Mindful MD: 6 Ways Mindfulness Restores Your Autonomy and Cures Healthcare Burnout
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From leading physician coach and Harvard Medical School faculty, Gail Gazelle, MD, comes “the burnout bible,” a complete guide to bringing every physician the satisfaction and fulfillment they deserve. In the face of a broken system, you can thrive and enjoy the career you’ve earned. It all starts with becoming the master of your most important instrument: your mind.
Do you every feel like:
You’re teetering on the edge of burnout?
You never have enough time?
You aren’t making a difference?
You can’t turn off your mind and be present with your family?
You’ve lost your autonomy?
You’ve lost your passion for medicine?
As high-achievers, physicians are taught that the path to success in life is paved with relentless work. That if we want to overachieve, we have to overexert, overthink, and overdo. That if we aren’t perpetually exhausted, we’re not doing enough.
The modern healthcare system is broken and physicians increasingly feel at the mercy of dysfunctional work environments where non-clinician leaders are the ones calling the shots and profits come before clinician and patient well-being.
Additionally, medical training leaves doctors living out of balance – self-critical, feeling like they’re never good enough, overly invested in proving themselves – and struggling to be fully present with their loved ones. Working conditions strip them of autonomy and induce the paralyzing anguish and self-doubt of burnout. Quitting medicine feels like the only option—how else can you reclaim the happiness and career satisfaction you find is held hostage by a broken healthcare system?
The result is physician shortages and staggering burnout rates (50%+) – and everyone suffers. Patients get less present doctors, our children and loved ones get a worse version of us, and we struggle to make time to care for ourselves.
Unfortunately, the system and medical training aren’t changing any time soon, and our ability to control either is limited.
What we can control, as Dr. Gazelle makes so clear, is our own minds.
Drawing on her experience coaching over 500 physicians and the latest in neuroscience research, Dr. Gazelle provides a roadmap for the ways mindfulness restores autonomy and cures burnout. She provides the exact tools to equip readers to step out of the spiraling thoughts and emotions of burnout and into the reality of their experience.
This is not a book that suggests that sitting and meditating is going to remedy the dysfunction of healthcare! Instead, it’s a practical guide to working with unhelpful thoughts, stepping out of mental stories that just serve to increase your anguish, being effective in controlling what you can control, and learning how to reverse the hold of the brain’s negativity bias.
Mindful MD is the guide physicians have been waiting for. It takes readers on a personal journey of growth, awareness, and freedom from burnout, giving physicians everything they need to revitalize the careers they’ve worked so hard for.
What people are saying about Mindful MD:
“Dr. Gazelle provides an antidote for the pain physicians feel today. Burnout threatens the health of both patients and physicians. Doctors may not have total control over their environment, but they aren’t helpless to exert influence. In this powerful book, Dr. Gazelle explains how mindfulness can provide significant relief and how connectivity with colleagues adds joy. Physicians aren’t the source of burnout, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t do what’s in their power to make the best of the healthcare opportunities that exist today. Reading this book is the first step.”
“There is an epidemic of physician burnout. Dr. Gazelle’s book, Mindful MD, gives us a thoughtful and supportive path not only toward healing but also wellbeing.”
“Incredible! Dr. Gazelle helps us see the power mindfulness has to restore autonomy and humanity in healthcare.”
“As a physician herself, Dr. Gazelle candidly explains what makes doctors vulnerable to burnout. Then she prescribes the medicine—mindfulness and self-compassion practices that doctors can apply on the spot to enhance wellbeing, even when the system is stacked against them. To everyone in healthcare: You can do this!”
“This book is a must-read! While acknowledging the systemic factors of our healthcare system that contribute significantly to burnout, Dr. Gazelle provides us a path forward to reclaim joy and fulfillment that is within our control. Rather than provide band-aid solutions, she gets to the root cause of suffering – our mind. Using simple but powerful mindfulness techniques interwoven with stories of her clients, Dr. Gazelle shows us how to gain understanding and mastery of our minds. Physicians, students, and other healthcare providers along with their families will benefit greatly from this book!”
“Physician burnout is of concern to all of us. Dr. Gazelle weaves together real-life stories of physicians and reveals the power mindfulness has to help them thrive.”
“In Mindful MD, Dr. Gail Gazelle provides practical tools to combat one of the most serious problems afflicting doctors and healthcare professionals today: burnout. This is essential reading for struggling physicians.”
“We physicians need to move from martyrdom to mindfulness as a way to save ourselves and change our systems. We can start right now by reading this book.”
“This is a particularly timely contribution, especially given well-documented increases in practitioner burnout and attrition around the globe. Dr. Gazelle shows not only a deep understanding of the stressors that physicians face every day, but further provides accessible strategies for cultivating mindfulness, an approach that bolsters autonomy and self-determination, and realistic discussions of how to bring more awareness, meaning, and vitality into one’s practice and life.”
“Physician burnout is a major epidemic. Kudos to Dr. Gazelle for showing us a way to regain joy and meaning.”
“Dr. Gazelle’s vast work at the intersection of healthcare and contemplative practice is presented in this book with the perfect balance of background science and practical tips for incorporating these transformative practices into our daily lives. This book is a gift to all physicians and true caregivers, especially those facing the day-to-day challenges of modern healthcare. It should be required reading for all medical trainees and practitioners.”
Mindful MD teaches you how to:
Undo the med school learning of perfectionism, invulnerability, and harsh self-criticism
Reduce your reactivity to every little thing that goes wrong at work and at home
Lean into compassion, connection, and purpose
Shift from downward to upward spirals
Recognize the ways your storytelling mind is causing much of your suffering
Become the master of your mind, rather than its captive
Set a sustainable pace instead of powering through
Make relationships easier to maintain and manage
And much more
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You don’t have to live with burnout.
You can stay in medicine and reclaim the fulfillment and purpose you deserve to have.