BONUS Meditation: Rest and Reset After a Long Work Day | Episode 20 | Reviving Vet Med

With veterinary medicine at its busiest and workplaces more stressful than usual, taking time to rest and reset after a long work day is prudent. Work-life separation is necessary for preventing burnout and can be facilitated by spending time outside, taking a shower, or practicing meditation at the end of a shift.   

During this BONUS episode, we offer a relaxing meditation intended to reset your mind and help you to let go of your workday. Visualization and positive affirmations are included to enhance self-compassion and separate from the busyness of the day.

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Transcript

Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Reviving Vet Med. I promised a bonus episode every tenth episode, and today is episode number 20. So, for this episode, we will have a meditation called Rest and reset after a long workday. So, if you are going to practice this meditation, just a gentle reminder that this should not be done while you are driving.

I know many of you listen to my episodes in the car, so you'll want to save this for a time when you can just relax, maybe in the front seat of your car or not moving, to clarify or when you get home, in bed, bed, sitting outside, whatever works for you, but just taking care that you can close your eyes and be uninterrupted comfortably. And so, I'm excited for you to experience this episode, and I urge you to come back to this meditation anytime that you need. So, let's go ahead and get started. This is the Reviving Vet Med podcast, and I'm your host, Dr. Marie Holowaychuk. My mission is to improve the mental health and well-being of veterinary professionals around the world.

Welcome to our meditation rest and reset after a long workday. Find a comfortable seat. You can sit on your couch, in your car, outside, anywhere that you won't be interrupted and that you feel comfortable to close your eyes. You might even choose to lie down or recline. Just get to a place where you can rest and sit or stay comfortably without movement for at least a few minutes.

And then I'm going to invite you to close your eyes and do a quick body scan from your head to your toes, just noticing how you feel. Are you holding tension or tightness anywhere? Is there any discomfort, tingling, or other sensation? Just noticing, not getting wrapped up in any stories about it. And then, intentionally relaxing the muscles in your face.

This is where we hold a lot of our tension. So intentionally letting the creases go on your forehead, relaxing the space between your eyebrows, relaxing your eyeballs into your eye sockets, letting your jaw fall slack, letting the tongue drop away from the roof of your mouth, and easing your shoulders down away from your ears. And then I'm gonna invite you to take a deep breath in and just sigh it out. We'll repeat that two more times, taking a deep breath in through your nose, letting the day go. One last time, taking a deep breath in and sigh.

Letting the breath go now and bringing your attention to your day. Specifically, bringing to mind the best part of your day. Maybe it was a client that thanked you, or a case that went well. Maybe it was working together with your team to achieve a common goal. Bringing this event to mind and just noticing, how do you feel in your body?

Maybe you feel a warmth in your chest or in your cheeks, a smile across your face. What kind of thoughts does this bring up for you? Maybe it's gratitude for your team. Maybe it's compassion for your clients. Bringing the best moment of your day to mind now.

And then I'm gonna invite you to let this image go. And the way that you can do this is to imagine that you're tying this image to the end of a helium balloon, and then you're letting that helium balloon float away. So, once your image is tied, let the balloon go and just watch that balloon float up into the sky, up, up, up, farther away until you can't even see the balloon anymore. And then I'm gonna invite you to bring to mind the most difficult part of your workday. What was the hardest thing that you experienced today?

Maybe it was a difficult exchange that you had with a client. Maybe it was a disagreement that you had with a coworker. Maybe there was the outcome of a case that just didn't go as you had planned. When you get this image firmly entrenched in your mind, I want you to then turn your attention to your body. Where do you feel this in your body?

You feel a churning in your stomach? Maybe a tightness in your jaw? Maybe a tension in your forehead? Just noticing where this difficult part of your day lives in your body. And then turning your attention to the thoughts that are coming up for you around this.

Maybe questions that you're asking, confusion over what happened. And then notice your feelings that come up. Frustration, anger, hurt, sadness. Just noticing. Again, not getting looped into a story or mulling over what happened, just simply noticing all of these sensations, thoughts, and feelings that come up in response to imagining this difficult part of your day.

And as quickly as you could bring that image to your mind, I'm gonna invite you to let that image go. This time, imagining a safe with a lock, and you've got the key to that lock, you open up the safe and you put this image, this event, this situation into the safe. You lock it, and you let the safe and the key sink to the bottom of a deep body of water. Maybe it's a lake, a river, an ocean. Dropping the key in the safe into that water and watching it sink to the bottom, sinking, sinking until you can't see that safe that contains this difficult part of your day any longer.

Bringing your attention now back to your breath, just noticing the sensation of breath coming in and out of the body, and I'm gonna invite you to listen to my voice and tune into my voice as I repeat some affirmations for your day. And I'll repeat these affirmations twice over, and I urge you to repeat the affirmation to yourself internally after I've said it. These are affirmations for the work that we do as veterinary professionals, and our well-being, and our life outside of work. So, let's begin. My job is what I do, and I do it well.

But my job does not define who I am. My job is what I do, and I do it well, but my job does not define who I am. Rest is necessary for the hard work that I do. Rest is necessary for the hard work that I do. I did the best I could today with the time and resources available to me.

I did the best I could today with the time and resources available to me. It's okay for me to pause and take a break. It's okay for me to pause and take a break. My work has purpose and transforms people's lives. My work has purpose and transforms people's lives.

I am more effective at work when I practice self-care. I am more effective at work when I practice self-care. Although work is difficult right now, this is temporary. Although work is difficult right now, this is temporary. I deserve healthy boundaries and separation from work.

I deserve healthy boundaries and separation from work. My well-being is my top priority. My well-being is my top priority. Taking care of myself is not selfish. It helps me care for others.

Taking care of myself is not selfish. It helps me care for others. Just taking a moment to let these affirmations really sink in. And just bringing awareness to your body and mind and how you feel at this time. It's important to recognize, no matter how difficult our workdays become, that we can always come back to ourselves, come back to the state of relaxation and rest, and reset for our life away from work and for our next workday.

So, inviting a little bit of movement and energy back into your body. You can do this by increasing the depth of your breath, wiggling your fingers and your toes, maybe giving yourself a big stretch, and then finally opening your eyes. Remember once again, taking care of yourself is not selfish. It helps you do the work of caring for others. Thank you for listening.

Namaste. So that's it for this episode of Reviving Vet Med. I really hope that you enjoyed this meditation. Meditation is just a wonderful tool to really, separate from our work at the end of the day and tune into our bodies and our minds and just take stock of the day and where things are at. So, if you think that someone else might benefit from this meditation, please go ahead and share this episode.

And if you haven't already done so, please subscribe to the podcast. That way you won't miss the new episodes as soon as they are released. And for additional resources related to veterinary well-being, please visit my website, marieholowaychuk.com. And if you have any questions about today's episode or suggestions for future topics, please email me at info@marieholowaychuk.com. Otherwise, I would like to thank my amazing assistant, Jamie, for producing this episode, and of course I'd like to thank you so much for listening.

I hope you'll tune in next time. In the meantime, take care of yourself. Bye now.