Physician, Heal Thyself: Stritch students give new meaning to the adage

It all started when a student at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine described herself as too busy to even realize
how anxious she was. Not only was anxiety affecting her mentally, but her hair was thinning and her heart racing. As her third year began she was terrified about becoming a doctor, guessing that she could not sustain her anxious lifestyle indefinitely. Her future career looked dismal. The passion she had once experienced for medicine and healing seemed to be trickling away.

But when she enrolled in a new elective at Stritch entitled Physician Wellness through Transcendental Meditation (TM), the first such course offered through a major medical school in the United States, she experienced a turnaround. The elective included
training in the TM technique and a lecture series by leading researchers. As a result of her twice daily TM practice, she says that she is now more engaged. “I get more out of each day, and I actually enjoy what I am doing,” she says. “In the beginning of the year I was stressed and anxious about seeing patients, presenting patients, and interacting with residents and doctors.”

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