“How do I cope in times of hardship?” 

“What can I do when faced with a difficult situation or challenging task?”  

“Is there a way to get past my disheartening and disappointing experiences?” 

We find ourselves asking these questions at some point as we go about our lives in general; and most certainly at this time as we go through our education and training as medical professionals. 

Mentoring in a Time of Quarantine

In our desire to fulfill our commitment to mentor our medical students during this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Carmencita Padilla and I gladly managed to keep in touch and conduct regular online group mentoring sessions with our ten LU4 mentees whose classes have moved from campus into their individual homes since the start of the quarantine. As they continued with their medical studies which also shifted into a new blended learning approach, it became apparent that they felt some form of stress brought about by the change. 

We discovered that our students found some respite from their schoolwork and feeling of isolation, and they were in fact looking forward to our virtual mentoring sessions which have been taking place every other weekend. For sure, both mentors and mentees benefitted from the sharing of experiences and insights as we carried on towards this new normal.  

Make a List

In preparation for one of our sessions, I gave our mentees an assignment — before they slept each night, I asked them to list down 5-10 things that happened during the day that they were grateful for. They sent me their daily ‘grateful list’ in a private message and during our virtual mentoring session, they shared their list with the group. 

Thankfully, the students took the exercise seriously and we were happy to listen to each other’s little and big things that we were grateful for. There were some common themes such as gratitude for family and friends, for good health, and for life’s basic necessities like having food every day and comfortable homes to live in. We also listened to how unique situations brought us joy such as being able to go out and bask in the sun, watching a nice K-drama series, or spending time and caring for family members. It was good to know that because of this daily exercise of developing an attitude of gratitude, we became more aware of the good things happening in our lives.

Reframing

As a way to synthesize the many wonderful insights shared during that mentoring session, I echoed to our group a quote from Bro. Bo Sanchez — “Remove your eyeglasses of worry and wear your eyeglasses of gratitude”. When we change the way we look at uncertain and even difficult circumstances and instead focus on what we can be grateful for in any situation, then we find ourselves experiencing more joy and contentment in our lives.

To cope with hardship and disappointment, why not try practicing an attitude of gratitude and reframe our outlook about life’s challenges? Until we can constantly appreciate what we have, there will never be room for more opportunities that bring us happiness.

Dr. Peter Paul T. Ronque | Published in Healthscape Special COVID-19 Issue No. 10