Your casino

One of the physician’s assistants at work was sharing with me the overall sense of frustration she was feeling because of the stress of the emergency department (ED) and questioned whether or not she was suited for its hectic pace. I could have offered some soothing reassurance that it was just a passing phase that would soon pass, but I recognized that she was touching on something much deeper. Perhaps without realizing it, she was reaching out for help at a much deeper, subconscious level. As often is the case, there are several conversations taking place simultaneously at various energetic levels. At the most superficial, there are words with their intended meanings being shared. At deeper levels, there is an energetic exchange rich in depth and meaning that words only shadow. This type of communication requires the recognition and acknowledgement that it exists and then the desire to expand one’s bandwidth capacity to receive and send messages at this level. We certainly acknowledge that we humans hear within a certain decibel range whereas animals have a much broader range of perception. Likewise, we must agree that we can only see within a certain bandwidth of colours. Why then would we question that our experience can also be limited to a certain bandwidth that perhaps can be increased? I wanted to give her a hug, which I truly believed would have transmitted everything that I subsequently conveyed, but wasn’t sure that she had the bandwidth capacity to receive such a communication, and second, without that bandwidth, such a gesture could have been misinterpreted. I chose to offer her the words. I asked her to look closely at all our colleagues and study them. I suggested that it didn’t take much to see that they, for the most part, were miserable in their work lives, and most likely at home as well. It brought to mind what Henry David Thoreau shared in “Walden Pond”: “Men lead lives of quiet desperation.” To avoid that feeling of frustration, at least in the emergency department (ED), I shared an idea that I learned from Tony Robbins, the neurolinguistic programming guru. He pointed out (note that I’m paraphrasing what I recall of what he said!) that life is very much like a casino, and casinos by definition are designed so that house always wins. So the question is, do you go into to life as the gambler who will inevitably lose, or as the owner of the casino? Tony Robbins asked that we write on one side of a piece of paper all the things we hated about something and on the other side, what we loved. There are many perceived frustrations in any ED (or any other workplace or life circumstance): the patient’s present with non-emergent complaints; equipment is lacking; so and so isn’t doing their job; patient’s, doctors, nurses, “fill in the blank” don’t respect me, etcetera. The list goes on and on. When asked what brings them joy and fulfilment in the ED, most can only list a handful at most. Tony Robbins offered that since the hate side far exceeded the list of what we enjoyed or brought us fulfilment, we are consequently designing our own casino so that the gambler always wins. What is required is a change in perspective. What I call getting cookies, which simply means finding something that makes you happy about a particular circumstance. For instance, I derive tremendous pleasure in the simple things while working and acknowledge them. I get a cookie every time: I make someone smile in the ED; every time I pay a compliment for

kindness or a simple task someone performed; a patient tells me how nice I was; I did something well. So what’s on my shit list: Nothing! Absolutely nothing bothers me in the ED because it’s all expected. I expect it to be busy, for the patients to be angry about waiting either 3 hours to be seen or 5 minutes, for some patients to be ungrateful despite my best effort, someone to be lazy and not do their job, or something not to work properly or efficiently. When you know that it’s Winter does it upset you or surprise you when it’s cold or it snows? I hope not because you expected it and were prepared by wearing a warm coat. Similarly, I know what’s coming and it’s all part of the game, so why be upset. I live by the adage: “Don’t sweat the small stuff…and by the way, it’s all small stuff!” It’s all about perspective! I’ve learned over the years to remain silent (and many, especially my children, would say here: “And thank God!”). Everyone has their game to play. Moreover, if one has the bandwidth to perceive this, there is no “you” playing this game. It’s all Consciousness/God playing the roles of all of us for its own amusement. We’re just reading our lines. So from that perspective, how can one possibly be upset when it’s all just a play of Lila, a Divine Comedy; and if so, recognizing that this too is just one of your lines. Haha!!! Think about this my dear friends! But I digress. I have learned to simply remain silent, but occasionally it is in my lines to say something and it often surprises me when it resonates with the person listening. Beleza! Beleza! Beleza!

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The author was born in Haiti and has lived in New York City for the past 54 years. He is a practicing emergency physician who has dedicated his life to the healing arts and the exploration of Consciousness and creativity.

He self-published his second novel "Love in the Time of Coronavirus: 20/20 in 2020" on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09BZLVKP4).

He & his wife are presently on a world-travel adventure that he is writing about in his blog "Travels with Ale." For exciting & thought-provoking content, & to be part of the adventure, follow him here, on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/richardlanoix/) & Facebook (@RichardLanoixAuthor· Author). His other blog posts related to Consciousness can be found at medium.com/lanoixvisions.