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Written by Ami Levin MD
Doctoring and burning are connected. Most doctor, young and old, had much energy and enthusiasm to complete their schooling and residency. They had that fire in them. The fire of excitement to assume a holy mission of healing individual people and healing society. They felt spiritual energy “I can do it”, “I can help this next person”, “I can make an influence on the world”.
Today some doctors are questioning their feelings! What happened to that fire during the years? Burn out means exhaustion from work, disappointment from the workload and difficult relationships with patients and their Families. Burn- in means excitement for the field of medicine and finding enthusiasm to continue and to provide care for more people. What is the deeper connection between doctoring and burning?
A person with a disease (a patient) is searching for an alleviation of painful symptoms and for a cure. He goes to a physician to find relief and guidance. At first it seems that the patient is looking for information, how do I heal myself? which medicine is good for me? or which medical procedure is necessary? The patient is searching for information and experience that he doesn’t have. Since a physician has experience and knowledge, he turns to him. At a second look, research tells us that there is more than simple information that the patient is looking for! Patient is looking for relationship, for trust and for confidence in the doctor. Patient knows that most diseases are chronic doesn’t just come and go. The patient wants a long-term relationship, and a long-term responsibility from the physicians towards them. Let’s look deeper into this, so a patient is not just looking for a pill to fix his ailment. The patient knows that one pill doesn’t works for all people. The patient is coming with the expectation that the doctor pay close attention to him. For example, one of the questions, as a physician, I always pay attention to - is when the patient asks me “how are you?” I know that the way I answer the question will set the tone for the future. When I answer how really I am, and I expose a personal story about myself or my family then it allows the patient to open up his personal life. If, however I say oh “I’m doing fine what makes you come here today?” the patient knows that I’m in a rush and I’m looking for a quick fix. When the patient is looking for a quick fix so then maybe it’s a good match but if the person is not looking for that and looking for a long-term care relationship then this is not the correct way to answer the question.
The physical interaction is the physical exam, the eye contact, the touching with the hands and the prescription of the medications. The spiritual interaction is the feeling of confidence, of trust, having eye contact that express the feelings of caring for one another. The doctor needs to create an environment where the patient cares about what the doctor says. The patient wants to feel that the medical opinion is tailored to him and that he is not just part of a flow chart that fits into questions and answers. I define such relationship as “holy”. The word holy means spiritual energy in the air, divine intervention in the healing process, and feelings “we can manage this disease together”.
People realize that a human being includes physical matter, and emotional and spiritual aspects. When the doctor and patient meet there is holiness within this relationship. Such holiness within the relationship creates a platform for healing. Is it possible for the patient and doctor to make the relationship more holy? And if it is more holy is there any medical benefit in that? Does holiness bring better healing? This obviously will need research and exploration.
The hypotheses I have are
“The more holy the doctor is, and the more holy the patient is, the more holy will be the relationship and the more successful will be the medical treatment”
“When physician combine spirituality to the treatment plan it will increase enthusiasm and positive energy – Burn-In – and prevents burnout. In other words, physical healing can lead to burnout, spiritual healing should lead to burn in.”
Competition doesn’t spare the medical fields, and physicians also aspire for improvement in their knowledge, in their expertise with procedures, and in their experience with many different people with different diseases. What can be the methods of improving the physician’s success in the medical treatment. How can a physician modify his “mission” to be a more successful doctor? i.e., a better healer?
Each person will come out with some answer to this question, I will offer an answer through my learning of Chassidus.
The world is created with four elements fire, wind, water, and earth. Fire is the one that represents spirituality and Godliness. The verse in the Bible that describes it is “the Lord your God is a consuming fire” (Deuteronomy 4, 24). One reason why fire represents spirituality is because fire always moves upward. From whatever it holding the flames always try to climb higher and higher. This is in contrast to water that flows down, earth that goes down and wind which goes in all directions. For example, when wood is burning you can see how the fire consumes the wood.
The stronger the consumption of the wood, the less likely that the wood will “survive” the flames, the stronger is the fire. Such wood turns naturally into ashes. (I.e., The stronger the light that emanates from the wood, the more intensify is the consumption of the wood.)
When we take the analogy that fire is compared to spirituality and to G-d, than the conclusion is that the stronger the fire the stronger is the G-dly revelation. Since G-d is “the Healer of all flesh Who does wonders” the stronger the revelation the greater the Healing that comes from Him. Let’s use again the term holy where “for G-d to be present in this physical world, to shine and to be obvious to people”, the fire must consume the object. The fire is holiness, and the object is a person, a physician.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe in a letter writes that “the more humble and self-nullified the physician is, the more successful will be his medical treatments”.
This statement - really requires no explanations.
To the extent that I am allowed to give my opinion I translate it as follows: the more holy, nullified, humble the phsyciain is and the more he/she identify themselves with G-d, the stronger will be G-d's light that is shining through them. Since G-d is the true Healer, the more present He is the more successful the medical treatment is. To put this in other words the physician who is involved in helping people and in-his mind his only objective is to help the person, to heal the person, and to bring the person closer to G-d, the more success will be his medical treatment. The reason for having a more successful medical treatment is that the true healer is God and the more humble the doctor-is the stronger the G-dly light, the stronger the G-dly light the more G-d is present in this world and the more healing is going to come to the person.
So how does a doctor acquire humility and holiness and enhances one’s connection to G-d? the answer is by learning Chassidus.
Since G-d and holiness is infinite there is always more room to learn and to understand. The more we understand holiness the more we automatically feel small and humble in comparison to Him. This cycle continues for our lives, we do more good deeds which give strength to endure. This is the meaning of burn in – to continue the holy mission of healing people - by having the frame of mind that G-d is the Healer, and to increase in acts of goodness and kindness to maintains the fire going.
Practically, some people don’t view themselves as “being consumed by fire” and being so holy all day long. Therefore, I would likely compare such a person to a candle rather than to a consumed block of wood.
If you place a candle next to a torch the flame of the candle will tilt towards the torch even to the extent that the candle will completely consumed by the larger fire. The candle also needs the oil, the wax, to continue burning. The spirituality of flame is that it doesn’t diminish in strength if it is used to light another candle. Unlike a cup of water, that you share some of it, the quantity of water in the original cup will diminish. The little flame of the candle will stay the same even if it used to light one hundred other candles. This is the spirituality of it. Every doctor is like a candle, the flame is the holiness, the wick is their medical knowledge, and the wax is the good deeds with love and kindness. As we add wax the candle will shine, as we help people our holiness continues and gives us strength to do our holy mission of healing one another.