This Friday, Omaha native Anna Kolbeck will take the stage with her College of Medicine classmates to discover where she has matched and will spend her residency.
She’ll take the steps up onto the stage without any problem or pain.
That wasn’t always a given. In 2007, Kolbeck, a competitive dressage rider, took a fall from her horse. The result — a fractured vertebrae — gave her a glimpse into the medical profession that she really didn’t want. It also led her to yoga, a practice that eased her pain, calmed her mind and later helped her handle the stress of medical school.
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“It was about two years after my accident when I first went to a yoga class — to be honest, before that class, I had no interest in trying it,” she said.
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Anna Kolbeck, who will match on Friday with her College of Medicine classmates, turned to yoga after a horseback riding injury. |
“A lot of the poses in yoga are helpful for back strengthening and back flexibility,” she said.
Kolbeck said yoga helped her through the first two years of medical school.
“They were the hardest for me,” she said. “I would go to a yoga class the night before a test if I could — I thought it was more helpful than studying, sometimes.”
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Anna Kolbeck |
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Kolbeck grew to enjoy yoga so much that in 2011, she became a certified yoga instructor, although teaching added more responsibilities to the medical student’s load.
“At first, it was stressful,” Kolbeck said. “But the more I taught, the more I enjoyed it. And I wanted to teach, to get that practical experience so I could use it later as a physician.”
For Kolbeck, the injury and the treatment — including yoga — will make her a better rural, family medicine physician when she begins practicing following her residency.
“I think being a patient is really important for physicians, just to be able to empathize with patients,” she said. “And while the yoga helps me personally cope with the stresses of being a physician, I also would like to incorporate it into my own practice.”
Of course, sometimes yoga isn’t needed. On Monday, Kolbeck was one of the students who found out she had matched.
“I think that’s going to be a stress reducer for everyone,” she said.
Anna, I am also a certified yoga instructor (RYT-500), and find that teaching yoga helps me experience its benefits that much more, including the stress that comes with juggling the responsibilities of being a busy adult and public health student. I love reading inspirational stories like yours and appreciate your perspective as a physician and patient who understands the benefits of yoga!