Physician Wellness

The hectic pace of life is a given for many, especially for healthcare providers. In order to create and maintain wellness—balance in body, mind, and spirit—we need to pay attention to and make time for the nurturance of self. Recently, at a professional conference for healthcare practitioners, I spoke about the nurturance of the spirit, and I was struck by how many people in the audience, primarily healthcare providers, discussed their inability to make time for nurturing their needs. Why is this? Why would those whose job it is to take care of others deny their own needs for self-care? This column provides some thoughtful commentary on the importance of wellness and offers tools for the integration of wellness into our daily lives. It is hoped that readers will take pause and spend some time to explore how they can best nurture themselves not only for personal reasons, but also in order to provide the best healthcare to their patients.