Healthcare is hard right now. Let's talk about that.

Sabrina Runbeck is a surgical PA in cardiothoracic surgery and a productivity coach, and she came on during the early stretch of the pandemic to talk about stress, boundaries, and how you keep going when everything feels heavy.

A lot of this is about managing your own expectations. Sabrina talks through building resilience, protecting your mental health, and actually setting boundaries instead of just saying you should. She also has a message for pre-PAs specifically, which is to use a hard season as a chance to check in with yourself about why you want this. That's not a reason to quit. It's a reason to get clear.

If you're feeling stretched thin, this one is worth your time.

What we cover:

• Sabrina's work in cardiothoracic surgery
• Handling stress when healthcare gets overwhelming
• Managing your own expectations of yourself
• Setting boundaries that actually hold
• Why pre-PAs should reflect on their commitment during hard seasons
• Protecting your mental health long term

Resources:

Free Application Timeline: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-application-timeline

Pre-PA Counseling: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-counseling

Pre-PA Academy: https://prepaclub.thepaplatform.com/landing/academy

PA Program Map: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-platform-map

Mentioned in this episode:

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Okay, y', all, we could all use a little stress relief.

So today we're gonna hear from Sabrina Runbeck, who is a productivity coach on that, and she's also a cardiothoracic pa.

It'll be good.

Welcome to the Pre PA Club podcast.

If you want to learn how to become a physician assistant, you're in the right place.

I'm your host, Savannah Perry.

Let's get to it.

Hey, guys, how are you?

I hope you're doing well.

It is a very weird time in the world right now with all of this COVID 19 stuff, and I just really hope and pray that everyone is healthy and staying safe and staying inside and taking care of yourself and hopefully taking care of others by kind of doing what we need to do right now, you know, I'm Savannah, by the way, Pre PA Club podcaster, blogger at the PA Platform, whatever during PA who is not currently working.

This has affected us all, you know, in ways that I don't think anyone would have expected and really shown us how our healthcare system is maybe not necessarily prepared, and who knows how this is going to progress over the next few weeks or months, or who knows?

And so I think as pre pas, just before we get to the interview, I wanted to talk about this a little bit.

As pre PAs, this is an important time for you to really think about your role in medicine and if this is what you want to end up doing.

Because, I mean, it's tough right now, and a lot of PAs, doctors, nurses, even some of you guys probably who work in.

In the hospitals and clinics are essentially risking yourselves and your families to take care of others.

And medicine is a selfless thing.

You have to be able to make those decisions to a degree.

And so now's the time to really do some soul searching and see if you could deal with that, because nobody saw this coming.

Who knows what could come in the future?

And you've got to be ready to step up and help if you can.

I know a lot of you are probably feeling rather helpless, whether you've had your volunteering canceled or your shadowing or maybe even your job was considered non essential.

My job has been considered non essential.

So I'm a dermatology pa. And you know, that's hard because we do help people, but a lot of our things can wait.

So in my office, we have taken a step back.

We have very limited hours where we're primarily just doing telemedicine and bringing people in only when they need to be seen and kind of triaging those people and really Screening them.

Well hopefully that changes soon and I'm thankful to still have a job even if it is part time, more part time now and I'm not really getting paid.

So you know this is a season we will all get through it.

If this has affected your kind of PA school applications, you will get through that too.

Just gives you more time to plan and work on other things and try to look at the bright side of things.

So.

All right, before we jump into our interview with Sabrina, I do want to mention my PA Resource and PA School Prep.

So my PA Resource is a personal statement editing service.

I was supposed to be hosting a conference this weekend with the owner Brian Palm in Atlanta, but that I'm glad we canceled.

It was the right call.

So if you need help with personal statement stuff, go check out myparesource.com and use the code futurepa there for a discount.

And then PA School Prep is a course, an online course that helps you get ready for PA school by reviewing anatomy, physiology, med terms and just making sure on top of your game before you get there.

So you can also use the code futurepa there as well as on the PA platform.

