When we envision a doctor or a healer, we see a kind and compassionate person who cares deeply for our wellbeing. We assume that the ability to extend that care carries its own rewards, enabling the healer to have a happy and fulfilling career. Unfortunately, the ability to nurture love and compassion in ourselves is not taught in medical school and is not (yet) a consideration at healthcare facilities. All too often, the stress of a career in medicine overshadows these qualities of the heart, depleting the healer and withholding an essential aspect of care from the patient. Strengthening the qualities of love and compassion in healthcare and healing supports nurses, doctors, other healers, and their patients.

A path to healing with love and compassion

When we choose medicine as a career, no matter if it’s in the human or veterinary field, we envision ourselves as healers. We are guided by our hearts to a profession that promises to teach us to heal the sick and lessen their suffering. In that choice, our hearts are wide open. We desire to share our love with those less fortunate. We desire to hold out a helping hand and uplift, comfort, and soothe. This goal is reflected in the Hippocratic oath we take, and we take it gladly: “At all times to bear in mind the best for those entrusted to our care, and to never inflict more suffering.”

The healing professions are noble. They expect each of us who take that path to shoulder the responsibility for our patients’ wellbeing, and in return, they promise a life lived in service, fueled by love and compassion, and respected by our fellow humans (and animals).

Love and compassion are healing qualities

Having your practice of medicine or healing be ruled by love and compassion, however, is no mean feat. We enter medical school with high hopes and a heart full of love. And while love and compassion are essential ingredients to being a successful healer with a long and satisfying career, chances are you did not get taught how to sustain them. Chances are, through no fault of anyone, they were barely mentioned in your schooling at all. Far from feeding your innermost spiritual and ethereal qualities, you were taught the physical aspects of healing on a schedule that allowed little nurturing of yourself.

This of course did not change when you started work. And so over time, the physical aspects of healing can take precedent over being connected to your patients in a loving and compassionate relationship. The qualities of your heart – love, compassion, and empathy are neglected, causing pain at best, and are not nurtured so that they can continue to feed you, and your patients. Money and time off work are expected to recharge the healer, and any deep connection and love the doctor feels becomes disconnected from their work. It is not surprising then that many people in medicine feel overwhelmed, overburdened, burned out, and wanting to quit. The noble profession of healing has become a pit of suffering.

What then is the path forward?

Holistic healing has been a buzzword for the last few decades. Holistic means incorporating the whole of the patient – his body, mind, heart, and spirit. It is the deep connection with our patients that truly fuels our healing practice – its reputation amongst our patients, and our resilience.

Having this deep connection doesn’t mean you have to be a doctor in a small village, knowing each patient over their entire life span. It only means that you meet each patient with an open heart, and allow yourself to give what they need – time, love, and medicine in equal amounts. In that opening of your heart, your patients will respond in kind and feel healed and eased by your presence alone. In their gratitude, they open their hearts to you, and your love is replenished. It is that easy, and any doctor, veterinarian, healer, or caregiver in any healing profession can testify to the power and beauty of that simple exchange. Yet, we neglect it, because we allow ourselves to be bound by time and the demands of the physical world, and we neglect to grow our hearts and spirit.

Growing the qualities of heart and spirit

Looking back over your day as a doctor, or a nurse, or a vet, how well have you loved your patients today? In the same vein, how well have you loved your staff and colleagues? Knowing that loving others feeds you, how is it that you’d ever neglect this quality in yourself? I’m sure that establishing those deep connections is already an important part of your practice, and I also know that feeling stressed, tense, and overworked gets in the way of its expression.

What is keeping us from experiencing perfect love and compassion every day is a mind steeped in the physical world. In the belief that time is limited and tasks accomplished are paramount to success and satisfaction, we choose to give them priority. We focus our attention on learning skills that can be seen and applied in the physical world. The limitations of time rule us and we simply don’t give as much attention to sustaining and strengthening those other skills. We are not taught their essential nature. We are not taught how to live holistically, and as a result, we don’t practice holistic healing as well as we could. Lacking access to the qualities and strengths of heart and spirit to feed us, we burn out.

Accessing love and compassion

Love and compassion are overshadowed by the belief that something else is more important right at that moment. In the practices of presence and mindfulness, we begin to see that every moment is sacred as it is, and in accepting it, it opens a doorway to perfect love. Any moment of perfect presence is free from stress and strain. Committing to growing present moment awareness strengthens the qualities of your heart and spirit.

Suffering in any form is created by the attachment of the mind to perfection in the physical world. You can know this attachment to perfection in yourself if you catch yourself complaining about what is happening in your day (out loud or internally). The result of the desire to have things go your way when they don’t is stress and tension. As long as you look to the physical world for your solace and happiness, you are caught in a cycle of suffering. Understanding this is paramount to growing beyond the suffering of everyday existence. Growing beyond it is the task of any human who strives for true happiness and satisfaction within their lives. Maturity is no longer defined by age and experience, but by an ability to connect deeply with the self and with all aspects of the world.

Meeting each patient with love and compassion

Meeting each patient with love and compassion is a practice that, if correctly understood, nourishes the healer and the patient in equal amounts. Opening your heart to the love and the pain of perfect loving is your one sure way to prevent burnout and to be deeply satisfied with yourself and your career. There are many ways to grow your spiritual and heart qualities. What is needed is a commitment to one of them. You commit because you understand its benefits to you.

How do I strengthening love and compassion in my life?

There are hundreds of meditations and spiritual teachings out there. Pick one and stick with it until it taught you all it could then move on to the next one.

If you don’t know how or where to start looking, check out The Leaders Work Tools.

• Inquiry helps you understand the suffering you create through attachment and allows it to let go of you. You grow in self-knowledge, open-mindedness, and the ability to extend love and compassion.
• Meditation and present moment awareness strengthen your focus, your efficiency, your heart, and your spirit.
• Yoga, if practiced correctly, is a practice of mindful awareness of body and breath, the breath linking physical and spiritual levels of consciousness.
• The Leaders Work Blog offers lots of instructions and helpful articles like this one: How to strengthen empathy and compassion in times of crisis

If you want to take the first step to incorporate the above practices into your life, book a Complimentary Stress-Free Excellence in Medicine Strategy Session now.

Remember your Hippocratic oath. Strengthen your whole being, so that you may be able to serve your whole patients as well.