Hello everyone, welcome to the second episode of the rejected pre-med podcast. This is a
podcast for those who, like me, got rejected from medical school or any other professional school
and are now trying to figure out where to go from here. Being the mid-civital with me,
as we try to figure out what to do with our lives and how to stay mentally healthy
and happy in the process. In the previous episode, I talked about my story and how it
led me to starting this podcast. This episode is going to be something I call a resource episode.
In my resource episodes, I'll be talking in depth about resources and pieces of knowledge
I've accumulated to help me get over rejection from medical school. Specifically, this episode
will focus on my insights from Gretchen Rubins, the Happiness Project book, and I'll also be
referring to a few other articles concerning happiness. So, I chose to focus on happiness today
because knowing how to achieve personal happiness will grant you with habits and discipline needed
to overcome adversity and obstacles in your life, such as rejection per se. It can help you be in a
mental state where you can think clearly about what your next steps should be. I also just want to
show you that it is possible for a person to be happy while confronting life realistically and to
be productive in the process. So, first and foremost, happiness begins with your own attitude and how
you look at the world. We've all heard it before somewhere, right? But what does it mean? So,
it is not what happens to you that determines how happy you are, but how you interpret what
happens. So, for example, with me being rejected from medical school, I prefer to think of it as an
opportunity to self-reflect on where I am in life and use the extra time I have for retreat and rest.
I really believe that that will no doubt help me make a more informed decision about my future
career path. Some other rejected students may seize the opportunity to travel or volunteer
as a medical aid in the third world country, which is an experience that would not only make the
student happy, but it could also make them a better doctor in the future. On the other hand,
viewing this rejection as a means to get down in yourself for not being good enough might be
counterproductive and you end up being miserable. So, yes, happiness really is about how you look
at the world and your circumstances. I totally, fully agree with that. Additionally, happiness
is about living in the moment, appreciating the smallest things and surrounding yourself with
things and people that inspire you. And that is a quote I got from the Happiness Project book,
and I agree with it. And there's a lot to unpack here in that sentence. So, let us just start with
the first point. So, living in the moment. What does it mean to truly live in the moment?
This does not mean trying your hardest not to think about MCAT or med school applications
while seemingly being present at your friend's birthday party and trying not to look distracted.
To truly live in the moment means to let go of your worries and to really feel your own presence,
to stay in your body rather than get sucked into the content of your thoughts.
And I speak from experience because I had to learn it the hard way.
Living in the present means to truly appreciate who you are now as an individual with your current
qualities and talents. It means to stop tying your self-worth to your ideal future self as
already a doctor and making lots of money and start feeling the inherent worth that is within you
right now, right this second. So, say to yourself, even though you're not yet a doctor, you're still
a freaking great person nonetheless who's deserving of love and compassion. And remember that. And don't
be so harsh on yourself. Don't be so harsh on yourself. I repeat this because we as pre-meds
and especially pre-meds who've been rejected from medical school really struggle with that.
We're too hard on ourselves. So, yes, staying in the moment, living in the moment, that is one of
the keys to happiness. So, I'm saying all this stuff as if I already know how to really live in
the moment and sometimes I do, but there are days where I try to enjoy a Netflix show and suddenly
a thought pops into my head about my multiple unsuccessful MCAT attempts and you know my mood
slightly goes down. And this is unavoidable, right? We all have these thoughts from time to time.
The key here is to trump these negative thoughts with positive ones that come from living in the
moment. It's from enjoying that chat with your significant other to petting your dog or cat, I
don't know, sharing a meaningful conversation with a friend you haven't seen in a long time.
When you fully engage in these beautiful moments that make up your life, your fears of failure
and recent rejection would fade in the background more and more. And again, I speak from experience.
I know what I'm talking about. I'm that person who always lives in the future and thinks of what's
going to be ahead and tries to plan everything in advance. But if anything, my MCAT journey,
my experience being rejected has stopped me that sometimes it's okay to let go and just
let yourself relax and be in the moment. Okay. Oh yes, another good thing to mention. A good
exercise for when you try to be in the present moment, but your thoughts just will not leave you
alone is breathwork. A good exercise is breathwork. So basically what you do, you would, and everyone
has a different way of doing breathwork exercises, but the way I do it is you inhale deeply,
you hold for about four counts, then exhale and you hold for four counts and you do this
and you do this until you feel more calm and this practice will allow you to focus on your breath
and it would bring you back to the present while letting the other thoughts fade in the background.