If you have any questions about those, just let us know.

And now we'll hear from Sabrina.

Hi everyone, this is Sabrina Runbach.

I am a surgical PA in cardiothoracic surgery.

I'm also a public speaker focusing on peak performance.

My journey really for PA school started back even in college.

I was one of those pre med track and didn't really know what I wanted but I know I wanted to do surgery because my school, our alumni were really engaging with us allow us to shadow to do different things.

So then I went on this path of keep trying to get into PA school.

I got a public health master.

Actually before that I just didn't stop so from college, public health, another second master.

Why did I do all that?

Unnecessary but it's also a struggle.

Once we got into PA school you were very competitive, right?

Like we were all the top of notch when we're coming out of college and wherever job field that we switch into.

But once you're in the pod of everyone is driven, ambitious.

Guess what?

Half of my class were on anti anxiety medication.

It's not even the pressure that anybody else was putting on us.

It's our own expectations.

That judgment of where I were, where I should be and when you get your test score back, that bell curve you're hoping you're just right above the median or up right?

So once I going through PA school I Think I still very gung ho about surgery.

And when I came to doing cardiothoracic surgery as a rotation, I actually plugged myself in to ccu, the cardiac ICU for internal medicine, instead of just doing a hospitalist.

And they like me enough for me to go back for a second rotation.

And I also plugged myself into a second surgical rotation.

My program worked nicely enough where if you passed the first mock round of Penns Pack Rap, you get to do your elective.

So that was my thing.

And as you get into working, I was also one of those crazy ones who got multiple jobs before I graduated.

But at the same time, I was just so excited to start, right?

And credentialing, guess what, took three months.

And that's the actual only time I slowed down.

It tries to write a little bit before real life kicks in,.

Right?

So when real life kicks in, it's like kicking you in the butt because it's so different than when you're a student.

Oh, yeah, when we're a student, Right.

I'm sure you can relate.

You thought your life was hell.

Every minute of counts for there's always exams.

There's always an anatomy quiz that's killing you, Right?

And then these clinical assessment exams, you're like, where did they holy crashes from?

Right?

And then your preceptor is nice enough to teach you, but you still have to be the one who drives your rotation.

And some of my students, when they come to surgery with me, I'm like,.

It's on you, right?

Make it the best of it.

Yeah, for sure.

That's interesting because I feel like when I was on rotations, I loved it.

Like, I was like, kind of like you, like, gung ho going for it.

And some of my preceptors would comment on that.

They're like, wow, like, you really, like, you're trying hard.

You seem like you want to be here.

And it just made me wonder what everyone else was doing, because to me, I thought that was just what we were supposed to do.

And it was, to me, exciting to actually be out there in the field and getting to see all these things and see patients and talk to them and really put everything I had learned to work.

Like that classroom part, not so fun.

I mean, it was fun.

I had friends, whatever.

But the clinicals, that was actually the.

The fun part where you get to kind of find yourself as a PA and like, start to really develop that as a career.

Right?

But as we grow, that's the fun part, going to clinical, but you also have that Self judgment part to say, you might not be enough yet.

Right.

What if I made mistakes?

I didn't.

I made so many mistakes.

And I mean, I don't think you're necessarily expected, even if we expected of ourselves, to know everything on road rotations.

I mean, it's.

I get questions about that all the time.

I mean, it is a wake up call to how much you don't know or don't truly comprehend from learning it from a book.

So getting that application is what helps.

Helps to kind of get some of that confidence.

But even going into.

And I don't know if you felt like this, so I went into dermatology, which we got two weeks of dermatology in school.

That was nothing.

I mean, barely the tip of the iceberg.

So going into it, it was kind of like a blank slate.

And it took a lot of work to really learn about the specialty that I had chosen.

And so, I mean, I was definitely a fish out of the water, like trying to figure out, I mean, how to study, where to study what I needed to know, how to do procedures that we had barely touched on.

So, yeah, I mean, lots of adjustment, lots of exhaustion, honestly.

