Hello, it's Anthony Chadwick from the webinarett welcoming you to another one of our vet chat episodes. Very fortunate today to have Melissa Alan on the line. We we met up in Orlando, which is where Melissa lives during the BMX conference.
I went over recently, I met lots of lovely nice new people that I didn't know, partly through Sean Wilie at Talker Two. Melissa had met Sean at. This is a show I need to go to the Wild West show in Reno.
It sounds amazing. So, we're gonna be talking all about mental health and positivity today. And I was really pleased to meet Melissa.
Melissa's been doing some great work with Sean over in the States and in Canada. So perhaps tell us a little bit about your journey to getting involved in the veterinary world. Yeah, absolutely.
And thank you so much. So I, I claim the title of veterinary well-being coach, because I use my business, the Mind Body Thrive lifestyle, to provide different programmes, services, and resources to not only teach veterinary professionals how to better engage in self-care, well-being practises, but also how to engage in those actual behaviours because I think a lot of times we know what we need to do for ourselves, but actually following through with that can be quite challenging. So yes, Sean was wonderful and invited me to do a webinar with Taaka to, where we talked about some of the different behavioural focuses that we can bring into our lives to protect ourselves a little bit more from conditions like burnout, .
You know, it's, it's a very multifaceted issue that we're facing with burnout, but at least empowering veterinary professionals to focus on what is within their control to help better support themselves. So, as a former animal trainer, I've never worked directly in the vet. Veterinary industry, but I've worked alongside a lot of that pros throughout my career.
And once I left animal training, I jokingly say, you know, I had, I had my fun training animals. I was looking for the next challenge. And what's more challenging than trying to train humans, right?
And so I ended up getting my master's in clinical psychology, working a lot in, the integrative medicine world. And along the way, I fell into lifestyle medicine, which I'm now board certified in, and became a certified health and well-being coach, and really try to help people meet themselves where they're at and create that roadmap to where they want to go and focus on that kind of trajectory and process along the way and how to get them there. Melissa and Beyonce's just announced a new world tour and they've been crashing websites, you know, with the, the tickets today in the UK.
And she has some reasonably well priced tickets. My wife is a big fan, so I have been to a few Beyonce concerts. I have to admit this, but I do like it as well, actually, she's very talented.
Oh yes. And, and then you, you go out onto the internet and you see everybody complaining about the price of the tickets, etc. So social media can be a negative environment.
We've also got cost of living crisis certainly in the UK and I think something similar happening. Over on your side of the pond, we have the war in the Ukraine, . As I say, the, the social media, which, which can be a force for good, but is often quite negative.
So you end up with a lot of negativity going on and actually, the, you know, the, the newspapers add to that because, you know, there's not very much good news in the papers, there's lots of bad news because that's what sells papers. You know, how do we rise above the negativity? To actually, you know, count our blessings, show gratitude, and, and really move into a more positive mindset.
What, what are your thoughts? How, how do we approach that? Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's, it's really challenging right off the bat because our brains are kind of wired to look for the negativity. We have what's called a negativity bias.
And through evolution, it actually kept us safe and kept us alive. So it did have an adaptive purpose back in, you know, more of the prehistoric days when we needed to recognise, oh, like there's a saber-toothed tiger. I should probably run or fight for my life.
And now we find ourselves in This space where information is so easily accessible, and there is just that constant stress, that constant negativity that's being kind of thrown in our faces, that it's really difficult to, you know, try to find those things to focus our energy on that are going to be more optimistic, more hopeful. But what I always try to tell people is, the good news is we have this really wonderful ability in our brains called neuroplasticity. And what that boils down to is basically, we can retrain our brain and how we think.
The, the, the kind of bad news to the side of that is, you know, we have this extensive period of time for which we've been thinking a certain way that trying to change those thought patterns does take some time because it ends up becoming like a habit. But the good news is we can work to practise catching ourselves on some of those negative thought spirals and shifting our perspective into a more positive optimistic outlook, being able to maybe moderate our Intake of social media and what it is that we're seeing on social media or even in the news. Something that I've been really encouraged to see is now there's like news outlets that only show good news, and it's really cool because it's all these inspiring stories, but at the same time, I understand that we can't just like live in this bubble of positivity.
