In this episode, I, your host, Dr. Tomi Mitchell, had the pleasure of interviewing the amazing Dr. Dympna Weil
Biography:
Dr. Dympna Weil, MD is an Obstetrician-Gynecologist with a long-standing interest in physician wellness, most recently in clinical practice as an OBGYN Hospitalist,
with experience in academics and private practice as well.
In the Fall of 2020, a constellation of symptoms presented and forced her into stillness. It took over nine months to receive a diagnosis of vestibular migraine and PPPD. During this time, Dympna, now a patient and unable to care for others, had to learn to care for herself.
This forced stillness allowed for precious healing and Dympna deepened her self-care with the intention of sharing this with other physicians in need when she trained and certified as a Martha Beck Life Coach. Now as the founder of The Physician Wayfinder, Dympna seeks to help other doctors navigate burnout, change, and whatever roadblocks keep them from living their purpose.
Contact Information:
Facebook
@PhysicianWayfinder
LinkedIn:
linkedin.com/in/dympna-weil-19a6984
Website:
www.physicianwayfinder.com
In this episode, I, your host, Dr. Tomi Mitchell, had the pleasure of interviewing the amazing Dr. Dympna Weil
Biography:
Dr. Dympna Weil, MD is an Obstetrician-Gynecologist with a long-standing interest in physician wellness, most recently in clinical practice as an OBGYN Hospitalist,
with experience in academics and private practice as well.
In the Fall of 2020, a constellation of symptoms presented and forced her into stillness. It took over nine months to receive a diagnosis of vestibular migraine and PPPD. During this time, Dympna, now a patient and unable to care for others, had to learn to care for herself.
This forced stillness allowed for precious healing and Dympna deepened her self-care with the intention of sharing this with other physicians in need when she trained and certified as a Martha Beck Life Coach. Now as the founder of The Physician Wayfinder, Dympna seeks to help other doctors navigate burnout, change, and whatever roadblocks keep them from living their purpose.
Contact Information:
Facebook
@PhysicianWayfinder
LinkedIn:
linkedin.com/in/dympna-weil-19a6984
Website:
www.physicianwayfinder.com
SPEAKERS
Dr. Tomi Mitchell, Dr. Dympna Weil
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 00:06
Hello everyone, this is your host Dr. Tomi Mitchell on the Mental Health and Wellness Show. Today I have the pleasure of introducing Dr. Dympna Weil. Alright Dr. Dympna Weil an MD is an obstetrician, gynecologist with a long standing interest in physician wellness. Most recently in clinical practice as an OBGYN hospitalist with, with experience in academics and private practice as well, in the fall of 2020, a constellation of symptoms presented and forced her into stillness. It took over nine months to receive a diagnosis of vestibular migraine and PPPD which is Persistent Postural Perceptual Dizziness. During that time, Dympna now a patient and unable to take care of others had to learn to care for herself. This force stillness allowed for precious healing and Dypmna deeper trust self care with the intention of sharing this other physicians in need when she trained and certified as Mark as a Martha Beck life coach. Now as the founder of the physician Wayfinder. Dypmna seeks to help other doctors navigate burnout change, and whatever roadblocks keep them from living their purpose. With no further ado, I'd love to introduce this lovely lady, thank you for being here today.
Dr. Dympna Weil 01:23
It is an absolute pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 01:26
You know, when I read your bio, I put, it put a smile on my face, because it's like I can relate almost chronologically to the time lower. It's like poop at the fan, you finally had to listen to your body because it forced you into stillness in that fall of 2020 and had to pause money. Yeah, like crash to a halt. Right? And where you were supposed to be the healer helper, but can no longer help others and had to look after yourself.
Dr. Dympna Weil 01:52
Yeah, it wasn't it wasn't a choice.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 01:55
I, I know.
Dr. Dympna Weil 01:56
Yeah. And I think that was the hardest part. You know, it's one thing when you know, you may choose to leave a job, or you may choose to leave a position that is no longer serving you.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 02:08
Yeah.
