Newsletter - Winter 2011

Welcome to the first issue of the Balance for Women Physicians' newsletter. Each quarter we will be discussing issues that are important to you and will be providing you with tips and helpful information to bring balance into your life. In future issues, we will look at adding articles that speak to the medical issues facing women physicians.

If you have an article or topic to submit, please contact Dorry Allen at info.balance@comcast.net

Visit our website at balanceconference.org

Balance for Women Physicians Conference

August 9-12, 2012
Breckenridge, Colorado

Mind-Body Connection:  ReBalance and ReConnect

This year, we are focusing on the science of mind-body connection: the reality, importance, and practical application, with and beyond basic medicine.

Our intentions include:

• Learning to recognize imbalance, disruptions, and impairments, in self and others
• Learning to balance and maintain a healthy career of providing for others without neglecting self care
• Learning ways to rekindle our enthusiasm for meeting the challenges of life in medicine
• Sharpening our clinical skills and knowledge about such things as osteoporosis, personality disorders, dermatology, and the scientific reality of the mind-body connection, or HeartMath
• Reconnecting with ourselves, whichever "hat" we wear: physician, partner, business owner, executive, teacher, wife, mother, daughter, child, patient, or even impaired individual in need of help
• Rebalancing our personal and professional lives with tools as basic as: writing, creative expression, finding our rhythym (physical or musical), exercising to grow strong and flexible, and socializing---all for the wonders and joys that result!

Attending the conference could be considered a prescription for self care.  Without a solid foundation of attentive self care, how can we expect to meet the demands of our patients, colleagues, and families?  Strong women can only succeed in the challenges we face by making time to renew and refuel ourselves.

Please join us for a wonderful, enlightening journey!  It promises to leave you with valuable information, a joyful heart, a renewed attitude, and even some new friends!

Save the Date

August 9-12, 2012
Breckenridge, Colorado

This CME program includes sessions that focus on personal skills and professional growth as well as clinical topic relevant to various patient populations.

Wake Up Your Face

Carol McAnally

Your face is not only what you present to the world, it can affect your mood. If your face is relaxed and open, so is your disposition. By becoming more conscious of your face, you become more conscious of its effect on your general outlook. You can influence any experience by being aware of your face and how it is holding itself. Is it closed and scowling? Is your jaw clenched and the corners of your mouth set down? Is it full of stress or relaxed? Are your eyes open and receptive or dark and guarded? Take a moment to become aware of your face and then wake it up!

• Start by relaxing your face completely. Neither frown nor smile, just allow your face to be relaxed and neutral. Do that for thirty seconds.
• Now, take your middle fingers and stroke under the ridge of both brows from the inside to the outside, using enough pressure to release the crinkles.
• Use the tips of your all your fingers to vigorously massage your forehead. Try to get your fingers up under the wrinkle lines.
• Then massage the backs of your jaw, on either side. Work your way along the roots of the bottom teeth. Do the same along the roots of the top teeth.
• Pull your earflaps forward and away from the ears, from top to bottom, while opening and closing your jaw. Feel the ear canal opening.
• To open your face completely - feel as though you could pull all the skin of the face from the center line to the twirling point at the back of your head, you can do this physically with your hands or just with the muscles of your face. Keep the eyes soft by wide open. Not only does this help to open your face, it gives you a “do-it-yourself” immediate face lift.  Bonus!

Now close your eyes and sit quietly for a moment. What do you notice? Do you feel more alert, energized, calm? How does your body feel in relationship to how your face feels? Have your thoughts or feelings changed at all? Take a moment to appreciate your face. Open your eyes and look out of a face that is awake and open. Practice this daily. While the state of your face influences your own disposition, it can also shift the way others respond to you. As you go about your day, as you prepare to enter a patient’s room, as you face a challenging situation with a co-worker, as you deliver less than great news . . . take a moment to relax your face, soften your eyes, ease any tension in your jaw. When the face is invigorated and open, it connects you with your body and mind and communicates a sense of embodied aliveness. Stay aware and connected to your face and notice how that connection affects how you be in the world.

Hi, I’m Carol McAnally, and I am honored to be contributing to the Balance for Women Physicians newsletter. I will be offering tips for a more balanced and present way of being in life.

As the founder of Rhythm of Life, a fitness and wellness center in Lakewood, Colorado, what I primarily offer is my devotion to the body as a source of wisdom, truth and presence. I am passionate about the body’s place in the unfolding journey toward authentic human expression. The body is, after all, a primary aspect of being human! Through movement, breath work, meditation, counseling, courses and workshops, I support the awakening and the direct experience of the body as our unique, very personal, sacred expression – that is its own source of miraculous engineering, innate intelligence, and deep compassion. In this work, the body is seen as an integral part of spiritual evolution that not only cannot be left out of the equation but must, at times, be allowed to lead the way.