Now, another part to being happy is appreciating the smallest things. Now, this is a habit that
takes time to develop. What I did to practice gratitude and I started this practice last year,
I believe, is to say to yourself three things you're grateful for before you go to bed,
whether big or small. It can be as small as saying, I'm grateful for the walk I took today at the
park. I felt so calm and at peace and as you say these things you're grateful for, try to really
feel grateful for them too, right? Because saying you're grateful without trying to actually feel
grateful for the thing you're saying you're grateful for is a waste of time. For example,
if I go to bed and I think, oh, I know I have this task ahead of me, I have to say these three
things I'm grateful for, otherwise I will not be positive. So, and I tell myself, okay, I guess
I'm grateful for the dish I had today for dinner. But if I don't really feel it, then it doesn't
really count as something I'm grateful for. So make sure you're really feeling grateful
for whatever it is you're saying you're grateful for. I hope that makes sense. Oh, God. Okay. But,
you know, and it may seem silly saying to yourself these things you're grateful for,
but eventually believe me, these kinds of thoughts that invite positivity into your life will become
a part of your brain's neural networks. You might have learned that the brain is engaged in neuro
plasticity in one of your neuro classes. If you've had one, or your bio class, I don't know,
doesn't matter. This means the brain can be rewired to function in a way that can make you
more happy and practicing gratitude is a very effective way to do so. Now, I feel like I've
talked to maturity. So I really hope some of this stuff comes of value to you. And I think it does,
if you if you apply the knowledge I share with you here, right. The third component to being happy
is surrounding yourself with things and people that inspire you. Now, you may be wondering,
okay, Valeria, that sounds all nice. But how do I know what or who will inspire me? And if you're
like me, you may have partially lost view of the things that have inspired you and brought you joy
when you focus so much of your life on the pre-med path. But if I found a way to get inspired,
you can too with this very simple practice. I call it the weekly artist state. Now, before you skip
over this part telling yourself, I'm not an artist. So this doesn't apply to me. Just just wait before
I get to the point. Now, I do not consider myself an artist really, because it seems like such a
big loaded word. But I still did these artist states and they truly, truly helped me. Weekly
artist state is about giving yourself time once a week, maybe two hours or so to do something
creative or inspiring, which I speak from experience will as an outcome invite all kinds of joy into
your life. Right. And I personally got the idea of doing these artist dates from the book called
The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, which by the way, I will do a separate episode on because it had
a great impact on my life. And even though the book is written for artists, I believe it is a gem
of a book for anyone. Artist states are something anyone can do. You don't have to be an artist.
I'll give you example of the artist dates I did in a second. But the purpose of these artists
states is to gain a fresh perspective that you may not get in your everyday routine,
which can help lead you to professional or personal success in unpredictable ways and also
make you more happy. And according to research, novelty is stimulating us is the key element to
happiness. And by doing new things, which is what the artist states are for, right, it does not have
to be art in the traditional sense that you're doing for your artist states. You are more apt to
feel happy than people who stick to more familiar activities. That said, for your artist states,
you don't make yourself do something you dislike, maybe do something you have always wondered
about or wanted to try, but never really had the time to or I don't know was too scared to fail at.
The examples of my artist states include going to a dance class since I was at dancing,
learning a song on a piano, going to a local museum art gallery, I think. And one of the other
artists states I did was going to the library and picking out random bookstreet I otherwise would
have never picked out, right? And they were so random. One of them was about gardening, which
I don't ever engage in. The other one was about health and wellness. And yeah, I learned interesting
things there too. And the other book was about podcasting. And it was I think was called podcasting
for dummies, which is very interesting because I did not even think of having my own podcast then,
right? I just picked out a random book. But look at me now recording an episode for my own podcast.
I don't know, coincidence? I don't know, maybe, maybe, maybe not.
One other thing to mention about artist states is it's better to do them alone. And I'll tell you
why. But I promise you these things can still be fun if you are doing them alone. If not, well,
there are still benefits to doing them with someone else, but it is most beneficial to do them alone.
How many times did I say alone at this point? But anyways, artist states are meant to help you find
your thoughts and hear your inner voice, not the thoughts plotted by your ego or your fears and
insecurities, or even the voices of your friends and family. An artist state can help you become
more confident knowing you tried something new by yourself and you actually liked it without
having to have someone else by your side. So yes, artist states are very simple and fun confidence
boosters. And they're especially helpful after rejection. Again, I speak from experience. So
to reiterate, artist states do them and do them alone if possible. Why? Why help you gain a fresh
perspective that can help you in unpredictable ways to they make you more happy as research shows.
And for my experience, they give you confidence and who wouldn't want all those things I just
listened, right? Yeah, we're soon coming near the end of the episode. And I just want to say thank
you for listening to the end. It means a lot to me. And I just want to remind you that you are
amazing wherever you are along the premed path does not define how smart or successful you are.
You are already successful and deserving of praise for the person you are now outside of your
accomplishments. So again, you are already successful. One and two deserving of praise for
the person you are now outside of your accomplishments. I repeat this because as I said earlier in this
episode, we as premeds don't to be very harsh on ourselves. And it helps to hear such words.
And I really intend to be one of your supports throughout your journey.
This episode, I talked about multiple ways to stay happy after rejection, which included the idea of
living in the present, practicing gratitude, and finding things to inspire you, such as the artist
dates. I would love to hear what you do to stay happy. So please DM me on Instagram or LinkedIn
to share your insights. I really do love learning about the art of happiness because
at the end of the day, that's what life is about, right? Staying happy, being happy.
And remember, happiness is not something we should consider only when life is going well,
or only when life is going bad. Happiness can be pursued in whatever condition life happens to offer.
And I personally think that's beautiful. One thing I did not mention yet, which is pretty
darn important for being happy, is leaning on people close to you for support when you're
growing through a rough time. And that goes without saying that you do that with people you trust.
Let yourself open up with these people about your inner struggles, worries, insecurities,
because it will most likely help you process the pain you've internalized and move on from it.
Personally, at first, leaning on people for support felt very unnatural and uncomfortable for me,
because I had this false notion that it somehow made me more weak.
But I eventually discovered that relying on people we trust for support and guidance actually gives
us strength and perspective that we sometimes fail to find without consulting others. So remember
that the next time you try to hide your pain and loss from others, because you might think you're
being strong, but it actually eats away at you and makes you ultimately less happy.
And just in general for maintaining happiness, spend quality time with people you love and cherish,
which is what you need to be doing to develop those deep, meaningful connections in your life.
As Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project book said, having strong social bonds is probably the most
meaningful contributor to happiness. Okay, I'll stop preaching now and end this episode.
I hope you had as much fun listening to this episode as I had recording it.
This was Valerie Rusnak, the host of the Rejected Premer Podcast, and I thank you for listening.