Right.

Which is okay.

So for a lot of us, you kind of have to think and swim so you can rise above faster when you have too much support.

That's one thing I tell my students as well.

When you have too much support, you tend to draw back.

You tend to not trust yourself enough to just go for it.

Right.

At the end of the day, if you don't make that decision, you don't know whether something works.

Because medicine is a practice.

It's not to say you are supposed to be perfect.

No one is just.

Even for us, we make a surgical decision, we're trying to explain as well as we can be.

Right.

And ultimately, yes, the patient has the ultimate last choice of procedure or wait.

Right.

And then a lot of things is a gamble.

That's why we tell you the risks of if you don't get a surgery, this XYZ can happen.

If you do get a surgery, there's a complication.

And what's the percentage of bleeding, Stroke, xyz.

Right.

But at the end of the day, we have to trust ourselves a little bit more and be okay to make a mistake.

Yeah, I mean, for sure.

I mean, to a degree.

I think in medicine you have to be careful about the mistakes you make.

But yeah, definitely being not so hard on ourselves.

Being in surgery, which I feel like derm is like fake surgery.

I love the OR Like I, I loved my surgery rotation.

I mean, it's just, I feel like some people are surgery people, some aren't.

But what does that actually look like?

Like what?

Because a lot of pre pas, I feel like one kind of like it sounds like you are like, I want to do surgery, I want to be a surgical pa.

But I always kind of tell them, if you want to be a pa, make sure you'd be okay doing something else.

Because you may not get that surgery job you want or it just, it may not end up being a great fit for you.

So you need to be okay with the profession anyway.

But what, like what could someone expect if they wanted to be a cardiothoracic pa?

I would say from meeting, going to big conferences, meeting different CT surgery, and had worked in multiple different hospitals in ct, everyone has a different setup.

So you also need to be super flexible and adaptable.

And that's one key thing about surgical people.

CT is very different from any subspecialty because we actually do a lot of surgery on our own.

We're more autonomous.

Right.

I harvest, if my surgeon's now there, I can technically be okay to be closing and opening chest.

I can put in the chest tube.

I can do a lot of things while in or I can put in permacast for dialysis for chemo and then put in like tunnel catheter for dialysis.

All these things.

Yes.

Some of the ICU PA will do, but mostly are surgical people.

Right.

And a lot of other PAs.

It depends on how much first assist may get.

If they have residents or fellows or not.

And versus some at least Indo vein harvesting is something that's always done by a pa.

I do open harvesting burridios for vein as well.

Right.

And it just becomes something that's more intensive.

And some programs will have you like myself, I rotate out from icu, step down outpatient and or time.

Some other people will only be or some are only icu.

Some are only step down.

So the dynamic, depending on how you want to practice medicine can change.

And something you should talk to them about when you're doing your interview.

Right.

And on addition to that, if you do have a bigger team, they tend to teach you.

Right.

There's like a slower ease into it.

Not necessarily you have to go to residency or I didn't.

I pretty much just dived right in and had my rough patches.

But you know, you tend to learn really quickly.

And what I say about making mistakes is not to say making your medical mistake.

It's be okay to say I didn't do this.

Right.

I apologize.

Let me see how I can fix.

Because at the end of the day, everyone is human.

Medicine is not just about practicing medicine treatment.

It's how you make connections with your patients and with your team.

Yeah, for sure.

So how long have you been in CT surgery?

I think we kind of breezed over that a little bit.

Five years.

Five years.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

So yeah.

How did that transition?

So like for me going into derm, I think it took me about six months to really start to feel like, okay, I have a grip on things.

I feel like I'm understanding, feeling really comfortable, starting to feel maybe confident.

How did that work for you in surgery as far as like your training and getting to that point where you felt like, okay, I can go in and harvest a vein and do these procedures independently.

Right.

And this is such a great question because I feel like everyone has a different comfort level.

So when I train new grads, I tell them, don't worry, you start from your level.