We, we still need to acknowledge that there are all of these different challenges being faced in the world, . But I also think that there's things within our control that we can maybe modify to help kind of support us through all of those negative things that, that aren't going away. You know, like financial stressors, different worldly events, like all of those still exist, and there's gonna be different iterations throughout our lifetime.
But just focusing on what can we do for ourselves to kind of buffer those negative effects, cause they're not going away. I think this is the thing, it's, it's worrying about the things that you can change and there are certain things you can't change if you're in a big car traffic jam. You have to just accept that that's gonna go on, you can't get around that.
Whereas there are other things we're doing and will have done by the time that this comes out, the regenerating Hope symposium, very much talking about how can we. As a profession and as veterinarians and technicians and nurses, how can we improve the environment and we can't do that on the big scale, but we can actually do it in our own practise by placing solar panels on the roofs by putting pollinating plants close to our practise so that the bees are encouraged, and talking about it, you know, within the within the business to encourage the clients, cos I think. And I don't know what it's like in America, but I suspect it's some veterinarians are trusted, amongst the public, aren't they?
And so they're, what they talk about actually there will be attraction from it, to, you know, to the pet owners who bring their, their pets in to to see the vets and the technicians. Yeah, absolutely. And just like you said, you know, there's so many things that are happening in our lives that we get to choose what we focus on.
And a lot of times we may be overlooking simple swaps that we can make within our environment, within our daily habits, that could have a pretty significant impact on our lives over time. Because I also look and think, you know, being a vet, being a veterinarian or or a nurse, it's, it's actually one of the nicest jobs in the world. As I say, whenever I tell people I'm a veterinarian, they, they, they usually go, oh, that's such a lovely job.
You know, that's almost the first thing, and then they ask about their dog or their cat's scabs, which I don't mind talking about because I like scabs, but . There aren't many jobs where people sort of coo when you tell them what you do, so I, I, I know that there are challenges with the job, but it's also for me it's been a very satisfying career to help people and help their animals as well. Yeah.
Yeah. And I think that comes back to people maybe forgetting or getting distanced from why they came into the profession in the first place. Because, yes, you're gonna have difficult client interactions.
And yes, some days it's gonna be back to back to back, but we have to remember not to let those bad days define our entire career. That being said, You know, when people find themselves in a place where they're maybe, struggling a little bit more mentally and emotionally, it's gonna be a lot light it's gonna be a lot harder to see those lighter opportunities that come into our lives. And so, for the sake of, you know, I think it was Tony Robbins that said, where focus goes, energy flows.
That, that's the quote. And, and so if you're constantly focusing on those negative client interactions or the pets that you weren't able to save or the owner that refused treatment because it was too financially stressful, those things are gonna take a, a significant toll on your well-being over time. So I always try to encourage people, since we're trying to battle that negativity bias in our brains.
I like to say, keep a smile file for yourself. Whether that's a journal that you kind of jot down your pleasant and like really fulfilling interactions with clients or whenever they send you thank you notes or, you know, the good testimonials that are online, try to keep all of those somewhere in a place that if you're having a really down day, you can turn back. To that.
And it's just a nice little reminder to, to help give you a boost. It's obviously not going to, you know, be a, a total 180 for your mood, but it's gonna help give you that, that little, that, that could be helpful in getting you back into a place where you feel more at peace, and more, hopeful and things like that. And of course, as you said before, we all have this negativity bias because we see 30 clients a day and it's the one really naughty one that we go home and talk to our spouse about or talk to friends about.
Or, you know, even worse, we don't talk about it at all, but we let it sort of grumble inside of us and then of course it causes problems. So I think it's good at this time, and I'm sure in America you have something similar. We have the Vet helpline run by.
One of our charities here for the vets, so it's, it is also good to be able to talk either to friends or sometimes if we go to too much of a sort of negative level, we may need some. Medical help as well, might we, which sounds like the sort of work you were doing also with the, with the doctors in, in the hospitals, you know, in, in America as well. Yeah.
