Eye to eye with your clinician

When it comes to eye contact, research shows  that human infants as young as seven months old can unconsciously detect emotion and gaze-cues which are vital signals for human communication and empathy.  When you can look someone in the eye, you see their humanity.  When we dismiss eye-to-eye contact, such as during cancer treatments, the more we de-humanize each other. Because we are all human, it is vital to have close contact with other humans for support, encouragement, compassion, and bonding.  When looking eye to eye, we are telling each other that we are important, we matter, and we make a difference. 

When sitting upright, not only is eye-to-eye contact important, it can reduce negative thoughts.  In a research study lead by Dr. Erik Peper at San Francisco State University, results showed that

“individuals who adopted an upright bodily position, took a breath, and then reframed their negative thoughts, were significantly more successful in reducing their anxiety compared to individuals who reframed their negative thoughts without adopting an upright bodily posture.”

20 years ago, psychologist Arthur Aron discovered that 4 minutes of looking into each other's eyes can bring people closer. Using this discovery, Amnesty International decided to carry out a simple experiment, during which refugees and Europeans sat opposite each other and looked into each other's eyes. The participants were ordinary people. The situations were not staged; they wanted to get natural, spontaneous reactions. The people sitting opposite each other had not known each other before and saw each other for the first time during the experiment. Most importantly, most of the refugees came from Syria and had not been living in Europe for longer than a year.

It is important to empower individuals to be an active and positive participant in their own cancer treatments.  Being upright during cancer treatments can, according to Dr. Peper’s study, can actually hamper and impede negative feelings of defeat and hopelessness, bringing more power to patients, and hope for their future.