James Fish: My journey with mindfulness
How mindfulness has helped me be more present for people as a GP
When I am meditating regularly I can cope with things that I couldn’t cope with otherwise,” explains James Fish GP. “It can be the difference between a good day and a bad day.”
James Fish, a GP and mindfulness teacher, describes how mindfulness has helped him manage his stress as a student and as a GP.
This blog post is based on an interview by filmmaker, Sarah West. It’s part of a blog series “My journey with mindfulness” currated and edited by Tamsin Bishton.
How I came to mindfulness
I’ve been a doctor for 10 years and a GP for the last three years. I have found that the stresses of this work are increasing. People have more complicated health and wellbeing problems. Plus the longer waiting times mean that people often need to come back to their GP because they remain in pain or worried about their health and they aren’t being seen as rapidly as in the past.
I came to mindfulness when I was a student, before I studied medicine. I was in my early twenties. I had some mental health challenges in my second year. I was trying to “catch up” with my studies, drinking too much caffeine which meant I got sleep problems. I had a moment in my exams – I had the thought: “I can’t do this,” and just stood up and walked out. It was a moment of crisis. I was lucky that someone stopped me, took me outside to take a breath, and I ended up finishing the exam and passing.
I realised I needed something to help me cope better with life’s stresses. I had a friend who sat with me in the park and we did a 10 minute meditation together. I remember feeling a sense of calm. Even that first time I felt like there was something useful here. I have ended up using mindfulness pretty much every day.
Personal benefits of mindfulness
It’s complicated to talk about what mindfulness means to me. On the surface it is a tool that I use to relax, to reduce my levels of stress, even to improve my mood. But over time it has become something more like a way of framing my experience. So rather than being pulled straight into whatever’s happening, mindfulness allows me some space to see what’s coming up around me and within me. Instead of making rash decisions, I have a little bit more space and build a little bit more capacity to respond to what’s going on around me. When I am meditating regularly I can cope with things that I couldn’t cope with otherwise. It can be the difference between a good day and a bad day, an effective day and an ineffective day.
I want to help others learn these skills and get some of the benefits that I’ve had from it. So I have now trained to teach mindfulness. I am finding teaching really rewarding.
Recommending mindfulness to others
There’s an evidence base for mindfulness to be used for stress reduction, depression, anxiety. When I speak with people they are quite self aware – they’ll tell me: “I am low at the moment,” or “I can’t cope with this,” or “I can’t go to work,” or “I can’t go out of the house.” I refer two or three people every single day through to their local NHS Talking Therapy services, of which I would say, you know, a quarter to half of those would benefit, in particular, from a mindfulness approach. So where I think that that’s appropriate, I’ll either be writing that in a referral, or I’ll get the patient, if they’re self referring to mention it.
I’ve had a number of patients over the years that have benefited from mindfulness. Some have, you know, some would say it’s reversed their depression or reverse their anxiety. Others may say that actually, it’s just given them another tool to cope with things.
You can see the short film where James is interviewed here. And you can find out more about James’ mindfulness work on his website here.
If you are interested in trying mindfulness check out some tasters and courses here.