VHMA Webinar: Mindful "Micro-Breaks" - The 10 Minute "Paws" Potential
VHMA Member Price: $0; Nonmember Price: $30
What if there were an evidence-based approach to increasing your energy, efficiency, and cognitive function while at work? And what if this same approach provided you with increased resilience while navigating stress and conflict? Welcome to the combined power of mindfulness and “micro-breaks.”
We can practice and retrain our brain such that our attention can be strengthened, and brain health optimized. Fortifying our focus and living with increased awareness gives us more control over our minds and responses. Developing mindful attention is one of the training spaces that supports heightened awareness. The intentional practice of mindful attention can help us be more prepared and effective in skillfully maneuvering through the obstacle course of life.
Research has demonstrated that intentional, mindful ‘micro-breaks’ can have valuable impacts in as little as 10 minutes. Those impacts include increased focus, replenished mental resources, increased productivity, improved energy, and increased ability to connect with our work and others in our community. When we combine compassionate, mindful attention with those microbreaks that we have found work uniquely for us, the combination can serve to replenish us and restore equilibrium.
In this session, we will explore how to create a compassionate culture for ourselves and our veterinary teams where these “mini-resets” support the necessary shift towards sustainable, healthy caregiving. Fostering an environment that promotes growth and thriving of our leaders and associates is essential as we consider the veterinary profession of tomorrow.
Original Recording:
Thursday, August 11, 2022
1:00 PM-2:00 PM Eastern
Credit
CEU1:1.0
Description
Speaker: Sonja A. Olson, DVM
Dr. Sonja Olson grew up with her human and animal family members mostly in Maryland. She graduated from Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine with a focus on exotic animal and conservation medicine. Her professional path led to over 25 years of practicing clinical small animal and exotic emergency medicine in both private and corporate practice environments in Virginia and in Florida. The myriad of opportunities to teach, mentor, and lead that arose during these years were deeply fulfilling. Additionally, there developed an increased awareness of the far-reaching need for veterinary well-being awareness and skills. This combination fostered Sonja’s passion to better understand, and then support, the holistic health of the veterinary caregivers.
Dr. Olson’s full-time role currently is as Health & Well-being Educator for the BluePearl Health & Well-being Team, working alongside licensed veterinary social workers. The team has had the opportunity to create and train on well-being concepts and initiatives that foster a more compassionate, healthy community and culture. Both in her BluePearl role and outside of work, she seeks to support veterinary associates more globally through podcasts, writing, speaking virtually and in person to veterinary colleagues, and creating collaborative efforts with other like-minded souls. Dr. Olson recently founded her wellness platform, Heartstorming Wellness to support these well-being endeavors (www.heartstorming.co).
She is certified as a Mental Health First Aid Trainer and as a Compassion Fatigue Educator through The Figley Institute. She will complete her 2-year Mindful Meditation Teacher Certification in February 2023. Her recently published book “Creating Well-being and Building Resilience in the Veterinary Profession: A Call to Life” was released in March 2022 through Routledge Publishers (Amazon - Creating Wellbeing and Building Resilience in the Veterinary Profession: Olson, Sonja A.: 9780367418793: Books).
Dr. Sonja Olson grew up with her human and animal family members mostly in Maryland. She graduated from Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine with a focus on exotic animal and conservation medicine. Her professional path led to over 25 years of practicing clinical small animal and exotic emergency medicine in both private and corporate practice environments in Virginia and in Florida. The myriad of opportunities to teach, mentor, and lead that arose during these years were deeply fulfilling. Additionally, there developed an increased awareness of the far-reaching need for veterinary well-being awareness and skills. This combination fostered Sonja’s passion to better understand, and then support, the holistic health of the veterinary caregivers.
Dr. Olson’s full-time role currently is as Health & Well-being Educator for the BluePearl Health & Well-being Team, working alongside licensed veterinary social workers. The team has had the opportunity to create and train on well-being concepts and initiatives that foster a more compassionate, healthy community and culture. Both in her BluePearl role and outside of work, she seeks to support veterinary associates more globally through podcasts, writing, speaking virtually and in person to veterinary colleagues, and creating collaborative efforts with other like-minded souls. Dr. Olson recently founded her wellness platform, Heartstorming Wellness to support these well-being endeavors (www.heartstorming.co).
She is certified as a Mental Health First Aid Trainer and as a Compassion Fatigue Educator through The Figley Institute. She will complete her 2-year Mindful Meditation Teacher Certification in February 2023. Her recently published book “Creating Well-being and Building Resilience in the Veterinary Profession: A Call to Life” was released in March 2022 through Routledge Publishers (Amazon - Creating Wellbeing and Building Resilience in the Veterinary Profession: Olson, Sonja A.: 9780367418793: Books).
