Tracy Kim Townsend, MD

Having a time capsule into Beginner’s Mind like this is so helpful when thinking about teaching others. Even more reason to always be taking notes and journaling.

I’m going through old notes on surgical techniques that I’ve made for various cases over the years, and it’s fascinating to see how much I now take for granted. Every single step in surgery involves several micro decisions. It’s fun to look back and tangibly see progress.

I can now prescribe fruits and vegetables to my patients! A local non-profit is helping to fund a Food Pharmacy at my hospital for patients who are deemed to be in need due to either medical condition or food insecurity (i.e., everyone). This makes me so happy.https://twitter.com/tracyktownsend/status/1185764983893676033 …

I just prescribed sunshine to one of my elderly patients. She said she had no idea of the role that it plays in vitamin D metabolism, immune system functioning, mood, etc. Get your sunshine folks Easier done in SoCal, I know.

Is there any bigger trust fall than consciously bringing new life into the world? I can’t think of any.

I twitterhttps://twitter.com/auderdy/status/1220814308189171712 …

Oh hey I’m a small fish in the “‘softer’ rationalists more interested in meditation?” crowd. Who knew Pretty cool way to discover new and interesting peeps in the twitterverse!https://twitter.com/MenanderSoter/status/1219777672672354305 …

I don’t really understand the resentment towards people who can afford this sort of thing. All of this is available without cost. In fact, you are at a disadvantage if you lean on money to keep you accountable. Discipline forged on your own is invaluable and serves for life.

Every pre-med that I mentor gets this same advice. It’s not the actual acquisition of knowledge that is hard. It’s the discipline with nutrition, sleep, exercise, and scheduled down time that they skip. The sooner you figure this out, the easier the process will be.https://twitter.com/HeyMaliniK/status/1216508992270131200 …

There’s not much in the way of life’s daily little stressors that can’t be made significantly better with six slow and deep breaths.

You can stop most runaway emotions with six slow, deep breaths. Full expansion of the diaphragm stimulates the vagus nerve which activates the parasympathetic response. Gave this advice to a friend’s husband who gets very nervous before interviews - said it worked beautifully.

I’ve heard people say they can judge a person within the first 30 seconds of meeting them. I get a whopping 10 minutes with each candidate I’m interviewing for our residency program. What’s the best question I can ask that would reveal the most to me about who they are?

The ultimate privilege is owning your trauma and the intergenerational trauma you inherited, consciously choosing the narratives that you perpetuate in reaction to these traumas, and healing your entire ancestral line for those that came before you and those that will come after.

Intention for 2020: Every time I come upon a tree, I’d like to perceive it as is - not with the word “tree” flashing in the mind, not with the distortion of what a tree means conceptually, not with any use of cognition or judgement. I simply want to feel, to breathe in -

When I’m running my own practice, every patient will be getting a full nutritional evaluation tailored to their particular condition. Orthopaedic surgeons are not carpenters. We are gardeners. Healing is only as good as the soil from which it sprouts.