The Heartful Mind: A Guide to Being Human

By Peter F Gordon, MD

“Love is the most powerful of all forces; it is the greatest addiction. It is our driving force and fills our souls. By following it, we may have found the seat of the soul.” This book comes from the personal experiences of Dr Gordon and his years of counseling. They are the topics and techniques that he has found to be helpful for any human being in overcoming personal life traumas as well as the daily problems we all have. This is knowledge for any age and is never too late to learn. Dr Gordon, a seventh generation physician, has tremendous insight into the psyche of patients. A major portion of his practice is counseling and he applies the findings he presents in his book with great outcomes for patients and their families. This book is the accumulation of many years of experience using techniques that have proven successful. It also contains forgotten knowledge and new discoveries. EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS BOOK.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 18, 2019
• ISBN: 9780359599110

Book preview

The Heartful Mind: A Guide to Being Human

THE HEARTFUL MIND:

A Guide to Being Human

By Peter F Gordon, MD

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to my mother, who taught me to write, to my father who introduced me to the world of medicine, to the many patients who taught me more than what I learned in medical school, to my brother who encouraged me to write this book, and Aunt Jolene who guided me along the way.

I also dedicate this book to my whole family who has always shown me love and support, sometimes in their own way, and to my children and grandchildren that they may live healthy lives in a better world.

Lastly, I dedicate the Spanish edition to my companion and friend, Paula, who has dedicated herself to being my life partner. I am eternally grateful.

AUTHOR’S PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

Shortly after finishing the first edition I began thinking about the title, how it was a negative concept. Actually, I chose it to reflect the current state of how the majority of we humans think, believe, and live. It was intended to reflect how much we are lacking heart in our lives and how much we focus on our brains. And I still believe it represents that well.

However, now that I have shared the book with patients, family and friends, I found myself hesitating when repeating the title, feeling the negativity I was giving to people. Finally, after doing this enough times, it occurred to me that instead of focusing on the negative state of human life, it would be better to promote the positive goal that I am trying to help people reach: having more heart in their lives.

Just as I recommend for patients, I used the exercise for self-programming (Positive Programming). I looked deeply at the title and its negative meaning, asked myself, Ok, so what is the opposite of a heartless mind?, and of course it became clear to me, A Heartful Mind. Hence, the new name of this book.

The rest of the book is pretty much the same with a few grammar checks. I expect that after more feedback from you the readers I will probably publish a third edition, but this is all for now.

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

Why am I writing this book?

I have always had a deep desire to help people. When I was a young boy, I remember looking for the best way to do this. One of my greatest influences was growing up in the world of medicine: my father, his brother and his father all were doctors and this gave me the opportunity to see firsthand the life of a physician. Often my brother, my sister and I would visit our father in his office, or we would go with him to the hospital when he made rounds on the patients.  I was very fortunate to accompany him and see so many people he had helped. It was after these rewarding experiences I decided I wanted to be a physician. (Later I found out I am a seventh generation physician, so it may have been genetics, too.)

Also, when I was young I loved putting puzzles together. I enjoyed exploring the different pieces, understanding each one with its different shape, borders, and colors. I would look to see how it fit with the others and the part it played in making the whole picture. I could sit for hours putting the pieces together, and then when the puzzle was complete I was ready to start a new one, a more challenging one. I later found that medicine was very much like putting together puzzles: a patient comes to you with many different pieces and you try to put them together to form a picture, a diagnosis. Once you have the complete picture, you can give them the right treatment to make them feel better. Of all the problems a patient can present, I believe working with the mind and counseling patients has been the most challenging, and those years of putting puzzles together has allowed me to help people put together the pieces of their lives.

As I worked towards becoming a physician, I found it was the direct contact with patients that I enjoyed most. I could see firsthand how I was helping them in so many different ways. I decided to study Family Medicine where I was always in touch with patients. A Family Physician is trained in all aspects of medicine, from surgery to psychiatry, and he or she is capable of providing over 90% of the needs of any patient. I liked this as well because I had enjoyed each specialty I spent time in and it was difficult to decide on practicing just one of them and not the rest. Now, years later even though I provide all aspects of Family Medicine, some of the patients only see me for a specific need. Some think I am a Pediatrician, or a Gynecologist, some a Surgeon or a Dermatologist, and frequently the patients believe I am a Psychiatrist or even a priest! A Family Physician can be all of these, maybe not the priest.

Apparently the patients enjoyed the direct contact too because they kept coming back. And they would open themselves up to me, even when I least expected it. Early on in my years of training, a patient would come in for a cough or a sore throat, and end up telling me all their personal and family problems. The first time this happened, I did not know what to do. I went to one of my advisors, explained the situation and he wisely told me, Sometimes all you have to do is listen. Well, I went back to the examination room and that is what I did. I noticed how the patient almost immediately felt better (so did I knowing what to do). And this started me on the road to counseling.

I quickly learned that counseling is a large part of being a physician. Eventually you end up counseling all the patients you see, whether on something as simple as how to prevent a cold or something as complex as overcoming a loss. Over time, I noticed that I reviewed with them many of the same topics, the ones I have put in this book. They seemed like very basic topics for being a human, but I realized we are never really told or taught these things along the way. It seems that some of us get to learn them, but most of us do not. Yet when people do learn them, they lead happier and healthier lives.

I have found these topics to be more important and more profound than many of the subjects we are taught in school. We may learn something in the classroom that we will use for a few years, but these are things that we use every