Are you doing some meditation?

I was just preparing for a tear trough filler injection with Restylane today, called TearFill. I had already scrubbed and put my gloves on. I had my operating hat on, and surgical clothes and I was sitting on the operating chair at the back of the little theatre at Clinica London when the nurse brought the patient in for her tear trough treatment. The first thing she said is “oh! Are you doing some meditation?” because I was sitting very still and calmly, my hands together just looking straight ahead with the back straight and up against the back of the operating chair. And until that moment it had not occurred to me that indeed that is what I was doing. I was taking advantage of having a few quiet minutes in the operating theatre before the minor procedure.
There is a ritual involved with any procedure, especially around the eyes, which involves having a calm environment in which to operate with good light, symmetrical operating table with a room, a comfortable operating chair, a helpful nurse and trolley already prepared. The mere washing of the hands before putting on the gloves forms part of this ritual as that obliges one to stand still and quietly and methodically wash the hands, between the fingers, the thumbs and each side of the hands in the proper way that we are taught to for any operation or procedure such as fillers or even Botox.
After one has either gowned up or gloved up or both, sitting quietly on a chair, just breathing evenly and slowly helps prepare me for the procedure I am going to do on the patient’s eyelid. It also gives an aura of calmness to the patient when they come in so that they can see that their surgeon is sitting still and calm. There is usually some quiet music playing in the background, more often classical than European or British pop music, but sometimes some lovely lyrical Spanish songs which add to the atmosphere of calm and safety for the patient.
Meditation is just a state of emptying the mind and quietly focusing or floating or concentrating on one thing. In meditation, I believe concentration can be a word or a mantra or an object such as a flower, but in surgery, the concentration is on the job one is about to do so; that it is done carefully, thoughtfully and gently. In this case, I was doing quiet meditation before doing the treatment of dark hollows below the eyes with hyaluronic acid gel.
For RearFill I use a cannula via a single pin point sized entry port, and the patient does not feel any discomfort. The effect is immediate. There may be some mild swelling and occasionally a small bruise, but the treatment is mostly non-invasive. To give a delicate, beautiful effect from Restylane, it helps me to have had a few minutes quiet before so that I am super calm and hence helpful the patient feel calm and relaxed too.