By Megan Herson 

The mantra of achieving emotional, physical and spiritual happiness seems to echo throughout every facet of life. From social media and television, to work and study, it seems to be inculcated into our generation that it is necessary to find a way to equally incorporate social life, family connections, hobbies, physical activity, and spirituality into our lives in order to be happy.

Social influencers have been able to make an entire career out of posting photos about their seemingly perfectly balanced life. It was not until very recently that I realised that the components of achieving a balance in life actually makes quite a long list. How on earth am I able to engage in extra-curricular activities while I try to understand the difference between aortic stenosis and mitral regurgitation whilst simultaneously keeping up appearances at my friend’s social events, and remembering to get my daily dose of veges whilst I rush to gym to stay physically active? Just reading that sentence makes me anxious! The components of keeping a balanced life seem attainable, but cannot all necessarily be maintained at the same time. I am not saying that career, connections, physically health, and spirituality are unimportant, but rather that it is difficult to focus on all aspects equally without collapsing under the pressure. It is okay – even healthy (in my humble and not-yet-medical-professional opinion) – for work and life to be experienced unequally.

Having a perfect balance of work and life, in order to achieve a state of wellbeing, seems a fallacy to me. We are all at different life stages with different priorities. Placing more attention on one aspect of life at a time may actually support wellbeing by attenuating the stress of achieving everything in balance. If you are at a stage of life where focusing on career is more important to you than going to parties, you can focus on that aspect of life for a period of time. If you are in a stage where you need a break from driving career and want to focus on personal growth, it is okay to put more energy into spirituality, social connectedness and emotional wellbeing. Of course, it is always important to have some aspect of all components of wellbeing in play; however, it may not be possible to give a hundred percent of yourself to your career, physical fitness, spirituality and connectedness all at once. Acknowledge that you may not be able to balance every single aspect of what makes life ‘healthy’ equally all the time, yet you’ll still be able to make the best decision for yourself at that particular point in your life. The caveat is to remember to limit the amount of time that maximal attention is spent on one component of life, and to alter the focus depending on what your priority is during that period of time.

 

Here are my top tips for achieving a state of wellbeing from one type-A to another:

Let go of some of that medical-student-perfectionism. Okay, this is quite hypocritical because I find this difficult at the best of times… but perfectionism is unattainable, and you cannot give yourself completely to every aspect of your life at the same time. Focus on what you need at that stage of life. Balance is important, but it is impossible to manage everything that is important to you equally and at once.

Have a few phone-free hours every day. Constantly being on our phones makes us available to people every hour of every day, and makes the world available to us every hour of every day. A sense of urgency is thus created, with the constant need for instant gratification producing a need to rush through life rather than enjoying it slowly.

Be kind to yourself – a concept that is perhaps the most important yet hardest one to accept and accomplish. Acknowledging what you need to be happy – and putting your needs before others – not only identifies what your priorities are in life, making it easier to realise where your focus is needed, but also automatically makes you a happier person.

Finally, be kind to others. You never know what someone else is going through, and one seemingly trivial comment or act may have a disproportionate impact on another person. This has been said before but medicine is hard and it may not be possible to give it everything all the time, whilst juggling so many different things at once. However by supporting ourselves and each-other we can give it our best and enjoy the journey at the same time.

 

 

A Cannula Exclusive 

By Idew Wokefield

[De-identified] Hospital, Victoria – Medicine is a constantly evolving field with ground-breaking research allowing patients to be treated and diagnosed faster. Examples of such research has occurred in very stage of human history such as the 1928 invention of penicillin to treat bacterial infections, the 21^st century mindfulness movement to treat burnout and the 15th century BCE ban on trepanning to treat ‘evil demon spirits’. However, despite hundreds of years of research and countless sums of money, people with disease or yet to be symptomatic from it are missed and suffer from the consequences such as a late cancer diagnosis. The Cannula is proud to report that a BMedSci student at [De-identified] Hospital has published a study that will allow human civilisation to enter a golden age akin to the introduction of pineapple onto pizza and has succeeded where countless centuries of the worlds brightest minds have failed.

