Ways to make yourself happy

[realgraverobber]

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Please list your ways to become happier in this thread.

1.) Spend as little time as possible in your medical school. For example, when class is out, go to the common campus library.

2.) Treat your classmates like coworkers. This means, avoid the heavy drinking with your classmates, having sex with them, and getting any closer than you would with a fellow employee at some job.

3.) Find your routine for studying, sleep, and excercise.

 

[TMP-SMX]

Have things other than school that you enjoy and have the same passions you had before medical school are probably the best. It doesn't have to run your life. Most of the time it is just drama, whining, and self-grandiosity that most medical students think they are special.

 

[Re3iRtH]

Please list your ways to become happier in this thread.

1.) Spend as little time as possible in your medical school. For example, when class is out, go to the common campus library.

2.) Treat your classmates like coworkers. This means, avoid the heavy drinking with your classmates, having sex with them, and getting any closer than you would with a fellow employee at some job.

3.) Find your routine for studying, sleep, and excercise.

Want to elaborate on #2 better? How will this affect how well one
does in school, and their residency match? What if did these same things
with people not at my school, spent the same amount of time doing it,
etc. So how will that be any different?

 

[Tired Pigeon]

1. Avoid classmate drama at all costs (see above advice about treating it like a workplace). Don't become known in the first month as the guy who drinks til he pukes or the chick who want to sleep with all the guys in the class. Four years is a long time to carry that reputation.

2. Don't pay attention to anyone else's study strategies. Don't be wigged out by the girl who says she spent 15 hours yesterday making up 10,000 flash cards for pharm. Find what works for you and stick to it.

3. Try to block out one day a week where you don't study at all. Take part of that day for yourself and part of it to spend with people who you truly enjoy spending time with. This may or may not be your family or current friends.

4. Find like-minded classmates; these are the handful of people in the class who have the same world view/sense of humor that you do. They may be hard to find, but the effort it worth it. These people will preserve your sanity.

5. Keep the big picture in mind. What made you want to be a doctor in the first place? Med school is just one more hoop you jump through on the way to that goal. Of course you've got to take it seriously, but keep in mind that if you got into med school, odds are overwhelming you're going to leave with an M.D.

6. Don't compare your performance with other people in your class. You know when you've made your own personal best effort and when you haven't -- someone else's score on the test is irrelevant (and, in some cases, falsely reported anyway).

7. Pick your battles carefully with the faculty/dean's office. Do not become known as a whiner. If there's something truly outrageous going on, by all means bring it up, but don't be the guy who's in there complaining about every little thing (going to the dean's office to complain that Professor X ran 5 minutes long in lecture).

8. Be supportive of your classmates. Find a moment to compliment someone on a particularly good question they brought up in lecture or an insightful presentation they made in small groups. What the hell, it doesn't cost anything.

9. Stay organized. Nothing will increase your stress level and unhappiness like it being the night before the exam and having to spend 45 minutes tearing through a pile of crap looking for the practice questions sheet given out by Professor X last week.

10. Try to get some form of exercise (even a 10 minute walk is better than nothing) and try to not eat crap all the time. Not because sloth & gluttony are bad for you (they are), but because sloth & gluttony leave you feeling like ****.

That's all I got for now.....

 

[rgarrig]

Please list your ways to become happier in this thread.

1.) Spend as little time as possible in your medical school. For example, when class is out, go to the common campus library.

2.) Treat your classmates like coworkers. This means, avoid the heavy drinking with your classmates, having sex with them, and getting any closer than you would with a fellow employee at some job.

3.) Find your routine for studying, sleep, and excercise.

Excellent.

Also,

4.) Make time to have a good time in entirely non-medically-related ways.

 

[DwyaneWade]

1) Work out consistently

2) Avoid the school campus on the weekends

3) Hang out with people outside of medical school just so your world is not a bubble

4) Avoid the "rat race" and stress about specialties and boards and try to remember why we are all here.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

All great advice. My big one is to go out with my husband at least once a week. Just letting things drop instead of making a big deal about them is another good one.

