We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lara Salyer a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Lara, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
I was shocked to discover myself struggling with burnout 15 years into my career as a rural family medicine physician. To alleviate this heartbreak of feeling trapped in a lackluster career, I started painting, drawing and running. This regular dose of neurochemical flow state resulted in decreased stress and cognitive clarity.
Fascinated by this, I began studying the effects of stress/cortisol on physiology, culminating in my decision to certify with the Institute for Functional Medicine. I resigned from my employed position and opened a holistic membership practice where I leverage technology to build cohesive wellness in my local community through innovative group medical visits, online health education, as well as traditional individual services.
I continued studying with the Flow Research Collective to learn how to coach flow acquisition and transformative high flow leadership. I infuse this training into my patient care and developed The Catalyst Way™ method to support practitioners with redesigning their own creative, efficient, and flow-channeled career in medicine.
I speak across the globe on my mission to teach 1 million health professionals how to prescribe their own creativity so they can redesign a work/life masterpiece around autonomy, ease, and joy in a world where burnout will always exist. I authored my own memoir, Right Brain Rescue: One physician’s journey from burnout
to bliss reveals the creative muse in all of us, available on Amazon,
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
When you choose a career in medicine, it’s more than just a job–it’s a relationship. You don’t realize how enmeshed you are in this identity, until you’re lost in it.
I wrote an editorial about these feelings here: https://www.kevinmd.com/2016/08/dear-hippocrates-want-divorce.html
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I had to unlearn my identity as a “good doctor”. We’re groomed into this unhealthy dynamic where we are rewarded if we sacrifice more of ourselves to the job. The more patients you see = the better doctor you are. The less sleep you had, the more dedicated to your craft. I had to unlearn the idea that hard work will make everything okay.
Quite the opposite.
Sometimes there’s not enough hard work, effort, or love you can put into something to make it “okay” for you. I learned that it’s important to recognize when things are consistently uncomfortable, and to speak up. If you’ve tried everything to adjust the situation and nothing changes, it’s absolutely necessary to walk away for your own wellbeing.
Anais Nin said, “Had I not created my whole world, I would certainly have died in other people’s. ”
Contact Info:
- Website: https://drlarasalyer.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drlarasalyer/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drlarasalyer
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drlarasalyer/
- Other: Podcast available on all channels: https://pod.link/1611612131 (or use https://drlarasalyer.com/podcasts/)
Image Credits
West Indes Photography