The Unspoken Life
Recognize Your Passion, Embrace Imperfection, and Stay Connected
Kimberly Pope-Robinson, DVM, CCFP
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35021125-the-unspoken-life?from_search=true
An excellent read for all veterinary staff and students. Veterinary well-being is something I believe we all need to be proactive over, developing better skills for helping ourselves and each other. This is an efficient read, and easy to absorb the details.
A very recent CDC study (Tomasi, S. et al, Suicide among veterinarians in the United States from 1979 through 2015, JAVMA Vol 254:1, 104-112) determined that veterinarians have up to a 3.5 time higher chance of death by suicide, compared to the general population. And the rate of suicide has been steadily rising over the last several years. If the CDC has taken the time and financial investment to investigate this, alarm bells should be screaming at us. This author, a veterinarian, speaks from experience regarding the critical concept that veterinary well-being should be a priority.
The main take-away that Dr. Pope-Robinson communicates, is the vitalness of connection. Without connection, feelings of isolation can overwhelm us, perpetuating negative and destructive thought patterns and behaviors. Learning to replace these negative habits with thoughts and actions of connection is her strategy for developing a robust life of well-being.
Fighting the negative components of our life (“sinkers”) intentionally and proactively with positive and up-lifting components (“balloons”) help us build and maintain connection.
Four different components of connection are discussed:
- Physical connection
- Mental connection
- Emotional connection
- Spiritual connection
While most of us expect life to balance itself out, negativity bias (the subconscious tendency to dwell on, or give greater weight to the negative) favors energy drains, rather than balanced or positive states of being. Therefore, proactively managing and connecting with positive components is a critical skill to develop!
Given the uniqueness we each carry, our sense of connection for each component will be extremely varied from each other. To establish a resilient sense of well-being, understanding things that give you a sense of connection (running, one on one time with a loved one, reading a book, spending time in nature), having strategies in place to recognize when they are needed, and engaging these positives is a skillset of incredible value.
The only moment of sun in the day, between hail storms and sunset.
A helium weather sized balloon, for me.
Dr. Pope-Robinson also discusses other vital components to remaining connected, including self-worth, conviction, acceptance, courage, vision, empathy, and resilience.
This book is an excellent starting point to start considering, developing and sustaining your sense of well-being. I recommend reading it- even if you feel well equipped, it may be a skillset that could save your life, or help you recognize another life that needs to feel connected. It will not be a burden to take the time to read it.
In addition to this book, Dr. Pope-Robinson has developed 1 Life Connected, a business dedicated to coaching individuals towards connecting your passions and your career.
Another resource on well-being, developed by the American Veterinary Medical association provides help line information, and a kit of articles and topics to help you understand and develop well-being.
While you are working through this book, what are your strategies for filling your “balloons”? What are your strategies for recognizing when your “sinkers” are tipping the scale? Share below, and help us build our tool-kits!
Further Reading/Resources:
I Need Help Please
Slaying the Savior
Hello there, just became aware of your blog through Google, and found that it’s really informative.
I’m going to watch out for brussels. I will be grateful if you continue this in future.
A lot of people will be benefited from your writing.
Cheers!
It’s an awesome post for all the internet visitors; they will obtain advantage from it I am sure.
I could not refrain from commenting. Perfectly written!
Thanks for any other informative blog. Where else may just I get that type
of info written in such a perfect means? I’ve a challenge that I’m simply now running on, and I have been at the glance out for such information.
Ahaa, its nice dialogue regarding this article at this place at this website, I have read all
that, so now me also commenting here.
It’s very easy to find out any topic on net as compared to books, as I found this piece of writing at this web page.
Very good article! We are linking to this particularly great content on our site.
Keep up the great writing.
My developer is trying to persuade me to move to .net from PHP.
I have always disliked the idea because of the expenses. But he’s tryiong none the
less. I’ve been using WordPress on a number of websites for about a year and am
worried about switching to another platform. I have heard good things about
blogengine.net. Is there a way I can import all my wordpress posts into it?
Any kind of help would be greatly appreciated!
I take pleasure in, lead to I found exactly what I
was looking for. You’ve ended my 4 day lengthy
hunt! God Bless you man. Have a great day. Bye
Hello to every body, it’s my first go to see
of this blog; this webpage consists of remarkable and actually fine
information for visitors.
Hello this is somewhat of off topic but I was wanting to know if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you
have to manually code with HTML. I’m starting a
blog soon but have no coding know-how so I wanted
to get advice from someone with experience. Any help would be
greatly appreciated!
Hello there, You’ve done a fantastic job. I will
definitely digg it and personally recommend to my friends.
I’m confident they’ll be benefited from this site.
Hello mates, its great post concerning teachingand
entirely explained, keep it up all the time.
Nice post. I learn something totally new and challenging on sites I stumbleupon everyday.
It’s always interesting to read articles from other authors and use something from their web sites.
What’s up, its pleasant article about media print,
we all be familiar with media is a impressive source of facts.
Magnificent goods from you, man. I’ve understand your
stuff previous to and you are just too wonderful. I actually like what
you have acquired here, certainly like what you are
stating and the way in which you say it. You make it entertaining and you still take care of to keep it smart.
I can’t wait to read much more from you. This is really a
terrific web site.
Can I simply just say what a relief to find a person that genuinely knows what they’re talking about on the web.
You definitely know how to bring an issue to light and
make it important. More and more people need to read this and
understand this side of your story. I was surprised you’re not more popular
given that you surely possess the gift.
This is really interesting, You’re a very skilled blogger.
I’ve joined your rss feed and look forward to seeking more of your excellent post.
Also, I’ve shared your website in my social networks!
fantastic points altogether, you simply received a new reader.
What would you recommend about your put up that you just made a few days ago?
Any certain?
Pretty great post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wished to
mention that I have truly enjoyed surfing around your blog posts.
In any case I’ll be subscribing for your rss feed and
I am hoping you write once more soon!