The Power of Healing

As I wind down with my work at the Hospice, and slowly meander my way through the complexity of emotions that are arising within me, I am particularly touched by this essay by Balfour Mount, something of a mentor in the Hospice Palliative Care sector in Canada. He is Professor Emeritus of Oncology and Palliative Medicine at McGill University, and he submitted this essay for the "This I Believe" series at CBC.

To hear him speaking the essay with his own voice (very powerful especially given his current diagnosis of cancer in the esophagus), click
here .


The Power of Healing
by Dr. Balfour Mount

I believe in healing. I am not speaking of physical healing, a person can die healed: what I mean by “healing” is a shift away from anguish and suffering, toward an experience of integrity, wholeness and inner peace. The ultimate goal of healing is to enable us to be of greater service to others and to the global village of which we are temporary trustees.

My thoughts have been shaped by multiple personal brushes with death — a plane crash; three cancers and all that followed those diagnoses; a heart attack; the deaths of loved ones; my work as a cancer surgeon; the privilege of caring for the dying over the last three decades. Paradoxically, the message emerging from these experiences has been about living, not dying. The psyche, it would seem, has an intrinsic tendency toward healing.

I believe healing, like love, celebration, awe and ecstasy, happens in the present moment, free from ruminations about the past and fears for the future. It involves letting go, a leap of faith, “diving not drowning” as Carl Jung expressed it. ALS patient Phil Simmons called it “learning to fall.” We fall from head, to heart; from egoism and defense mechanisms, to forgiveness of ourselves and others. We may thus come to glimpse the staggering potential of our essential selves and experience an awareness of the healing connections that provide meaning, hope and a sense of an inner peace.

I believe healing connections happen at four levels: a sense of connection to self; connection to others; connection to the world perceived through our senses (as with music, or the grandeur of nature); and connection to ultimate meaning, however perceived (God, the More, the Cosmos). While my experience of the first of these — connection to self - is slowly unfolding, I have, throughout life, been enriched beyond measure through each of the other domains. In spite of this, I have too often felt trapped by circumstances — stuck with the ‘Why me?’ ‘Why now?’ ‘What if?’ questions of life.

I believe my challenge is to open to each moment with acceptance; to listen to my intuition; to develop self-reflective skills; to be more gentle with myself; to think small; to give up illusions of control.

I believe healing involves a process of opening, slowing, centering, trusting and accepting. This process leads us away from preoccupation with all that is been lost to a clearer recognition of the potential that remains.

Finally, I believe that I must take up the journey toward healing anew each day. The renowned Jewish scholar, Hillel, put it succinctly, “If I don’t do it, who will do it? If I don’t do it now, when will I do it?”

For This I Believe I’m Balfour Mount in Montreal.