors and anyone looking for practical advice and a more balanced perspective when it comes to life and how we care for ourselves. If you’re in a book club already, consider reading and discussing them with others. If you’d like to join a book club and explore personal development through this medium, sign up to our monthly newsletter. We host a bi-monthly book club dedicated to personal empowerment, health and balance.

1. The Little Book of Sloth Philosophy
2. Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve: Self-Help Exercises for Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, and Autism
3. The Get Productive Grid: A Simple and proven work-life balance system to help you thrive

Ways to deepen your balance inquiry with us

At Make Time Count, we help people find their path to healthy productivity and balance. Here are more ways to continue this journey:

We’re all looking to create rewarding and healthy lives. The time to start is now! If you’d like an easy step into balance through self care, sign up to our newsletter and receive a free download with a month’s worth of prompts to start bringing balance into your life.