What happens when physician partners step away and make space to slow down together?

In this episode, we explore how rest, reflection, and shared experience can help us reconnect with ourselves, our relationships, and the deeper reasons we practice medicine.

Drs. Angela Wong and Doug Conrad share their experience of coming to The Connect in Nature Mindfulness Retreat at Green Gulch Farm and Zen Center together as a physician couple.

They reflect on what it was like to step away from the daily pace of medicine for a few days to reconnect—with themselves, with each other, and with what matters most.

They talk about perfectionism in medicine, the hidden cost of constant productivity, and how slowing down can restore perspective, compassion, and connection.

This conversation is a reminder that a pause for self-care is not indulgent. It is one way we reclaim agency in medicine and remember who we are beyond the roles we carry.

If this conversation resonates, we would love to welcome you to future retreats where we explore rest, mindfulness, and connection in community with other physicians.

The next Connect in Nature Mindfulness Retreat is July 30-August 1, 2026

Listen to learn about:

• Why slowing down can help you reconnect with yourself and your partners

• How perfectionism can quietly shape life and work in medicine

• What happens when you allow yourself to receive care

• Why shared experiences outside medicine can strengthen physician relationships

• How rest, movement, breath, and nourishment can influence how you care for patients

Pearls of Wisdom:

• Shared experiences outside the clinical environment can strengthen physician partnerships and help us see one another as people, not just colleagues in a busy life.

• Slowing down is not indulgent. It creates the space needed to reconnect with ourselves, our partners, and the deeper reasons we practice medicine.

• Perfectionism often masquerades as professionalism in medicine. Letting go of that inner judge can restore both well-being and relationships.

• The practices we experience personally—mindful movement, nourishment, rest, and breath—often become the most authentic tools we bring to patient care.

Reflection Questions:

• What might shift if you intentionally created time to slow down with a partner or loved one?

• Where in our lives might you be moving so quickly that you have stopped noticing how you actually feel?

• How might releasing the need for perfection allow more compassion toward yourself and others?

• What small daily practice could help you reconnect with your breath, body, and sense of agency?

Ways to connect and work with us:
Website: https://www.jessiemahoneymd.com/ ; https://awakenbreath.org/
Retreats: https://www.jessiemahoneymd.com/retreats
Yoga: https://www.jessiemahoneymd.com/yoga
Blog: https://www.jessiemahoneymd.com/jessies-blog
Podcast: https://www.jessiemahoneymd.com/mindful-healers-podcast

*The Healing Medicine Podcast was formerly known as the Mindful Healers Podcast. Nothing shared in the Healing Medicine Podcast is medical advice.

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:

• Connect in Nature Mindfulness Retreat (Green Gulch + Muir Woods): www.jessiemahoneymd.com/retreat-connect-in-nature

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

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 mismatched neurotypes and when our nervous systems are depleted.

In this episode, I share

• The cost of silent expectations and resentment

• The value of replacing expectations with clear intentions

• "What would love do now?" as a moment-to-moment practice

• How nervous system depletion turns neutral moments into conflict

• Why friendship and fun matter

Pearls of Wisdom

• Clear intentions open doors. Resentment keeps them shut.

• Love becomes steadier when we treat it as a verb

• Long-term relationships are built through practice.

• Protecting your health, and your partner's health protects the relationship

• Friendship sustains intimacy

Reflection questions:

• What silent expectations are you holding?

• What intention do you want to bring to your relationship: connection, kindness, honesty, peace, love?

• When you are depleted, what could help you respond instead of react?

• How could you treat your partner more like a friend this week—lighter, more generous, more on the same team?

Ways to work with me
https://www.jessiemahoneymd.com/
https://www.jessiemahoneymd.com/retreats
https://www.jessiemahoneymd.com/yoga
https://www.jessiemahoneymd.com/jessies-blog

Nothing shared in the Healing Medicine Podcast is medical advice.