When you're comfortable, we'll let you do more and more.

Even some of my students, if they can sow well, then I let them harvest.

Right.

Maybe they just tunnel the getting down some of the tissue without cutting.

Right.

Or you just even find a vein in a topical location.

Do one step at a time.

So that being said, for you to be comfortable harvesting, we usually say you need to do at least 100 cases.

Okay.

So if you're in a high volume hospital, you get to do a lot more.

Right.

You might have to do two cases a day versus a low volume.

You might do one case or only a few per week.

But cardiac is not just cabbage.

There are also val, aneurysm, dissection, transplant, lvac, like all these other things.

Then you learn on your pace and sometimes you learn really well on just assisting.

I'm to the point, I don't have to see, I know what they're doing.

So then you're not bending over.

Awkward.

Like just like, oh my God, your whole face wanted to be in the chest right in the beginning, I feel like everyone felt that way.

But at the same time, you need to be okay to take care of your own self being.

I think that's something.

I got really burned out from working 80 plus hours.

You're constantly on the go, you're constantly taking calls, never ending and not realizing a big piece of me was missing.

Making excuses for myself like, patient Center.

Right.

If I don't do it, no one can do it.

Well, that's not true.

Right, right.

You gotta definitely take care.

So that's interesting.

I like that we're kind of at the same point because burnout is a hot topic in medicine just in general.

But this is something I feel like the people I've graduated with, some of my close friends, we've been talking about more recently because we've all, I would say over the past kind of year or so or two years, started to really feel that more.

And we haven't even been out of school that long.

We've been out of school five years.

Some of us are on our first job, second, third.

But when did you kind of start to feel that?

When did the excitement turn into more burden?

I guess so to me it was quick because I was in a high volume and cardiac is something that, you know, for most people is life and death.

Yeah.

So for me it was, I was operating two pump cases a day, plus maybe a thoracic lobe, maybe another carotid arterectomy.

It just seems like never ending.

And when you're in private hospital, you, you have the resources to pre op people like that.

I can put in orders, the next day I'm adding on another case.

Right.

So that means you just keep constantly going and the support might not be there and therefore you felt like it is it, you just have to do it.

So what happened to me was there was one day I was operating with a 101 degree fever and I finally really just hit me.

How could my childhood passion working in medicine and living this American dream that I waited so long for had became an unhealthy reality.

And top that off, when I called in sick the next morning, my manager made me feel like I was inconveniencing him.

And a few weeks later I treat a young man who had endocarditis and he required four open heart surgery.

I just remember going to his room, two young kids at a corner playing while he had the mask on because he's in that heart failure state.

My wife is super worried, wrinkly forehead.

And what he has felt to report were the new symptoms that he thought were small and insignificant.

So I realized that I had so many of these small and insignificant things in my own life that I weren't addressing.

So if I keep going down this path, I might become impatient myself.

Now as we said, many of us saying yes to too many things as a default because we feel like we got it, we can do of Course we have the diligence, but when we say yes to the things that don't align with our core value, then we might feel resentful, unable to deliver those high quality results or keep our promises to our family, our friends, or even worse.

Right?

And that's why I decided things gotta change and start going to a lot more conferences, learning from peak performers and, and going back to my root of neuroscience and public health.

And guess what?

10 Years ago my thesis was on self care and self efficacy.

So went back to that.

And at the end of the day, positive psychology will help us to bring back that passion we had for medicine and change our way of looking at things and then reboot our energy to correlate to productivity so that we can spend less time and get more done and live happier and truly have a life filled of heck.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So the one thing you mentioned is like getting like losing kind of your true values and things that are important to you.

And I've talked about this some with if people have listened to the podcast a lot or followed kind of my social media, they know that I switched to a part time position in September and it was hard decision for me because I actually had to switch practices and I loved my old practice, I love the people I worked with.

But I had gotten to that point where I, I don't want to say I was struggling to be happy, but I just felt more overwhelmed than I did happy.

But I was doing a lot of things I loved.

