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! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and tell you I genuinely enjoy
reading through your articles. Can you suggest any other blogs/websites/forums that go over the same topics?
Thank you so much!
I have read some just right stuff here. Definitely price bookmarking for revisiting.
I wonder how much attempt you set to create this sort of excellent informative web site.
Ahaa, its pleasant dialogue on the topic of this paragraph here at this blog, I have read all that, so
now me also commenting here.
Excellent article. I will be dealing with some of these issues as well..
Attractive portion of content. I just stumbled upon your blog and in accession capital to
assert that I acquire actually enjoyed account your weblog posts.
Any way I will be subscribing to your augment or even I achievement
you get entry to consistently fast.
Hello! Do you know if they make any plugins to help with
Search Engine Optimization? I’m trying to get my blog to
rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very good results.
If you know of any please share. Thank you!
Everything is very open with a precise explanation of the challenges.
It was definitely informative. Your website is very helpful.
Many thanks for sharing!
Hi, i think that i saw you visited my weblog so i came to “return the
favor”.I’m attempting to find things to enhance my
site!I suppose its ok to use a few of your ideas!!
Hello, i think that i saw you visited my web site thus i came to “return the favor”.I am trying to find things
to enhance my website!I suppose its ok to use a few of your ideas!!
Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally,
it seems as though you relied on the video to make
your point. You clearly know what youre talking about, why waste your intelligence on just
posting videos to your site when you could be giving us something enlightening to read?
I do not even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was good.
I do not know who you are but judi bola you are going to a famous blogger if you are not
already 😉 Cheers!
Wonderful blog! I found it while surfing around on Yahoo News.
Do you have any suggestions on how to get listed in Yahoo News?
I’ve been trying for a while but I never seem to get there!
Thanks
Great information. Lucky me I discovered your blog by chance
(stumbleupon). I’ve book marked it for later!
For most up-to-date information you have to pay a visit web and
on internet I found this web page as a best web page for hottest updates.
This post is priceless. When can I find out more?
My partner and I absolutely love your blog and find most
of your post’s to be exactly what I’m looking for.
can you offer guest writers to write content for yourself?
I wouldn’t mind composing a post or elaborating on a lot of the
subjects you write related to here. Again, awesome web log!
Wonderful article! We are linking to this particularly great content on our website.
Keep up the good writing.
Howdy, i read your blog occasionally and i own a similar
one and i was just curious if you get a lot of spam feedback?
If so how do you reduce it, any plugin or anything you can advise?
I get so much lately it’s driving me insane so any support is very much appreciated.
Dating apps attract individuals seeking a person they can have a genuine partnership with.
Very nice post. I definitely love this site. Continue
the good work!