Carm’s BodyBlog

so i finished another semester; one more semester of basic sciences left to go. I have completed some of the most difficult and stressful semsters, I made it this far. My spring semester of this year was amazing; my grades were great, i completed a traithlon in march, i was training daily, i felt toned and energized. I was on top of my game. I thought i had a grasp on anxiety and stress; i had finally reached that perfect balance. Then this semester it all came apart. I had to analyze my poor performance and panic attacks; something i thought i had overcome. I started off strong, working out eating healthy as i was doing; yet when the heavy work load kicked in, i began neglecting workouts and sleep. I was not getting proper sleep because i became anxious and stressed; and there began that vicious cycle i had a few semester prior. I began to feel overwhelmed stressed and as a result perform poorly on examinations, leading to panic attacks and poor confidence in my abilities.

I suffered two test anxiety attacks this semester because i did not release my stress with exercise, i was lacking proper sleep and healthy nutrition. As a result i spent all semester stressed, not as energized and playing catch up. Thank god in the end it all worked out. I completed a difficult semester, passed all my classes and i did well in some. But i cant allow myself to go through that again in my final semester. I am starting my daily workout training tomorrow; proper sleep, good food and relaxation.

This semester will be balanced, properly managed and most of all healthy mind and body. I have finally realized that if i expect to perform my best on exams i need to train my mind and body together. If i let my body suffer, become weak and tired my mind will also lag. I had so many of my classmates comment on my energy on the days i worked out and had proper sleep. Not only did i notice the change and rejuvination in myself but others could feel the positive energy. I made the promise in prior semesters to not allow stress and negative thoughts to affect my performance. I am making that promise once again with more dedication and enthusiasm to perform my absolute best; to train my body and mind equally to battle stress, heavy workload and most of all the challenges of med school.

med school is a life long commitment; i will always have challenges, stress; on call shifts, minimal sleep and many other responsabilities; this part of my career is the training field. I need to learn how to manage stress and time efectively in order to perform my best. I did it before and i will do it again. we learn from our mistakes and continually try to improve. Analyzing my strengths and weakness, my mistakes and my progress have helped me to improve and become a more efficient medical student.

TRAINING the MIND and BODY as a whole not as seperate systems

This entry was posted on Friday, August 14th, 2009 at 3:58 pm and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.