Gentleness in Surgery

by Eunice J Minford MA FRCS Ed

One of the first teachings I received as a trainee surgeon many years ago, was to be gentle with the tissues when operating. As a medical student and junior doctor, I would hear bosses advise the more senior trainees to ‘be gentle’ or sometimes hear them being chastised for being too rough. It is well-recognised within surgery, that gentle handling of the tissues is important in the overall success of the operation and in minimising post-operative complications. It is one of the fundamental teachings in surgery.

It may just seem like ‘common sense’ to be gentle and have respect for the tissues and to minimise trauma in surgery but this is also supported by science with a reduction in the inflammatory response. So there is scientific support to show that being gentle and minimising tissue trauma is beneficial for the patient. But why should this gentleness be restricted to surgical operations?? If it is necessary to be gentle with a body when it is on the operating table, surely it would also make sense that we should be gentle with it off the operating table?? It’s unlikely that the beneficial effects of being gentle with the body are just confined to the time that body is undergoing an operation. It doesn’t make sense to think that it’s ok to be rough and aggressive with the body in one’s daily life and only when it’s having an operation does the surgeon need to be gentle with it. If gentleness is beneficial on the table, it is surely also beneficial off the table, as we go about our daily lives.

Of course, I had never quite thought of it like that until I came to Universal Medicine and the presentations of Serge Benhayon and learned about the importance of being gentle with ourselves and our bodies from an energetic perspective. This was a whole new area to me and one that I would have previously dismissed and derided. However, I have come to know and realise for myself the importance of being gentle in my daily life. Indeed, it is fair to say that even though I endeavoured to  handle tissues gently in surgery, outside of the operating theatre, I wasn’t very gentle with myself. I could be quite hard, tough, aggressive even – at times bull-dozing my way through life. Frustration and anger bubbled away, all too ready to be expressed.  I lived a hard lifestyle of long hours at work and at play. There was very little in the way of gentleness, tenderness or true care for myself.

Thanks to Serge Benhayon and  Universal Medicine, I now realise the importance of being gentle, tender and caring for myself – but not just for myself but for those around me as well.  I now realise, that how I live every day comes with me to the operating table. And so, even though I thought I was being gentle with the tissues inside the operating room, I was bringing into that the hardness, the frustration, the anger etc  that I was also carrying. I now know that we are not isolated beings, but energetic beings, where we are all interconnected. So my state of being, my quality of being influences those around me, whether they are on an operating table or not. I now realise that we cannot compartmentalise sections of our life and do what I used to do – endeavour to be gentle with the tissues in the operating room but have no gentleness for myself outside of it. For in order to be truly gentle in the operating room, I need to be truly gentle outside of it as well, in how I live my  life on a daily basis.

This applies to all areas of life…..nothing and nowhere is left out. It means being gentle in all activities, all expressions, talking, walking, exercise, making love, even something as simple as closing a door or brushing one’s teeth. The more we build that gentleness in our daily activities, the more it is just our natural way of being, we don’t have to try to be gentle – we just are. In Serge Benhayon I have witnessed what it means to be truly gentle, truly tender and caring with one’s self and the way that he lives his life in this way is truly inspiring.

So although I understood it was important to be gentle with the tissues in an operating theatre, it wasn’t until I came to Universal Medicine that I learned the importance of being gentle in all areas of my life and how that impacted not just myself, but all those around me. Through Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine I gained a deeper understanding of why gentleness is important and how it helps to re-connect us back to our true state of being, which is love and stillness. For me, this continues to be a work in progress within what can be the stressful reality of the operating theatre. However, I am now much more aware of the things that ‘press my buttons’ or take me out of that gentle way of being and thus can take steps to come back to it more quickly.

How amazing would it be if this was part of medical training? To understand that in any interaction or operation we bring to the table, or the consultation, all that we live. To understand that we cannot just put on a white coat and think that will cover up any bits of ourselves or our behaviour we are perhaps less than happy with or which our patients would be less than happy with.  From an energetic perspective there is no cover up, there is no hiding place – we bring all that we live to all that we do.