Five Life Lessons I Learned As A Doctor

By Jonathan S. Chu

I recently made the decision to step away from medicine in order to see much more of the world and to work on my creative passions, and also to deeply contemplate a new career path, and a new life path.

Stepping away and having some distance after many years has allowed me an opportunity to reflect on my years training to become a physician, and also my years practicing as an attending physician.

It gave me the time and space to reflect upon all that I had experienced, all that I had learned.

As any physician will attest, the medical field comes with many challenges and hardships, but it also came with a great deal of unique learning experiences, many of which went far beyond anatomy, physiology and pharmacology, and truly extended into life itself.

In many ways, I think the most rewarding aspect of working as a physician was developing close relationships with thousands of different people, all from different walks of life, all at different stages of life, all carrying their own burdens, all with a unique life story.

As a pain physician I spent much of my time with my patients teaching them about the spine and the musculoskeletal system.

However, in return, they also taught me a great deal.

While I taught them about health, they taught me about life.

And I’d like to share some of those valuable lessons with you.

Youth Is Precious And Temporary

Most people live as if they will never grow old or die. Most people do not realize that their youth and time are precious resources, far more valuable than money or any form of material wealth.

Most of my patients were in their later years, in their sixties, seventies and eighties. A lot of them remembered their younger years vividly, and would speak very fondly of those years. Many would comment upon how quickly those years had passed.

Even in my own experience, my twenties passed by like a heartbeat. In many ways it feels like only a short time ago that I was in college and medical school, and yet in reality it was more than ten years ago that I earned my medical degree. Five years of post-graduate training as a junior physician and then four years of practice as an attending physician went by like a snap of the fingers.

None of us will be young forever. Physical strength and energy are absolute gifts, and one day they will wane for all of us.

Now saying this, I don’t want you to be anxious about your use of time, which would completely defeat the purpose of this lesson. It doesn’t mean that you need to be “productive” with every minute, as is often stressed in modern western society. In fact, I believe this mentality can often lead to misuse of time and energy, and is antithetical to what I am trying to convey.

Truly valuable use of time is unique to every person. For example, if you are a nature lover, a quiet day spent hiking through the woods with your dog would be an extremely valuable way you could spend your time.

What I’m trying emphasize is the magnitude of the gifts that are youth, energy, and time.

If you are a young man or woman, I am absolutely earnest in saying that you are wealthier than even Warren Buffett. He may be worth a hundred billion dollars, but would you really trade places with him? You have the years ahead of you and the vitality to do anything you want...to take your life in any direction you please. This is true wealth.

Be mindful of this gift, and make sure that you spend as much of it as you can on things your soul really values, whether this be time with family, friends and loved ones, work you are passionate about and holds meaning to you, animals, sports, hobbies, reading, exploring nature, just to name a few things that come to mind.

Engaging in petty drama and gossip, online arguments on social media, working for years at a job you dread, are but a few examples of what are probably poor uses of your time and energy.

Only you know in your own heart what is most valuable to you in this world...and you don’t want to look back in old age regretting that you spent your most precious gift on things that didn’t really matter to you.

Health Is The Ultimate Investment

This ties in very closely with the prior lesson.

It is obvious that no matter how health conscious you are, you will not have the same level of physical strength, endurance in your eighties vs your twenties and thirties.

That being said, something you notice as a physician is the striking difference in the level of energy and function between people who have put in the effort to take care of their health versus those who haven’t.

Patients who made nutrition, exercise, mindset, and relationships a priority during their lives often retain remarkable vitality into their far later years.

Even if suffering from a bad flare up of back pain, these patients are good to go after a single epidural and back to living life.

Unfortunately I also had many patients who were much younger, as early as their thirties and forties, who had not invested in their health, who were far less functional than my best seventy years old patients. Even just by that age, many were unable to engage in any form of vigorous activity or even walk a very far distance.

Over time, you see very clearly that health is the highest form of wealth. A healthy body is what allows you to make the most of your experiences on this earth.

Our society often emphasizes investing for your golden years from a financial standpoint. This is clearly of great importance, but I would argue that investing in health is another priority, of even higher importance.

Just like money invested in quality assets compound over time and yields dividends, so does effort invested in health. You should take pride in every exercise session, every healthy meal, every meditation session, every full night of deep sleep, every happy moment shared with loved ones, as each one is a high yield investment in your future.

You will not be young forever. Your energy levels will one day decrease.

However, with prudent and regular investment into your health, you’d be absolutely amazed how long you can extend your vitality and quality of life.

No One Gets Through Life Unscathed

One of the hardest things about medicine, especially if you’re an empath, is that you’re surrounded constantly by many very sad stories.

In my own practice, a great number of my patients had very difficult, and sometimes even tragic lives.

I had one patient who was dying of alcoholism in her early forties. When I first met her, I will be completely honest, I was dreading how the visit might go as I reviewed her chart, because many patients with her history seek opioids and little else.

However, she actually turned out to be an exceptionally pleasant woman, and I was astounded by how she accepted her situation with peace and courage. I learned that she had been addicted to alcohol since she was just a young child, as her alcoholic father had begun giving her beer since she had been a toddler. Learning the details of her life made me see her in an entirely different way.

