On Mentoring...

Recently, I received an unexpected request: Will you mentor me? The request was from a woman whom I had met once, and who was at the beginning of her career in a different field of health care. The request took me by surprise and I wondered how to translate what I knew for her. Although there are some similarities, the difference between our fields required me to think very expansively in order to translate my professional experiences and observations into something usable for her.   

I created and built my business from scratch. I have always felt very secure about my clinical abilities, and had always thought I would love to pass on the diverse knowledge I have and continue to acquire. What I never expected was how taking on the role of mentor would benefit me.

Mentoring has allowed me to take pride in my work in a completely new way, to see the career that I have worked so hard to build through fresh eyes.

That has been an incredible reality check, in the best possible way. Throughout the years I have kept very focused, concentrating on the individual cases of resolving people's issues that lie before me, and expanding my knowledge base, while never stopping to acknowledge the specifics of what I have accomplished up to this point. Now that I have begun to survey my achievements in this way, I have not only gained a healthy professional affirmation, but it has also allowed me to think critically about the new directions available as I take my practice into the future.
 

This renewed examination of my clinical skills has also offered a different level of analysis of the work I do as I break it down and make it translatable to someone in a different aspect of health care. What I have been shown from this aspect of mentoring is my effectiveness as a teacher. That has made me very happy, and it has led to a new, unexpected layer of fulfillment in my life.

Mentoring someone who, as it happens, reminds me so much of myself at the beginning of my career, has allowed me a feeling of "paying it forward" in the world. I love what I do and I know that I am lucky for that. I know that I have been given a wonderful gift in this life. Being able to help someone else eager to find a similar path in her life has made me feel even more grateful to be able to pay forward all the joy that my professional life has afforded me. That in itself is an amazing gift. This relationship with my mentee has brought me to a new level of appreciation for my life.  

From an early age, I knew that my life would be dedicated to service. Now, in my role as a mentor, I have just added a new layer of beautiful color and richness to that service.  

I hope that reading this post allows some of you to consider taking on someone to mentor. You have more to give than you know, and the rewards of this giving come back ten fold.

Lots of love to you...

************************

 

 

Dr. Lisa M. Avila affords her clients safe, guided passage from pain/dysfunction to knowing and understanding his or her own body and what that body is trying to teach them. 



I am grateful

I am grateful in a way words do not describe.  In a deep, quiet way that is frustratingly impossible to describe. 

Today is a day that was never given much more than a second thought in my youth.  A day no one bothered explaining in much detail.  Or perhaps they tried, falling short of words as I am falling short now.

I am grateful because in my adult life I came across veterans who put their lives in danger to protect mine.  I am grateful because the collapse of the World Trade Center shook me to my very core, as if I myself had felt the buildings tumble at my feet.  Because in a way they had, and my life would never again be the same.  I am grateful for those that enlisted in the following weeks and months, those who showed the world that the United States was not a country to lie down and take a beating without a fight.  That we are a force to be reckoned with.  

They call the government “big brother,” and although that’s generally not a positive connotation, in those days following 9/11 I did feel as if my government - specifically our military - were the big brother I never had.  The big brother that stood strong and protected us against the dangers and bullies I had previously taken little notice of, and still could not fully comprehend.

I am grateful because I know the toll that protection has taken on those who stepped up to duty. I recognize the toll taken on those who served without going to war.  I can see the toll taken on the families of those who serve.  How it ages them, strengthens them, the pride the feel, but at great cost.  I know that this is a great sacrifice - clearly greater than any sacrifice I have made… and as if they were my own, I feel great pride too.

I am grateful for all of you whom I have met - both young and old - who have served.  Who continue to serve our country with your sacrifice.  The feeling I feel is deep, so deep it’s hard to see, and yes even for me, it is difficult to express.  

At my daughter’s school they had a Veteran’s Parade, and I was thrilled to see that.  Excited that she enjoyed herself and enjoyed it.  Wished beyond wishing that I had the words to explain to her what it means to be a veteran.  Yet each time I try, words fail to express what it means to be protected and safe… 

Instead I try to teach her the Star Spangled Banner.  It is the reason why we have pride as Americans.  Because we live in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And I am grateful to those of you who are brave enough to keep it that way.