Healing Medicine: Mindfulness, Mindset & Physician Well-Being

Dr. Jessie Mahoney and Dr. Ni-Cheng Liang
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Mindfulness, mindset, and sustainable well-being—not as another task to add to your plate, but as a way to experience life, love, medicine, and leadership differently. Dr. Jessie Mahoney and Dr. Ni-Cheng Liang share practical strategies, coaching tools, and real conversations to help you feel more present, fulfilled, and in control. When physicians are healthy and well, we become powerful agents of change. Healing Medicine was formerly known as the Mindful Healers Podcast. Same hosts, same mission, same conversations — new name. It is for physicians exploring burnout, mindfulness, leadership, and sustainable careers. The Healing Medicine Podcast offers practical tools, coaching conversations, and mindfulness-based medicine. The Healing Medicine Podcast helps physicians reclaim balance, leadership, and a love for medicine—one mindful step at a time. When we heal ourselves, we become part of the solution to shaping a healthier, more sustainable culture of medicine for our patients and ourselves. The Healing Medicine podcast is hosted by two physicians who bring decades of experience in physician wellness and leadership development to the health and wellness conversation. The hosts are physician moms, eldest daughters of aging parents, and wives, mothers-in-law, and daughters-in-law.

  1. 7H AGO

    298. What Are You Waiting For? Reclaiming Agency for Physicians Trained to Delay Life

    We have been taught to wait as a measure of professionalism. We delay rest, joy, and alignment because medicine taught us that patience equals commitment. Many of us are still waiting long after training ends, hoping the system will change. This waiting can feel loyal, responsible, even virtuous. Over time, it quietly costs us our presence, our health, and our lives. PEARLS OF WISDOM • Waiting is not neutral. It often preserves systems that rely on our overfunctioning and silence. • Many of us are not waiting because it is right, but because we were trained to believe it is required. • The system is not always broken; sometimes it is functioning exactly as designed. • Agency begins when we stop waiting for permission and choose alignment, even in small ways. • Fear often shows up when we stop waiting, and fear does not mean we are wrong. Reflection Questions: Where in our lives have we normalized waiting that no longer feels aligned? What are we postponing because we believe now is not the right time? What might become possible if we stopped waiting for permission? Who benefits from our waiting, and who bears the cost? CLOSING INVITATION This conversation is not about leaving medicine. It is about staying in medicine without disappearing ourselves in the process. Many of us were trained to endure quietly and trust that relief would come later. What we are exploring instead is the possibility of choosing ourselves now, even gently and imperfectly. Coaching and retreat spaces are one way we practice this shift together.  Not to fix ourselves, but to remember that our lives matter now, not someday. We are allowed to live full lives alongside meaningful work. If coaching, a retreat, or an intentional pause feels supportive, notice what comes up when you consider not waiting. Often, the only thing standing between us and alignment is the permission we can give ourselves. Find out about 1:1 coaching with Dr. Jessie Mahoney: Learn about Jessie's small group coaching programs: www.jessiemahoneymd.com/group-coaching Join Jessie at Nicaiso Creek Farm CME Wellness Retreats for Women Physicians  or   Jessie & Ni-Cheng at the COED Connect in Nature Mindfulness Retreat at Green Gulch Farm and Zen Center. www.jessiemahoneymd.com/retreats *Nothing shared in the Healing Medicine Podcast is medical advice. Other useful links to explore: • National Academy of Medicine – Clinician Well-Being https://nam.edu/initiatives/clinician-resilience-and-well-being/ • University of Arizona Integrative Medicine https://integrativemedicine.arizona.edu