So I love working as a dermatology pa.

I love doing the PA platform and all the things that come along with it.

But I think one thing that had changed for me that I didn't necessarily expect was when I did become a mom, which was almost two years ago now, I always thought I'd be the person who was like, get me back to work, I don't need maternity leave.

But I wasn't that person.

And so that was shocking to me.

But instead I was the person on week 12, when it was time for me to go back, I was sobbing and begging my husband to call and tell them I was never coming back.

Begging to not have to go into work.

So I think it's also, you know, a lot of self reflection to realize if, if your values and desires change, like that's okay, but it may mean that you've got to make some changes in your life too to kind of reset you and get you back to.

I mean, I don't believe in balance.

I don't think you'll ever be Like a perfect balance of everything.

But I think you can have some semblance of that where you're able to kind of prioritize better.

I don't know if you'd agree with that or not, but.

So I believe in creating harmony.

And true peak performer can elevate all aspects of their life.

But it takes a lot of mental strength, it takes practice and you need to be patient as well.

A lot of things nowadays is about shortcut.

I do this one strategy and just boom, I'm good, right?

There's so many productivity books, efficiency, all that, but they're just strategies.

If you can't go back to your basic foundation of your core.

Like when I take my client through are mostly healthcare like us, right?

Been working for a few years, you feel like you got to the position you worked so long and so hard for and everyone sees you.

Look, you have a good job, like good relationship where you had a car and house, right?

And that's you, you already have a baby, what else do you want, right?

And people start seeing you like you're crazy.

But if we haven't dived deeper into our core value, that can change with time, for sure.

But are you also readjusting everything in your life with relationship, social support, financial intelligence, your career, your spiritual energy realm and your personal mission, Right?

Like what, what is that servitude that you wanted to be in the world?

And plus your own physical health, your mental intelligence, emotional thing, right?

And then also last but not least, personal characteristics.

Who are you as a person, how do you want to show up?

And if we are able to tap into all 10 of them and elevate because they are so intertwined, then you truly can be peak performance and creating that harmony.

Not about balance.

You can't technically look at everything, but you can elevate things into life so it's not too wobbly.

Yeah, harmony is probably a better word where everything just feels like.

And that's what.

After I'd been part time for a few months, my husband asked me, he was like, do you think you're like getting more done now?

And I, I kind of said, you know, honestly, no, I don't think I'm getting any, like more done than I was before.

But I don't feel stressed out by everything.

I feel like I can handle everything on my plate most times.

I mean, there are definitely days where I can't, but for the most part I can handle it.

And I've learned when to ask for help, I've learned to say no.

Like that was over, over the past year, like a really big, just kind of self, self discovery for me and kind of looking at things and being able to make those decisions that, like you said, are in my best interest.

Because, I mean, I would say in my old position, I felt like you, I never took a sick day in five years, not one because of the pressure.

I mean, it was kind of, you know, looked down upon and we're gonna have to move these 30 patients.

And you know, I felt bad about it.

So I would rather come in feeling awful to avoid that.

And so now, you know, I'm in a practice where they are much more supportive of that and even, you know, if my baby's sick or whatever.

But it's.

It was definitely, yeah, like very.

Those things aren't easy, I guess is the best way to put it.

It's not always easy to say no.

And I think as PAs and as a lot of probably type A personalities, like, we're used to helping and we like to help and we like to feel useful, but that shouldn't be to the detriment of taking care of ourselves.

Exactly.

And so my system is called say no to stress.

Say yes to stamina.

And the two steps go.

Number one, say no to vagueness.

Then you can dream big and cheat more because people can't read our minds.

When you're able to have such a clarity in your own purpose and your own mission, then you can share it well with other people.

They're more likely to help us than to achieve those goals.

One thing I usually suggest with people, just write a one sentence purpose statement before diving into any new project or job per se.

And then you have a northern star now to guide you for the next phase.

And number two is say no to negative thoughts.

So you can regain that mental power.

