The Awakening Tide
There is a time each day that occurs in the early morning and it lasts for just a short while. It occurs when the sun sneaks just above the horizon – where the black line way in the distance on the water meets the yellow orange hue of the sun. In this space in time there is an energy that comes from the purest of places and has the utmost potential.
At this time of the day, the possibilities of what could happen during that day are endless as nothing has occurred and all events lie in the potential energy of what could come. This is the place that I believe we all have the ability to inhabit. In fact, it is part of our humanity. It is a place where the possibilities of what could occur in our life are infinite and within the power that fuels the tide lies the energy that can bring our dreams to fruition. We all have the ability to live in this place, this intersect of the physical earth and the energy of the Divine, if we are able to slow our mind and open ourselves to the belief that we can create whatever we want. This is the time in which we awaken our soul, fuel our life with the power of the tide and truly live with purpose.
Erica Roesch, MD
I am a healer.
I believe we are all healers in our own right. Some of us are called to learn the science, the practice, and the art of medicine.
From an early age, I was intrigued by the healing power of a physician. As a young girl, I dreamed of one day becoming a physician. This dream was called crazy by some, too much work by others, and not attainable for me by my advisers.
Yet, I did not give up on my belief that I have been called to be a healer. I went from undergraduate at John Carroll University to medical school at Wright State University and then completed residency at the Miami Valley Family Medicine Residency in Dayton, Ohio. Acceptance and graduation from each of these institutions of learning was a challenging hurdle. I accepted these challenges as a part of what I signed up for when I chose this path. The tests, the long nights, the sacrifice of self and family time - I accepted them and wore them as a badge of honor.
After residency, I worked as a hospitalist for a year and then joined a group Family Medicine practice where I worked with the most amazing team for 8 years. I jumped head first into these opportunities.
I took the challenges in stride and worked to develop my skill set as a Family Medicine doctor. There were times that I forgot that I was also a healer. I allowed the demands of medicine to take over my thought patterns and priority list as I found myself the last patient on my schedule. I told myself this, "I come last and everyone else is more important." This became the definition of a physician that I had made my personal reality.
This may be the same reality for some physicians and not for others. For me, it meant that I had started to loose sight of the calling that I had always held so close to my heart.
As a healer, we must have energy that is ever-flowing to truly offer our art from a pure place. I learned the effect of a loss of energy and a loss of self. I, like other physicians had my own health issues. Yet, they were not a priority.
I found myself seeking new ways of viewing the everyday diagnoses that I was seeing in the office.
This conquest led me to an introductory talk on Functional Medicine. I went with goal of gaining some new insights on how to treat patients and what I walked away with was a call to heal myself. Over the next 2 years, I studied Functional Medicine. I studied as the doctor and as the patient. I changed eating habits, added yoga and meditation to my routine, and became enthralled with the newfound healing potential for myself and my family. My health improved, my family's health improved, and I began to have a new perspective on
my own journey as a healer.
My inner voice, the one that told me that I could overcome any obstacle to become a physician, the voice that whispered in my ear during the heartbreaking cases, the voice that told me to look into the eyes of a dying patient with certainty, was calling to me again.
I did not want to listen.
I was in an amazing place, working with amazing people, caring for generous patients - yet I was unsettled.
I had checked all the boxes.
I had fulfilled my calling - I was a physician.
Why was this not enough?
I was not listening to the greater power calling me to take my next leap.
I told myself every excuse.
I justified not making a change by the outcomes of the day.
I pushed myself and my dreams to
the back of the line once again.
I was not living or speaking in truth.
The voice called to me so fervently -
telling me that it was time.
Time to care for myself.
Time to speak in truth to myself.
Time to choose to take the next step or
to remain stagnant. It became apparent to me that I was not fully showing up for anyone in my current mindset.
I showed up daily as a mother, a doctor, a wife and sometimes for myself- but never fully present. I ended my days torn from the inside out as I was not living in alignment with my inner voice.
I was not listening.
It was time to change my mindset.
One day, I decided to listen.
I chose to listen.
It was that day that everything changed.
My choice to look at the truth straight on and rise to fulfill my dream was also my choice to live in integrity to the healing I am called to offer to others.
So, if I am speaking truths that I choose - who am I?
I am a healer.
I am a physician.
I am a coach.
I am a person who works daily to live in integrity to my process of listening to my inner voice. I am a wife, a mother of three, a sister, a volunteer, a lover of yoga, someone who believes in the magic of everyday miracles, a dreamer, and a healer of myself and others. I am a person who believes in the healing power that I have been called to give to others through my thoughts and my words.
I am a person who believes that all physicians are humans first and our patients are just like us - raw, fearful at times, courageous, dreamers and achievers of amazing feats,
and capable of a true way of healing that brings joy and fulfillment. I believe we have the power to choose our path and our thoughts about the obstacles we may encounter.
I believe we have the power to choose to be a healer AND to choose to live our best life. On the road to becoming a physician, it may feel that we have no control over the rigors we must conquer to gain the letters after our name. This was my thought process.
However, I now have a new view.
If we are called to heal, to become physicians, then we are called to own the process. Each step, each day, each patient encounter is an opportunity to choose the thought that we want to have - to chose the life we want to live.
I choose to make my health and my family life my top priority. I choose to help others do the same by showing them how to live into the connection to their inner voice. My choices have shown me great things. I do not go to bed torn. I show up fully for myself, for my family, and for those I offer my healing. It is a wonderful feeling to show up fully with my gifts and talents and offer them fully in truth.
My work is to help you do the same.
I know from the depths of my soul that there is no greater power than the connection to our inner voice. This voice is calling to you as it connects you to something so great, so powerful, so amazing. Your dreams, the daily life you yearn for, your health can all be found by listening.
When you slow down and listen, you are choosing to heal yourself so that you can heal others in a way you never thought possible.
I will stand beside you.
I will help you stop spinning in a life that is happening to you.
I will help you choose the life you want to live and create it.
I will help you listen to your voice that is calling to you so that you can tap into the ever-flowing energy source that exists for you.
I will help you heal.
I will help you listen.
I will help you dream big, live fully and heal endlessly.
What is your truth?
Do you hear your inner voice?
What is it saying?
It is time to find out.