    38 min

  2. 5D AGO

    297. Why Women Physicians Are So Good at Doing Too Much

    A special release in honor of National Women Physicians Day 2026. Today's conversation is an invitation to notice overfunctioning with compassion. Overfunctioning may have helped you succeed in medicine but it often costs you intimacy, energy, and connection.   Overfunctioning and underfunctioning, as well as the resentment that follows, are a familiar relational dynamic. Overfunctioning is not a personality flaw; It's a role we step into. It is shaped by our training, context, and culture.   When we pause, rest, and allow space, we usually find that the world doesn't fall apart. Others step forward in their own time and way. Even when it feels unfamiliar, this shift can offer clarity, growth, and alignment with how we truly want to live and lead.     Pearls of Wisdom • Overfunctioning is a relational role developed in response to internal and external expectations. • When one person consistently does more, others often do less. Over time, the systems adapted this way. • Resentment is information. It often signals over-capacity. • Doing less can be an act of love that allows systems and relationships to reorganize. • When we stop stabilizing what's falling around us and tend to our own nervous systems first, is when change begins.     Reflection Questions Where in your life are you doing more than your share simply because you are capable? What feels most uncomfortable about stepping back? What might happen if you rest or stop managing? What would love do this week in your relationships or at work? Join me for coaching or a retreat to explore how to change the overfunctioning habit.  www.jessiemahoneymd.com In Mindful Love Small Group Coaching we specifically look at overfunctioining in the context of our intimate relationships. In Leading from the Heart and Transition Well Small Group Coaching  we work on it in the context of career and life pivots and leadership.  At retreats and advanced coaching, we work on moving beyond it in every realm of your life. If you are interested in having me speak to your group on overfunctioning or any of the topics discussed in this podcast, find out more here www.jessiemahoneymd.com/speaking or email me at jessie@jessiemahoneymd.com. Dr. Ni-Cheng Liang is also available to speak to your group. www.awakenbreath.com.   Other Healing Medicine Podcast episodes specifically relevant to Women Physicians you may want to explore: These episodes explore the inner experience of women physicians—without pathologizing it. 293. When Feedback Feels Threatening: Nervous System Wisdom for Women Physicians 292. When Physicians Stop Believing in Themselves: Burnout, Skepticism, and the Hidden Cost  290. The Overs, the Toxics, and Why Awareness Alone Isn't Enough  269. You Were Never Meant to Carry It All: Healing the Eldest Daughter Effect 259. What Are You Proud Of? A Conversation About Worth, Identity, and Redefining Success  154. Move Beyond Imposter Syndrome These episodes highlight connection, culture shift, and the idea that "you don't have to carry this alone." 275. The Power of an Introduction: How Women in Medicine Can Change Lives and Culture Through Connection  281. Be Radiantly You: The Antidote to Exhaustion and Judgment  263. It's Okay to Have Fun: The Evolution of a Happy Doctor (with Dr. Beni Seballos) 262. Standing Tall in Surgery: Finding Fulfillment Outside the Mold (with Dr. Jenny Kang)  261. From ER Burnout to Soulful Living: Enia Oaks on Poetry, Pause, and Healing  These episodes give practical frameworks for agency, boundaries, and sustainability. 289. How to Take Intentional Action So You Don't Burn Out  280. From Powerless to Purposeful: Reclaiming Choice and Agency in Medicine  279. Victimhood in Healthcare: Naming the Problem with Empathy and Truth  282. The Art of Not Fixing People  278. Finding Peace by Letting Go of Fixing, Managing, and Controlling  285. Mindfulness + Money: Rewriting Financial Stories for Physicians 239. Breaking the Over Helping Habit: Valuing Your Expertise as a Woman Physician *The Healing Medicine Podcast was formerly known as the Mindful Healers Podcast Nothing shared in the Healing Medicine Podcast is medical advice.

    37 min

  3. FEB 1

    296. When the World Feels Unsteady, Choose Intention Not Panic

    We are not here to pretend this is fine. We are here to help you get steady enough to choose how we respond. When fear narrows your thinking, you can come back to the body first.  Regulate first. Respond second. In this conversation, Ni-Cheng and I name the collective fear, grief, exhaustion, moral distress, minority stress, and racial trauma. These are real, lived experiences that shape safety in our bodies. When we are activated, our wise brain is harder to access. That is when we send the text, make the decision, or take the action from urgency instead of intention. This episode offers practical micro-tools that work in real life. The breath, a longer exhale, box breathing, 4-7-8,  orienting to safety by feeling the ground under our feet, and hand to heart are ways to physiologically downshift. Yoga is too. Read more about this topic in Jessie Mahoney's blog:  What would love do when the world feels usnsteady. https://www.jessiemahoneymd.com/jessies-blog/what-would-love-do-when-the-world-feels-unsteady PEARLS OF WISDOM • A dysregulated nervous system makes urgency feel like truth. Regulation gives us back clarity, choice, and values-based action. • Fight, flight, freeze, and fawn are adaptive responses. We can name our defaults without judging, then choose the next step. • Moral distress, grief, anger, numbness, and exhaustion are normal human responses to instability. Nothing is wrong with you. • Trauma and minority stress live in the body. When safety feels threatened, hypervigilance and shutdown make sense. • We do not have to do everything. We choose a lane of helping that matches our capacity and sustains us over time. Reflection Questions: When you feel activated, what is your default—urgency, over-functioning, numbness, shutdown, or fawn? What helps you return to the green zone —long exhale, feet on the ground, hand to heart, movement, nature? Which lane of helping feels like desire and alignment, and which lane feels like guilt or over-responsibility? If your future self looks back five years from now, what do you hope you feel proud of in how you showed up? If we want to practice these tools in community, especially in nature, explore our offerings here: www.jessiemahoneymd.com/retreats www.jessiemahoneymd.com/coaching www.jessiemahoneymd.com/speaking The Healing Medicine Podcast was formerly known as the Mindful Healers Podcast Nothing shared in the Healing Medicine Podcast is medical advice.