Dr. Dympna Weil 02:08
But when it's something that's forced upon you. It feels different, you know, and it really requires you to look at things and examine things a little differently. When your body is like, yeah, sorry, you need to kind of rest you need to take it easy. And in, in the case, in my case, it was you know, I couldn't process stillness from movement, and I had no choice. But still, and as a no be going, you know, going 95 miles an hour all the time in a different direction. It was quite a change.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 02:47
100% and also as an OB your job requires you to be sometimes seated, but often standing, bent over, crouched over delivering your baby. So the whole postural piece probably doesn't, you know, it just work.
Dr. Dympna Weil 03:01
Well, yeah and it's, um, you know, your one minute you're sitting and I was a hospitalist, right? And so I'm running around labor and delivery non stop, you know, it's, it's emergencies all the time. So you're running from one room to the next, you're sitting, you're standing, you're going to the operating room, you're you know, even just talking about it kind of could make a little dizzy now. But yeah, it was intense. And it was wonderful. And it was great, but until it wasn't, and, you know, it was trying to process all that information in my brain was just like, yup, we're just, we're not going to do that right now, yeah.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 03:44
Yeah, very much so especially when the I'm sure you considered yourself almost like Superwoman, like you knew that you were like a badass knew what you were doing. Because let's face it, we have to, we're on the go, well, you're on the go, especially living babies, but they don't come like nine to five between coffee breaks, what are those things? You know, it's like two in the morning, there's two back to back as a emergency in this room, and then a twin delivering the next room and a cord prolapse here. It's like, well, it's up.
Dr. Dympna Weil 04:09
Yeah. And and as the hospitalist I'm generally especially overnight, like the usually the only doc in house other than the anesthesiologist and, and we supervise family practice residents at the facility I was at and yeah it was gogogo much of the time and, and then that was in addition to all the other things we were doing, right, like, yeah, it was you, you know, super human it is kind of how you, you know. And so, to then have to kind of reckon with the fact that I'm not really super human and that I am very much human. And now I have to be a patient and you know, kind of go through that process was beyond humbling. It was very. Yeah, it was ran the gamut of the experience of being on the other side of that and being very vulnerable.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 05:14
Yes.
Dr. Dympna Weil 05:15
You know.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 05:15
Definitely. I've been there too where it's like, I have been the patient ultimately times, and it can be scary. It can be it is scary. It especially you know, that your future is that you thought you you are you're going to have is being significantly challenged.
Dr. Dympna Weil 05:32
Yes. And then, you know, on the one hand, just wanting to like wake up and feeling better, and just get back to work, because that's what you know, but knowing that's not going to happen right away. And then having those that, you know, around you say, when you get back to work when you get back on the schedule, you know, and you're like, I wish it was just that simple, but it's not. You know?
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 05:56
So when you look back to that time, when it like you went still, do you think that your body was whispering to you like, Dympna there something up, slow down, like in retrospect, or then you just kind of ignored it and power through it? Or is it just like, suddenly, BAM symptoms?
Dr. Dympna Weil 06:13
Um, I can, I can only say that a few weeks before, it was undeniable. I had had like an episode ish sort of experience that I kind of was like, Well, that was interesting. I don't really know what that was all about. And then it kind of went away. And then this was like, wham, bam, done. I'm sure there were whispers beforehand. And I mean, let's be honest, it was probably 20 years of whispers that were gone, ignored. Right?
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 06:45
Right? From the moment you started the journey of being a doctor.
Dr. Dympna Weil 06:49
Hello, you know, speak when spoken to. You don't have to pee until you're done with the case. I mean, it goes back to my first day as an intern on labor and delivery. I didn't go to the bathroom until like three o'clock in the afternoon. I hadn't had anything to eat or drink. And I remember asking the anesthesia attending because I was too embarrassed to ask the OB attending because I knew they'd be like, no, well, my attending for the rest of my duration of my residency career. So I asked you, you know, the anesthesia attending because she seemed really nice. You know, I said, Um, can you tell me where the bathroom is? And she's like, ah, sweet child, you haven't gone to the bathroom all day? And I was like, no, don't say anything. She's like, she took me to the bathroom. Have you have anything to drink? No. Get this curl, you know? And, you know, and then the very first day of my intern year, and it was ever since then, right? We' you learn like to ignore, ignore, ignore, because that's the culture of.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 07:55
100% and you know, three o'clock, it's pretty early to get to go to the bathroom.
