Staying healthy and productive in healthcare, in leadership, in informatics is a huge challenge. How are you coping? Here are my musings about Mindfulness, from my blog.
Time management regret? (NYTimes) Work-life (im)balance? Start now.
We can all benefit from reminders. And self-forgiveness. And taking a single step, (or creating the “next action”) as David Allen says in his book “Getting things Done (book summarizing video).” Atomic Habits (book summarizing video) is another book with similar suggestions. There are a growing number of books, articles, videos dedicated to this topic; … Continue reading “Time management regret? (NYTimes) Work-life (im)balance? Start now.”
I wanted Vicodin, not Herbal Tea (nytimes)
We are in the midst of a national opioid crisis. It is a crisis, partially, of our own making. In the past decade we physicians were criticized for not adequately addressing the pain of our patients, to the point of creating another vital sign: “pain score.” And then dutifully tracking this score and catering to … Continue reading “I wanted Vicodin, not Herbal Tea (nytimes)”
On Master Cleanse (or, is CT Lin crazy?)
Thanks to @ToddMeier, one of my IT colleagues at UCHealth. He explained to me the benefits of periodic modified fasting. This discussion put me on to watching a documentary about the Science of Fasting on YouTube, and then of course reading the book “Master Cleanser“. Of course, I do not subscribe to non-medical claims about … Continue reading “On Master Cleanse (or, is CT Lin crazy?)”
Coursera: Yale’s “Science of Well-Being”
Dr. Laurie Santos, Yale U. Here we are again, learning from a MOOC (massive, open, online course). This time, I read an article by the NYTimes regarding Laurie Santo’s massively popular Yale course for undergraduates called Psychology and the Good Life. It was apparently, the most popular course at Yale, ever. So, it was … Continue reading “Coursera: Yale’s “Science of Well-Being””
Muse: an ironic but helpful? App for mediation
http://www.choosemuse.com/calm/ My smarter and hipper younger sister is loaning me her Muse brain sensing headband, knowing that I have developed a recent interest in meditation. I have to say, I went through some rapid-cycle opinion changes on this device: Hey, cool a new technology of some sort. Wait, this is for meditation? Neat, it has … Continue reading “Muse: an ironic but helpful? App for mediation”
Remember that you will die. (WIRED)
https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-break-up-with-your-phone/ Wired magazine is starting to re-invent itself again; now as a paid-subscription service with interesting articles on a website called Backchannel. The first few articles are doozies: incredible thought pieces on the near-future of technology. I’m inhaling these; love the thoughtfulness behind the reporting. This article speaks about the stranglehold our devices have on … Continue reading “Remember that you will die. (WIRED)”
Book Review: A River Runs Through It
Five Stars. I’ve read and listened to this book several times. And seen the movie. And yes, it is more than just Brad Pitt and his muscles. The book is lyrical, especially its passages on fishing, and the beauty of the wild. QUOTE “Like many fly fishermen in western Montana where the summer days are … Continue reading “Book Review: A River Runs Through It”
Date night with the EHR (from the VP of Joy)
This is both impressive work and incredibly depressing, and is a clarion call for those in physician informatics. Dr. Christine Sinsky’s piece in the NEJM catalyst is called “Date night with the EHR” and very clearly delineates physician time spent charting in electronic health records. Particularly appalling is the time spent on WEEKEND evenings (red … Continue reading “Date night with the EHR (from the VP of Joy)”
CT meditates: a comedy (31). Gratefulness to my reader(s) [hi mom!], and happy new year
A new year! Instead of briefly held resolutions, think back over the last 30 days. We’re ahead of everyone else. Take your new 30 day habit of meditation, focus, presence and have a great year. We know that 30 days of repeated behavior is a powerful initiation of a new sustained habit (see the book: … Continue reading “CT meditates: a comedy (31). Gratefulness to my reader(s) [hi mom!], and happy new year”
CT meditates: a comedy (30) Tai Chi
I’m learning Tai Chi! I have a background in the martial arts, having trained in Shotokan, in Tae Kwon Do and most recently in Bushinkan Karate disciplines. Tai chi is another take, much gentler, much more philosophical, much slower, and amenable to learning and practice by just about anyone who can stand on two feet. … Continue reading “CT meditates: a comedy (30) Tai Chi”
CT meditates: a comedy (29). Impermanence
FOR THE END OF THE YEAR. Let go. In the Book of Joy page 249. Impermanence, the Dalai Lama reminds us, is the nature of life. All things are slipping away, and there is a real danger of wasting our precious human life. Gratitude helps us catalog, celebrate, and rejoice in each day and each … Continue reading “CT meditates: a comedy (29). Impermanence”
CT meditates: a comedy (28). How does mindfulness contribute to effective teamwork?
