Mindfulness Meditation (For Everyday Life)

word he used), and didn't make any attempt to
examine her real, in-the-flesh hip and leg or to even
acknowledge her complaint until she had insisted on
it several times. And then, it held little weight - the X-
ray was enough to convince him that she shouldn't be
having any pain - except she was.
Doctors can unknowingly hide behind their
handiwork, their instruments, medical tests, and
technical vocabulary. They may be reluctant to come
into too direct contact with the patient as a whole
person, an individual with unique thoughts and fears,
values, cares, and questions, spoken and unspoken.
They often doubt their own capacity to do this
because it is such uncharted and potentially
frightening territory. In part it may be that they are
unaccustomed to looking at their own thoughts and
fears, values, cares, and doubts so someone else's
can feel pretty intimidating. And it may be that they
don't feel they have time to open these potential
floodgates, or that they doubt they would know how
to respond adequately. But what is required most by
patients is simply listening, being present, taking the
person seriously, not just the disease.
To this end, we teach our medical students, among
other things, to ask the open-ended question, "Is
there anything else you would like to tell me?" at the