I had another patient with chronic pain in multiple areas throughout her body, and I had achieved some success through various modalities. It wasn’t until having seen her for more than three years, and having established a special and trusting relationship with her, that she revealed to me that many of her pain symptoms began after losing her daughter to cystic fibrosis.

These are just two of the countless heartbreaking stories I saw through the years. These stories taught me that almost everyone in life has either been through a terrible battle, or are currently fighting one.

Though I always have room for improvement, I try my absolute best to not judge anyone, because I realize that I often do not know what struggles and hardships they have been through in the past.

No one gets through this life unscathed. Some have been through more than others, but almost everyone has been through some kind of harrowing trials in life.

As such, I think it’s important to suspend judgements, to have compassion where possible, and realize that you really only see a small snapshot of most people you meet.

The Mind Has Profound Influence On The Body

A positive mindset does go a long way,

I have seen many examples of this firsthand. Take two patients with very similar profiles and suffering from the same pain condition, and more often than not, the patient with an optimistic and healthy mindset will recover far faster. I have seen this play out time and again.

It could just be that the positively-minded patients just took the physical therapy more seriously and additional other positive actions.

And this is no doubt a factor.

But I think that there is even more to it.

More research comes out every year on this profound mind-body connection. highly trained Buddhist monks are able to activate areas of the brain associated with peace and joy at will, as demonstrated and are also able to consciously influence metrics that are supposed to solely be under autonomic control, such as blood pressure and heart rate.

Though modern medicine is just starting to awaken to this, the mind-body connection is well recognized in most forms of traditional medicine, and it is something that I have witnessed first hand countless times, and it is an area that I have deep interest in. As such, I have learned a great deal from the work of pioneers such as dr. Bruce Lipton and Gregg Braden, who make very compelling arguments that much of physiology is actually downstream of consciousness.

As such, I would say that it is well worth it to take the effort to cultivate gratitude and a healthy mindset. From what I witnessed in my practice, taking the time to develop a healthier mind absolutely leads to a healthier body as well.

Gratitude For The Small Things

I had a delightful patient once, a brave woman who had survived and recovered from oral cancer. Though she had defeated the cancer, she was left with neuropathic pain in her jaw afterwards. I had maxed her out on every pharmacological measure that modern medicine had to offer, including gabapentin, Cymbalta, and both a short and long acting opioid. Still, she suffered from much pain every time she ate any food.

Reflecting upon this, it makes me think about how much we all take small things for granted. Just being able to enjoy a nice meal is truly a gift if you look at it from this lens. My experience taking care of her made me realize just how much I have to be grateful for in my own life.

So many of my older patients had much difficulty with just walking around the house due to their pain conditions. As such, just being able to enjoy a nice walk is truly a great gift, if you take a moment to think about it and appreciate it.

I've often lost sight of this, it’s quite easy for all of us to do.

But I ask you to take a moment to reflect on what I told you about my patients, and cultivate gratitude for the little gifts in your life. Despite what social media may tell you, you don't need to cruise around in an expensive sports car or party on a yacht to be happy. Something as simple as being able to take a walk with the sun on your face is truly a blessing in itself.

We Are More Than Just The Material - There Is A Spiritual Dimension To Life

Over the years I have seen patients show incredible strength and courage, especially when battling conditions like cancer, a strength and courage that defied all conventional logic. It made me realize that we human beings are so much more than just biological machines; in each of these patient cases, I could see that they were great and brave souls fighting for life. Whether they won or lost didn’t affect my respect for them, or the degree of inspiration they provided.

Modern medicine and science in general tends to focus solely upon the material and instantly dismisses anything beyond this scope. However, I think that this is a rather limited and hubristic perspective.

Over time, I have become absolutely convinced that human beings are complex systems composed of body, mind, and soul. I honestly find it rather sad that modern western medicine focuses almost entirely on the physical and very much neglects the other two critical aspects of every human being.

There is much that still exists beyond the understanding of modern science, and I think it is very important to consider that two of the greatest minds that ever lived, Sir Isaac Newton and Nikola Tesla both believed in a spiritual aspect of reality. Tesla specifically called these “non-physical” phenomena in his famous quote.

Delving further into this, I also noticed over the years that my patients who engaged in some type of spiritual practice or faith tended to do better and cope far better with their challenges. The type of religion did not seem to matter, I have had patients who were Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu. The thing that seemed to matter was that they had faith in something beyond this material world.

Reflecting upon this, it makes sense. From a material and bodily standpoint, sometimes you are doing well, and sometimes you aren’t. From a worldly standpoint, there are often large ups and downs. Thus, when a patient is going through serious health issues, it makes sense that a belief in something beyond the body, a higher power, and a higher purpose would be quite therapeutic and bring a tremendous sense of peace.

Now with that , I’m going to wrap up this particular video. Thank you so much for watching, hopefully you learned something from what I had to share. While I have learned a lot from my experiences so far in life, I don't have all the answers yet and I am learning more every day.

I myself have given a great deal of thought to the lessons I shared in this video, and I am trying my best to take my own advice and live in accordance with these lessons, though this has made my recent decisions seem somewhat dramatic to some outside observers.