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302. A Big Energetic Pivot: Wood Snake Wisdom to Fire Horse Momentum

Healing Medicine: Mindfulness, Mindset & Physician Well-Being

Release Date: 03/01/2026

310. What Shuts Down Curiosity (and What Brings It Back) show art 310. What Shuts Down Curiosity (and What Brings It Back)

Healing Medicine: Mindfulness, Mindset & Physician Well-Being

Do you know what you want? Not what is expected. Not what comes next on the list but what you actually want. For many of us, curiosity has been crowded out by pressure, productivity, and the conditioned belief that we should already know the answer. In this episode, we explore what curiosity needs to grow, what gets in its way, and how to start creating the conditions for more of it. PEARLS OF WISDOM • Curiosity does not grow well under pressure. It grows in specific conditions, and those conditions can be understood, created, and practiced. • For most physicians, curiosity has been pushed...

info_outline 309. AI as a New Language: Practical Tools for Physicians and Small Business Owners show art 309. AI as a New Language: Practical Tools for Physicians and Small Business Owners

Healing Medicine: Mindfulness, Mindset & Physician Well-Being

Many of us have had frustrating experiences with AI — not because we lack intelligence or willingness, but because no one has translated it in a way that makes sense for how we actually work and live. This is part two of a conversation with my son Slade about using AI in mindful, practical ways. We talk about real use cases — reviewing a lease, finding a job, making a blog findable, writing show notes — and what it actually takes to communicate clearly with a tool that cannot read your mind. What emerged is something we did not expect: the skills that make AI work well are the same...

info_outline 308. AI for Skeptics: A Grounded Conversation for Physicians show art 308. AI for Skeptics: A Grounded Conversation for Physicians

Healing Medicine: Mindfulness, Mindset & Physician Well-Being

What if your hesitation around AI is not a problem, but a reflection of how much you care? Have you noticed how thoughtful, conscientious people imagine the worst-case scenario when something new arrives? Could it be that some of the fear around AI is less about the tool itself and more about our stories about it? And what if you do not need to love it to change your relationship with AI? This is part one of a two-part conversation with Jessie’s son, Slade, about AI — not the technology itself, but the feelings it evokes and the stories we tell about it. We explore why AI feels so charged...

info_outline 307. Technical Difficulties: Showing Up with Grace, Compassion, and Mindfulness for the Unexpected show art 307. Technical Difficulties: Showing Up with Grace, Compassion, and Mindfulness for the Unexpected

Healing Medicine: Mindfulness, Mindset & Physician Well-Being

What if the unexpected is not an interruption, but an invitation? Have you noticed how quickly a small technical difficulty become a full-on nervous system event? Could it be that some of our frustration is less about what went wrong and more about the stories we tell about what it means? What if we could meet these moments — the glitches, the delays, the disappointments — with a little more awareness, grace, and compassion? Technical difficulties are part of modern life. The microphone breaks, the internet fails, the slide deck disappears. Things go sideways, and suddenly we find...

info_outline 306. The Case for Coaching in Modern Medicine: Sustainable Excellence Requires Different Skills show art 306. The Case for Coaching in Modern Medicine: Sustainable Excellence Requires Different Skills

Healing Medicine: Mindfulness, Mindset & Physician Well-Being

Coaching is a practical and effective form of support for physicians practicing amidst the chaos of modern medicine. It is a grounded way to help physicians practice with greater agency, steadiness, and self-respect. This episode explores: Why many struggles in medicine are not effort problems The role of nervous system regulation in sustainable change What physician coaching is, and what it is not Pearls of Wisdom Depleted and burnt out physicians are responding predictably to current conditions in medicine. Sustainable excellence requires skills that most physicians were not...

info_outline 305. Strategies to Lessen the Costs of Decision Making show art 305. Strategies to Lessen the Costs of Decision Making

Healing Medicine: Mindfulness, Mindset & Physician Well-Being

When we are depleted, reactive, and under pressure, even small decisions can feel surprisingly hard. Intention, physiology, and physiologic awareness make decision-making simpler, steadier, and less draining. This episode explores decision fatigue through the lens of physiology, neuroscience, mindset, and intention.  Decision-making in healthcare is an expensive process. Physician thought patterns make decisions more burdensome. Decision drain builds when choices are delayed, avoided, or made at too high a cost.  In this episode, we cover: How intention and physiologic...

