Physicians are trained to accumulate data, credentials, answers, certainty, and to introduce themselves through their titles. Dr. Joanne Sotelo steps outside all of that for a retreat with roughly twenty strangers and one guiding question: Who am I? No curriculum, no agenda, just Dharma talks, nature, and the uneasiness of not being able to look up the answer.

Drs. Sotelo and Hurley trace what shifted at home: belongings looked like weight rather than worth, and her roles turned out to be things she could observe rather than the whole of who she is. Small immersive rooms with real guides, they argue, are among the most powerful catalysts available, and investing in yourself isn't selfishness; it's fuel.

Key Takeaways To Listen For

• Walking in with minimal expectations and openness produced more insight than any curriculum could have
• The answers that matter most tend to be simple; physicians instinctively over-explain, over-intellectualize, and reach for more information
• You can observe your roles, profession, accomplishments, history without internalizing them, and that distance is where the deeper question begins
• Sitting in uncertainty is the discomfort most physicians spend a career avoiding, and it is often where the real growth happens
• Your response to your environment is yours to choose; staying grounded in chaos creates a ripple that carries to everyone around you

“What do I need to be lighter in my life, which will allow me to have the bright energy I want to have for what's important for me in this season of my life.” - Dr. Joanne Sotelo

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Find every episode at https://www.createmeaninginmedicine.com

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🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/create-meaning-in-medicine/id1752701820

The closet, the calendar, and the overflowing to-do list are often about more than organization. They can be messages, sometimes uncomfortable ones, for women who have run out of bandwidth, not competence.

Meryl Paspa joins Drs. Joanne Sotelo and Erin Hurley to explore how clutter can reflect overwhelm, shifting identities, and the changing demands of women's lives. She reframes clutter as feedback rather than failure and introduces her CLEAR framework: gaining clarity on who you're becoming, lightening your load by releasing what no longer serves you, embracing your decisions, aligning your choices with who you are, and reimagining the space you've created. The conversation is warm, disarmingly personal, and immediately practical.

Key Takeaways To Listen For

• Clutter, whether physical, mental, or on your calendar, is feedback, not failure. It signals that bandwidth has run out, not competence
• Clearing without a vision of who you're becoming just creates a vacuum. The space refills with something else unless identity shifts first
• Closets and calendars are identity places, not storage. What you keep and what you release reflects a version of you
• Not all clutter belongs to you. Naming whose it actually is loosens the reflexive assumption that you must manage everyone's stuff
• Sentimental items and grief call for extra support and patience, and you can allow postponing a decision you're not ready to make

"If we think of [difficult times in life] as transitions instead of challenges and difficulties, I think the perspective and our energy and our focus changes." — Meryl Paspa

About Meryl Paspa: Meryl Paspa is an author, speaker, and coach who helps women in transition move beyond clutter and overwhelm to create space for who they are becoming. She is a Certified Holistic Health Coach, Certified High Performance Coach, and licensed Aesthetician with more than two decades of experience working with women. Her first book, CLEAR: How to Let Go of Clutter and Create Space for Who You're Becoming, is available now on Amazon.

Connect with Meryl Paspa:

Website: https://merylpaspa.com

Book (CLEAR): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HJMKXMMF

Free CLEAR Companion Workbook: https://merylpaspa.com/clear-workbook/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/merylpaspa/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mjpaspa/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/merylpaspa

Substack: https://substack.com/@merylpaspa

Connect With Us

Find every episode at https://www.createmeaninginmedicine.com

▶️ Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@createmeaninginmedicine

🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/create-meaning-in-medicine/id1752701820

A breast cancer diagnosis arrived for Dr. Erin Hurley despite preventive surgeries after she learned she carried a BRCA2 mutation. What followed was a period of waiting and wondering whether the disease had spread, but also a turning point. She shares how the coaching she had started just three months earlier helped her approach the diagnosis with more calm, connection, and intention.

The experience reshaped how she approaches everything from how she spends her time to the relationships she refuses to put off. The conversation explores gratitude, boundaries, asking for help, and the sister and friend whose stories taught her that tomorrow isn't guaranteed. Drs. Hurley and Sotelo also discuss the arrival fallacy: the tendency to put life on hold until things calm down, rather than making room for what matters now. Through mentorship, community, and more intentional choices, Dr. Erin shares how she has built a life more aligned with her values.

Key Takeaways To Listen For

• Support and connection arrived as a form of protection long before the diagnosis did; the coach was hired about twelve weeks earlier, and that groundwork carried into the biopsy room
• Gratitude and fear can coexist in the same season; a stage one diagnosis with no chemotherapy is not the same as a late-stage diagnosis
• Don't keep postponing meaningful experiences: Dr. Erin's friendship and Costa Rica trip with Marty taught her to make plans while there's still time
• Women physicians can fall into the arrival fallacy, postponing the life they want until a calmer moment that may never come
• Change is possible, and getting support matters: find the community that believes in your goals and helps you create your desired outcomes

Resources Mentioned

• Chart Notes publication by the Marion-Polk County Medical Society (PAGE 14): https://www.mpmedsociety.org/resources/Documents/Q4%202024%20ChartNotes%20Web.pdf

“We have this appreciation for life, and tomorrow's not guaranteed. What am I going to do today, so that I can say when it's my time, I did live with no regrets.” - Dr. Erin Hurley

Connect With Us

Find every episode at https://www.createmeaninginmedicine.com

▶️ Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@createmeaninginmedicine

🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/create-meaning-in-medicine/id1752701820