Dr. Dympna Weil 08:01
Well, I mean, yeah, I was, I was there at like, 430. So I mean, I was approaching three hours. So I mean, 12 hours.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 08:08
All day you go. There you go, it's about time. It's camel you.
Dr. Dympna Weil 08:15
I didn't even know where it was. You know, that wasn't on the tour.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 08:17
No, It's like, there's the Operating Room, this is your scrub. This is all yours like, that's it.
Dr. Dympna Weil 08:23
Yep. That's exactly right. So yeah.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 08:25
Badge of honor.
Dr. Dympna Weil 08:27
Many badges of honor that the erroneous badges of honor. Right?
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 08:32
Very much so.
Dr. Dympna Weil 08:33
Yeah.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 08:33
Very much so, I used to love hate, though, like you're on call 24 hours that you still have to be awake to do rounding the next morning and at least, you know, like 36 hours straight was kind of like the norm.
Dr. Dympna Weil 08:45
Standard.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 08:46
Standard. I remember often driving home and I be like how did I even drive home? Like, I don't remember getting my car.
Dr. Dympna Weil 08:52
Scary. I always I often wondered, you know, and after residency, I stayed on, on faculty and I wondered, like, it has to be a better way. Like when you graduate these how are these attendings like there are so many of them. Why are they working the day after call? Like, it's bad enough you're working a 24 hour call. Why are you still rounding and then working the next day that did change like towards like I was after I was.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 09:18
Yeah, yeah, it was.
Dr. Dympna Weil 09:19
But, but like, as an attending, why are you doing that? That can't be necessary.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 09:27
It's not, you're not even functioning even at half capacity. It's not even safe, frankly. Im just gonna open do the surgery right now. I've had about no sleep in 24 hours. I think I had Red Bull and maybe a cookie or something from the patient's, you know, on the fridge.
Dr. Dympna Weil 09:44
Like, how was that? How is that serving ourselves? How is that serving our patients? How is that? Yeah. How do we expect to you know, care for anyone in that circumstance?
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 09:55
100% and I think our nervous system often gets the beating like its cuz it's hidden, right? It's not like you break a leg. It's like, oh, they broke their leg. They're in a cast for a while when things start going here, we can't see it, we can maybe see the impact after the fact. Right? Wow. Well, I know, You've been forced to still be still. But you know what? Something beautiful has come out of this. You've been forced to slow your roll. Okay, be still, breath. Right? You had to pivot? Can you share with us a little bit about the pivot that occurred?
Dr. Dympna Weil 10:25
Yeah, so I, you know, it was interesting. I, I had to really reckon with my identity, you know, because part of it was, you know, if I'm not practicing, I'm not a doctor. And I had to really reckon with that thought, is that even true? And I struggled with that a lot at first. And I had to work through that a lot. You know, like I was, I really was struggling, I came across, I had previously done some, you know, coaching in the past, I actually have a family friend who's a coach for like, 20 years before it was even cool.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 11:09
Yeah, I know.
Dr. Dympna Weil 11:10
Evo, what have you. And so I had been kind of just, you know, pondering that concept of like, who am I? If I'm not practicing? Who am I? I'm not delivering babies in the middle of the night. Um, you know, almost like, what good am I? You know, it was almost like questioning my worth.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 11:29
Yeah.
