Practising yoga for physicians

In the final episode of “Our Health,” we examine an example of how physicians can incorporate self care into their daily practice. Dr. Melanie Bechard tells us how beginning to practise yoga made her more present and thoughtful in the way that she practises medicine. While yoga is not a fix-all solution for self care, it is a wonderful way to create a more sustainable relationship with oneself. Transcript Episode 3 – Practicing Yoga For Physicians Misia Lerska Welcome to our health, the medical post’s new three part series on physician wellness. My name is Misia Lerska , and I'm a visual storyteller. We're now beginning the final episode of our series. And for this occasion, I'd like to hone in on an example of self care for physicians. My guest today provides a wonderful example of how to incorporate self care into a doctor's life. Dr. Melanie Bechard is a pediatric emergency doctor at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. But she also practices yoga and is now even teaching a yoga class through zoom. While she knows that yoga is not a fix all solution for physician wellness, she does credit her interest in the practice for a big part of her emotional and professional well being. To me, Dr. Bechard is self aware, truly kind and fascinating as a person, and I'm so grateful to have been able to interview her and now share this experience with you. Please welcome Dr. Melanie Bechard. Question: How did you discover yoga? Dr. Melanie Bechard: Probably like many people, I came to yoga initially as a skeptic. I was in my second year of residency, which personally I found a very challenging year, I was truly not my best self, I think personally or professionally. And one of the resident organizations I was working with was organizing a yoga wellness evening where we just did free yoga. And it so happened that the studio was located on the ground floor of the building I was living in. And they also asked me to help attend and take attendance to help coordinate the event. So I thought, well, I literally have no excuse not to go, I came to yoga as somebody who had previously done running and more quote, unquote, intense physical activities. And like many, I thought, oh, yoga is just stretching. I don't know if I need to stretch for an hour. But sure, let's try it. I can't say that it was love at first sight necessarily where I thought, Wow, this class changed my life. But definitely in retrospect, it did. It was just such a refreshing change, to engage in something that was not only for my physical wellness, but also was explicitly for my mental wellness that created space to put in that physical effort. But that also equally celebrated the ease and rest and relaxation. That was something that became really attractive to me, especially when I was in residency and struggling with very busy schedules, as many of us do. Question: Why is yoga suited specifically to doctors? The doctor lifestyle is in general a mess. I think that that does vary. Of course, depending on how we structure our lives, and what type of medicine we practice. But no matter what you do, I think a career in medicine is stressful. You're dealing with people sometimes at the hardest moments of their lives, who are oftentimes not able to be their best selves through no fault of their own in that moment. I think doing yoga as a physician has allowed me to more often bring my best self to some of those interactions. When I get stressed out, I know to consciously take a moment, take a breath, kind of try and center myself as cheesy as it sounds in a way that yoga has taught me to do. And I really do find not only has it made me a better physician, particularly in high stress or emotional situations, but it's also helped to make me a better person. So regardless of one's lifestyle, I would recommend at least trying yoga and coming at it with an open mind. Question: How had yoga affected your professional life? Doing more regular yoga coupled with of course the meditation from the yoga has actually personally helped me to be able to take a moment and those high stress situations. I think we can all relate to instances where we're just exhausted or starving and maybe our colleague or someone says something and you respond or react in a way that is just not reflective of your Through personality. And I can't say that those moments will never happen to me. Again, I think that's unrealistic. But what I can say is that since doing yoga, I find it better able to create that separation between having a feeling and then creating the response to it, taking some time, and just being more aware of the physiologic responses happening in my body during high stress situation has enabled me to gain a better awareness and almost better control of those responses. And I think more often I bring my best self to stressful interactions. That's something that has been tremendously helpful professionally, it's something that is tested every day in our busy emergency departments, especially as the pandemic continues on. Again, I can't say it's been a perfect solution, or that I'm always 100% cheerful and happy at work. And I don't know if that's a realistic goal to aim for. All I'm trying to aim for is just being able to feel as though I'm doing a good job for my patients, for my colleagues and myself. And personally, I think yoga has been really instrumental in that. Question: How do you reconcile and respect yoga’s cultural history? This is something that I've reflected on a lot, I acknowledge that I am essentially a cliche of a person who does yoga as now an educated quote, unquote, wealthy white woman. And it's something that does make me a bit uncomfortable at times, because Yoga is a traditional spiritual practice that originated in India, it's something that is really important for many people around the globe. And to have it be treated as something that is just for athletics, or just a way to get a quote unquote hot body can be disrespectful, I think, to the long traditions of yoga, and to people who hold it as part of their cultural identity. I'm very conscious of the problems we have in our cultural appropriation society. And I do feel a bit conflicted sometimes, though, potentially contributing to that, as a white person who engages in yoga and teaches yoga. Some of the ways that I've tried to reconcile that is through doing some critical self reflection, there's a podcast called Yoga is dead, that I would recommend everyone listen to it talks a little bit about this over commercialization and white washing of a ancient practice, it's made me a lot more aware of how I engage with yoga, I also do my best to to use the correct as best I can pronunciations of the yoga postures in the original Sanskrit. I think that it is something that for me shows respect to the origins of yoga, I also try to in my personal practice, and when I teach yoga, emphasize that we're not just there to get a workout to, you know, get a certain body, I personally think that is toxic, not just to the ideals of yoga, but also to who you are as a person. And one of the things that I really respect about yoga is that balance between effort and ease. And yes, if you do these activities, which are strengthening your body, it will change. But what I found to be way more powerful is that my mind has been changing. And I've actually found that I've been less concerned with what my body looks like. So that, to me, has been a really wonderful transformative part of doing yoga, I will continue to try to critically reflect about my part in engaging in this practice. And of course, I'm always eager to hear any feedback from those who have thoughts or concerns. Question: Where should doctors get started? So I encourage everyone to reach out to their local yoga studios, many studios have really suffered during the pandemic, and I'm sure they'd very much appreciate business. Many places also have a one month free trial where you can try it out. I do encourage everyone to do what I think the kids are calling a vibe check when you check out his studios, yet the classes are for you see, if you're connecting with the instructors get a sense of whether or not the focus is more on getting a certain type of body, or whether it's something a little bit different and a little bit deeper. And I do encourage people to try and move towards studios that engage in that latter practice of yoga. I would also encourage everyone to take advantage of the fact that many studios are offering virtual yoga which can be a little bit easier to engage in. You know you have the option to turn off your camera if that makes you feel more comfortable when you're just starting out. I know many of the people I practice with choose to do that. There's also the option of finding YouTube videos or so many instructors on YouTube who are doing really good classes. One of my personal favorites is yoga with Adrienne just because I find that She does a really good job of creating classes that are physically challenging but making sure the focus is not on getting ABS or being fit. It's really that wonderful mix of mind body connection that yoga I think is all about. And as for my own classes, they happen sporadically on Zoom. I'm trying to get a YouTube channel started up called emerge yoga, but as for all physicians during the pandemic, just trying to do what I can bit by bit.

Practising yoga for physicians

Register for free access or login.

Related Topics