preferably in this embodiment the washer support and flexing regions define a repetitive segment of the thrust washer 8 in the preferred embodiment the notches 12 have substantial bilateral symmetry unlike the bearings in commonly assigned u s pat no 6 460 635 titled u201c load responsive hydrodynamic bearing and contrary to conventional wisdom the bidirectional bearings of the present invention perform approximately as well in either direction of rotation as the optimized unidirectional bearings of commonly assigned u s pat no 6 460 635 do in their preferred direction of rotation in the embodiment shown in fig1 and 1 a 1 c the number of notches 12 in the thrust washer 8 will typically vary from a minimum of 2 to 10 for bearing assemblies that are employed in oilfield mud motor sealed bearing assemblies depending upon the thrust washer size thickness thrust washer material and required load capacity however there is no upper limit to the number of notches 12 that may be employed in larger size thrust washers 8 used in equipment other than mud motor sealed bearing assemblies as shown in fig1 c a lubricant 15 is provided to lubricate the bearing assembly 2 this lubricant may be a grease that is heavily loaded with solid lubricants.