Dr. Dympna Weil 11:30
And so, you know, I did seek therapy, because it made me really anxious, this whole the new diagnosis, what's wrong with me? How do I move on from this? Or how do I just deal with this challenge, right? And part of my recovery with my vestibular condition was, it was vestibular cognitive behavioral therapy. So that was actually really helpful. In this process, I actually started doing some self coaching scholars on with a podcast from The Life Coach School, and that was really helpful. And then I, I pivoted to doing a group with called empowering women physicians, which was a group coaching, which was really, really helpful. With Sonny Smith, I thought that was wonderful. At the same exact time, I had been a big fan of Martha Beck, who's an author and coach and scholar. And I signed up to do her life coaching program. And it was all really just to kind of help me manage my own mind around this new challenge I was facing, because therapy was great. And it was really useful, but I had to like, be with my brain all the time. And so I wanted to be able to, like, hack into it, and like, make it work for me, and reckon with some of the things when I didn't have my therapist there to help me, you know, and to be able to kind of like, help myself work through some of these things. Like, you know, who am I if I'm not delivering babies, and kind of really, like, question some of those thoughts that I was having. And so the thing I really loved about the Martha Beck work was that she went into thought work, but kind of reconnected you with your body. And that's one of the things that as a physician and the training, like we were speaking of just a few minutes ago, I felt like there was that disconnect.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 13:31
Yes.
Dr. Dympna Weil 13:31
Like.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 13:32
Yeah. Huge.
Dr. Dympna Weil 13:32
Right, huge, right? Like, you know, just keep on working, keep on disconnect, you know, keep plowing through, and you get further and further disconnected from your body and what you're feeling. And, you know, Martha's flavor of coaching was really reconnecting our minds and our thoughts with our feeling in our body. And so I signed up to go through her program, one to help me heal myself, and then, you know, become trained and see where that went. And immediately, I just knew, like, I had been a coach all my life, you know, I've been coaching patients and colleagues and friends just that's just who I was in my like, as as a person. I just now was going to more formally be doing that. And so that's kind of where my journey took me.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 14:28
Yes, for sure. I completely relate because I too, was doing the coaching piece and counseling in my own flavor prior to even taking the coaching courses.
Dr. Dympna Weil 14:38
Mm hmm.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 14:38
And then it when the pandemic hit, it was like, Okay, I'm gonna re embrace this and then months later, like, fall 2020 Just like you who hits the fan, and I was forced to be still and heal acknowledge all the aches, physically, mental, emotional, everything that I was just varying.
Dr. Dympna Weil 14:55
Mm hmm.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 14:56
And at this point, it was all come out and I had to deal with it, but it was the best thing ever and it was free to know that your identity is not wrapped around an MD you are more than a doctor and letting them be okay with that first because if you're not okay with that, as a person, they're not going to be okay. When people make their comments like, oh, so why did you go to school all these years? Like, what are you? You know what I mean? Like, I'm sure you've had comments or you've read things you like, really? Right?
Dr. Dympna Weil 15:22
Yoga, oh, yeah, yeah, like, wow, that you went to school. And now this is what you're doing? And you're like, yeah, it is.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 15:29
Yeah, I have, I remember recently, I made a comment about this post was about this lady. He was like, like, 42 weeks with twins. And I'm like, Okay, that's great. But I'm like, I hope everything's okay. Because normally my experiences physician, we don't typically do twins in there before two weeks. And I remember getting so much backlash. What do you know, you're just a coach. Oh, dadada, who do you think you are? But I'm just like, I'm just like, you know, whatever. But it's like, you get that you just a coach, or you're just this you just that. I'm more than that. We're many things.
Dr. Dympna Weil 16:02
Yes.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 16:03
Many things.
Dr. Dympna Weil 16:03
And, and it's interesting. You know, I, I feel like part of the beauty of all of this, right, is that we have our wonderful breadth of clinical experience.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 16:15
Yes.
Dr. Dympna Weil 16:16
And that's what I bring to the coaching, right, I have this wonderful lived experience. That's so varied.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 16:24
Yes.
Dr. Dympna Weil 16:25
And Rich.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 16:26
Yes.
Dr. Dympna Weil 16:26
And it's what allows me to understand so much about what my colleagues are feeling.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 16:35
Yeah.
