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Exercise and Resilience

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by Sheila Giffen, MD, Saint Alphonsus Provider Resiliency Medical Director
Exercise is one of my favorite topics because I love to exercise, and I think it has a lot of benefits. I talk to my patients about exercise all the time. When we're in a stressful environment I think one of the first things to go can be exercise, even though it's the most important part of our day. But it can admittedly also be a stressor and another thing to add on our plate, so learning how to incorporate exercise into our day without making it feel stressful is an important process.
There are barriers to regular exercise, but I think we were meant to exercise. If we look back, naturally, we walked probably 10 to 20 miles a day. There have been many proven benefits to exercise and we all know this because we are medical providers and we talk to and counsel our patients about it. Many of us may have seen the images of a brain before exercise and a brain after 10 to 20 minutes of exercise. It shows this huge increase in activity, so we know it is beneficial.

The busier we get, the harder it is to practice so I’d like to share a couple of tricks that I have used. One thing I do pack an extra bag that I has extra exercise clothes. That way I can exercise for 10 to 15 minutes when I may have to take a kid somewhere. Or I will take a walk around the hospital if I need to during a lunch break. I will wear exercise clothes under work clothes, sometimes, so that if I have 10 to 15 minutes before or after, I can do that. I often take the stairs instead of the elevator. Just simple things.

Working through those barriers is helpful and you must communicate with those in your life if you have other obligations, a spouse or a partner, or family members. You must write it into the schedule. What I found is that my husband and I had to communicate when that was going to be, had to plan, and had to put that on the calendar, to see if we could get that in.
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Exercise shouldn't have to be stressful, we should make it a fun thing, and using as many different modalities as we can to exercise is helpful. Also, we have to be kind to ourselves because we don’t want to make it just one more thing we have to do that causes us stress. It must be fun.
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Original Content Copyright 2015-2021* Ada County Medical Society
PhysicianVitality.org and the Capital Coalition for Physician Well-Being is sponsored by Ada County Medical Society, Boise Idaho.

The National Charter on Physician Well-Being was developed by the Collaborative for Healing And Renewal in Medicine, under a grant from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation.

Local services offered here, specifically the Physician Vitality Program (counseling services) are directed at ACMS Members only. All other information is published in the hopes it will be useful to other physicians and clinicians seeking help and inspiration.

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  • HOME
  • GET HELP
    • National Support Resources
    • ACMS' Physician Vitality Program
    • Find a Boise Area Counselor
    • Peer to Peer
    • Get Connected
    • Local Resource Physicians
    • Physicians Recovery Network
    • Suicide Prevention
    • Other Links
  • Guiding Principles
    • Supportive Culture
    • Policy Advocacy
    • Supportive Systems
    • Engaged Leadership
    • Interprofessional Teams
    • Anticipate Emotional Challenges
    • Mental Health Care
    • Promote Self Care
  • BUILD STRENGTH
    • Personal Resilience
    • Practice Differently
    • Adverse Events
  • CHANGE SYSTEMS
    • Counting the Cost
    • Cultures of Wellness
    • Technology
    • Advocacy