find yo mojo

(this is my sister's bf, phil, finding his mojo surfing in marblehead;
he is my favorite person to talk with about: rocks, oceans, and dinosaurs)

I took part in a panel discussion last week designed to give the first years some ideas about how to cope with their Human Structure and Function course - the most intense (time, energy, and brainpower-wise) time of medical school so far. There were about 10 other second year med students on the panel, each with their own advice about how to cope and succeed. Some of it seems medical school specific, but a lot of it was just good life advice.

Some tips included:

1. repetition is everything
2. repetition is everything
3. don't study what you have already learned (as comfortable as that feels)
4. start getting comfortable with doing things differently than the people around you - not everything works for everyone.
5. get a little bit selfish with your time, space, and energy - don't do things that don't fuel your fire, as much as they might work for other people

and my personal favorite: 6. FIND YO MOJO.

One of my fellow students said this to emphasize the need to find something (or somethings) to hold onto in medical school that a) make you feel like a whole person (not just a medical student); and b) make you happy. Another friend of mine refers to this process as "reconnecting to the source". I kinda dig that because I do think there's a global (communal?) energy that can move through all of us if we just choose to tap into it. not that it's always easy to tap into.

the moments where I feel the most tied to that energy are definitely the happiest and most fulfilling. Sometimes it happens as part of medical school - like when we learn something that just seems SO COOL or SO RELEVANT; sometimes I go out seeking it - like on a sunrise hike or in a yoga class; and sometimes I stumble upon it, while singing at the top of my lungs in the car or reading a New Yorker article while sipping tea in my kitchen. moments when it just feels like the world is a good and righteous place, and I'm exactly where I should be in it.

what makes you feel like a whole person? what do you find yourself doing when you feel like less than your best self to try to get back to it? how do you reconnect to the source?


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"sometimes you must leap, she said gently,
and grow your wings on the way down"
-unknown