Dr. Dympna Weil 16:36
That it? I think it really, it fuels my purpose.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 16:42
Yes, I love that fuels your purpose, 100 percent. And it also makes what you went through even more precious, like there was there was a purpose wortht in that pain. Yes, I don't know. But I had to have, I have to come to terms with my past and all the experiences I've had, and find beauty out of it, right? And going through the being a coach being someone to help others, because you've been through it, and you can empathize a lot. And plus, you have that clinical background as well. It makes your past worse while.
Dr. Dympna Weil 17:12
Oh, yeah, it puts purpose to the pain that you went through and the struggles that you went through, you know, in one case, in, you know, in particular, you know, I went through some medical litigation, and that was a really like dehumanizing experience.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 17:33
100%. Everything will will come.
Dr. Dympna Weil 17:34
And that, you know, changed me pretty dramatically. And that experience, you know, when I was going through it, I was like, I'm going through this for a reason, I don't know what it is right now. But there is a reason I'm going through this. And afterwards, I had, you know, wonderful support through an EAP program that was framed as coaching. And now full circle, I am one of their coaches, offering support to physicians who are going through medical litigation. And so, you know, putting that pain to purpose and so, yeah, it is very much so taking those experiences that we've been through and, you know, to the way you phrased it earlier, when we started speaking you know, maybe not the way you would have seen it going you know, but that's why you know, it's kind of like a birth plan, right? You know, if you write down if you write down every single thing. Definitely not going that way. Right, you don't write to the LR if you write your birth plan out exactly. Like you have to just be willing to just allow, be informed be well informed and educated and then allow.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 18:57
100%.
Dr. Dympna Weil 18:58
Yeah.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 18:59
I will have a birth plan, I have one for myself, it was just give me a healthy baby at the end with as little discomfort as possible.
Dr. Dympna Weil 19:11
That to me that sounds like a perfect birth plan.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 19:13
That's very easy, just you know let me save my child's life for me. Little discomfort as possible. Good.
Dr. Dympna Weil 19:20
Oh, I'm a fan of birth plan. It's just when they're writ, when they're written like a script. That's when they get that's when they get you in trouble, right?
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 19:30
The reason for clinical judgment somewhere unexpected.
Dr. Dympna Weil 19:35
It's been there all good.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 19:37
Now, I hear you be prepared for either way life is life is interesting for you. I know. One thing I, I know many of our listeners are listening to this right now. I just see the like you have a grace about you and like a stillness. Like you are a beautiful person. I just want you to know like you exude love.
Dr. Dympna Weil 19:56
Oh, Thank you.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 19:57
You really are if you're the kind of person where someone walks in to bring with you and or Zoom how we coach. It's like they just kind of like lay it all out.
Dr. Dympna Weil 20:06
Thank you. I appreciate that.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 20:08
Yeah, I see it.
Dr. Dympna Weil 20:09
Oh, you're very kind my, I, I try to live my life with love being everything that I it drives everything in my professional life in my personal life that is what I try to lead with, so thank you.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 20:25
You're welcome. You are truly leading, you can, it just, they just grow and that's, that's amazing. That's what our world needs because let's face it sometimes, you know, as physicians and health care providers, we get to subclinical, we lose our humanity. And that's, you know, we do it to ourselves first or the system doesn't to you and you allow it for fear of the consequences of not fitting in the mold or matching or being in the field program you want to be in but somewhere along the line we have to stop the sprint and have a pace that's manageable, humane.
Dr. Dympna Weil 20:55
As it is humane, yes, yeah, reasonable.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 20:59
Yeah, yeah. I, you know, when I look back on everything I've done over this past 10 years of being an attending physician, whatever I'm like, how on God's earth I did that so, like go figure I got burned out and exhausted and life forced you to slow down and stop and pivot. You know, the pandemic I think really helped accelerate that I think not for COVID I would probably be running with on my knees but still running just hobbling along.
Dr. Dympna Weil 21:29
Oh, for sure. For sure. I don't think that's a question, it's a certainty.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 21:35
Certainty, it was so ridiculous. Look at what I used to do on a patient's today show right now let's do it for, I was in the office or chinos then go to both hospitals. Grandma into bed and the seniors word. Sure.
