CATEGORY 118 AUSTRALASIAN DENTIST REALITY BITES Jade Richardson A deeper source of calm ~ the ‘other sort’ of medicine Jade Richardson travels from inner-city ridiculous to tropical island sublime and discovers the beautiful reasons why the first rule of good medicine really is, Heal Thy Self. Here’s a true story: the first four surgeons I interviewed for this journal after the covid episode cried on the phone with me for over an hour. Here is another thing I carefully edit out when writing for you: levels of stress, overwhelm, depression, fatigue, addiction, anxiety and ill health are almost always part of the conversation these days, whether I’m speaking to practitioners, sales reps or scientists in medicine. It is not only you. The issues are affecting almost everyone. And while we are here, yes, to talk about how we can better serve, treat, heal, skill up and trade in good health for our communities, as well as navigate the surging seas of technology, ownership, investment and sales, let’s also talk about the other big reality in medicine – too many of our healthcare providers are stressed and suffering. This is not a winning formula. You can be as brilliantly educated, marketed, networked, invested, positioned and skilled as is humanly possible (or beyond humanly, as we are already seeing, now that AI is in the mix), but – if you are anxious, overloaded, depressed, angry, greedy, in pain, or not loving your life and work, isn’t it just common sense that, sooner or later, it all starts to feel like a drag? That you can’t really deliver what you’ve got? That things start to crumble, inside? You start asking all those sickly little questions: what have I done? Why am I here? Is this what it’s really all about? How much longer? What’s the point? How about a Whisky? Where’s the remote? By Jade Richardson Living out here in ‘reality’, it’s a whirly ride of action, extroversion, hitting goals, booked out days, traffic jams, synthetic lighting, customer service, future visions and heavy debt. We have punctuated all this with fancy cars, kitchen renovations, cocktail hours, prestige trips to all the right places and a golden light at the end of what can too often start to look like a very long tunnel indeed. But there is another way. I took it. It works. Here’s why. The call My invitation to experience what’s known these days as a ‘Wellness Holiday’ didn’t really come from any outside force: it came from a quiet voice inside. You know the one. “We need to get out of here,” it was saying, constantly, like a soft hum in the background. “I need help,” it sometimes reminded me. “This isn’t fun anymore.” I was all out of love for the everyday life, and I knew it. But the truth, to be frank, scared the hell out of me. The little voice that reminded me gently, persistently, that I was burnt out, bored, frazzled and frustrated did not feel like a friendly one. It felt like it was threatening to topple the whole house of cards. I knew it was right; I wasn’t happy, I wasn’t sleeping, I was angry in traffic and I felt trapped and isolated. But listening to this voice, as soft as it was, felt dangerous. Getting off the wheel, taking an exit ramp out of the rat race, even for a short break, felt like it could risk everything I was trading my life away for – that horizon ahead – you know the one I mean. I don’t know how it happened really, one day I found myself watching my fingertips dance on the keyboard, following the persuasive encouragement of that inner voice, and the next week I was looking out the window of a direct flight from Perth, over a magical scene of turquoise waters and swaying, gold-fringed palm trees. I was prepared to be disappointed, high hopes are risky business. Sliding doors There is the way we do medicine in our industry: slick, efficient, modern, fast, streamlined and cutting edge; and then there is what we might call a twin path, a sister path – the paradox of the opposite, being essential to the cure. Even before my taxi swung through the entrance to the gorgeous Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary, I knew I had stumbled onto something special. The spoonful of honey that could add a vital sweetness I was missing. I’ve seen beautiful resorts all over the world, but there’s something
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