Through our own deep surrender to the body as intelligent, the mind as sacred and the spirit as infinite, we have the capacity to evolve the very core of consciousness, transcend our suffering, and experience a full-on love affair with being human. It is from this place of heartfelt compassion and exuberance for the human experience as divine, that I offer my services.

The Seven Attributes of the Heart

Mary Gay Shafer, MA

My spiritual teacher was a physician. That is until he answered an even deeper more insistent calling. His name was W. Brugh Joy. He graduated from the University of Southern California and went to Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic for residencies, ending up on staff at the Hospital of the Good Samaritan in Los Angeles and an assistant clinical professor at the University of Southern California, along with other accomplishments too numerous to mention. His book, Joy’s Way, is a compelling account of his journey. I met him in 1977 while working on a master’s degree in humanistic and transpersonal psychology. Brugh passed away in December of 2009.

My understanding and experience of the heart, the spiritual dimension of unconditional love, originated in residential retreats with Brugh inducting the group into this most sacred arena. To explore the heart as a healing force as well as a spiritual awakening made the process profoundly transforming and practical at the same time.

Brugh introduced an original four attributes of the heart. They are Unconditional Love, Compassion, Innate Harmony and Healing Presence. Later he recognized another: Selfless Service. As I have continued in my journey as a teacher I have added two more attributes: Devotion and Beauty.  It will be my pleasure to elaborate on these attributes in future editions of this newsletter. For now, suffice it to say; The heart is our spiritual home.

For spiritual practice:

Take a moment to bring your hands to your heart center – low in the middle of your chest – and feel as if you could brush your hands with your breath – for a few breaths or longer.

To learn more about Mary Gay, visit her website
at mgshafer.com

Nutrition with Balance

Aspen Dawson, DC

Autumn is an excellent time of the year to fall into healthy eating habits. It’s that time of year when days get shorter, days get cooler and many of us start eating more. So the first tip to healthy fall eating is to watch the portion sizes. Easy portion control includes using your hands for figuring out exactly how much you are eating. Use the palm of your hand for 3-4 oz Chicken, or use your thumb for 1-2 Tablespoons of butter or you can even use your fist for 1 cup of pasta. Following easy guidelines sets you up for portion control which will help with any unwanted winter weight gain.

Second tip is to enjoy what fall foods have to offer. Load up on sweet potatoes, beans, Winter squash, apples, pumpkins, and greens. Sweet potatoes are excellent sources of vitamin A and C as well as a good source of vitamin B6, fiber, copper and potassium. Look for firm, medium sized potatoes without spots or blemishes. Cook them with a roast in the crock pot, puree them for sweet potato soup, or cut them up and drizzle olive oil and sea salt for some easy French fries. Beans are a great source of vitamin C and have good amounts of vitamin A and folate. Look for beans that are bright in color without any brown or soft spots. Use with soups and stews, as side dishes and as dressings to salads. Winter squash and pumpkins are excellent sources of Vitamin A, C, potassium and fiber and a good source of folate and thiamin. Eat them roasted with olive oil and sea salt or add them to soups or risotto. Roast the seeds for an additional benefit of zinc. Greens are another excellent fall food with spinach being one at the top. Spinach provides an excellent source of Vitamin A, and a good source of vitamin C and folate. Use it in salads, add it to egg dishes at breakfast, or as a colorful addition to rice or pasta dishes.

Dr. Aspen Dawson is a Registered Dietitian and Chiropractor who focuses on restoring the body to heath naturally, by creating balance in the spine and nervous system and educating people on the importance of healthy eating and nutrition. She and her husband own Dawson Chiropractic: A Creating Wellness Center in Loveland, Colorado.

dawsonchiro.com

Roast Chicken with Sweet Potatoes and Squash

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons minced garlic, divided
• Dash of sea salt
• Ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried rubbed sage
• 1/2 teaspoon rosemary
• 1 (3 1/2-pound) roasting chicken
• Cooking spray
• 3 sweet potatoes, cut into wedges
• 1 1/2 cups cubed peeled butternut squash (about 8 ounces)
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 cups fresh spinach

Preparation

• 1. Preheat oven to 400°.
• 2. Combine half of the garlic, half of the sea salt, half of the pepper, sage, and rosemary in a small bowl. Remove and discard giblets and neck from chicken. Starting at neck cavity, loosen skin from breast and drumsticks by inserting fingers, gently pushing between skin and meat. Rub garlic mixture under loosened skin. Place chicken, breast side up, on rack of a broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Place rack in broiler pan.
• 3. Combine potatoes, squash, butter, rest of the garlic, rest of the sea salt, and rest of the pepper. Arrange vegetable mixture around chicken. Bake at 400° for 1 hour or until a thermometer inserted into meaty part of thigh registers 165°. Add spinach. Let stand 10 minutes as spinach softens. Discard skin for less fat in recipe. Enjoy!

Financial Health

Financial Advisor Katherine Alcorn has written several articles that aim to help women with their financial investments. See her article on Successful Women for more information.

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