 

[SomeDoc]

Don't study in the med school area. Go somewhere else far, far away. You already spend close to half your day with each other; you don't need to spend the entire day among stressed out, sometimes pessimistic classmates if you don't have to.

Play some games, watch tv, spend time with S.O.'s/non-med student friends/family when you're done studying to reward yourself for your hard work at the end of the day.

Keep a low profile, and don't get too involved (or involved at all) in classmates' academic or personal drama/lives, etc.

Focus on your grades and being a student- that's all what matters until residency comes along.

 

[sprinkibrio]

1. Find positive people to be around and sit with during class.
2. Don't be picky with who you're friends with (school vs. outside) because you need social interaction. Period. Do be picky with people who make you feel bad about life/yourself.
3. Take care of your appearance (workout, eat right, don't wear sweats everyday, do your hair)
4. Don't always study in isolation (because that's a lot of isolation)... if you're sick of classmates move to the coffee shop
5. Take full day/weekend breaks when you can
6. Be efficient
7. Get it done... on time and ahead of time if possible

 

[coffeebythelake]

Please list your ways to become happier in this thread.

1.) Spend as little time as possible in your medical school. For example, when class is out, go to the common campus library.

2.) Treat your classmates like coworkers. This means, avoid the heavy drinking with your classmates, having sex with them, and getting any closer than you would with a fellow employee at some job.

3.) Find your routine for studying, sleep, and excercise.

4.) Don't conspire to eliminate your competitors. Although you will end up with a good academic rank, it will not look good on residency applications.

 

[Corker]

Just wanted to add:

Do some service for someone else (clean grandma's yard, serve food at shelter, take a dinner to someone who is sick, volunteer at local youth home, etc.).

Nothing takes me out of my own pity party like serving someone in need.

 

[angry energy]

1) be active. running makes me envision clean coronaries. i dont know why that turns me on.

2) be better. youre the greatest goddamn thing to happen since george washington. prove it. and when you do, relish it.

3) think of one random thing that'll make you happy in the morning. at the end of the day, go get it. satin boxers, a backrub, steak, a hot shower. once, for me, it was going back to bed. it was awesome.

4) list all your best qualities and use them to convince yourself that if you died tomorrow, the world will end. youre important.

 

[CatsandCradles]

5) Go to a very nice, wireless internet coffee shop in town.

 

[MonkeyRalph]

- even on busy rotations, spend at least a little time working out 3-6 days a week (a 20 min uphill jog can burn like 400 calories and give you tons of energy for the rest of the day)

- have a group of friends who don't stress you out (if they are medschool friends, make sure they don't propegate medschool drama. if they are non-medschool friends, make sure you don't get guilted into doing things with them when you feel like you need to be studying or something cuz you'll just resent it and you won't enjoy yourself anyways)

- set aside a date night with your s/o, and a dinner night with your friends each week (even during third year, when it's difficult to work around everyone's call schedule, seeing even a couple of your friends is a nice venting session/support group/break) two dinners a week is not as big a time commitment as it sounds and everyone needs to eat anyways

- for a fun time, start a positive rumor about yourself and see how long it takes for everyone to hear about it (so funny)!!!! (for example, tell your friend to casually tell someone with a big mouth "i can't believe MonkeyRalph got 270 on step I!" or "did you hear that MonkeyRalph won $80,000 at the Indian Casino last month?" by the end of three weeks, everyone in your class will think you're a genius or rich)

 

[lisichka]

8. Be supportive of your classmates. Find a moment to compliment someone on a particularly good question they brought up in lecture or an insightful presentation they made in small groups. What the hell, it doesn't cost anything.
.....

very diplomatic. thank you. hopefully i will be able to master some of ur points when in medschool.
is this a good try for # 8 ?😛

 

[45408]

All great advice. My big one is to go out with my husband at least once a week. Just letting things drop instead of making a big deal about them is another good one.

Date night is cheaper than divorce court. And it's better for your sanity.

 

[LJDHC05]

Try to get a dose of your non-medical student life in a couple times a week be it through meeting up with non-med friends, exercising, watching really bad TV or BUSHMILLS 10 year single malt.

