Trust me…I’m a Scientist

Prefer to listen to this blog? Follow me on Spotify or follow me on YouTube. 

While there are many Western interpretations of ancient Vedic texts, the theory of the seven major chakras (Sanskrit for “wheel”) with countless minor chakras is currently the most widely accepted. Over decades, our Western world went on to attach endocrine glands, emotional states, musical notes, colors, etc. to each major chakra. These new interpretations were not written in the ancient texts, yet, it provides a lovely roadmap in understanding our subtle body as it relates to our physical body and our environment. 

Some of you may already know and understand the chakra system, but for those of you who don’t, I ask you to hang in there with me while we explore this theory as it relates to compassion fatigue, if only as a metaphor for you. So let’s start by understanding the subtle body. This is how energy moves within and around the body. The Chinese named meridians as paths that energy travels along, the Ayurvedics named chakras as energy centers receiving, interpreting and storing information, and scientists recently have acknowledged the presence of electromagnetic fields surrounding the body, our biofields. Further, where do we store our memories, our emotions, our intuition, or purpose, and our love? To simplify the subtle body, we can say it consists of the chakras, meridians and the biofield of living beings. It is how energy moves throughout and around the body and where our consciousness resides. While neuroscientists claim the cortex holds consciousness, there is no proof of this and leads scientists feeling frustrated for lack of understanding. 

The seven major chakras are root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, brow and crown. The root chakra, located at the base of the spine is the lowest vibrational chakra matching the frequency of the earth. Its color is red and its emotional states are safety and security, our most fundamental need. Moving up to a higher vibrational frequency is the sacral chakra, located at the level of the sacrum, and responsible for emotions and pleasure. Its color is orange. Continuing up is the third chakra or solar plexus chakra located near the navel. This chakra is associated with yellow and holds our ego, our sense of self. 

The fourth chakra, or heart chakra, is located in the center of the chest and is associated with the color emerald green. The lower three chakras keep us grounded in the physical world and the fourth chakra bridges our lower chakras with the upper three, connecting us to the universe. The emotional states of this chakra are love and compassion so it’s befitting for a compassion fatigue program that we spend a great deal of time understanding this powerful chakra. In 1906, Willem Einthoven was the first to detect the electrical impulses measured from the strongest field in our body, the heart, and recorded the first EKG. As scientists we know that where there is electricity, there is magnetism. But it wasn’t until 2004 that scientists were able to measure the heart’s magnetic field several feet away from our body. 

In 2005, Dr. Rollin McCraty of the HeartMath Institute, published groundbreaking studies that showed the magnetic field produced by the heart instantaneously travels throughout the body and is detectable by other persons within a range of communication. The waves travel like radio waves. He went on to publish that heart fields of two persons can lock or become synchronized up to 5 feet away. In other words, we truly make a heart to heart connection with others. So what does this mean? How does this information offer any hope for healing compassion fatigue? 

I propose that Trisha Dowling in the Canadian Veterinary Journal was actually on to something. If compassion, which normally resides in the heart chakra, stays there, it flows effortlessly and continuously. It does not fatigue. It actually rejuvenates you and energizes you. It’s when it slips down into the second chakra, the emotional seat of the sacrum, that compassion reverts to empathy and we take on the emotions of client after client. We feel pain for our pet patients and slowly over time, it becomes unbearable. Empathy resides in the second chakra. When we operate from compassion, we bring the empathy up into the heart chakra and we take action to relieve suffering and feel those amazing benefits. But it takes work to keep what we do heart centered. 

While this may sound like word games or splitting hairs, the importance is that we are identifying the cause of fatigue. We are giving it a location in the body and we are now able to use that knowledge to change how we practice medicine. We can use the power of intention in a very intentional way. 

Walk with me into an exam room. You spend the first ten minutes collecting information about your patient. We walk in with our heart wide open as most veterinarians and staff do (unless fatigue is settling in), then we quickly make a heart to heart connection with the client and the pet. When the heart to heart connection is made, the client relaxes, the pet relaxes, and we can gain far more information. Most vets and techs do this without even knowing they are doing it. When we are great at it, the client will “pour their hearts out” and give us massive amounts of information perhaps relating to their own health and circumstances. 

Now we are expected to go to the next room and make a new connection, gather more information and on and on throughout the day. Remember my first tip in TVCFP was to acknowledge that we are actually human and susceptible to compassion fatigue. So here is my second tip. Close the exam room door behind you and take 5 seconds to create a gesture to physically and mentally release from that client. Check in to make sure that you are not carrying those emotions on to the next client. You are setting an intention for the compassion to stay in the fourth chakra where it should and you are energetically releasing from the client and the pet. No matter how difficult that room was, it is not yours to carry. 

This simple act is granting yourself permission to release. It doesn’t mean we don’t love our clients and our patients. In fact, just the opposite. Making a heart to heart connection with a client and patient is one of my most treasured moments as a veterinarian. It was the release that I didn’t understand. I felt I owed it to them to carry it with me. I was a better doctor and a better human because I carried it. What complete and utter nonsense. Even your client who spent an hour confiding in you would agree. Release. 

Setting this intention over and over retrains your brain. It will not happen in one day or one month. It takes time and a combination of many tactics and lifestyle changes to solve the complex issue of compassion fatigue. But the journey is worth it. 

Follow me on YouTube @TVCFP and Facebook and let’s keep this critical conversation going. 

With love and hope, 

Dr. Erin Holder