Authour: Dr. Delphine Suyoung Jeong

Empathy is a Gift

Empathy by definition means

1. The capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing whether physically or emotionally
2. The capacity to place oneself in another’s position
3. The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

Empathy is a gift for all human beings and animals as it is the ability to feel and sense what the other being is feeling. The degree of empathy might vary depending on the sensitivity of an individual to other people’s energies. Empathy is what enables us to build that connection with one another. After all, what we all need is to feel heard and understood.

As dental professionals we are very fortunate to be able to utilize our skills and knowledge to help others heal and achieve optimal health. Being in healthcare field means that you are constantly caring for others. In order for you to care for them, you first listen. You listen to the problems your patients present with; these problems can come from many levels; physical, mental and/or emotional level. While listening, you empathize by putting yourself in their position to feel what it would be like to experience that problem. Once you empathize you then come up with a solution to alleviate their pain or to guide them in the right direction for their oral health. This is a beautiful process that we go through with each individual patient whether we are aware of it or not.

Empathic Distress Among Dentists

Empathic distress is a term to describe the great mental and/or emotional suffering such as extreme anxiety, sadness or pain due to feeling another person’s mental, emotional or physical experience.

We are all energy. Everything about this reality that we live in is energy in the most basic subatomic level according to quantum physics, chemistry and biology. Albert Einstein once said that “Everything is energy, and that is all there is to it.”

Our thoughts, our emotions and our physical body are all made of energy. Take a moment here, without this energy or electricity running through our body and our being, the neurons will not fire, the circulatory system, the digestive system, the endocrine system, all that we are will cease to exist. Scientists and researchers have succeeded in proving this energy that is emanated from our body by measuring electromagnetic waves and biophoton emissions. This field of energy that each and every one of us has is called the human energy field, human bio-field or commonly known as the aura. Imagine that your physical body is actually inside of this invisible bubble around you. Throughout the day when you interact with your patients and your staff, this field of energy between you and other individuals are constantly contacting and merging. This merging of energy field is what makes empathy possible. To put it simple, you are feeling their energy within your energy field.

Emotions in Dentistry

Dentistry or a dentist is commonly related to pain. As a dentist how many patients do you see a day that say the following phrases: “I’m afraid of needles,” “I am scared of coming to the dentist,” “I get anxious when I come here,” or “It’s nothing against you, but I hate coming to the dentist.”

The emotions these patients feel are: fear, anxiety, shame, worry and/or anger. As emotions are also energy, this is the energy that many of your patients carry within their energy field, and each time your energy fields merge, inevitably you would feel these emotions as your own, hence, empathy.

When we are feeling so much of other people’s heavy emotions on a consistent basis like we do in dentistry, we can often experience empathic distress. The following is the physiology behind empathic distress.

Due to the significantly decreased level of dopamine, some common symptoms of empathic distress include:

This chronic empathic distress can often lead to occupational burn out. After many years of practicing dentistry, you might feel so emotionally drained that you cannot seem to be your joyful and vibrant self that you used to be. High suicide rate and mental illnesses are often discussed within our profession, but not openly enough in my opinion.

Everything starts from awareness. Becoming aware that we are in fact bio-electro-magnetic beings and that we are influenced by these electromagnetic fields on a daily basis.

Daily rituals and routine to ground and protect your energy physically, mentally and emotionally, and to clear your energetic field are important to maintain your health and well-being. See table below for summary of holistic approach to help regain your vitality.

Remember that we cannot pour from an empty cup; we must clean our cup, fill our cup and pour from a full cup.

Ground & Protect your energy, and shine your true authenticity!

Chakra System

Many of you might already have heard of the word “Chakra.”

The Sanskrit word Chakra translates to wheel or disk, so it refers to wheels of energy throughout the body. In our body, there are 7 main Chakras or energy centers and these roughly correspond to the location of our endocrine glands and nerve bundles. In this article I will use the word energy centers.

The invisible energy, the vital life force runs through these energy centers and this is what keeps us alive, vibrant and healthy. You can think of this energy center as a controlling station for the nervous system and the endocrine system in a specific region of the body. When the vital life force flows openly between energy centers, our mind-body-spirit unit can function optimally. On the contrary, when the energy flow is blocked, physical and emotional symptoms can manifest.

In this article we will cover the three most affected energy centers in dentists.

Root chakra/ 1^st Energy Center

• This center often gets out of balance because as dentists, and especially for practice owners there are endless responsibilities, and items on your to-do list.

Concerns in the office doesn’t seem to end- worries about filling up the schedule, receiving payments from patients on time, the number of bills to pay, the pressure to not run late so as not to have the patients wait, etc etc. These concerns about the security of the office- financial and operational security is a very natural thing to come up as we are concerned not only for ourselves but others.

