Rahel Nardos Log 3

Through this leadership journey, I have become a lot more intentional about taking time to attend to my mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing thanks to the resources and encouragement afforded by this fellowship. The fellowship created safe space where me and my cohort members were willing to be vulnerable about their own wellness struggles and to commit to prioritizing themselves. This encouraged me to do the same. As a result of tending to myself, I have felt that I have more energy, and my thinking is more expansive ( as opposed to constricted). I don’t feel like I am on survival mode and I am able to give more space for others to make mistakes and to take time to contribute. It hasn’t been easy. This wellness journey required building a daily habit of self-reflection that sometimes uncover things about myself that are hard to acknowledge and change. I learned to practice gratitude and set intentions daily (rather than being on default action mode) and to hold myself accountable. I am training be more present for myself and others and this is hard when it is easier to distract myself from the hard things. But how incredible when we can be present for the beautiful things around us if we can only pay attention. So in short, I think that caring for myself has made it possible for me to bring my best self to leadership and this is the message I will be communicating with our graduating class of Medical students next week when I give the key note message and this is what I shared when I was the key note speaker last week at our Ethiopia urogynecology fellowship graduation ceremony.