The single blinded randomised control trial consisting of 300 ‘healthy’ participants utilises the ‘Medical Student Screening Test’ which is based on their unique self diagnosing abilities. When asked about how they invented this ingenious test, the unnamed BMedSci student commented ‘ I once attended an infectious diseases lecture and afterwards diagnosed myself with influenza, herpes and glandular fever. The next day I felt a little febrile with fatigue and an itchy throat and I promptly attended the GP. I told him my diagnosis and we had a 1-hour intellectual debate with him ultimately conceding that I was right and to “never come back to his clinic”. Afterwards I diagnosed my dad with colon cancer and the coloscopy removed a 0.3 cm hyperplastic polyp preventing his cancer diagnosis 40 years in the future.’ The experimental group is shown various lecture slides from the Monash Medicine Program consisting of the signs and symptoms and images of the post-mortem pathologies of hundreds of diseases. While the control group is shown first year slides displaying the Krebs Cycle. Both groups then fill in a 50-page survey, containing all the conditions known to humankind and ticking all the conditions they think they have. Afterwards every diagnostic tool is applied to them discover if they had any undiagnosed illnesses. ‘Basically, we perform an angiogram, 30 blood tests, a whole body X-ray, ultrasound, CT, plus biopsies of EVERY part of the body, a colonoscopy, a gastroscopy, a MRCP and all the physical examinations. Surprisingly the most common condition we diagnosed was white coat syndrome and hypochondriasis’ an unnamed researcher commented. Side effects experienced by the control group include, 28 participants passing out from boredom and one individual gaining an interest in biomedicine. Side effects experienced in the experimental group include 14 becoming naturopaths and 10 transferring their future care to Doctor ‘WebMD’. The results of the study show a remarkable 99.99% sensitivity and when asked about the specificity our unnamed hero exclaimed ‘it is in the 1^st percentile for specificity in diagnostic tools’, a truly amazing result.

Our BMedSci student hopes to go to the Rxxxx Mxxxxxxxx Cxxxxxxx’s Hospital and to gain entry is currently working on a panacea that involves every treatment possible simultaneously because ’delayed treatment can be worse than delayed diagnosis’. The trial patients have a defibrillator applied, swallow a beta blocker tablet, inhale Ventolin, have IV Tazocin via cannula, have glycerol enema, whilst going through a meditation session with Monash HEP tutors to treat any potential anxiety. The Cannula reports that the potential panacea is achieving a patient centred approach with none of the trial patients lodging a complaint so far.

 

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If you are a writer, fan, hater or corporate lawyer for [De-identified] Hospital, please send your ideas, money, hate mail or cease and desist letter to xxx1.spam.1xxx@gmail.com!

By Natalie Liu 

In an education system which intrinsically pits us against one another, which ranks us on how many marks we lost in some exam or assignment, it’s hard not to compare yourself to others.

In a high-pressure course where every single person is smart, driven and high-achieving, it’s hard not to diminish yourself when you don’t measure up to your peers.

In a world where success is praised, promoted and shared, and ‘failure’ is kept to yourself, it’s hard not to feel ashamed if you didn’t quite make it. Especially if others have.

It’s that clench in your jaw when you can’t grasp a concept that everyone else in the lecture theatre seems to get, the tension in your shoulders when you hear your friend has finished the matrix and you’ve barely begun picking your way through Cardio, the twisting in your gut when you’ve struggled to just pass the year, while others seem to sail through with ease. Thoughts like “what am I doing in this course?”, “how will I ever make a good doctor if I can’t even do xyz?” begin to swirl around; crippling doubts, fears and insecurities seep into your day-to-day psychology.

Is it impostor syndrome? Probably. Med student type A personality? Definitely. The good news is, if all this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Not at all.

We all have defining moments in our lives. Like ripples in still water, they travel unchecked and gradually affect every part of our lives. I’m not sure exactly when or where I picked up the habit of comparing myself to others, but it was making me miserable, and I wasn’t even aware of it.

My epiphany came one fateful afternoon during a delightful Digilab on neuroanatomy (that one where Lazarus maps out all the cranial nerves and their function). I was sitting with a friend – let’s call her X. As X and I struggled to keep up, the other members of our table seemed to pick it up just like*that*, and cruised through. Again, that prickling feeling of panic and frustration began to rise within me; soon enough, I wasn’t even taking in what our professor was saying. I glanced over at X, and was completely shocked to see that she was smiling. I questioned her about the little grin, to which she replied, “all these people are so smart! It’s inspiring, I want to be like that.”

Mind. Blown.

To X, what she’d said was probably just a comment in passing, but to me, it formed the basis of a completely different psychology. It got me thinking- why not let these moments inspire you, rather than highlight your deficits? Why compare yourself to someone whose brain is wired completely differently? Or to someone whose life and circumstances are entirely different? Isn’t it like trying to compare apples and oranges?

And just like that, I created my own ripple, and consciously directed it towards something more positive and self-accepting.

So, here we are, almost a year later. Breaking down habits, especially ones that’ve been rooted within your mindset for years, is like bulldozing a mountain. But I continue to chip away at it at my own pace, and hope I’ll build a new one, with a sunnier view.

At last, here’s my guide to combatting those moments. Can’t say I’ve mastered it, but I’m trying at least.

1. Acknowledge: When you feel that panic start to rise again, acknowledge it. It’s normal. And whether you believe it or not, everyone else around you is probably feeling the same deep down.
2. Breathe: Take a deep breath in and out. Let that tension dissipate.
3. Mantra: At this point, I’ll say to myself- “apples and oranges”. (But if your thing is tacos and quesadillas, well, you do you.)

 

Then, put those blinkers on and move forward.

 

“Comparison is the thief of joy”

-Theodore Roosevelt