Paula Gardiner, MD, MPH is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the UMass Chan Medical School. She is also the Associate Director of Research and directs the Group Visits Program in the Center for Integrated Primary Care.
As providers working with patients during the time of the pandemic, many of us have had to transform the way we connect with our patients or clients. We are reaching out using video conferencing or the telephone. Our patients are experiencing tremendous anxiety and change in their lives and at the same time, we are also experiencing challenges and uncertainty in our own lives.
Working with patients from a distance may foster your own sadness or anxiety. Of course, everybody is different and your emotions may not mirror what I’ve described.
In this 10 minute meditation, for which no prior meditation experience is needed, there is a brief body scan followed by an invitation to bring compassion to yourself and your patients.
In the exercise, notice how we are holding stress in our bodies, acknowledge that there are others who feel this way too, and offer ourselves kindness knowing we are doing the best we can. I hope that by building compassion for yourself and your patients you can be the best provider you are. Click on the link below to listen.
