Spiritual journey and medical schools

Sharing from my inbox:

"Hope you can write something about spiritual journey or how your current life would be beneficial to your next life?"

Every so often I am asked to write about a specific topic, either by friends or sometimes even strangers. 

Someone suggested a motivational/inspirational talk or seminar as a significant percentage of students had failed a recent exam.

To be frank, I was mortified with the percentage of student failure but I was also informed that it was 'normal'. 

In comparison with where I studied medicine, the rate of failure in exams was significantly higher. 

After a while, I began to accept that such rates were in fact 'normal'.

Before I started work at this public institution, I was introduced almost by accident to an author of a parenting book, Dr Rozieta Shaary, and I found out that she would run such talks and seminars. I contacted her and she agreed to help as part of her company's CSR.

The day arrived.

I was sitting in the audience of about 200 or so medical students with another lecturer who was more senior, a Professor who was also very much into the welfare and well-being of junior medical students.

The first thing that Dr Rozieta talked about was 'what we are made off'. I'm pretty sure I've read about this in books prior to that day, but her explanation of the matter really stuck in my mind.

She had several multi-coloured, thicker than usual markers, and started drawing large oval shaped figures on the paper flip-board, in an onion layer like pattern.

The first layer was the physical part, she explained. It's what people see, and the physical part requires food, water, air etc. Within the body, there is the...I'm not sure which came first, but there is the mind and the heart, or the psyche and the emotional part of us. If I'm not mistaken, while it really should be the mind that controls the heart and the body, for a lot of people, its actually the heart that takes precedence.

Humans are creatures of emotion. And the truth is, without it, it would be extremely difficult to perform simple things like making decisions. Read 'emotional intelligence' by Daniel Goleman to understand better. A good example is the stock market.

Last but not least, there in lies the human spirit. It is the part of us that is the most invincible and yet also the most elusive. Behind every significant achievement, for every obstacle and challenge overcome, for every miracle, within it lies the person/s ability to tap into this power, and the good news is, it is available to everyone.

That was the first time I became truly aware of that part of a person that supposedly existed somewhere beneath the other layers. And I am very attracted to stories of how other people were able to triumph against the odds, their tales become a source of inspiration.

How this relates to and benefits one's "next life" of depends on one's faith of what the next life consists of, so I will leave that part to each readers own interpretation.