As a care giver and a wellness provider I spend the majority of my working hours interacting with patients in some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives. My job is to make these moments as safe, informative and useful for my patients as I possibly can. My intentional connection with each patient is what makes a critical portion of the magic that holistic healing requires. The empowerment that can be unlocked with the simplest of gestures is truly priceless.
I see and hear you; you feel seen and heard; trust is built; we look for the next steps on your healing journey together.
I have gotten so used to both providing and teaching intuitive care that I was unprepared for my own recent experience of being the patient in a medical setting. Please do not think that this blog is about disparaging my fellow health care providers, especially in the middle of a pandemic. It is not. This blog is about how I was reminded of the power that we ALL hold to heal when we respect and protect our fellow human beings in their most vulnerable moments.
Briefly, my experience was that I, as a whole person (with a schedule, a family, a history, and some pressing questions about an upcoming procedure) was not generously addressed in the time allotted with my specialist. I know this was not her ideal for care giving either; the larger machine of medicine and our societal moment dictated our abrupt and fairly impersonal encounter. This all made me profoundly uneasy, and more than a little frustrated. It also made me sad for those with less experience in medical settings than myself, and with even less access.
So, I want to say to you who are my patients, or might become my patients: I get it. How I enter a room where you are waiting with your worries, your discomfort and your vulnerability matters. From a routine facial to an appointment to discuss your pregnancy or chronic pain; the way I enter and hold a healing space for you MATTERS. Your experience of dignity in my space factors into your wellness outcome.
Listen, beautiful people: all of us are a little weary these days. It has been a long year. We are coming up on the one year anniversary of when many of us went into lockdown; one year since we all began to lose the life we thought was a little more solid than it turned out to be. We have all learned so much about vulnerability; to nature, to social unrest, to one another, and to the uncertainties as well as the joys of being alive. Embracing that vulnerability has made us all even more beautiful, and more than a little threadbare. That is ok.
Now more than ever, we need to make a space for grace. Make it in your own heart, in your body and mind, in your home, and at work. Our encounters now are more raw and real than perhaps ever in our lifetimes. Honor that opportunity. Pour loving kindness into those interactions. Receive grace where you find it and celebrate that gift! The magic that we make when we see each other, hear each other and care about each other is healing and transformative. The systems we operate within can be cold, transactional and impersonal, but we can choose not to be. I promise that I will keep creating a daily space for grace as my own personal act of loving rebellion.
You are all welcome there.
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