info_outline 304. From Empty Nest to Connection: An Orthopedic Surgeon’s Retreat Story show art 304. From Empty Nest to Connection: An Orthopedic Surgeon’s Retreat Story

Healing Medicine: Mindfulness, Mindset & Physician Well-Being

When we’ve been carrying a lot for a long time, “fine” can start to feel like the only option.  In this conversation, Jessie is joined by Dr. Jennifer Swaringen an orthopedic surgeon and yoga teacher. She has already been to Jessie’s Nicasio Creek Farm retreat twice: once with a friend, and once on her own during an empty-nest transition.  We talk about:  what shifts when women physicians step into a small, safe community how coaching helps us see the stories we’ve been living inside why nervous-system care (movement, breath, stillness, sound) can create a...

info_outline 303. What Happens When Physician Spouses Step Away Together show art 303. What Happens When Physician Spouses Step Away Together

Healing Medicine: Mindfulness, Mindset & Physician Well-Being

What happens when physician spouses step away from the pace of medicine and make space to slow down together? In this episode, Drs. Angela Wong and Doug Conrad join us to explore how rest, reflection, and shared experience can help us reconnect with ourselves, our relationships, and the deeper reasons we practice medicine. They reflect on attending The Connect in Nature Mindfulness Retreat at Green Gulch Farm and Zen Center together as a physician couple and share what it was like to step away for a few days, reconnect with each other, and remember what matters most beyond the roles and...

info_outline 302. A Big Energetic Pivot: Wood Snake Wisdom to Fire Horse Momentum show art 302. A Big Energetic Pivot: Wood Snake Wisdom to Fire Horse Momentum

Healing Medicine: Mindfulness, Mindset & Physician Well-Being

We’re continuing an annual tradition on the Healing Medicine Podcast: a Lunar New Year conversation that uses the Chinese zodiac (and the five elements) as a framework for reflection and intention-setting.  Even if this isn’t part of your culture or your belief system, exploring how a different cultural lens can help you see your patterns around transitions and help you endwell, pause to integrate, and begin well.  We’re moving from the Year of the Wood Snake (2025)—slower, observant, inward, “shedding what no longer serves”—into the Year of the Fire Horse...

info_outline 301. Relationship Wisdom: What 40 Years of Love Has Taught Me show art 301. Relationship Wisdom: What 40 Years of Love Has Taught Me

Healing Medicine: Mindfulness, Mindset & Physician Well-Being

 In this episode, I share what has helped sustain my long-term relationship over the past four decades.  I was asked to share my secrets with a large group of physicians.  I preparing for that realized that I have no secrets. I have an approach. Since I started approaching my relationship with intention, it has gotten better than ever. Resentment grows from silent expectations. Shifting from expectation to intention makes more room for connection. What would love do now? guides me as a practical filter for tone, attention, listening, and repair. It's especially useful given our...

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More Episodes

We’re continuing an annual tradition on the Healing Medicine Podcast: a Lunar New Year conversation that uses the Chinese zodiac (and the five elements) as a framework for reflection and intention-setting. 

Even if this isn’t part of your culture or your belief system, exploring how a different cultural lens can help you see your patterns around transitions and help you endwell, pause to integrate, and begin well. 

We’re moving from the Year of the Wood Snake (2025)—slower, observant, inward, “shedding what no longer serves”—into the Year of the Fire Horse (2026)—movement, visibility, courage, momentum, and a louder, more activating energy. 

This episode covers:

  • Why Lunar New Year is also called Spring Festival (Chunjie)

  • The 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac (and why there’s no cat)

  • The five elements and how they “flavor” a year (wood → fire)

  • Wood Snake themes: introspection, boundaries, shedding, somatic signals

  • Fire Horse themes: courage, action, visibility, warmth—and the need for wisdom

  • Transition practices: ending well → pausing → beginning well

  • A journal prompt: What are you leaving behind from the Wood Snake year?

  • Invitation: Connect in Nature Retreat (Green Gulch + Muir Woods)

Mentioned Invitations:

Nothing shared in this episode is medical advice or a substitute for your own medical care. This is educational content and personal reflection.