On keeping focus in difficult times

The past few weeks have been difficult times for physicians. Congress has failed in a promise to correct a methodology called SGR that results in an effective 21.2% cut in revenues to physicians.

Some physicians frankly, no longer trust Medicare, and wish to leave the system, or retire altogether.

How does one deal with this? How does one care for others - when one feels under attack and lacking security oneself?

Reiki has been a help to me in these times. I start with Reiki for myself each day, and a part of this is avoiding worry, avoiding anger, and being grateful.

Whatever I am paid, I have felt for many years that it is an honor simply to be entrusted with the care of people who are near the end of life. I see that my patients are facing problems far more challenging than the one's I face, and I am surrounded by volunteers, who are working for no salary at all - just as someone wrote me today "the opportunity to give back."

Nurses and aides work very hard, and are never thanked enough. I have felt the need to keep working hard, thankful to have the energy and opportunities I have been gifted with.

The Dalai Lama writes, "After all, what is the meaning of our life? In itself, there is no intrinsic meaning. However, if we use life in a positive way, then even the days and the months and the aeons can become meaningful."

Hospice workers make their lives meaningful by gifting compassion to other people every day they work. Volunteers in Hospice (including Reiki volunteers) do this without pay.

I came to visit a patient earlier this week. She is in the late stages of her struggle against cancer. Never married, her work has been her life. I walked into her house and knew immediately that she had been a teacher. "What grade did you teach I asked" (perhaps taking a chance).

"High school" she said. She taught math, and beyond that helped young people at a critical transition point in their lives. She shared some vignettes. "Once a teacher always a teacher." Now, near the end of life, teaching whoever happened to come nearby, even her hospice doctor.

Mrs. Takata taught us that Reiki is simple, "Hands on hands off" and "Reiki on Reiki off." Sometimes it can be even more simply than that. Near the end of life, finding a place of equanimity or peace, what we sometimes call Upekkha, can help with a critical transition from this state of being to another. We can do Reiki sometimes without a full Reiki treatment, or worrying about where the hands should be. Simple touch, one hand just touching another, and compassionate presence can bring so much. We are not trying to create attachments at this time, we are trying to release them, yet we want "no patient to die alone."

Another family I visited was terrified with the rapid decline of their loved one. They didn't know what to do. I suggested that they simply touch her hand, and let her know with or without words that they loved her. They told me, "it really helped, when we just touched her hands and she knew we were there, she was calmer and in less pain."

All of this month, I have focused especially on the five principles of Reiki- not to worry, not to be angry, to be grateful for the wonderful opportunities which I have had, to focus on working hard, and to give as much compassion as I could to those around me. I haven't had time to add up the "wins" or "losses."

The Dalai Lama talks about a sense of "which carries a responsibility so that you are willing to take upon yourself the task of helping others."

In fact, the basic premises of Christianity and Islam and Judaism and Buddhism all contain similar precepts. The mission in Hospice embodies the central tenets of all our major religions, it is at the place that they share in common. "when death finally comes," the Dalai Lama adds, " then your practice truly gives you some kind of inner gaurantee. After all, death is a part of life; there is nothing strange about it; sooner or later we all have to pass through that gate. At that time, whether or not there is a life after, it is very valuable to have a peace of mind."

And so all month, very important solemn promises have been kept by health care workers and volunteers all over America. Care and compassion have gone on. The real heroes continue to "give back" every day.