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Recovering the sacred is remembering something we've forgotten, something we may have hidden from ourselves. It is about uncovering and discovering the innate wholeness in ourselves and in the world. --Dr. Naomi Rachel Remen |
The Recovery of the Sacred
--by Rachel Naomi Remen, MD, syndicated from context.org, Mar 23, 2012
Rachel Naomi Remen, MD, is co-founder and medical director of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, founder of The Institute for the Study of Health and Illness (ISHI) at Commonweal, and Clinical Professor of Family and Community Medicine at UCSF School of Medicine. ISHI is a training institute for health professionals who wish to serve people with life threatening illness and take a more relationship-centered approach to the practice and teaching of medicine. The institute's approach is based upon experience with over 600 people with cancer who have participated in Commonweal's programs and on Dr. Remen's 20-year experience counselling people with cancer and those who love them. In 2016, the Institute became part of the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine and was renamed The Remen Institute for the Study of Health & Illness (RISHI).
In all that time, the Institute has provided education and support programs for health professionals who practice a medicine of service, human connection and compassionate healing. Dr. Remen's most well-known books include Kitchen Table Wisdom and My Grandfather's Blessing.
In addition to being a physician for 30 years, Dr Remen has been a patient of the medical system for 40 years. She has Crohn's disease and has had major surgery seven times.
"I suspect that the most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention. And especially if it's given from the heart. When people are talking, there's no need to do anything but receive them. Just take them in. Listen to what they're saying. Care about it. Most times caring about it is even more important than understanding it. Most of us don't value ourselves or our love enough to know this. It has taken me a long time to believe in the power of simply saying, "I'm so sorry," when someone is in pain. And meaning it."
The article below is an edited version of Dr. Remen's August 1993 keynote address to the 25th Convocation of The Association for Transpersonal Psychology: