A different twist on our parenting with presence. In this episode, we share ways mindfulness and coaching can help you approach parenting your youth athlete. Mindful reflection and intention can help you parent in ways that empower your student athlete to be the best version of themselves and make decisions from a place of strength rather than compare and despair, scarcity, and FOMO. Harder and more is not better for student-athletes. We share our personal journeys as parents of student-athletes...
Aug 13, 2023•44 min
You are in control of much more than you think when it comes to your health. Today’s special guest is Dr. Rakesh Jotwani, a former colleague at The Permanente Medical Group. He is a former hospitalist who is now practicing Lifestyle Medicine full-time. We talk about the importance of practicing mindfulness and its many practical applications. Mindfulness is the instrument you can use to help you make choices and decisions that create healthy outcomes if they are what is valuable to you. Rakesh t...
Aug 06, 2023•53 min
It is ok and important to create space for what matters most. Stepping back is stepping in. When you trust yourself and the universe and connect with your priorities you can create a life of spaciousness and alignment. “What would self-compassion do?” Why not step out of FOMO and step into trust and alignment? It is uncomfortable and takes courage and it is worth it. Ni-Cheng used to have lots of guilt and shoulds as a physician entrepreneur. Now she recognizes that she was coming from a sense o...
Jul 30, 2023•30 min
Mind-body medicine enhances the mind’s interactions with bodily function to improve overall health and well-being. Mind Body Medicine is what the Mindful Healers Connect in Nature Retreat is about. What did people have to say about the retreat? “This was the best thing I did for myself in a very long time.” “This retreat is really unique because it is run by physicians who understand the challenges of being a physician, how our training magnifies stresses, and the pathophysiology behind the stre...
Jul 23, 2023•49 min
We are joined by special guest, Dr. Sabrina Falquier who is a board certified internal medicine, culinary medicine and lifestyle medicine physician. Dr. Falquier worked as a primary care doctor for over 15 years and in 2020 founded Sensations Salud , which focuses on empowering through nutritional knowledge and culinary literacy through culinary medicine education and consulting. Her work can be seen through the powerful documentary: The Kitchenistas . Sabrina shares her journey of living into h...
Jul 16, 2023•34 min
Mindfulness and coaching can help make health challenges, especially menopause less stressful. Accepting health situations, and aging associated physical and emotional changes - as they are - is a practice that is both hard and helpful. Why make menopause, perimenopause, and other health challenges harder on yourself? What can you do to make it easier? What are you doing that is making it harder? 15 tips for navigating menopause, perimenopause and other health uncertainties with grace Trust the ...
Jul 09, 2023•38 min
Do you worry about things in advance? Do you catastrophize? Anticipatory anxiety is expensive. In this episode, Ni-Cheng recounts when her passport became accidentally soaked while traveling. She shares about her experience with catastrophizing and anticipatory worry and how mindfulness, compassion, and coaching helped. Anticipatory anxiety arises in most of our lives regularly. Habitual mindsets of urgency, negative attention bias, and discomfort with uncertainty come up also. Helpful strategie...
Jul 02, 2023•32 min
An opportunity to learn from and be inspired by another successful coaching journey. NYU Radiologist Dr. Lucy Modahl shares how she transformed, evolved, and ultimately graduated from coaching. When she started she was angry, frustrated, and reactive. When she finished she felt lucky, grateful, and happy. She shares how her previously very strong scarcity mindset shifted into a new belief that she is enough and there is enough. She shares how coaching was a catalyst for self-confidence and clari...
Jun 25, 2023•45 min
A special Father’s Day episode with a new father, who also happens to be my son. Slade shares his experience as a young adult navigating new parenthood, graduation, and a job search. We discuss his struggles to practice mindfulness and the importance of following your intuition and listening to yourself. In this podcast, Slade offers the following advice: 3 Tips for New Dads Accept and allow whatever is happening with your baby, your spouse, and yourself; Accept all the family members and other ...
Jun 18, 2023•38 min
Is there a magic bullet to solve burnout? No, wellness looks different for everyone. We hope you enjoy this lively discussion between Dr. Jessie Mahoney, a long time physician wellness leader, and physician coach and Dr. Karin Shavelson, the Chief Medical Officer at Marin Health. We talk about the value of retreats, in particular the Honoring Diastole Retreat that Dr. Shavelson recently attended. Her belief is that wellness in a post-pandemic world looks like coming together with others who have...