In psychology, the I'm positive I can attitude generates you those power and skills need to overcome these roadblocks in life.

So a simple practice is every morning say one positive thing about yourself out loud.

You know, that out loud part is key.

Yeah, we're rough on ourselves, aren't we?

Right, Exactly.

That would be show.

About 80% of people don't know how awesome they are.

You know, we are awesome.

And we truly need to believe in these words that we're saying to ourselves.

You know, that's something I see in mock interviews because, you know, we work with a lot of people who are applying to PA school and I feel like they come in and they're so, so nervous and we'll get to the End of the interview.

And I always ask at the end, I say, well, how do you think it went?

And they're like, that was awful.

I did terrible.

Blah, blah, blah.

And a lot of times I think they did great.

And so it's very interesting.

And.

And you know, I do the same thing.

I hate to listen to myself back on my podcast, all that, but, you know, it makes you realize, like, we all.

Like, I heard somebody say one thing, like, would you say the things you say to yourself to someone else?

Like, would you tell someone else the same comments you say about yourself?

And I definitely wouldn't because they would be so mean.

That would be awful for me to say to someone else.

So when you put it, think about it like that.

It's like, oh, well, I probably shouldn't say it to myself either.

Exactly.

If we tend to be nicer to other people, what reason do we have to not treat ourselves the same way?

Right?

And our mental process is like a bank account.

You have the Mrs. Trion and Mrs. Sifi, and both of them are super obedient.

So if you want something to work, perception is reality.

Mrs.

Try.

So gonna come up like, hey, you know, everything you can, anything you put your mind to, you can do it because we've done it before.

And versus Mrs. D.C. she'll come over like, do you remember back in high school, someone pulled a chair out of you and people laugh at you.

Why do you think you can be a speaker?

Or why do you think you can just go up there and talk up yourself?

But naturally primitive brain scans for negativity.

And that's why we have these mental chatter to cause us to drive more to the negative thought versus the positive one.

And research one of my mentor, Dr. Shiraz from Stanford, he does studies on positive intelligence.

Shows every negative thought.

It would require at least three positive ones to replace it.

So now are we going to allow ourselves or other people dumping these negative ones or adding positive ones to our brain?

Right.

Yeah.

And like you said at the beginning, I feel like in PA school, I mean, it definitely starts in undergrad too.

And while you're doing all the classes and everything, because it's hard.

I mean, the classes are difficult.

And just because the material is difficult doesn't mean we're stupid.

But I mean, I think it starts in undergrad, but then moving into PA school, where we are used to, you know, doing very well and understanding everything really easily, and that's just not always the case.

It's definitely easy to get into that negative mindset, especially when you're surrounded by 40 people who are also in the negative mindset.

And so I think one thing I did in PA school was the people I surrounded myself with.

I had three girls who I hung out with the most and they're still my best friends from school.

And they, you know, we just kind of made the decision that we were going to, especially with each other, like try to be very positive.

And that is not to say that we did not rant or complain, because we did.

But when it came to grades and tests, we didn't really talk about that.

We didn't compare to each other.

And that was just kind of a decision we made early on to kind of try to support each other a little bit more.

Because, yeah, PA school is hard.

Yeah, I think that's such a good point to bring up, especially for everybody who are students who are listening or prepa students.

Yeah, don't compare yourself to others because that's called social conformity.

You can only be the best of you today as compared to who you were yesterday.

As long as we're not regressing, we're improving every day.

That's all you can actually do.

And at the end of the day, we have to build up the self compassion and self forgiveness.

Gratitude has been shown to be super correlated with happiness to people's success.

Right.

It's not only gratitude from everything you accomplish for yourself, but everybody around you.

Like your best friends who study with you.

Right.

I have those too.

Always be there.

And then the ones that you know who are not in school, you can always call because their childhood friends or even college friends who they know how you function.

And sometimes in school we feel so disciplined from people because we're in this bubble of just studying, driving, drinking from a fire hose.

We start losing connection with others and that can be a huge detriment also in our health.