Dr. Dympna Weil 21:50
I mean, I mentioned to you I mentioned to you when we were you know, looking to get together I burnt myself out trying to build a wellness program at my old job like I mean, we do crazy things to ourselves. Right? Like. I mean, right?
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 22:09
It's because you have a good heart, that's the thing. The average doctor would not try to build a bonds oath,you just you just took your oath you know to do good health all that stuff. And you like flew with it. You were like, yes. All the you know, you were there. white coat ceremony? Yes. I'm gonna make a difference. Yes. I'm gonna go Virtus. Yes. They can do it.
Dr. Dympna Weil 22:32
Yeah, and then I'm gonna burn myself out trying to start a wellness program. What?
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 22:38
I just try to form, I built a medical center one stop shop. Yeah, it was great at it's peak. But then life happened, baby happen, pandemic happen? I say BC before children before COVID? I'm like, Right?
Dr. Dympna Weil 22:53
It's amazing. You know?
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 22:55
Yeah. But you wouldn't you know what, everything is all part of your story. It's your mess or mess. And here you are, you are impacting physicians in a more balanced way. And individuals that let's say, need a lot of help physicians, we apparently we are like, number one when it comes to suicide amongst professionals. That's still true up there with combat veterans, I'm not sure. But we are up there we are like top percentile. Right?
Dr. Dympna Weil 23:24
So sad. And it's heartbreaking.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 23:29
It is and so many suffer inside, they really do. Or they like what happened to Well, the good thing. What slowed us down was not fatal. Thank God, because there are many physicians and health care providers and other people out there who it was like, they had a mage, like, they're in vegetative states, they died on the job, they just didn't show up, you know, they jumped off a cliff, like balcony up their hospital, like, it's bad. And it doesn't need to be this way.
Dr. Dympna Weil 23:57
It's, it's tragic. It's an epidemic. And it's, and it's just lack of support. And, you know, it's a institutional cultural thing in medicine, how we really just, you know, and it was before COVID.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 24:13
Yes, it was long before COVID.
Dr. Dympna Weil 24:15
And it's, you know, heightened now, and I think people have woken up to realize that this is a real problem. You know, and I think it goes back to a lot of the ways that we, in medicine, you know, our culture of medicine exists, you know, I think, or even just our culture.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 24:33
In society.
Dr. Dympna Weil 24:35
In society, you know, we talk about like, you know, work life balance, right. That doesn't exist. Balance doesn't, you know, I'm very, I'm a little sensitive, maybe about the word balance with my balance issues. I don't know but, but like, but even before that, you know, like it balance is a really like, you know, it talks it's like something goes up at the expense of something else. Like something up and down. And so, you know, it's always something giving and taking at something else's expense. And it's it the word balance kind of implies that fragility, like it's fragile. You know, like any slight perturbation in the balance is disrupted, you know, so it's like, it's seemingly impossible, it's so difficult to maintain a balance. So like, that concept has always been set one that really just never, I just never really, it always kind of felt icky to me.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 25:33
Definitely, and you know, like I too have had to come to terms with this whole thing that's balanced. So the way I deal with it is there's different pies in our life, like wealth, health and wellness. It's not just physical, emotional, psychological, intellectual, environmental, all those parts of the wellness wheel. And between those eight spokes, we try to find overall balance, it doesn't mean that like, you might be chaotic in one area, let's say, you now you work in the stock market, and it crashes and you're like, Oh, my goodness, well, clearly, that's not balanced, but at least you have a home to go home too family that love you, I you don't live next to a nuclear dump. Right. So that's, that's, that's how I've come to terms with it while you still work on the crazy areas. So this, you have the other areas of support to you. And that's where I try to find balance. And then you speak of I speak of like the energy inputs and energy outputs, right, we have to make sure we continuously put the deposits in our life. So we have net balance positive. So when the rainy day come, which will come, your don't, but the time you realize that you going down, you have a way in which to mitigate those losses and put something in, right? It's, it's a tempt.