    39 min

  4. JAN 28

    295. How to Stay Connected to Yourself When the World Feels Heavy - Peace Begins With You

    Practicing peace is an intentional choice. It is not something we wait for once circumstances improve. It is something we practice in our breath, our bodies, and our awareness, even while uncertainty and grief remain present. This conversation offers a reminder that peace begins with you. Peace is not denial or bypassing.  It is the practice of staying present with what is real while remaining regulated.   PEARLS OF WISDOM Peace begins with you. When the world feels overwhelming, we often notice it first in our bodies. Uncertainty often prompts us to feel urgency, vigilance, and reactivity. Nervous system regulation is a skill for sustainable medicine and a sustainable life. Small, consistent embodied practices can interrupt spinning and reactivity. Peace practiced internally ripples outward into our families, workplaces, and communities. Reflection Questions: What does your body need in order to feel even a little more settled today? What is within your control right now, even if it is very small? If peace doesn't resonate, which word feels most supportive in this season: peace, kindness, love, connection, or something else? Many of the practices shared in this episode are ones we return to again and again in coaching, yoga, and retreats because they work. Whether it is the "Peace Begins With Me" finger-tapping mantra, grounding through the feet, restorative yoga, sound healing, or mindful time in nature, these tools support us in staying connected to ourselves when the world feels heavy. Community also offers peace.  Group coaching and retreats offer a chance to practice these tools in community.  Coaching provides space to explore how to integrate peace, agency, and presence into daily life and clinical work.  Yoga and mindfulness practices offer a direct, embodied pathway to nervous system regulation. Retreats weave all of this AND nature into one. They allow space to slow down, reconnect, and remember what it feels like to be held and supported. Learn more about individual and group coaching with Dr. Jessie Mahoney here: www.jessiemahoneymd.com/physician-coaching Explore year-round coaching, yoga, mindfulness, sound healing, and lifestyle medicine retreats for women physicians at Nicasio Creek Farm. www.jessiemahoneymd.com/retreat-nicasio-creek-farm Join Ni-Cheng and Jessie in July 2026 for the Connect in Nature Mindfulness Retreats. www.jessiemahoneymd.com/retreat-connect-in-nature *Nothing shared in the Healing Medicine Podcast is medical advice.

    34 min

  5. JAN 25

    294. What Giving a TEDx Talk Taught Me: Choosing Love Over Control

    Giving a TEDx talk taught me a lot about nervous system regulation, self-trust, and choosing love over control. In a medical culture that rewards certainty and discourages vulnerability, visibility is a nervous system challenge. Standing on a red circle requires staying present when every instinct says to hide. Through the question "What would love do?", this episode offers a grounded framework for decision-making, leadership, and communication that integrates data, values, and human emotion.  It is an invitation to choose integrity and presence when outcomes are uncertain and what we carry matters. PEARLS OF WISDOM • The questions we ask shape the answers we receive. Fear-based questions rarely lead us where we want to go. • "What would love do?" is not sentimental or self-sacrificing; it is grounded, honest, and committed to doing no harm, including to ourselves. • Physicians are trained to equate control with safety. • Visibility and vulnerability are nervous system challenges, not character flaws, and they can be practiced with intention. • Choosing love often means choosing discomfort in service of what matters most. Reflection Questions: Where in your life are you trying to manage or control when a different question might bring clarity? What decisions feel heavy right now, and how might they shift if you asked, "What would love do?" Where are you being invited to tolerate discomfort so something meaningful can grow? How might your work, relationships, or leadership change if you asked what love would do? CLOSING INVITATION Giving this TEDx talk deepened my trust in the question that has quietly guided my life and work for years. It reminded me that love stays present even when outcomes are uncertain, and that choosing reach over ease is often part of meaningful contribution. Please listen to the full TEDx talk here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRQwr8-ITBQ Please share it and spread love-based decision-making far and wide. It is more needed than ever right now. You sharing the talk is the way it will reach those who really need to hear it. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.  If you want to learn how to use this tool in your own life, join me for coaching or a retreat. www.jessiemahoneymd.com *Nothing shared in the Healing Medicine Podcast is medical advice.

