30-05-2025
Nourish and cultivate your best inner self — how social media, work/life balance or a career change can be impactful
Nourishing the inner self is about cultivating resilience, fostering positive connections and finding meaning and purpose in life.
Three local experts at Kaleida Health's Women's Wellness Summit on May 6 at Kleinhans Music Hall shared how this can be achieved.
Panelists were:
Dr. Ashley Bernotas, director of Obesity Medicine, Kaleida Health Weight Management Center
Thea Pecht, senior vice president, corporate communications, Upstate and Western New York Regions, M&T Bank
Kelli Putney, vice president, senior healthcare advisor, Martin Group
The conversation was moderated by Dunkirk native Cindy Miller, founder and CEO of Cindy Miller Golf and an inductee into the LPGA Professionals Hall of Fame.
The lively discussion centered on personal-brand building, time management, diet, fitness and mental health, many of the elements needed to help care for and develop your best self.
Manage your social media usage
The first topic covered was the ever-present social media and how it can be used effectively and without negatively impacting mental health.
Putney advised keeping social media interactions significant.
"While you can count the number of followers, you should have quality over quantity," she said. "You want people who interact with you and will comment and share. But you want that engagement to be meaningful, whether it's your personal brand or your professional brand."
Sending and receiving messages can interrupt a busy day, so learn about how to control the frequency of notifications, she said.
Most importantly, consider planned breaks from social media.
"Preserve time out of your day or your week where you are social media-free," she said. "Whether it's an hour or two a day or a whole day on the weekend, just unplug. That's another great way to preserve your mental health."
Strike a work/life balance
Sticking to mental health best practices involves balancing your home life while you're working remotely, a phenomenon that emerged from the pandemic. Optimizing and protecting your time is key to maintaining mental health, Pecht said.
She recommends one big meeting, instead of several small ones, that's run tightly. She suggests a meeting of 30 minutes. Delegating is another good strategy, though it might be difficult for type-A personalities. Additionally, delete unimportant tasks from the never-ending to-do list.
"I'm constantly evaluating where my time and energy are going. I'm always making sure I have that work/life balance as much as I can," Pecht said. "If there's something you don't want to do, if it doesn't make you happy, if you don't want to spend time with someone or take that meeting, don't do it. My main priorities are the health of my kids and having a happy home."
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Mark Mulville
Consider a career change
If your career isn't doing it for you anymore, don't settle. Make that change, Dr. Bernotas said. She speaks from experience.
Bernotas was early in her medical career, just three or four years out of residency, when she hit a wall. After working every single day during the pandemic, without taking time off, she suffered significant burnout. She actually considered leaving medicine behind.
"I didn't know how to set my boundaries. That was a big mistake," she said. "Only after my lowest of lows in my career did I reflect that I worked too hard to feel this poorly."
Maybe it was the breather of a short vacation that gave her a clear mind and an openness to new ideas that led her to hear about obesity medicine. Suddenly, passion ignited in her for this medical specialty that was new to her. Today, she is a dual board-certified physician specializing in family medicine and obesity medicine, serving in a leadership position at Buffalo General Medical Center/Gates Vascular Institute.
"I found I truly have a passion for it. I enjoy getting up and going to work every day. My daughter and my family are my priority, but my work is my other baby. I really enjoy it," she said.
What's unique about Bernotas' approach to medicine and her patients' struggles is her personal battle with weight loss. She, too, is impacted by society's ill-informed assumptions about lack of exercise and poor food choices.
"I feel I can relate to my patients. I often share some personal stories with them to let them know I'm living it alongside them," she said. "It's a disease that is mostly genetic and needs to be treated with medications, among other lifestyle modifications, just like any other disease and I think we need to destigmatize it."
Maintain your network
The panelists also had plenty to say about the importance of networking in developing your personal brand, attracting sponsors and opening career opportunities.
Putney recommended maintaining relationships, no matter how long ago they were forged. Stay connected. It is a key function of networking.
"You never know when you're going to need that person and when you're going to be able to help that person," Putney said.
She recently had an experience where a client, aware of a job opening with Putney, sent her a prospect who got the job and has become a valued employee. It cemented with her the power of networking, she said.
The online world offers prime networking opportunities but it's important to be authentic in cyberspace. It's a bit like online dating, she said. Don't show up and be a completely different person than what you presented online.
A personal brand or company brand is created, she said, not by what people see, but what they remember.
"It's not always just those tactical executions, it's the memory and the feelings people have about you," Putney said. "When they're discussing you for a position or a promotion, you want them to have a good memory of you."