So my third point usually is say no to putting your self care less.

When you're able to take care of yourself first, then you can give the best of you, not what's left of you.

And without the right energy, productivity really will not go far.

So I teach people on how to reboot their stamina on a daily basis and multiple times throughout the day.

Short increments, even just two minutes.

And that will calm your brain, get rid of those mental chatter and reset your new intention going forward.

We can't wait until the end of the day.

Oh, when I finish all this class, when I finish my shift.

Oh, now I can relax.

Or on the weekend I finally can Just go for a bike ride I so enjoy.

Or, oh, I have this trip come up.

This is the only thing I'm looking for.

But guess what?

When you come back from vacation, how many of you guys actually allow you to reset back into a mode instead of just jump right in?

And when you do jump right in without resetting your mind, you feel even worse about it.

You're like, I wish I was on the beach still.

What the heck?

Like, I'm coming back to all these words, right?

Yep.

Yeah.

I mean, definitely.

Yeah, Think about my.

Like, yeah, I mean, I certainly do that with, with trips, with all kinds of stuff.

But.

And that's another thing, like, I've just tried to be very intentional about this past year, and I don't do it perfectly by any means.

But one thing that's helped me is having a pretty distinct morning routine, like setting a time that I get up at the same time every day I get up, I kind of give myself 15, 20 minutes to kind of wake up.

And I usually do like a morning devotional, just kind of sit.

Do like a really quick email check, not spend a ton of time on social media, because that's a black hole, but do like a really quick check and just make sure there's nothing urgent that I need to deal with.

And then trying to work out in the mornings, like, if I, like you said, if I wait till the end of the day, oh, I'll do it.

I'll do it.

When I get home, I'll do it.

No, I won't.

No, I won't.

I'll be tired.

I'll sit on the couch and not do it.

So just kind of recognizing that and those days that I do that routine, I just feel so much better because I put myself first that day.

And like you said, like, if you aren't like, taking care of myself makes me able to take care of everyone else just better.

But I have to shut off that part of my brain that's saying, like, you don't have time for this.

There's so many things you need to do.

You need to clean the house, you need to answer emails, you need to do xyz.

And so that.

That's definitely still there, like, nagging.

But I've gotten better about kind of pushing it away and just ignoring it for a little bit.

Yeah, that's such a key.

I think that you're doing awesome.

And choice.

Right.

Those mindset is going to be there.

But the more you practice mental strength, it's the same way.

That's how we build muscles.

It's about repetition, small achievable steps.

And that's why I teach people on yes, morning routine is awesome.

But even throughout the day, you need to allow yourself to have these short breaks.

Maybe you cannot do the 12 minute, 15 minute I teach you, but you should be able to fit in the two minute one I teach you.

Right.

So like some things that we can't allow ourselves just to be, bring yourself back to center, bring yourself to the present.

And when we can do that, you become more focused, less likely to make mistakes, and do things a lot faster.

Because if you're tired, think about when was the last time you pulled an extra late hour to study on something and then you just tend to drift off, right?

Yeah.

Nothing is really absorbing.

At that time.

That was me in PA school.

100%.

I would go to bed reading my textbooks, but that was useless.

I should have been reading something for fun.

That was silly.

Awesome.

If you want, we can do an exercise together.

Like a minute or two.

Sure.

Yeah.

Awesome.

So when would someone use this if they're feeling stressed out or kind of need to reset anything?

I recommend people to do it in between tasks.

Okay.

So even without you feeling the fatigue, your body is already energy is already draining.

You have to allow yourself to reset.

So even when you go to the restroom, technically you're resetting yourself.

Take that water break, it's reset.

But this now I'm teaching a way where Dr. Shiraz talk about building our positive intelligence and really bring it back to center.

So for everyone, if you're not listening to this while driving, then I would recommend you sit comfortably in your chair.

Put your feet all the way to the ground.

Feel the ground.

All right, Drop your shoulder.

Think about how yoga posture, right?