OK, lets review. We’ve learned how and why we meditate. We’ve learned we can meditate in 3 minutes. We’ve learned to forgive ourselves when we inevitably drift, and the Notice-shift-rewire. We’ve learned to use meditation to improve mindfulness, presence, focus. We’ve learned to use this focus to generate gratitude. We’ve learned to take this gratitude … Continue reading “CT meditates: a comedy (28). How does mindfulness contribute to effective teamwork?”
CT meditates: a comedy (27): Forgiveness, Levar Burton, Audible.com
From The Book of Joy page 234. Forgiveness, the Archbishop added, is the only way to heal ourselves into being free from the past. Without forgiveness, we remain tethered to the person who harmed us. We are bound to the chains of bitterness, tied together, trapped. Until we forgive the person who has harmed us, … Continue reading “CT meditates: a comedy (27): Forgiveness, Levar Burton, Audible.com”
CT meditates: a comedy (26) If something can be done about it …
From the Book of Joy: If something can be done about it, what need is there for dejection? And if nothing can be done about it, what use is there for being dejected? Seems eerily similar to the Serenity Prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change … Continue reading “CT meditates: a comedy (26) If something can be done about it …”
CT meditates: a comedy (25) Merry Christmas- Holiday- Kwanzaa. And Zen Shorts!
Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! Care-filled Kwanzaa! Happy Buddha! A book I gave to my physician and clinical informatics teams this year is ‘Zen Shorts.’ This is a terrific children’s book with wonderful watercolors. You don’t have to be a child or a Zen master to appreciate it. However the stories it tells are deceptively entertaining. … Continue reading “CT meditates: a comedy (25) Merry Christmas- Holiday- Kwanzaa. And Zen Shorts!”
CT meditates: a comedy (24) Three things you’re grateful for?
In multiple books including Option B, and Start Here: Life XT, I have come across the research finding that a specific practice of gratitude can be quite powerful. The habit is: take paper and pencil and every evening before bed, write down three specific things that you are grateful for. I don’t mean “I have a … Continue reading “CT meditates: a comedy (24) Three things you’re grateful for?”
CT meditates: a comedy (23) pomodoro timer
So, maybe some of you have read this far. Thank you for coming along! One of the threads of mindfulness and meditation is developing Focus. So maybe you’ve now blocked out 2 or even 4 hours of your day to dive deeply. But once you’re here, cleared your desk, turned off your Internet, laid out … Continue reading “CT meditates: a comedy (23) pomodoro timer”
CT meditates: a comedy (22) Deep Work, The Shallows (book reviews)
Cal Newport’s important work emphasizes the power of disconnected, uninterrupted time. Nicholas Carr speaks of the opposite trend: that Shallow thinking has affected our brains and made it tremendously more difficult to focus because, on the Internet, it is SO EASY to click that next link, and soon, you’re looking at cute kitten videos instead … Continue reading “CT meditates: a comedy (22) Deep Work, The Shallows (book reviews)”
CT meditates: a comedy (21). Wisdom is like rainwater
The Dalai Lama, in response to the critique about detachment and laziness: if we are going to be mindful, and then detach ourselves from immediate concerns and not take them so personally, won’t we become lazy, un-involved? What if we are ambitious and want to improve? From The Book of Joy page 212. The Dalai … Continue reading “CT meditates: a comedy (21). Wisdom is like rainwater”
CT meditates: a comedy (20). Stumbling on happiness (book)
I love Daniel Gilbert’s work: Stumbling on Happiness. It is a collection of gems, and is interspersed with the results of clever psychology experiments that tell us how your mind works, and it doesn’t work the way you think it works! Specifically, I enjoyed the three-part description of the components of happiness at work. Ask … Continue reading “CT meditates: a comedy (20). Stumbling on happiness (book)”