And there's, there's something to be said about people who are in caregiving roles where they're so good at making sure that everyone else in their life is taken care of, that they put themselves on the back burner. And sometimes they're not even on the list, right? They've got this whole list of people they're worried about, clients, the pet parents, children, significant.
And others, and then it's like, where do you fall? And I know it's so cliche, but it's, it's so true that the more you can focus on investing and taking care of yourself, you're gonna continue showing up as the best possible version of yourself for all those other people in your life too. So yes, it, it's really challenging sometimes to work through those stories.
That we tell ourselves where people might be in the mindset of, oh, I don't deserve this time for myself until I take care of X, Y, Z, or, you know, taking this time for myself is selfish because I could be spending it with so and so. And, and it really holds us back from not only supporting our well-being, but also optimising our performance too. If you're not, I like to think about it and Terms of like a well-being bank, right?
We've got to be able to make those deposits into our well-being bank on a proactive side, because there's gonna be those times where you have to make those huge withdrawals, and you don't want to get overdrafted, right? Because that makes it a lot harder to bounce back from. So trying to think of, of those little moments that you can take for yourself to be able to invest in that well-being bank.
And I think this talks a little bit about one of the courses that we'll be running more or less at the same time as this podcast comes out, which is with our favourite psychiatric nurse in the UK, Doctor Mike Scanlon, who's done a lot of stuff with us. When Mind Matters came out, which was a programme that the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons put out, you know, to try and help with mental health. I, I said to them, well, we need to do something practical, and we did an eight week mindfulness course with Mike and.
It's one of the most fulfilling things that we've done at Webinar that because people love our clinical training, but actually they were saying this has changed my life, you know, I'm not shouting at my nurses, my technicians. I'm not, I'm able to enjoy my holiday, I'm able to just enjoy the holiday rather than think about the practise all the time and he's doing another course which I think is what you were talking about earlier, harnessing neuroscience knowledge and strategies to therapeutically improve our own management of stress. Which I think is really what you're talking about, isn't it?
It's looking at the mental aspects of that. But I suppose with health, mental is part of it, but actually, you know, there are, there are several, I think there's 6 pillars of health that you like to talk about. So maybe talk us through your, your pillars and how that can help with, you know, creating a more positive mindset.
Yeah. So I mentioned in my introduction, I'm board certified in lifestyle medicine, and, some of you might, might have been scratching your head like, what the heck is lifestyle medicine? And it's actually a field of medicine, a subspecialty that looks at using our lifestyle behaviours on the level of therapeutic interventions for certain types of lifestyle-related chronic disease.
And so the six pillars of lifestyle medicine include improving nutrition. So trying to move towards, less processed foods, more nutritious foods, so things like plants, seeds, nuts, legumes, all of those things. Not telling you to go vegan or vegetarian.
It's just about eating more of those nutrient-dense foods that are going to fuel our mind and our body. Increasing physical activity is the second pillar. So trying to either get moving or keep moving.
Stress management is one of those pillars as well. So being able to equip yourself with the different, skills and coping tools to manage stress. And along with stress, getting healthy sleep.
That's, that's another pillar. So I think we're up to 4. Now, and the last two are gonna be building positive social connections and avoiding risky substances like tobacco, vaping, illicit substances, and even things like alcohol.
So all of those things not only have, an impact on our physical well-being, but also our mental and emotional well-being too. So my approach is really being able to not only shift people's mindsets to focus on You know, how, how can I work these lifestyle behaviours into my life? Because all of that sounds good and well, right?
But working in a clinical setting, it could sometimes be really challenging to incorporate those behaviours into your life on a regular basis. So that's where the coach approach kind of comes in. We, we figure out where you're at, what's realistic for you, and how to bring those tools into your life.
And mindfulness plays a huge role in that because When it comes to our behaviours, a lot of them are habits. So they just kind of happen on autopilot and we just kind of go through our day unaware sometimes of the choices that we're making. And so mindfulness brings in that present moment awareness to kind of give us that space to make a choice, right?
Instead of, you know, just going to the vending machine like you do every day on your break, it gives you that time to say like, Oh, do I, do I need this, you know, So, calorie rich, nutrient poor snack that's gonna, like, give me a short burst of energy, but make me feel drained in the long run. Or is there something else that I can do to maybe prep a snack ahead of time? Or maybe there's, you know, healthier snack options you can choose from.
