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Mothers Day: the pinnacle of the infertility calendar

 

Spring starts to bloom:  the grass growing in lush green tufts and the leaves budding in preparation, for the grand reveal.  A time of the year associated with new life and new beginnings, as we emerge from the cold confines of a dormant Winter and life about us starts to stir.  For some though, it is also a time of dread.  For with the emergence of Spring comes an annual tradition, that many women find a real challenge:  Mother’s Day.

As with Christmas, the build-up starts months in advan…

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Joyful Doctor LIVE!

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Join the Joyful Doctor founder, Dr Caroline Walker, along with her special guests, at the Joyful Doctor LIVE! Event in Sheffield on 11th May 2019.
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Buy your ticket before 1st April 2019 to benefit from our Early Bird offer of £50.00 (incl VAT). Full price is £97.00 (incl VAT).
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Sign up now for inspiring talks, entertaining workshops, and joyful conversations..
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Our joyful speaker's will share with you:
~ how to build the career of your dreams
~ how to manage stress and beat burnout ~ how to show 'Imp…

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Sporting Metaphors for Mental Health - Cycling

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Every year dozens of elite athletes team up to cycle over 2000 miles across mountainous terrain in the Tour de France. They cycle for up to 6 hours a day in all weather conditions. 

 
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Recovering from a mental health problem is much like cycling the Tour de France...
 
Endurance and persistence is the name of the game. It’s important to keep going even when the going gets tough.
 
There are some days when it’s relatively easy going, you’re on a flat stage, the wind is behind you …

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A is for ACCEPTANCE

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A is for ACCEPTANCE.
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As doctor's, we are motivated to make a situation better, We want to improve things for our patients, for our colleagues, and for ourselves.
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Think about your situation right now. Are you fighting, or are you accepting, what is happening in this moment?
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ACCEPTANCE is not resignation.
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ACCEPTANCE is the capability to tolerate a difficult situation with greater ease...by seeing it for what is is rather than what we want it to be.
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ACCEPTANCE brings with it, clarity in our thinkin…

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Joy is.... Silence

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Joy is…

 

I find it fascinating how a single word can mean so many things to so many different people. As human beings we may be speaking the same language, in terms of the actual words used; but how these words are put together, the intonations and emphasis used and our individual experiencing of the world can all have an influence on what we are trying to communicate to the other person in a conversation. The use of any given word, used in a room of individuals, may elicit a mixture of respo…

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Connection

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It is not unusual for doctors to experience a sense of isolation, loneliness and overwhelm.
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What's the solution to this? Connection. Connection to others, to ourselves, and to something bigger than us.
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Who do you feel connected to? Who is your 'dream team' support network? Who would you call in a crisis?
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When we are able to recognise the network of support that surrounds us, helping us and supporting us in some small, or big, way, then we can see that we are not alone and we do not need to take …

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5 Ways to Well-being

 
Kate Smith is currently working for a health-tech company having trained and worked as a doctor in the UK for a couple of years. She is enjoying trying out different self care practices to maintain her wellbeing and a better work-life balance. Her favourite past-times include catching up with the people she loves, playing hockey, and most recently gardening.
 
 
 
 
 
Five ways to wellbeing - by Kate Smith
 
Each time I've been unwell, in terms of m…

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Last Weeks Workshop

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Last week, Dr Caroline Walker (Founder of The Joyful Doctor) delivered a workshop which provided the opportunity for senior doctors to explore the topic of 'differential attainment'; an issue affecting so many doctors in the UK and beyond.
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Doctors with certain shared characteristics (such as IMG status, age and gender) are experiencing higher rates of failure in exams, difficulties with career progression and other gaps in educational attainment. Although the issues causing these gaps are comple…

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The big ‘BUT’

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Have you ever noticed yourself thinking, ‘I need to…’, or ‘I want to…’, or ‘I’d love to..’ *insert the thing (big or small) you would love to do right now or in the future*...
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...and then out of nowhere comes a GREAT BIG GIANT ‘BUT’…. flooding your mind with thoughts of why you can’t do the thing you want to do?
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A simple language change can open up the way you think about this.
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By changing the ‘BUT’, to an ‘AND’, our brains are opened up to see the choices we have rather than immediately closing…

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Food for thought in this New Year!

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"You spend 20 years being superhuman, an all-achieving machine, and then... Bam!... suddenly you cant do it anymore." - a doctor-patient
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Burnout can strike at anytime in our lives... the very nature of it, means that we don't always see it coming.
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In thinking that we are superhuman, we can easily forget, that we need to consistently look after ourselves, in order to remain well, and to maintain our capacity to live, and fully enjoy, our lives.
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Doctors are human. Doctors need to take care of them…

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