Make Mindfulness Work for You

OR Excellence

By: Outpatient Surgery Editors

Published: 7/25/2022

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Pre-Conference Workshop Sept. 29 | 8:30 a.m.


Jane Lodato used to be an overworked and overstressed Silicon Valley executive before discovering the power of mindfulness, the practice of being present in the moment. She’s now chief of wellness in the department of surgery at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City, giving members of the team easy access to mindfulness practices in a proactive and personalized way. Michael Marin, MD, surgeon-in-chief at Mount Sinai, is a big proponent of mindfulness training to improve the mental well-being of his staff, and he personally recruited Ms. Lodato to join the team.

Mindfulness is particularly beneficial for healthcare providers. The personalities and drive of surgical professionals can lead to stress and fatigue. “Perfectionism combined with intense pressure can cause individuals to question their behaviors or self-worth,” says Ms. Lodato. Mindfulness rewires neural pathways to better handle stressful situations and is scientifically proven to work, according to Ms. Lodato, who says it prevents your mind from racing ahead to the future and rehashing the past.

SENSE OF CALM Mindfulness reduces burnout and increases wellness, contentment and joy.

She launched the Stress Intervention Tools (SIT) program at Mount Sinai Health to help surgical professionals work through their emotions, reduce anxiety and manage crises. The program is designed to help busy — and at times overwhelmed — providers manage their emotions and reduce their level of anxiety. It also guides them to build resilience, develop a sense of calm and find positivity in their work and lives. Ms. Lodato will be joined by Paige McMillan, MHA, vice chair of administration and finance for the department of surgery at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City. Ms. McMillan works with Ms. Lodato to help manage the stress of her high-pressure job and says the benefits of practicing mindfulness in such a work environment are invaluable.

“We’ll share the theory and practice of developing a mental skill set,” says Ms. Lodato. “There is so much in life we cannot change, but we do have the capacity to hone our resilience, reduce our stress and become aware of habitual thought patterns that can be self-defeating.”

Ms. Lodato works with busy surgical professionals, so she understands the importance of presenting mindfulness practices in bite-size chunks and offers exercises that can be completed in 10 minutes or less during the normal course of a workday. By utilizing mindfulness and self-awareness, you’ll learn to pause and tune into your own reactive patterns, to respond to events rather than react.

There is so much in life we cannot change, but we do have the capacity to hone our resilience.

During this engaging workshop, you’ll get a taste of the classes Ms. Lodato runs exclusively for members of the surgical team at Mount Sinai. You’ll learn how to “anchor in” with basic breathing tools to relieve stress, pay attention to what your body is telling you, and assess and trust your own wisdom. “When you are aware of your thoughts, you have a choice about whether to buy into them,” says Ms. Lodato.

During the workshop, Ms. Lodato wants you to develop an interest in mindfulness-based stress intervention tools and find one that will benefit your life moving forward. She acknowledges you cannot change what happens throughout the course of your day, but you can choose how to respond. Emotional, mental and physical freedom is found in that choice. She hopes you take home new tools to avoid patterns of thinking and behavior that lead to burnout, and learn how to restore balance in work and life — to thrive despite daily stress. OSM

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