Month: August 2020

What is it about the last weekend of vacation?

What is it about the bittersweet last weekend of vacation? I find that it seems to drive most of us crazy. Instead of soaking it up and metaphorically holding on with both hands, we begin to think forward about all the things we put on the back burner, fretting about what’s ahead. Insidiously conversations get more tense and work creeps back in before the deadline. That last bit of precious time becomes wasted. The cellphones turn back on, the computers get fired up? Why? How can we avoid it? This phenomenon is so common that even the Today Show has done segments on the end-of-vacation-blues and the Sunday Scaries.

So again I ask, how can we avoid the blues? There are some tips out there. For example, travel psychologist Scott Haas says that we need to step back and consider ourselves lucky that we got to take a vacation in the first place. Did you know that half of Americams don’t even use all their vacation days, if they even get some in the first place?

In the Personal and Social Psychology Bulletin, University of Chicago psychology fellow Amit Kumar and Cornell professor Thomas Gilovich recommend that you focus on experiential purchases rather than souvenirs while on vacation. By purchase they don’t necessarily mean spend physical money but rather the investment of time in doing something unique that gives you something with interesting details to share. You will probably have a lot more to talk about after a hiking trip in the mountains as opposed to a pendant or t shirt that you bought.

Another tip is to start planning your next trip. That doesn’t mean discount everything that you just did on vacation. It just means start making a straight forward list for your next trip to help it become a reality and something else to look forward to. There is something called the Zeigarnik Effect that refers to our tendency to remember incomplete tasks more clearly than ones we have finished. Translate that to trip planning and if you have thoroughly planned your next trip it may free your mind from the intrusive “what’s left undone” thoughts that can plague you toward the end of vacation and actually help allow you to enjoy the last few days. That can even apply to tackling your untouched email inbox without guilt while you are on the flight home so you can relax when you get there before work the next day.

USA Today suggests that you nurse that post vacation culture shock. Instead of asking yourself why am I in boring old (insert hometown here) instead of exciting ( insert exotic vacation local here), remind yourself why you moved to your hometown in the first place. Remember why you love it. Reminisce over good memories.

There are a few things you just have to get off your butt and do when you get home: unpack your bags, do your laundry and grocery shop for heaven’s sake. Those suitcases and mountains of dirty laundry will only serve as monkeys on your back and feed your longing to be somewhere else. Grocery shop for healthy food to detox your body from vacation food. It will thank you for it and leave you with more energy to face your new old schedule.

Currently I find myself facing the end of a vacation. I am following my own advice by writing of this blog as an example of finishing a to do list to free my mind to enjoy my last bit of time. I am also reminding myself how much I love my family, my animals and my memories. So far, it’s working. I hope these tips help you too. Have a fantastic day.

Dr. Katz

I have a hard time turning it off

Word Writing Text Private Practice. Business Concept For Work ...

So, I am sitting here right now, trying to relax. I am supposed to be on vacation and yet my mind is spinning with thoughts about my business. Are my patients going to be okay? Will my colleagues care for them like I would? Are any bills going to be late? Did we tie up all the loose ends before we left? Will there be any money in the bank when we come back? Is there anything I forgot? Will all my followers move on when I don’t post for a week? Will I miss any job applications? Will I miss a deadline I didn’t know I had while I am gone? It just goes on and on.

I guess that that is the life I signed up for. You are never truly “off” …..at least, not if you are really in it to win it. It is the compromise that you strike the second you sign on the dotted line to commit to a private practice sans safety net type of scenario. I have no set hours or guaranteed salary. However, I am at least philosophically the master of my own destiny. In reality, my success also depends on a number of third parties like insurances, reimbursements, billing companies, vendors, and employee work ethics. So, I am kidding myself if I think that I alone can guarantee or swamp my career.

I am not a 9 to 5 type of physician and I never wanted to be. I look all around me and see the significant disincentive to starting private practice. Medical school graduates now seemed to be groomed to think that private practice is impossible and that they NEED the backing of a large conglomerate, set hours, employed practice in order to even entertain the possibility of being a physician. It’s a shame really. What these new docs have traded for this implied security is stamina, work ethic, commitment, and dedication. To be 100% transparent, this is only my opinion based upon what I have observed all around me with the newest generation of doctors. I am not trying to be some hard core, stone age dinosaur, but I have literally seen resident physicians turn away mid conversation about a patient if that conversation was occurring when their shift was over. That is just not what I want, nor do I feel that that is appropriate. That is going too far in the 9 to 5 direction. We are not office workers. We are responsible for lives.

The private physician is slowly but surely going the way of the dodo and being replaced by shift workers with set hours and volume driven goals at the expense of quality. For me, the world does not stop the second that the office phones get turned off. My responsibilities are not just handed off to the next guy. That is not my reality and that is OK. I am not saying that I never need a break because, in fact, I do. I really do sometimes. It’s just that I am not going to spend time whining about the inconvenience when I chose to have it this way. It would be kind of ridiculous. Now, having said that, I am sure that my family would not agree that I should always be on. It definitely goes against that eternal quest for balance that I am always talking about. Yes, yes, I do actually listen to myself when I am attempting to espouse wisdom to the masses. I guess what I really saying is that I still just need to work on it.

Dr. Katz

Self Care is Tricky

Woman Doing Yoga Inside A Room

Self care has many definitions. In health care, self care most closely aligns with preventative medicine, the care of one’s own body and adherence to medical advice. It is also considered a primary form of care for patients with chronic medical conditions who have to make many day-to-day decisions or self-manage their illnesses. In terms of philosophy, self-care refers to the care and cultivation of self in the most comprehensive sense in terms of one’s soul and self-awareness. Instead of taking care of one’s body, it focuses more on caring for one’s mental health, soul, and emotions.

Okay, so both of those sound good don’t they? Take care of your physical and mental health. Sign me up. So then, I ask you, why is it so difficult to see to fruition? Somehow, the concept of self-care in our day and age has acquired a negative connotation. Somehow the idea of self-care has become synonymous with selfishness and therefore imbued with a sense of guilt that we have difficulty shaking off. Why? They are absolutely not the same thing.

Kenya Foy outlines 6 important differences between self care and selfishness. I am going to focus on four of them. 1) Self care has far reaching benefits for yourself and everyone in your life. If you have taken the time to care for yourself, you reap the emotional and physical benefits and so does everyone around you as they benefit from your energy, your positivity and your productivity. 2) Self care is not done with an intent to harm others. To be selfish is to behave in a self-serving manner with an underlying malicious intent. There is a desire to actually take from others which may result in harm. Self care is all about replenishing your own resources without taking anything from anyone else. 3) Being selfish prevents you from giving of yourself while self care makes it possible. If you go around with a “me first only” attitude then you have absolutely no room for consideration of others. If you practice self care, you end up setting boundaries for yourself that actually leave some room and some energy left to focus on others if necessary. 4) Self care builds strength. Once you give yourself permission to shower yourself with love, you gain security which allows you to make better decisions for the world around you. Selfishness has an inherent insecurity that weighs down everything that you think and do.

Are you convinced yet that self care is the way to go? I think I am. As a matter of fact, I think I hear my bubble bath waiting before I head off to my meeting. Have a fantastic day everyone.

Dr. Katz