 

[ufgrad00]

Try to get a dose of your non-medical student life in a couple times a week be it through meeting up with non-med friends, exercising, watching really bad TV or BUSHMILLS 10 year single malt.

Ah, a Connoisseur! 👍

There is not a finer way to express "**** it, I am taking time for myself !" like a good Irish whiskey.

 

[OrnotMajestic]

Ah, a Connoisseur! 👍

There is not a finer way to express "**** it, I am taking time for myself !" like a good Irish whiskey.

I may have to disagree. Personally, I prefer pure Kentucky Bourbon!

 

[-Goose-]

I may have to disagree. Personally, I prefer pure Kentucky Bourbon!

WR is the best one, by far.

 

[OrnotMajestic]

WR is the best one, by far.

KEY WORDS: "by far". Those words make me happy, as it means though I enjoy this one, I should just keep searching. And searching. And searching. It's my own bourbon version of "Carpe Diem".

 

[LJDHC05]

I may have to disagree. Personally, I prefer pure Kentucky Bourbon!

To each his own...my little kentucky burbon fav

 

[OrnotMajestic]

To each his own...my little kentucky burbon fav

Oh, I used to drink Knob Creek, then I graduated up to WR. 😛

 

[SoFlaKnight]

Knob Creek was fun and all, till I realized I could just inject this straight into my eye...

http://www.drug-rehab-center-hotline.com/heroin%20pic.jpg

jk

Also helps if you're a Heat fan...just ask DW 😀

 

[ChickFingaz]

Perfect time for this thread.
I've hit that part of 1st year, where it's difficult to be happy. I'm always studying. And if I'm not, I feel that I should be. And I'm basically living at the medical school. In fact, I'm here right now...getting ready for a long day of Neuroscience.

 

[AK_MD2BE]

1. Pray
2. Do at least one thing everyday that you love to do
3. Exercise at least 4-5 x/week
4. Commit yourself to the reality that there will always be people who are more intelligent than you are. Therefore, all you can do is give your best effort and maximize the abilities that you have been given.

 

[EBI831]

i disagree with #2. i love my classmates and i treat them like friends. if you treat them like coworkers it becomes a huge competition to get the promotion and whatnot but if they are your friends (which i view most of mine as ) , they are collaborators/entertainment/allies.
-maybe it's b/c i'm not married/nontrad or any of that other mature stuff that allows me to emotionally remove myself (often as i've found to the detriment of quality of life but maybe to the benefit of grades) from my environment and be a robot in class and save it all for outside of school.

 

[DwyaneWade]

Knob Creek was fun and all, till I realized I could just inject this straight into my eye...

jk

Also helps if you're a Heat fan...just ask DW 😀

I don't know how many games this year I have felt the urge to stab a fork in my retina....good lord they are terrible this year.

But it will be all better when Michael Beasley lands in So Fla next year

 

[MONKEYBOY]

Go to dental school. 4 years of school then freedom, and the wage beats nearly all of medical specialties per hour.

 

[deleted77919]

the wage beats nearly all of medical specialties per hour.

All your base are belong to us.

 

[StevenRF]

LoL extra points for classic reference. Can't wait till that Cavity Vaccine comes out... scheduled for the same time as Duke Nukem Forever. 🙂

My Random List:
1.Gym it M-F, even if its just running or weights, preferably both.
2.Get a hobby, like playing an instrument, martial arts, a sport etc. something that has 0 to do with med school.
3.Friends outside of school, preferably working.
4.Find a F' buddy, preferably another professional student who only wants the same. Saves time on dating, money, and easy to schedule.
5.Try to get involved with what you want to eventually do. It gives you that feeling that you are actually working toward something, and not just in an endless system.

 

[45408]

Go to dental school. 4 years of school then freedom, and the wage beats nearly all of medical specialties per hour.

Too bad you have to work on teeth though. I'll pass. Shouldn't you be trolling elsewhere?

 

[AK_MD2BE]

Remind yourself that medical school is only four years...you get to be a doctor for 20-40 years. 🙂

 

[flumazenil]

masterbate