Relax your shoulder, relax your arms and then close your eyes when you're ready.

And now start taking really long and deep breath.

Feel the energy from the top of your head.

Start moving down to your third eye,.

Which is between your two eyes, and to your throat, to your heart.

Moving down to your stomach, your navel, your pelvis.

Keep moving down to your legs, to your feet and to the end of the ground.

Pull your breath forward.

1, 2, 3, Exhale.

Bring that breath and energy from your.

Feet back to your leg, to your pelvis, to your stomach, to your chest, your throat, your third eye.

And all the way release on top.

Your head and keep doing that central.

Channel breath for two more cycles on your own.

I'm going to count to six for you.

Inhale.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

6.

Hold for 1, 2, 3, exhale.

1, 2, 3S, 4, 5, 6.

Hold 1, 2, 3.

I inhale again.

1, 2, 3, Four, five, six.

Hold for 1, 2, three, exhale.

1, Two, three, four, five, six.

A natural breath going from now.

Now I want you to touch your thumb, left thumb to each of your fingertips, concentrating on the sensation, the texture, the temperature.

Maybe your finger is getting moist or dry.

Just concentrate on those touch.

You might have random thoughts coming into your head right now.

Let them just flow right past you.

It's okay to have other thoughts, but focus on the sensation you're feeling on the tip of your fingers and focus on those deep breaths.

Now, after you have felt each of your fingertips and switch hands and keep feeling the rust, the smoothness, the temperature.

Concentrate on those sensations.

And when you're ready, open your eyes.

It's very relaxing.

Okay, good.

What else do you feel?

I think so.

I'm a person who definitely has a million thoughts in my mind all the time, and I rarely slow down like that to not have those thoughts.

And so when you're talking about, like, let the thoughts float away.

Like, I. I literally, like, had to visualize, like, why am I thinking about that?

Like, it needs to go away.

Like, I'm supposed to be focusing on me right now, not thinking about the laundry.

I mean, just things that I don't know if you've ever heard of.

Oh, gosh.

What do they call it?

Like, the, like, mental load.

How like, women specifically.

I'm sure guys do too, but, like, women carry this, like, mental load where, like, we constantly know everything we need to do and have in our brains.

And so that was kind of nice to turn that off for a little bit and kind of be like, I'm here, like you said, like, I'm very present right here right now, and that's all that matters and all that will be there later, Right?

Exactly.

Yeah.

And so this brings you back to the present.

Likely some of your thought from before, it's passing you.

So now you're more focused on just the conversation.

What you need to do is right now.

And then something else people can add on.

Before you open your eyes, think about what's your intention about this next task?

Yeah.

So do you want to show up?

I just.

I want to contribute.

I want it to be positive.

Just set that one intention so give you some direction before the craziness, distress are adding into again.

Yeah, I think, like, I probably needed that when I was taking chemistry because I don't think I ever stopped to consider anything unless I was taking like a crying break or something.

And so yeah, I mean, I think definitely, I mean the more people and I think it is important to focus on our like mental health and well being.

And so those are great, great tips that you've shared with us.

I really appreciate it.

Where can everyone kind of like find you and follow along and learn more about kind of your take on things?

Yeah, I'm very active on Instagram and LinkedIn and my handle on Instagram is just my full name, Sabrina Rumback.

R U N B E C K and for everyone who's listening, I do have a free gift.

I believe that we all have the inner ability to have a live photo, but before we get there, we need to know our strengths and weaknesses.

So I built this really quick content version of Discover your hidden roadblock quiz.

And once you complete a quiz, I will personally send you a graph of your result and send you a voice message on either LinkedIn, Instagram or if you don't use any of those, Facebook is possible.

Because I truly believe instead of reading a whole PDF report, people learn better by just audio and actually interpretation and also add into that piece of humanity.

That's awesome.

Well, we'll link to all of that in the description and of course link on all of our social media too.

But thank you so much for sharing.

Yeah, thanks for having me up here.

It.