MHM Magazine

against the cliffs of professionals who are competing with each other. What if we have learned to ignore what we all know deeply in our hearts — that loving care is the most fundamental healing power available to us? This is where the clinician in me is keen to claim the stage. He’s the one who’s proud of his ability to take a patient history, honed by 25 years’ experience. Stepping up to share his proficiency in strategic questioning, he suddenly realizes that he’s only actually learned one of two approaches: using the scientific skill of pattern recognition to meet the criteria of a case definition or diagnosis. A second, unexplored option tugs at the sleeve of his white coat: deep listening. When we’re able to show up empty and curious to learn from our patient, something profound often happens. This new way opens up a shared healing journey with the patient rather than a predetermined route march. It’s where as physicians we can set the tone and invite a fundamentally different therapeutic alliance with the patient sitting firmly in the driver’s seat. In this reality, patient centered care becomes a lived experience rather than just a slogan on the hospital doors. How can we make this shift? Step one is reconnecting with our deepest values. Nobody would seriously pursue a medical profession with all its hardship and sacrifice unless there were something profound driving them. Unless this motivation is a true calling to care for others, we are highly likely to end up disillusioned, frustrated, burned out, and possibly suicidal – as too many of us do. However, once we align with our calling to truly care for others, we connect with the infinite source of energy and healing. Do you remember your initial motivation to enter the profession? Perhaps you remember a patient whose story touched you deeply enough for your true purpose to shine. Caring enough about yourself to create a safe space to explore this step while being open to face some uncomfortable truths will pay dividends. Step two is turning on the light. This is what brings up the shadow, the unconscious parts in us — including saboteurs. I have highlighted some of my own personality parts above: the usual suspects who are in agreement with the current paradigm. There are plenty more, for example, the beggar who craves recognition, gratitude and applause; the perfectionist presenting as “I am not good enough” when I am walking down the neon-lit hospital corridor with its hard linoleum flooring and washable walls; the insecure student presenting as an arrogant academic. Do you care enough about yourself to lovingly integrate these shadow selves into your “inner consortium” of personality parts, even though it can be uncomfortable? This is where we can start re-activating the beginner’s mind and replace arrogance with humility. Step three is forgiving ourselves for being fallible. This is typically a no-go in an environment where making mistakes may have the consequence of killing someone or of being professionally discredited or prosecuted. It means allowing ourselves to be humans, too. If guided well, this is where we may appreciate that the healing process is far deeper than the material or molecular level. Do you care enough about yourself that you are willing to become fallible without losing personal sovereignty? This is where we start to see the world through the patients’ eyes and where we adopt authority in the healing process. It's another step on the path towards experiential knowledge of the true healing process. The final step is about giving ourselves permission to love. I am not just talking about love as a feeling. I am talking about our most ordinary natural state, a state that is so profoundly human that we can effortlessly connect with others. We can be in resonance with them so that they feel seen and cared for, which in turn allows them to relax into it. Once we have glimpsed and recognized this process, we can reconnect with our heart’s wisdom and appreciate that the idea of love being the result of speech and action is a fallacy just like post hoc ergo propter hoc. Love is our most fundamental state of being. It is who we are. Until a few hundred years ago scientists were busy analyzing the patterns of iron filings on a table’s surface, while unaware and unable to measure the underlying germinative field created by a magnet under the table. It sometimes helps to look deeper, to travel beyond the reference framework of the material and invite formless forces in. Scientific curiosity ultimately uncovered the phenomenon of the magnetic field. It is time for us to be scientifically curious about our natural state of love and its impact on healing. This is the change of paradigm that I would like to see manifest: an expanded understanding of health, personal sovereignty and compassionate love. Love as an underlying field we can relax into as we unlearn what is in the way and what drives the sense of separation that predisposes dis-ease. How might this change our own concept of what is the most important part of being a doctor? And how might this affect our patients and their healing process? If you’re curious to further this conversation, join me at www.heartbasedmedicine.org. About the Author: Dr. Jan Bonhoeffer is founder of Heart Based Medicine, a non-profit foundation that promotes and supports the wellbeing of health professionals with heart-centered training, tools and resources. He cares for patients and teaches pediatrics at the University Children’s Hospital in Basel, Switzerland. He has built and led large global research networks to improve child health, has published over 100 scientific papers and book chapters on infectious diseases and vaccines, and worked with the World Health Organization to shape global health programs. He is the author of the new book “Dare to Care — How to Survive and Thrive in Today’s Medical World. Learn more at heartbasedmedicine.org. Email: contact@heartbasedmedicine.org . Issue 5 | 2021 | MENTALHEALTHMATTERS | 7 MHM