THIS JUST IN…Due to an unprecedented number of nurses who have learned to meditate, the state of our healthcare system has been dramatically changed and the woes of healthcare have been healed!!

Does that headline seem impossible or improbable at best? Then read on…

If meditation can heal your mind, can it also heal the state of healthcare?

I’ve never been known to think small, so my ideas about how meditation can help to bring change to the world of healthcare aren’t small either. But what about this title, “Meditation Heals Healthcare’s Woes!,” is it possible? If you can learn to stabilize your mind, and heal its negative habits, can you take that healing into the workplace? Let’s see…

Can meditation heal the woes of the world?

In a previous post, Can Meditation Change the World?, we discussed how by changing how you work with your mind, you can change the world. Learning how to meditate helps you to change how you respond to others, and by doing this, you can change slowly make changes in the world by affecting those closest to you.

Also, in the ebook, Can Meditation Change the Way that You View Your World?, I discussed how changing your perceptions through the practice of meditation can help you to slowly change how you experience your world.

I suppose that it’s a big stretch to go from the personal transformation of your mind to global change like healing the woes of the world. And considering how much difficulty some people have even learning to meditate, it might seem a bit improbable to think that by meditating we can heal the woes of healthcare. Okay, so I admit…it’s a huge jump! Here’s the idea….

Meditation helps you to stabilize your mind.

One of the main benefits of meditation is that through consistent practice, you begin to stabilize your mind. What this means is that your mind will gradually become less distracted and that your habit of altering your mind with thoughts about the past or the future will gradually make way to awareness of the present. That’s why you meditate, right?

If meditation can help you to stabilize your mind and bring you more awareness of the present moment, then that means that your mind will be more facile, more malleable, and more able to problem-solve not just in your personal life but in your workplace as well, right? So, is it a big jump to assume that by meditating you’ll actually be able to change your workplace by being more present-minded and more capable of creatively solving workplace challenges?

Meditation helps to foster compassion.

This blog has covered the topic of how meditation can foster compassion, including the research that’s shown that meditation can literally change the way that information is processed in the brain. Is it a huge jump to assume that if you can change how your brain works, and actually become more compassionate, that you can also take that ability and become more compassionate in your workplace?

What you’ll notice is that as you begin to stabilize your meditation practice, you’ll slowly come to realize that all of the judgments that you hold about yourself and your ability (or lack of ability) to meditate will be replaced by a sense of compassion and patience for yourself.

As this compassion for yourself grows, you may also notice that your tolerance for others grows as well. When you think about it, don’t your faults and bad habits come from the same place that my faults and bad habits come from, an untrained mind?

Compassion helps to change the woes of healthcare.

If you can become more compassionate with yourself and with your patients, then you can be more compassionate with those who you work with, those who make your work-schedule, even with those who decide whether you get a raise or not.

Think about it, real compassion isn’t bounded by those we feel affection for or to those who serve our personal needs. Real compassion is about recognizing that everyone, even your boss, wants to have happiness and its causes and be free from suffering and its causes. So, if meditation helps you to be more compassionate, and real compassion is felt for everyone regardless of their relationship to you, then that means that you’ll approach the problematic hospital administrator with the same compassion and respect as you would the patient who you’re caring for.

Tough to do? Sure, but as a “by product” of your meditation practice, it can actually help you to positively impact your workplace.

Where do you start to change healthcare?

I really don’t like slogans or cliches, but this one seems to fit here: Think Globally, Act Locally. And the most local point of change is within your mind, you can’t get more local than that! Change begins at home…another slogan! But you get the point, right? If you begin to find the change within, then making change in your life, whether your home life or work life, can be done with a presence of mind cultivated by meditation.

Am I saying that if we all just learn to meditate, then healthcare will magically change because our minds have changed? No, there’s no magic here. Just like learning to meditate isn’t about magically sitting down one moment and standing up the next moment free from distraction. It takes time. But – and this is where my “big vision” comes in – if enough of us learn to work with our minds, and then apply those skills to our workplace, it could be the beginning of the change that healthcare, or any workplace, so desperately needs. It could indeed heal the woes of healthcare.

So, how do you start?

If you don’t already have a meditation practice, begin now. If you do, keep up the good work. If you need to know how to get started, there’s so much content on this site to introduce you to meditation if you’re a beginner and to support you if you’ve already got a practice. Use it. And if you need to know more or if something’s missing, let me know. That’s why I’m here, to support you – in whatever ways possible – in your meditation practice.

This site has tons of tools for learning how to meditate and be compassionate.

I encourage you to look through the HUNDREDS of articles that I’ve written and especially check out my weekly meditation tips and other useful meditation materials provided for your health and well being. Please let me know if you’d like to discuss anything with me, have any questions or need clarification regarding anything that I’ve written about.

Other Great Meditation Resources and Information:

For More Information on How to Meditate

Please view the Related Stuff below for help getting started in your meditation practice! Also don’t forget to download my free e-book, Can Meditation Change the Way that You View Your World? and download the free e-book, How to Work with the Four Distractions to Meditation and get started learning how to deal with some of the major obstacles in meditation.

As always, please feel free to share your comments on meditation and contact me if you’d like to see additional content or other topics for discussion on this site.

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