Dr. Dympna Weil 26:38
I like that.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 26:39
It's at tempt, it's like, you just have to keep on dancing, because life is not static, like, look at the past two years, even for those whose heads are in the sand. And there have been changes in the sand was like, I don't want to I don't want to do anything else. I listened to news, I listen to nothing. They're forced to look out whether they go pump gas in their car, or they try go to the store and buy something. They're like, Oh, okay, yeah, that's called balance in the world. So we just have to do our best and what we can control and parts that we can't, well, it's our response to it as well.
Dr. Dympna Weil 27:09
Right, exactly. Yeah. I love that. I love the idea of the input out.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 27:15
Yeah.
Dr. Dympna Weil 27:15
Like what you put in and out. I like to think of like, instead of the work life balance, I like to think of it as harmony.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 27:22
That's another beautiful way of putting it. Yeah.
Dr. Dympna Weil 27:24
So like, we have to achieve harmony, you know, like, the different parts of ourselves in our lives, you know, can live peacefully so we can handle the social, emotional, physical, personal, financial work, whatever aspects of real life and so you don't have to think of it as you know, something giving or taking at the expense of something else. But all those other different parts just living kind of harmoniously.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 27:50
Yeah and speaking of giving and taking energy, according to the law of I think conservation of energy or something physics energy cannot be destroyed. It can only be translated to something else, so.
Dr. Dympna Weil 28:00
That's right, neither created nor destroyed my friend.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 28:02
Exactly, you may back to university. Like we can destroy it. So you got to do something, make it beautiful.
Dr. Dympna Weil 28:09
That's right. So it's all harmony. That's how I like to think about it.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 28:13
Yes.
Dr. Dympna Weil 28:13
Yeah.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 28:14
Me too. And then knowing that that there are things that you can directly impact for positive it's okay if you know that you can control those things work on them.
Dr. Dympna Weil 28:23
Right.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 28:23
Makes time you put time in your schedule to go chat with your girlfriends or keep your houseplants alive or bring in some houseplants or go for a walk or do something, read a book, listen to a podcast, get coaching, gets a self development well, something.
Dr. Dympna Weil 28:37
Or just right it's you know, it's drive a little extra take the scenic route home. Decompress on your way home, just to give yourself you know, I know I used to have a really short commute once upon a time and I used to take a little extra at home sometimes you know, it's whatever it is just to give yourself a little space.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 28:59
Yeah be like the kid who you know walks to school but when we were younger we walked to school we went bust everywhere. And you know how you'll take the scenic route you'll just be like yeah, I'll go this way to go to the 7/11 to get my one cent candy and then I go this way just to go to store.
Dr. Dympna Weil 29:16
Right.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 29:17
You know, this scenic road, just idle along relax and I think so many of us forget to literally stop and smell the roses. We get so busy. We forget to enjoy to cherish nature, the stillness, right?
Dr. Dympna Weil 29:29
The sounds of the water, sound to the birds, now that is coming to spring, you know?
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 29:35
Yeah actually, well, today we're recording today's the first day of spring.
Dr. Dympna Weil 29:39
Yeah.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 29:39
Right, so those amazing changes in nature, so wow. So if anyone is listening, we know we have to just stop, slow down, smell the roses, reflect, reframe, mind supportive environment. I know you're not alone. Now speaking of slowing down, you have this comment this concept called a dimmer switch. Can you share a little bit about that?
Dr. Dympna Weil 30:01
Sure. So, as I've had to learn to navigate my vestibular imbalance, dysfunction, dysfunctions or challenges.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 30:11
Yeah.