Heart chakra/ 4^th Energy Center

• As dentists we are in very close contact with patients all day long, we are particularly exposed to heavy, low vibrational emotions such as fear and anxiety, and this can have a huge impact on our energetic field.
• Depending on the individual, some of us might extend our compassion too much to the point our emotion is drained, and there is no love left for ourselves and our loved ones.
• Opposite applies when we are living in our head and shut down our ability to feel emotions. This will lead to lack of compassion for the patients and staff. Also, being in a small, confined space such as an operatory for an extended period of time can be isolating and cause our heart center to shut down.

Throat Chakra/ 5^th Energy Center

Being a dentist requires being selfless. We pay close attention to other people’s needs; how the patients are feeling each and every moment to ensure their comfort. We care for our staff, colleagues, friends and family, and looking out for those around us never ends. In the midst of tending to other people’s needs and taking care of others, we often forget to take care of ourselves. We suppress our own needs and not communicate what we need and how we truly feel. This can easily lead to blockage in the throat energy center.

Being a dentist is certainly not easy on physical, mental and emotional levels. Of many things we did not learn back in dental school, self-care is certainly a major one. We learned to take care of others, manage numerous other things that come along way, but the emphasis on self-care is often ignored because maybe we don’t have time for that or we are too busy. However, when we take care of ourselves first and keep our mind, body, and energetic field clear we are able to provide quality care that our patients and staff can naturally feel and appreciate.

The Human Body & Energy Medicine

Author: Dr. Delphine Suyoung Jeong

When I talk about energy medicine or energy healing, the question I often get with a great sense of skepticism is “Does it REALLY work? Is energy medicine scientific?”

I would like to take you through a brief history of medicine to help bring a grand perspective on the subject of energy healing.

Ancient Natural Medicine & Modern Science Medicine

Modern medicine, also known as Western medicine, emerged around the late 1800’s soon after the industrial revolution. The economic and industrial growth fueled novel discoveries in the functions of living organisms, and researchers established a logical system of discovery based on a series of theories, observation, and experiment through quantification. While there are multitude of positive benefits of modern medicine such as curing infection and advanced surgical techniques, this microscopic medical approach can lead to separation and division, viewing each body part and organ as a separate entity, rather than a living organism that functions as a unit.

What we refer to as natural, ancient or Eastern medicine such as acupuncture, energy medicine and homeopathy has existed since the beginning of humanity 30,000 years ago. Its approach is based on an understanding of a human being as one living organism that exists as a unit and as a part of greater nature. No single part is separate from the whole, everything is connected. It also recognizes not only a human’s physical aspect, but also other integral elements, such as the mind and the soul. It is a method that complements our true nature, without artificial and biochemical manipulation.

Energy Medicine

“Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it.” – Albert Einstein

Now this is where energy medicine (often known as reiki) becomes very scientific. Let’s refresh our memories from Chemistry and Biology 101.

In a human body, there are 100 trillion cells, and in one single cell, there are 100 trillion atoms. The constant flow of electrons creates energy, which sustains the atom, and thus the cells and the human body. This is Quantum physics.

Human Energy Field

Cell to cell communication is the basis of the physiological function of our body, and this communication is generated in the form of subtle energy. A collection of this subtle energy creates what’s called bio-field, or human energy field, commonly known as “aura.” This subtle energy is electromagnetic in nature. This action of subtle energy influences endocrine systems, immune function, tissue regeneration, and any regulatory mechanisms in mind-body function.

Energy Healing

Energy medicine is the use of these subtle energy fields to assess and treat energetic imbalances, bringing the body’s systems (psychological, neurological, cardiovascular, respiratory, endocrine, emotional etc) back to homeostasis.

Disturbances in these cellular energy patterns can lead to various diseases and aging processes. Stuck or unprocessed emotions, stress, unhealthy lifestyle, physical accidents etc. can cause disturbances in the energy field and alter the way our cells function. When cells are not functioning to its full capacity for an extended period of time is when we start to see symptoms in the physical body and the emotional body.

Therefore with energy medicine, aid in healing is achieved by bringing coherence. This harmonic energy allows the cells to wake up so they can function to their full capacity. I specifically say the word “aid” because complete healing may not be achieved with energy medicine alone, as there are many factors contributing to the disturbance of this energy flow as previously mentioned. A coherent energy pattern is essential in maintaining the health and wellness of the physical body, the mind, and the emotion.

Recognizing the function of the human energy field is the first step to understanding our human body as a whole, uniting the body, mind, and soul. Not just the physiology.

Modern scientific approach in medicine revolutionized the fields of infectious diseases and emergencies to help cure, and continue to improve the quality of our life.

However, modern medicine and pharmaceutics, an industry worth more than 1 trillion dollars, go hand in hand. With this fact in mind, I invite you to question why ancient healing methods, which are deeply rooted in the natural healing potential as human beings and what nature naturally provides, have been forgotten. Why are these methods being excluded from the system of health care despite its philosophy based on the depth of knowledge and science of the human body? According to the Oxford Dictionary, the definition of science is the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.

Integration of the East and the West, and the ancient and the modern is the secret to bring harmony in all that we are.

References:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6396053/