Jun 14, 2023•45 min
Someone will be disappointed whether you quit or stay. Make sure you are not the one who is disappointed. It's normal to worry about burning bridges when you quit. What if you are building a bridge back to yourself instead? Quitting is not a failure. It might be a win. It is often growth and evolution. Very often we quit when things are no longer "a fit" for this season of our career or our lives. We step down when things are no longer in alignment with who we are in this moment. Most of us wait...
Jun 11, 2023•34 min
Reframing, telling better stories, holding dualities, and self-compassion can change things dramatically. In this episode, Dr. Kelli Bullard Dunn, a colorectal surgeon, shares her experience attending two Nourish & Transform Retreats at Sagrada. Sandwiched in between Kelli also did four months of small group coaching. She shares how the tools she learned helped her completely transform her thinking, her relationship with her children, her home, and her approach to her career. Learn what can ...
Jun 08, 2023•57 min
Dr. Ni-Cheng Liang is joined by special guest Dr. Gail Gazelle, Master Coach, certified mindfulness teacher, faculty at Harvard, and author of her new book Mindful MD. We discuss the synergistic relationship of coaching with mindfulness and how she considers coaching as mindfulness in action. She highlights the importance that we are not our thoughts and that our thoughts are not necessarily true. We discuss the impermanence of thoughts, emotions, and body sensations, and how important it is to ...
Jun 04, 2023•35 min
Reflective writing is a tuning fork for the heart. It is a portal to deep listening which is necessary to live a whole and healthy life, as healers and as humans. Today’s special guest is Dr. Gail Wright, a pediatric cardiologist and ICU physician who is a disciple of Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen. She is also Jessie’s co-leader for the Honoring DIastole Retreats at Pie Ranch in Pescadero, California. Reflective writing is a tool to help you put down the weight of aloneness, remember your wholeness and...
Jun 02, 2023•55 min
Gratitude increases happiness, well-being, and a positive mood. Awe and wonder provoke self-diminishment and increased connectedness with other people that may decrease markers of chronic inflammation, increase kindness and generosity. This episode seeks to inspire you to reflect upon, perhaps even seek out experiences internally and externally that can evoke gratitude, awe, and wonder. Using mindfulness, we can choose to pay attention and evoke gratitude, awe, and wonder in various environments...
May 28, 2023•25 min
Our brains and bodies are constantly being bathed in neurochemicals and neuromodulators. We can bathe ourselves in cortisol, norepinephrine, and stress hormones, or we can bathe ourselves in dopamine and oxytocin, relaxation and love hormones. We can strategically engage our neurochemistry to help us feel better and enjoy our lives more. We can intentionally create a healthier “neurochemical soup.” How? Yoga, mindfulness, hand-to-heart, self-compassion, gratitude, awe, wonder, nature, wildflower...
May 21, 2023•34 min
All "mother" relationships are wonderful AND complicated. Grandmothering is an extension of mothering. It includes mothering, being a mother-in-law, and often a daughter too. These roles encompass the full spectrum of human emotions. They are full of worry, frustration, expectation, resentment, judgment, and self-doubt. They are full of worry about failure. They are also full of intense love, desire, connection, hopes, and dreams. In this episode, Dr. Jessie Mahoney reflects on approaching both ...
May 14, 2023•41 min
Mindfulness helps you create spaciousness for the challenging, difficult, and triggering experiences that you will inevitably encounter in life. Mindfulness helps you to allow whatever arises for you (and your loved ones) in the midst of challenges. It allows you to simply be, rather than push uncomfortable emotions away. In this episode, Ni-Cheng shares a vulnerable parenting experience, specifically the bullying of one of her children, and how mindfulness and coaching helped. As humans, we are...
May 07, 2023•31 min
Buying and selling houses is an intimate experience that brings up lots of stress, and relationship tension. Familiar and unhelpful habitual mindset patterns come up in both home buying and selling and healthcare. This episode features lessons from a wise and mindful real estate agent, Cynthia Cummins. Cynthia offers a mindful, caring, and loving approach to buying and selling homes - even and especially in the Bay Area and its wild and crazy real estate market. Mindfulness and self-compassion a...