So it really just allows you to start paying more attention to some of the choices that you make and gives you that space to maybe make a decision that's gonna be more supportive of your well-being. Do you want to become a part of the largest online veterinary community in the world? The webinar vet's membership is the perfect tool to easily complete your veterinary CPD or CE.
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We have exactly the same thing happening in the UK in a in a a really revolutionary way, talking about social prescribing and green and blue prescribing, so actually just placing people in the natural world. And then of course you're covering a number of bases because you're giving them the exercise. They're getting the fresh air, they're also making connections maybe with other people if they walk with other people.
And, and, and we, we've seen that the benefits of that, you know, 1 pound spent on that brings 5 or 6 pounds of benefits, you know, to the economy, so it also makes sense because it's very easy if somebody's down in the dumps to actually, you know, prescribe tablets, but actually to spend a bit more time and say, You know, you need to go out and walk, and we have a, you know, some of the medics here have walking groups and things that people can can get involved in. So I think all of that stuff is really powerful and and as you say, just spending time. In nature, exercising, watching diets, all of these things come together to create a much more whole and wholesome person, don't they?
Mhm. Yeah, and to your point. You know, I'm not sure how, the healthcare system is in the UK, but in the US it's really started to become more of a disease management kind of system versus a health promoting system.
So lifestyle medicine isn't an anti, you know, pharmaceutical medication specialty, but it looks at being able to use our lifestyle behaviours as kind of That first line intervention. So just like you said, you know, being able to prescribe someone time out in nature. There's actually studies that have shown that 20 minutes of walking 3 days a week has the same, if not better outcomes than an antidepressant medication.
And so it, it's really powerful because, yes, so some People are going to need that pharmaceutical intervention for themselves. But if there's also actions that we can take and choices that we can make in our lives that can have that kind of significant benefit, I mean, that, that gets me excited to think that I can do that for myself and, and just help lift myself up to the next level, whatever that looks like for someone. I think holistically it was the way that I practised veterinary medicine, you know, if I had a very overweight Labrador retriever coming in and it was also struggling, you know, with its joints and had a bit of arthritis, I would say to people, if I can do nothing else, if you could only take one thing, then I'd rather give you a, a low calorie diet, encourage the dog to do more walking, to keep it active 2 or 3 times a day, get the weight off it.
Obviously if we can give some painkillers, that's great, but actually if we're just giving painkillers and not talking about those other things, this is not going to solve the problem because part of the problem is that we're asking a dog with slightly dodgy joints to actually be walking around while it's grossly overweight, so if we can get weight off, that will make a massive difference and often you would see the dogs coming in after several months, you know, with a new lease of life because we were looking at it more. Holistically and obviously the less drugs we need to use, because we also know that non-steroidals can cause gastric ulcers and so on. If we can be off medication, that has to be the ideal.
I mean our pandemic, that we've forgotten about is the pandemic of diabetes that we have or the epidemic of diabetes we have in the UK, which is almost, you know, a, a huge percentage of it is diet related, isn't it? Mhm. Yeah.
I mean, diet is actually the, the number one modifiable risk factor to prevent and even treat lifestyle-related diseases like type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and even certain types of cancers. And so, you know, since we're talking about the Lifestyle behaviours on the therapeutic level. You think about medicine, there's, there's different dosages, right?
And so we have, you know, people who, if they don't make any changes, like their life is over in weeks to months to, you know, very few years, they really wanna take more of that intensive therapeutic lifestyle change approach. And then, You know, on the other hand, we have people like myself where I have, you know, a, a family history of certain types of chronic diseases. And so I want to be able to focus on what are some of those smaller changes that I can start making for myself right now that are gonna help protect me against those future, chronic diseases that are present in my family lifeline.
And, you know, I think that's something empowering. Mm. Perhaps just before we finish, Melissa, and we've talked about a lot and you know, I really appreciate the time that you've given and, and it's reminding me because I've got a very busy time coming up with the virtual congress coming up next week.
