Anna Manayan

Persistence, looking for answers when I hit a ceiling. Be willing to travel anywhere to learn more, find answers to perplexing questions. Following one's heart and soul over money to find how you can best serve others. In my worst of times, patient acknowledgement and feedback on how I helped them kept me going. Acknowledging that just because you can doesn't meant you should. That means letting go of trying to help someone not ready for help, honor their journey, plant seeds of knowledge where you can and let it go and move on. Believe that Spirit will lead those to you who need you.

My dad was a teacher so his advice was to always be a student and always look for answers, and to ask the questions outside of the institution. Be a student, pursue questions even after degrees. Be willing to learn new things you never embraced in school. Observe, take notes, reflect, and improve on what is working. Remember, the degree and the certification is just the ticket, the gate opens and you are off. It's what you do to develop your skills, answer perplexing problems in your field, and contribute new insights that make you highly effective in your field. My dad said so to me when I entered law school, don't worry about the 100,000 attorneys already practicing in California, you do you and you do your best and the road will unfold for you. He was right. I never felt like I was competing with anyone else in any of my professions. I felt like I was on a journey to find my niche, my contribution and that happens when you find questions to keep your mind and soul seeking. That is your compass to making a difference in people's lives.

Stand your ground, be confident, be who you are and know what you know. Don't let someone undermine your confidence. In med school and law I faced condescension. I was asked by the Head of the Pathology department why I'm not going into nursing instead of pursuing a research degree in Pathology. As a litigation attorney i was called honey by male attorneys, Senior Partners in my firm and male judges in court. But like water off a duck's back, I saw it for what it was, intimidation tactics used by those who felt threatened by passion, energy and drive. So stand your ground and be confident in what you know. Continue to apply it and and fallen trees in your path will move.

The biggest challenge is accepting every person where they are at, as they may not be ready to engage in a holistic approach or hear about their body's problems. Understand that each person has free will to ignore truth and engage in bad habits detrimental to their health. Discerning if someone has the mindset to hear you applies not just to your career, your customer but to your friends and family.

Communication is everything. It's not enough to be excellent at your craft; you need to communicate with empathy and education. I want my patients to know how they got that way and what they can do to change it. I want to empower patients to make better choices through knowledge. So taking the time to educate my patients is crucial and is the reason I had to begin the Health Academy. Health care should be more than sick care. Treating conditions should be more than resignation to medication that suppresses symptoms. A diagnosis should not be tattooed to a patient's forehead with the expectation that they are powerless to change it and have to depend on drugs for life to manage it. The inner workings of a condition/disease should not be secret knowledge held privileged by doctors alone but shared in insightful ways that illuminate how the condition develops and what they can do to assist in their healing. Giving hope to patients by reminding them that the body always seeks to heal is strong truth and a compass for them to navigate their darkest hours.