    31 min

  6. JAN 18

    293. When Feedback Feels Threatening: Nervous System Wisdom for Women Physicians

    A real-time reflection on nervous system triggers, leadership, vulnerability, and mindful responses to criticism. Have you ever found yourself physically triggered by feedback even when your logical mind knows it shouldn't be a big deal? This episode is a real-time, honest exploration of how high-achieving women—especially physicians, leaders, and caregivers—respond to emotionally charged moments of disapproval, and how to begin unwinding the nervous system patterns that often get activated. I share a recent, raw experience with receiving unexpected criticism that sent my nervous system into full activation, despite all my mindfulness tools, coaching experience, and good intentions. Alongside Dr. Ni-Cheng Liang, we unpack how medical culture, leadership visibility, and deeply ingrained perfectionism contribute to why these moments can feel so threatening and how to meet them with compassion and presence instead of shame and overreaction. We invite you to witness what it looks like to pause, process, and reflect before reacting as someone who's been conditioned to perform, fix, and never disappoint. Whether you're navigating visibility, leadership, or simply trying to show up with integrity in a complex world, this episode offers insight, grace, and nervous system wisdom for your journey. Here is link to a blog I wrote about this same experience.     Pearls of Wisdom: Your nervous system's response is not a personal failure but, it's a patterned response that can be gently re-trained. Leadership, visibility, and authenticity are inherently vulnerable—and feedback will always come with risk. Graceful responses don't always happen in the moment. The pause is where your power lives. Emotional reactivity is often a reflection of two activated nervous systems—not personal wrongdoing. Mindfulness helps us build the space to respond rather than react—and to remember we're human.     Reflection Questions: How does your body respond when you receive criticism or feel misunderstood? What do you tend to do when you're activated—fix, explain, retreat, or push back? What might become possible if you paused and got curious before reacting?     If you're a high-achieving woman in medicine or leadership navigating transition, visibility, or feedback with tenderness and courage, I invite you to explore coaching with me.  My Leading From the Heart and Transition Well small group programs beginning this January offer practical support, grounded insight, and compassionate connection. Learn more at www.jessiemahoneymd.com/coaching. You're also warmly invited to join Dr. Ni-Cheng Liang and me for the Connect in Nature Retreat this summer, where we'll practice mindful communication, nervous system regulation, and self-compassion in a nourishing, in-person community. www.jessiemahoneymd.com/retreats To bring this kind of insight to your team, organization, or leadership event, we offer keynote talks and workshops that integrate mindfulness, medicine, and human connection. Explore at: www.jessiemahoneymd.com/speaking and www.awakenbreath.org     Nothing shared in the Healing Medicine Podcast is medical advice.