So this will be post when when the podcast comes out. But I'm going out after this. I'm going for a walk down to the beach with my binoculars to look at the birds, so you'll be pleased to know I'm, I'm doing that.
I love that. What would be. Kind of three easy tips that you would give to our veterinarians, our technicians, our nurses, within a busy life where they can perhaps look at improving their, their lifestyle and their, their positivity, their, the way that they approach things.
Yeah, I think the first thing that I would recommend is meet yourself where you're at with a sense of compassion and kindness. A lot of times, if we find ourselves in a space, and, and I'm personally experiencing this right now from the time that the pandemic started to now, my health and well-being has significantly taken a hit. And I've gained the weight.
And I've, you know, slacked on my exercise routine. And even though I'm a coach, and I know all of these things, it's a lot harder to get back into the swing of things. But the more that we kind of beat ourselves up when we're already down, it's just gonna make us feel worse and it's gonna contribute to kind of this downward spiral.
Where, you know, if I'm feeling bad, my, one of my go to, not helpful coping skills is eating my feelings, right? And so then I'm probably choosing foods that are not the most nutritious, which are gonna make me feel lethargic, bloated, all that stuff. It doesn't feel good.
So then I end up not feeling better, and it just contributes to kind of this downward spiral. So, the second thing that I would recommend is just find the first smallest positive step that you can take for yourself. And I know the population that I'm speaking to right now is full of probably some high achievers, real go-getters and things like that, but just focus on one thing at a time and don't Overwhelm yourself or cause yourself more stress by trying to completely overhaul your life overnight.
Just focus on incorporating those small positive steps, because what ends up happening is when maybe we go for a walk, we're more inclined to choose a nutritious snack. And when we choose that nutritious snack, we might be more inclined to do our evening gratitude practise. And it creates more of this, positive momentum into an upward spiral of lifestyle and behaviour change.
So that would be my second tip. And then the last one, I kind of teased it there, but, practising gratitude, when we can practise gratitude and focus on our blessings over our burdens, it's gonna help give You that boost because you are shifting your perspective away from the things that are weighing you down and, you know, that are really difficult in your life. And yes, we need to make space for those.
Those are not going to go away, like we said earlier, but what you can do is that when you catch yourself kind of in, in that place of heaviness, you can shift your focus and I always say a really quick practise is choosing three things that you're grateful for. And my caveat to that, because I know what people tend to do, it tends to become something on their checklist, and they're like, oh, well, I'm grateful for my house, my family, and my pets. And it's like, OK, well, that's great, but it's, it's not the same as if you were to say, I am so grateful that I have air conditioning on a day like today where it's gonna be 87 degrees outside.
I am grateful that, you know, my fiance just travelled from overseas and he arrived safely back in the United States. When you can get Detailed and specific with your gratitude, it holds a lot more power behind it. So, I always try to say, you know, if you can, don't choose the same thing twice.
Try to find something unique and specific from each and every day because that's gonna have a little bit more magic behind it. I think also, you know, practising gratitude, it's lovely to also thank people. Because that adds a smile to their face and we can then help each other.
So, Melissa, I and Charlie for helping with this. I'd really like to thank you for such a lovely conversation. I think it's really lifted up my mood as well.
And Charlie, thanks for getting all the technology going and looking forward to this episode coming out for everybody else to listen to as well. Yes, and that same spirit of gratitude, thank you so much for inviting me to have this conversation with you today. And to our listeners, thank you for choosing to share this part of your day with us.
Truly appreciate it and hope that there's a lot of valuable takeaways for you. Melissa, is there any way just finally that people can perhaps get in contact if they wanted to, if they've listened to this and thought. Do you know what, maybe I need a little bit of help here or can I speak to somebody?
What, what would be a way of perhaps connecting with you? Yeah, the easiest thing to do is head to my website. It's www.
Veterinary-wellbeing.com. Veterinary wellbeing.com.
Yes, that's brilliant, and we can put that below in the, in the recording as well so people can catch up with that as well. Perfect. That would be great, thank you Melissa, thank you again so much.
Thanks everyone for listening. This is Anthony Chadwick from the webinar vet, and this has been another episode of Vet Chat. Thank you, bye bye.