In the medical community, the concept of spiritual practice is gaining increasing prominence, especially in preparation for surgical procedures. Mental practice is a mental process that simulates an action through imagination, which has a positive impact that cannot be ignored on the performance of doctors during surgery. This kind of practice can not only help doctors improve their skills and reduce the tension during surgery, but also promote the smooth progress of surgery.
Mental practice can be defined as a dynamic state in which an individual mentally simulates a physical movement. This unique experience means that the participant feels like they are performing the action, which is known as internal imagery (or first-person perspective), often referred to in sports psychology.
When surgeons and other medical practitioners practice mental exercises before performing actual surgeries, research shows that it not only improves their performance but also produces remarkably consistent results. In fact, through mental exercises, doctors can explore the process and technical details of the surgery without actual operations, greatly reducing the risk of errors during actual operations.
Psychic exercises can reduce doctors' anxiety before actual surgery and help improve the overall surgical effect.
There are many ways to implement spiritual exercises. Doctors often perform "visualization" exercises, imagining every step of the operation, including the instruments used and every detail of the operation. Not only does this help strengthen their memory, it also promotes the development of various neural pathways, similar to the effects of actual surgery. This means that mental rehearsal before surgery can promote neuronal growth and mentally prepare doctors to face the actual challenge.
Some studies show that mental exercises provide results that are comparable to actual physical rehearsals and even more cost-effective in many cases. This means that mental exercises can not only improve the professionalism of surgeons, but also help them cope with stress more effectively during operations, speed up the decision-making process, and thereby improve surgical results.
Research shows that doctors can effectively reduce surgical anxiety and improve the success rate of surgery by mentally rehearsing before surgery.
The benefits of spiritual practice are not limited to surgical procedures. In fact, this technology also plays an important role in the music and sports worlds. In music, professional musicians often use mental exercises to maintain and improve their playing skills when physical practice is not possible. In sports, athletes use mental simulation to improve competitive performance. This method has proven its effectiveness for both novices and professional athletes.
Neuroimaging studies show that mental exercises are linked to specific neural circuits in the brain that are involved in the early stages of motor control. These physiological data strongly support common neural mechanisms between mental practice and motor preparation. Mood imagination not only promotes the activity of neural circuits, but also interacts with physiological indicators such as heart rate and breathing, showing that even in mental simulations, the body will respond accordingly.
With the widespread application of spiritual exercises in surgical medicine, more research and application experiments related to them may appear in the future. Mental exercises have the potential to become an important part of medical education and surgical training, helping doctors to acquire more professional skills invisibly. The medical community may consider how to further integrate this effective and easy-to-learn method into daily medical training to improve the professional standards of the medical industry.
So where else can spiritual practice be influential?