Golden hands? Or Golden thoughts?
-Written by Dr. Geeta Sundar
Over a learning, advancing career of over 15 years, I’ve slowly come to appreciate that health is a reflection of energies and thoughts.
I joke and tell my consultant. “Sir, you have golden hands!”
He laughs at me. “No no.”
I shake my head, in all seriousness now. “It’s true. No matter what the complication, or the risks sir, the post op outcome is almost divine. I just don’t understand how! It must be you.” He brushes aside the compliment, but a warm glow fills his face as he looks at his palms and I know I’ve touched a raw nerve ending on his demeanor.
He is a man of good caliber, a neurosurgeon of expansive confidence. Fast learner. Evolving with the times, he is both curious and interested in understanding the changes that time brings with technology. I have assisted him in multiple surgeries and I’m witness to the various changes that we travel to on that surgical journey – right from incision, to progression to the next steps, to sometimes joy, sometimes worry, sometimes candor, anger, frustration, mistakes and fatigue.
But he sustains through it all. Patience and virtue. Stamina and endurance. Strength and positivity.
Yes, positivity. He is such a man. A man who only sees the positive for outcomes. He won’t dwell or think of the complications. He won’t forebode on the worst possible outcomes, or the worst case scenario. Even if I persist and ask him on how to prepare for those possible risks – he won’t comment extensively, and instead states that no matter the result, we are built to deal with the complications. And each time, each case, each surgery, despite the complications, the patients are happy and the outcome is good (even if it’s a subjective reference).
His hands are the reflections of his thoughts. He is a simple, non complex being who only focuses on the best choices for his patients. His thoughts even during the surgery, are all about the patient and positive outcomes. Optimism for him is not a way of life, it’s just his life. It’s been a real eye-opener for me to understand this essence and embrace positivity in this manner. I’m still learning and in no way am I even close to accomplishing what he has, but it has shown me that if I worry too much about the future complications staring at me from the scans, documented in the pages of literature references or textbooks, I’m putting my own thoughts in peril, doubting my confidence, and distinguishing myself to fail and face the risks I imagine. And what an idiot I’d be for doing so!
On the other hand, you can have the best interests at heart, you can study the best scans, do the best research, and be the best prepared for surgery, but if your thoughts come from a place of malice, hatred, anger, competition, greed, the thoughts manifest into outcomes as your hands carry the energies you possess into the patient’s brain or spine. And then, despite the best post-operative decompression or tumor resection on the scan, the best intra-op parameters the patient survived, somewhere, those planted energies deposited, create a lacunae of complications that manifest postoperatively, throwing into your face hazardous ways as you struggle to understand why the outcome is not backed up by the perioperative care. You will be left wondering what you did wrong and how to correct it, with absolutely no insight into the fallacy you harbor.
Overall, it just leads to testimony that thoughts are the powerhouse of every manifestation in this world. I wish I had learnt this sooner in my life, it would have saved so many outcomes. It’s a hard thing to embrace, and think only positively, but as ‘The Secret’ corroborates the same mantra, maybe there is real hidden happiness for everyone if only we can control our thoughts. Some do it with meditation, others with yoga, others religiously and some others have it easier as just a way of life, like breathing.
May your thoughts before golden. May your thoughts be happy. Especially when you associate with your patients, in a small task or a big one, I hope you are profoundly surrounded by happy energies and golden thoughts.