    47 min

  7. JAN 11

    292. When Physicians Stop Believing in Themselves: Burnout, Skepticism, and the Hidden Cost in Medicine

    Physicians are trained to believe that skepticism keeps us safe and belief is generally risky. Over time, this quietly erodes trust in ourselves and what might be possible. What once felt protective can slowly narrow our lives and choices.  Stuckness, disconnection, and a subtle loss of feeling alive grows.   PEARLS OF WISDOM Medical culture often rewards certainty while sidelining imagination, hope, and belief. • Not believing in ourselves can feel protective, yet it frequently keeps us confined to versions of life that no longer fit. • Belief is not naïve optimism. It is a skill and a gift that can be practiced and borrowed when our own feels unsteady. • Imagining what is possible, even without a clear path, is essential for healing, leadership, and sustainable change. • Practicing belief does not abandon logic or science. It creates the spaciousness and courage to move toward alignment. Reflection Questions Where have we organized our lives around not believing, perhaps to avoid disappointment? What have we stopped believing in, and what did that belief once offer us? Who has offered us borrowed belief, and how did it feel to receive it? What might it look like to risk a small disappointment in service of something more alive or more true? If you are ready to gently begin believing again, mindfulness and coaching offer grounded places to start. Slowing down allows us to notice where fear has shaped our choices and where belief may still be quietly present. Whether you are navigating burnout, transition, or a longing for more meaning and spaciousness, coaching and retreat spaces can support this remembering. They all offer a compassionate, practical way to reconnect with belief and possibility. Enjoy a yoga class on this topic on Jessie's YouTube channel - Mindful Yoga to Grow Trust and Belief with Dr. Jessie Mahoney Read more about this topic on Jessie's Blog - The Gift of Belief The Connect in Nature Retreat is also a meaningful space to rediscover awe, wonder, and belief—in ourselves and in what is possible. Partners and colleagues are encouraged to join. Shared experiences often deepen connection and clarity. www.jessiemahoneymd.com/retreats If we would like to bring this work into our organizations, Dr. Liang and I both offer speaking and workshop experiences that support belief, healing, and connection in healthcare and beyond. www.jessiemahoneymd.com/speaking www.awakenbreath.org Nothing shared in the Healing Medicine Podcast is medical advice.

    31 min

  8. JAN 4

    291. The Practice of Choosing Intention Words

    Have you ever considered how a few carefully chosen words could shape your year, your energy, your decisions, and the way you experience life? In this annual tradition, we share our personal practice of choosing intention words for the year ahead. This isn't about goals or resolutions. It's about choosing how you want to be, move through, and live your life. This year's process was deeper, slower, and more nuanced than in past years.  Intention words act like a GPS for your nervous system. They offer clarity and direction through challenge, and how the right words if chosen with care can become some of your most transformative tools for personal and professional growth. Whether you're new to this practice or returning to it, you'll find inspiration, permission, and a deep sense of possibility. Pearls of Wisdom: Intentions are not goals, they're a mindful orientation. They work at the nervous system level to support aligned action and self-compassionate growth. Choosing multiple words (including a stretch word) adds richness and dimension. Life is complex, and your words can meet that with grace. Words should feel aligned, not performative. Let go of judgment, and choose words that support the version of yourself you're growing into. Words are powerful tools for decision-making. Ask yourself: Will this make me feel wealthy, healthy, strategic, or exquisite? This practice is most powerful when done with intention, over time, and often with support. It's subtle but profoundly transformative work Reflection Questions: How do you want to feel at the end of next year? What do you want to experience emotionally, physically, and in your relationships? What version of yourself are you growing into? What does she wear, how does she lead, how does she make decisions? If you'd like support in choosing your own intention words and integrating them into your year, I offer this process within all of my 1:1 coaching and group programs. This work is gentle, profound, and truly life-changing. If this episode resonates and you're ready to lead your life, your relationships, or your team more strategically, bravely, and exquisitely—join me in a coaching container or at a retreat. Explore retreats at www.jessiemahoneymd.com/retreats Learn about coaching at https://www.jessiemahoneymd.com/coaching If you'd like to bring this mindful approach to your team or conference, I'd be honored to speak or lead a workshop. Learn more at www.jessiemahoneymd.com/speaking For Dr. Ni-Cheng Liang's speaking and workshops, visit www.awakenbreath.org Nothing shared in the Healing Medicine Podcast is medical advice.

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Mindfulness, mindset, and sustainable well-being—not as another task to add to your plate, but as a way to experience life, love, medicine, and leadership differently. Dr. Jessie Mahoney and Dr. Ni-Cheng Liang share practical strategies, coaching tools, and real conversations to help you feel more present, fulfilled, and in control. When physicians are healthy and well, we become powerful agents of change. Healing Medicine was formerly known as the Mindful Healers Podcast. Same hosts, same mission, same conversations — new name. It is for physicians exploring burnout, mindfulness, leadership, and sustainable careers. The Healing Medicine Podcast offers practical tools, coaching conversations, and mindfulness-based medicine. The Healing Medicine Podcast helps physicians reclaim balance, leadership, and a love for medicine—one mindful step at a time. When we heal ourselves, we become part of the solution to shaping a healthier, more sustainable culture of medicine for our patients and ourselves. The Healing Medicine podcast is hosted by two physicians who bring decades of experience in physician wellness and leadership development to the health and wellness conversation. The hosts are physician moms, eldest daughters of aging parents, and wives, mothers-in-law, and daughters-in-law.

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