Dr. Dympna Weil 30:12
I had to learn and relearn some, you know, lots of subtle skills that I guess I took for granted. You know, so that, you know, created a lot of different challenges, but also opportunities, you know, for me to question how I wanted to show up in these moments when it's not easy. So I realized really quickly that my vestibular recovery is very, very nuanced. So if I don't challenge it enough, I don't recover. If I challenge it too much, I get overwhelmed. And then I take step backward. And so when I started viewing my vestibular recovery through the lens of a dimmer switch, everything changed for me. And so I could turn it up or rev things up and kind of like just dial it up a little bit more and get some meaningful progress. When things were getting a little too much I could dial down. And then I could kind of settle myself down and I would not get so overwhelmed by by the work I was doing. And so then I, I wondered, you know, overwhelmed just left, like all the neural pathways like just in Fritz and it did me no good. So then I wondered, like, how might this apply everywhere else in my life? And so I realized, like, owning the dimmer switch of my life could change everything. So on any given day, in any given moment, you know, intensity up intensity down, it allows for grace and it anticipates like, changes are coming and I'm ready for it. So like, there's peace and knowing I can control up and down subtle fears on and off. And so, you know, when things instead of like when I'm controlling, you know, how I'm adjusting to my vestibular PT is, you know, how am I treating myself when I'm, you know, am I gonna get down on myself with judgment, while maybe I can dial down my self judgment? You know, how am I needing a little bit of compassion for myself in this moment, when it's hard dial up my self compassion? So by offering this concept of the dimmer switch, it's like, how can we use that idea to you know, we can't turn off these negative things that go on, right? We'd like to, but that's just not human. Right? That judgment, and sometimes the lack of self compassion, they're just, they're gonna be there, like it's not possible to just shut it off. Right? No matter how much work we do on ourselves that we try to, you know, get rid of these sorts of things. It's not going to happen, right? They're going to be there. They're parts of us. So accepting and acknowledging that they've just gonna be there. Yeah. And not judging ourselves for that. But recognizing that we can actually regain some power and peace and knowing that we can control it like a dimmer switch and just say, Well, okay, maybe I can dial up a little bit of compassion for myself at this moment.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 33:20
Yeah, I really do love that analogy. I've never heard of it before. So thank you, and I I use a dimmer switch all the time in my office. I have these little on my phone I can control okay, 100%, 90% it's like you turn it up in our lives or dim it down or shades on it.
Dr. Dympna Weil 33:36
That's right, that's right.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 33:40
They just dim it down so we can see.
Dr. Dympna Weil 33:43
Yeah.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 33:43
Wow, that's beautiful. You know, I, I am encouraged. I am honored whenever I see fellow physicians who are willing to put it out there because it's not as if you're hiding your you know your life challenges under a bushel of like a basket and saying no, it never happened to me all my life is perfect. I'm Dr. such and such know, you're like making something beautiful from the pain. And let's face it, it's your vestibular concerns have disappeared. So you have to acknowledge it and embrace it and reframe it probably quite frequently, especially when the little boy says, what do you think you are, they gonna mean like, what are you doing? Like, No, you are being you you're being authentic to you, you are not lending a degree or something to define the beautiful soul you are and you're perfect. And that takes courage. But those of us who are living authentically and proudly and boldly, it takes courage. That is true, and I want to say I honor you and I have so much respect for you. And for all the physicians and non physicians who are listening to this podcast today. Do you mind sharing with us how they could reach you because we're going to so if you don't mind sharing, like your Facebook contact or Connect site? Yeah.
Dr. Dympna Weil 34:47
Yeah, so I can be reached on my website, which is www.physicianwayfinder.com. And it's the same for Facebook, but the website will have all of my other contact information.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 35:02
Love it. And as always, all your details in the show notes so those who are not driving they can access that when they are not right.
Dr. Dympna Weil 35:09
Thank you.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 35:09
Thank you. Well, I have honestly I know your name is Dympna you're putting dimples on me like I'm litterally smiling so much because I am honestly very happy. This conversation for me has been a breath of fresh of breath, air, a breath of fresh air and a time to relax and to reflect like we all go things for a reason. Difference is some people don't find the purpose or their pain and others do. I'm able to move forward and you're able to move forward. So for that, again, I say thank you again, to all the listeners. Thank you so much for spending this time with us. If you have friends or family who you believe that this will benefit please share this podcast with them so that they too can look at their lives and know that there is meaning in their suffering. They are not defined by a degree or by a past experience so that they can let their true self shine because now more than ever, we need people who who are letting their lights, until we meet again. This is Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Weil from the Mental Health and Wellness Show. Bye.