Apr 30, 2023•55 min
When was the last time you saw both the sunrise and sunset? What might happen if your kids spent the same amount of time in nature as they did on a screen each day? What might happen if you spent as much time outside in nature as you do on recreational screens? Prescribing nature for our patients and ourselves is good medicine. The restorative power of a simple dose of nature is tremendous. Nature prescriptions began as a movement in Pediatrics about 10 years ago. They have more recently spread ...
Apr 23, 2023•31 min
There is a deep longing to change our relationship with stuff and consumerism. And it is so very hard to do so. Mindfulness and self-compassion are key components to success as "a minimalist." Mindful minimalism requires you to pause and be present, notice and be aware, and move forward with intention, and without judgment. Mindfulness helps distill your experiences and thoughts in ways that provide a clear lens. Connecting with how you want to feel in your life is a powerful guiding light when ...
Apr 22, 2023•32 min
Integrating physician coaching seamlessly into graduate medical education is the most effective and impactful intervention we can do to prevent burnout and create a healthy and sustainable culture of medicine. Enjoy a vibrant conversation between two physician coaches who coach in graduate medical education. Bringing coaching to training programs is a win-win-win. Getting funding for coaching for your team, residents, and/or fellows doesn’t have to be complicated. It also isn't hard. There are l...
Apr 16, 2023•57 min
Cardiothoracic surgery remains one of the most unevenly gender-distributed subspecialties, with
Apr 09, 2023•43 min
Stop acting from fear of missing out and a scarcity mindset. Start listening. Learn to practice trusting your intuition and inner knowing. When we do things from a scarcity mindset and a fear of missing out (FOMO) there is a high energetic cost. Today's episode is an invitation to slow down and strategically, deliberately, and assuredly focus your attention on what adds value to your life. And to let go of what doesn't. It offers you tools to notice and "permission to unsubscribe" from the thin...
Apr 02, 2023•41 min
This is a special solo cast, reflecting on Ni-Cheng's morning in dragon boat paddling camp with Nathan Salazar, head coach of Team USA for the US Dragon Boat Federation for multiple divisions. So many lessons in paddling apply to life! Dragon boat racing originated 2,500 years ago, during the Warring States Period (402-221 BC). Duan Wu Jieh or the Duan Wu Festival when dragon boat racing traditionally occurs originates from the story of Qu Yuan, who was a poet and high-ranking official of the Wa...
Mar 26, 2023•21 min
In the name of productivity and achievement, we often downplay and minimize the importance of sustainability. Sustainability should be one of your highest life priorities if you want to be around, happy and healthy for a long time. It is a time management and productivity hack and the secret to achieving and accomplishing a lifetime of more. Strategies for sustainability shared in this episode: Drop your resistance Lower your expectations Show up with curiosity, wonder, and openness “Me As Well”...
Mar 19, 2023•32 min
Mess is almost always a sign of growth, learning and connection in children. Another episode in our Parenting with Presence series and an invitation to shift your mindset around what it means to parent "well". Great parents have kids who have meltdowns and messy noisy homes. A clean house,well-dressed children, and order do not mean you are doing a good job as a parent. Messy is a sign of brain growth. Messy is often evidence of presence and connection. Mistakes,as hard as they are to witness, a...
Mar 12, 2023•41 min
“No Mud No Lotus, “ Thich Nhat Hanh’s famous quote translates to every aspect of our lives. Life, our jobs, our relationships, and our physical spaces are all often messy. Mess is part of being human and is an integral part of a beautiful, fully-lived life. Messes do not define our worth or make it mean we have fallen short. We can choose to tell different, more factual, and neutral stories about our lives. We don't have to like the mess and lack of order but we also don’t have to use it as a wa...
Mar 05, 2023•31 min
Do you struggle with body image and self-criticism? Every body, especially yours, needs a friend. Being kind to yourself and a friend to your body is not complacent or lazy. Being a friend to your own body is a performance tool. Why wouldn’t you be friends with your body? What if you and your body could be teammates? Could you start by appreciating the functionality of your body? Perhaps thanking it for its service? Remembering where you have been and what you have done together? “Your body has ...
Feb 26, 2023•35 min
Mothers-in-law have a bad reputation. This episode is an invitation to change that. Mother-in-law relationships are charged because there is so much love all around. They love their son or daughter and you love their son or daughter. Choosing an intention for this relationship is a powerful practice. You can choose to show up deliberately with love, kindness, neutrality, connection, or openness for example. You can also choose to focus on what is in your control - how you show up and how you res...
Feb 19, 2023•46 min
