A Mindful Mask
We live in a world where we wear masks now.
Masks are no longer just for surgery or procedures in medicine, but also for the grocery store and walks on the beach path.
I don't like wearing masks. I find them hot, claustrophobic, itchy, and confining. Masks are one of the reasons I did not become a surgeon.
The requirement to wear a mask means so many things for everyone right now, for those of us in medicine we make it mean even more.
Having to wear a mask is the perfect opportunity for mindfulness and coaching.
I was on an amazing zoom session today of health care providers that completely changed my thinking on the subject. Thank you to my beautiful friend Ni-Cheng Liang for leading it.
Lessons learned:
Masks often feel negative. They feel restrictive, annoying, uncomfortable , hot, stuffy, scary, and make us feel uncertain.
Masks can also feel positive. Like a display of collective effort, empowerment, safety, protection, change.
Masks can be gifts and they can be painful.
The color can be sterile or the color of Saints in India doing God’s work.
A mask is actually just a mask. It’s the thoughts we have about it that determine all of the above.
We wore masks mindfully and we learned:
Wearing a mask “is what it is.” You get to choose how you want to show up for it.
It isn’t wearing a mask OR being mindful and relaxed. You can do both simultaneously.
Wearing a mask isn’t choosing protection vs. constriction.
Wearing masks can be seen as “we are all in this together,” or it can be seen as isolating and hiding our faces.
A mask can be seen as an extension of your face instead of seen as suffocating you.
It is possible to accept wearing a mask outside the hospital as “normal.”
A mask can feel uncomfortable and you can feel grateful for it at the same time.
A mask can help you slow down, enunciate, be deliberate, and speak in fewer words.
It is possible to find comfort in discomfort.
Your breath is always available to you.
You can be less frustrated by something when you are mindful.
Breathing through anxiety helps.
“I am ok, you are ok, we are all going to be ok.”
Turns out mask-wearing can be transformed by yogic philosophy, coaching, and mindfulness.
After this session, I wore my mask to the farmers market mindfully. I noticed the smells of flowers and strawberries and the stuffiness and heat and dampness of the mask. All at the same time. It was a wonderful experience.
I am reminded again of the importance of one of my favorite mindful coaching tenets “When you change yourself, everything changes.”
Try it.
Mindfulness is a beautiful way to walk and breathe through this and every moment.