Student Self-Care Day

Stephie is organizing and putting on a Student Self-Care Day at OHSU today. Here is the schedule:

10:00AM – 10:15AM                 Welcome and Introductions

10:15AM – 12:15PM               
Massage demonstration and practice led by
Davina Leong LMT and Shelly Wagar LMT

15 minute break

12:30PM – 1:15PM                 “Super Foods” Light Lunch and Talk

1:15PM – 1:45PM                   Mindfulness Meditation & Body Scan

                                                           

1:45 – 2:00PM                       Closing

Stephie, I am so proud of you for preparing this event! This is exactly what we need in medicine and you are such a leader and innovator.

Josh

An excerpt from a medscape article that Stephie and I like:

So how's a doctor to find happiness? The same way everyone should, says O'Connor: work on it. Find a way to be happy in the now.

"The greatest myth of human life is the belief that I'll be happy if I just get what I want," says O'Connor. "All the research shows that as soon as we get what we want, we'll just want something else."

Instead, O'Connor counsels doctors to cultivate the essential relationships in their lives. Most people derive much of their joy and satisfaction from their family and friends: relationships that too often suffer in the face of 12-hour days and weekend call.

He also advises them to practice mindfulness, both through meditation and in their daily living. Mindful living is about taking a step back and seeing events in light of the bigger picture. The practice -- and it takes practice -- enables people to keep perspective so they can make wiser decisions based on rational thinking and intuition, rather than impulse.

But to be mindful people must learn to quiet their minds and settle down and that's something with which many doctors struggle. Dr. Aggarwal says she frequently challenges physicians to sit and do nothing for as long as they can. Few can sit still for more than a minute or two. Rather than relaxing, they try to "solve" their way through stress and burnout by doing more.

The adventures of J and S

J and s have had one crazy travel story after another over the past year and without further ao here is the first one:

One of the most recent interesting experiences occurred yesterday while traveling from pdx to msp. J was the sixth person in the pdx security line when the overhead speakers announced the final boarding call to Minneapolis. J heard the message, was feeling sorry of the passengers that had to rush and catch that flight, then suddenly realized that this time he was one of those passengers!

In order to change stephies return flight to PDX last january joshie and Stephie had to be at the msp airport at 7 pm on a Saturday. After leaving Rochester around 6:05 pm we had some doubts (it is an hour and 20 min drive from Rochester to MSP!) but after some mindful quick driving and Joshies radar eyes we got their safe and sound the moment the clock struck 7 pm. Stephie changed her flight to the next morning for free and J and S had a night in Minneapolis together!

S was planning to fly to Switzerland with MC on a Wednesday, but her passport did not arrive in the mail on time. They rebooked flights to thursday afternoon with crossed fingers. 
Result: She spent all of Wednesday and thursday morning in the san Fran passport agency and finally got the passport in the mail 4 hours before her flight on thursday!

There have been some occurrences in which j and s did not make flights:

J leaving out of pdx in June to attend Andy maples wedding- I 84 traffic was heavy that Friday afternoon
Result: took the next flight out Saturday morning and made it to the dinner. J and s also got another night together :)

J leaving out of bend, OR. There was no one at the check in desk at this small regional airport 40 minutes before departure time!
Result: we found a flight that night but it left out of Portland! We drove 3 hours from bend to portland and took a route through the scenic Oregon forest and Mt. Hood state park. We even had time to eat dinner at Stanford's, one of favs!

S leaving out of Minneapolis in August-oh southwest how you can intentionally miss flights and not have to lay to change them, yeah!
Result: we had another night in minneapolis together and discovered zelo, a fav!

J leaving out of oakland during thanksgiving-just completely forgot the right time because leaving at midnight is so similar to 7:15 pm :)
Result: j got to spend 20 more minutes in the Oakland airport with Stephie and wishing her well on her flight to portland before hurrying over to SFO booking the first leg of his trip to msp en route. He booked his connecting flight out of las Vegas while checking in to his first flight at Sfo. Yes j made it to work the following day on time and was smiling love for his stephie like always!

Fun fact: j and s have never missed a flight when coming to see each other, just leaving. Coincidence?...

Spirit Rock

We just returned from Spirit Rock in Woodacre, CA after spending 48 hours in silence for the "Insight Meditation for the Curious" retreat. What a magical and meaningful weekend.  The land itself is stunningly beautiful and a perfect spot for a retreat center.  The retreat was led by Mark Coleman and Martina Schneider.  The two made a wonderful team and created a really lovely container for all 100 of us.

Joshie flew in Thurs and then Friday we slept in and had lunch at Cafe Gratitude. We found out that not all CG locations are going to be closed! Woohoo! This is huge! What wonderful news.  CG has meant so much to us each personally and as a couple. :) The Berkeley, Santa Cruz, SF Gracias Madre, and ?LA locations are going to stay open yay!!

The food and drinks were, as usual, delicious!  What a special lunch.

Then we (along with Mama Cheng) drove up to Spirit Rock!  A brief schedule of the weekend:

FRIDAY
check-in
dinner
opening session
sit
bed

SATURDAY
sit 6:30am
breakfast
sit
walking meditation
sit
walking meditation
sit
lunch
sit
walking meditation
metta
dinner
sit
dharma talk
walk
sit
bed

SUNDAY
sit
announcements
breakfast
sit (talk about thoughts)
walk
sit (talk about mindfulness in daily life)
lunch
depart

I love how vipassana teachers are so wise and playful...at one point they joked that, while it looks like we have tons planned, sit walk sit walk sit walk etc., it's actually a weekend full of a whole lot of nothing! lol  They actually "crammed" a whole lot in in terms of the teachings since it's a relatively short retreat. But it made it rather high yield, and I think several of us are still processing it...I know I will continue to do so.

It's amazing to have the time to look inward and observe the way in which one thinks, feels and experiences his/her world. It can be rather overwhelming at times....and just to be with oneself for so long is rather unusual in our world today. But it really is such a gift and I am infinitely thankful for the opportunity to learn about these teachings and experience all of this.  "Waking up is hard," said Mark. He explained how some people's expectation is that "going on retreat" is like going on vacation..."getting away."  Really it's about getting really intimate with oneself and seeing up close and personal one's mind, thought patterns etc.  He and Martina commended us on our courage and bravery to come on retreat.  It can be scary feeling stripped bare...feeling so vulnerable. It can also be incredibly liberating and powerful. I am constantly humbled by and grateful for this practice.  I can't imagine living life any other way.


Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.


-Rumi


Crazy because Brennie had just shared that quote with me one day prior to the retreat. :) We are all so interconnected!  Life is so beautiful and rich!! Wow....


Okay here are some pics :)

 Be a good Buddhist and don't kill bugs. Just use your BugZooka!

Thank you, Joshie and Mama for being so open and coming to Spirit Rock with me! It was magical having you there with me...I sat between them for all our sitting meditation and I'd peek at them and get giddy with delight. "Mindful of joy! Mindful of gratitude!" I could feel the glee bubble up in my body multiple times throughout the weekend..... :D