Teaching Humanity Remotely with Dr. Mindy Shaw

In this brief but important episode, Dr. Shaw explains how our reactions and in fact our suffering can be connected to our preferences which can often guide our sense of happiness. In simple terms, when we get something we like, we are happy... when we encounter something we don't want or like, we are unhappy.  The one consistent thing is how we show up, and the question becomes: how can we show up in a way that we are not driven by our preferences?  If we know we are always showing up in the best possible way and in a way that allows us to do the best work we can, we can deal better with those times when things are not good.  If we aren't be victimized by not getting our preferences then we can live life more successfully.

In this brief but valuable episode, Dr. Shaw makes reference to one of the four principles explored in one of her favorite books, The Four Agreements, and that principle is to not take things personally.   Here, Dr. Shaw tells a tale that came from her own recent real life experience, and she shares the revelations that came to her from that experience. The life lessons and learning lessons that were built into that experience gave her some new perspective that she shares in this podcast.

In this brief episode, Dr. Shaw's commentary relates to a recent hospital stay that her disabled son went through. She perceptively discusses how the quality of workers and service personnel is divided into three groups... the small percentage who are terrible at what they do, the vast majority who are great, and a tiny minority who are extremely special.  That handful of special people are the North Stars of the experience, and what makes them special is that they truly partner with the patient and their families.  They have no arrogance or condescension about what they do; they do what they do out of service.  In the hospital specifically, those who work from a place of ego won't be good partners, and those who don't will appreciate and nurture the partnership that exists between someone needing to heal and their skill set.

In this brief episode, Dr. Shaw discusses what it means to be "in right action."  She begins with the premise that right action leads to right results and that wrong action cannot possibly lead to right results.  She then takes the conversation into illustrative examples from her career as an educator.  She acknowledges and promotes the understanding that some actions are a match with others and some are not, and she emphasizes that if something is not a match, it's not a big issue.  She concludes by saying that she is always working at being her best, and if she's not a some point, she simply forgives herself and moves on.

In this brief episode Dr. Shaw shares a phrase that came to her and it's the title of this podcast, "Care Before Crisis" Intervention.  It's word intervention that's the key to that phrase... we are accustomed to crisis intervention, but care intervention would be a whole new novel approach.  To treat someone or yourself with care BEFORE a situation reaches crisis is a good samaritan way to show up to yourself and others.  Yes, there are hard times, but we can de-escalate things before there's a crisis by caring.