I came across an article written by a surgeon recently published in the New York Times. It urged doctors to practice medicine and mindfulness so as to improve the very vital relationship between patients and doctors and the doctor's own well-being.
The article cited a recent study:
"...The Journal of the American Medical Association published the results of a study examining the effects of a yearlong course for primary-care physicians on mindfulness -- the ability to be present in the moment, purposefully and without judgment, in just the way my former mentor often described his experiences in the operating room.
Seventy physicians enrolled and participated in the four components of the course: meditation, writing sessions, discussions and lectures on topics like self-care, managing conflict and setting boundaries.
The results were remarkable. The doctors became more mindful, less burned out and less emotionally exhausted; several of the improvements persisted after the course ended. And those changes correlated with a significant increase in empathy and other attributes that contribute to patient-centered care."
One solution of dealing with risings demands on doctors, according to the article author Dr. Pauline W. Chen, may be is to train them to think about their work in a different way because it is far less likely to change those external demands.
What a striking message for all of us meditation practitioners! A bit more mindfulness, in the sense of looking inward and change your view of the matter at hand instead of try to change the matter per se, is the beginning of liberation. In the end, it is the liberation.
