How a Sense of Purpose Can Boost Healing and Longevity

Experience shows that people who live significantly longer than predicted by medical prognosis often have a strong sense of belief and a purpose worth living for. There's no doubt that faith, and a meaningful reason to fight for life, greatly improves a patient's emotional state, which, as we've seen, has a major impact on physical health.

It has also been proven that when medical teams involve patients in even minor decision-making, their life expectancy improves noticeably. These aren't necessarily life-changing decisions, but even simple questions such as: "What would you like to drink?" "When would be convenient for you to receive treatment?" or "Which newspaper would you like to read?" can make a big difference.

The very act of allowing the patient to make choices about their own life gives them a sense of control and autonomy which fosters a feeling of meaning, strengthens the patient’s emotional resilience, and in turn, contributes directly to physical improvement.

Of course, when medical staff ignore the patient’s wishes, it increases their sense of helplessness, leading to despair, loss of meaning, and ultimately, worse outcomes.

Patients with serious illnesses who receive professional emotional support enjoy significantly higher recovery rates and longer life expectancy.

Naturally, creating a sense of meaning doesn’t need to come only from daily decision-making, but it can and should come from helping the patient find meaningful content in their life.

For example, it’s important for the patient to understand what’s happening to them and to take an active role in decisions about their treatment. It’s also important, where possible, that they maintain some sort of daily routine or engage in activities that give them purpose beyond the basic struggle for survival. They might also reflect on the deeper lessons of their experience by asking themselves what would make them feel proud of who they are, even with limited capabilities.

The goal of the patient should not only be to get through the day, but to fill that day with meaningful and value-driven activity, that cultivates self-respect and inner strength.

Don’t Focus on the Future

When patients are faced with a bleak prognosis, it’s best to minimize excessive thoughts about the future and focus instead on positive thoughts about the present. While considering the future has a healthy aspect as it helps us plan wisely, when anxiety takes over the patient’s thoughts, it ceases to be helpful.

For similar reasons, it's important to avoid excessive guilt as individuals who fall seriously ill often blame their condition on past actions. Indeed, self-reflection and repentance are important values, especially for someone who may soon need to give an account for their actions. In fact, according to Rambam in Hilchot Ta’anit 1:1–3, it’s forbidden to attribute suffering to random chance and one must see these events as divine signals calling for repentance.

And yet, if a person becomes consumed by self-blame and refuses to forgive themselves for past mistakes, it drains their energy and may reduce their chances of recovery.

The purpose of cheshbon hanefesh (soul-accounting) is not to torment oneself over the unchangeable past, but to uplift, to give hope, and to remind the person that they can change. When a person doesn’t understand where they’ve gone wrong, they can’t fix it, and they’re left with a painful sense of regret. When they do become aware of their mistakes, they can move into the stage of repair, which is empowering rather than depressing.

At times however, it’s better to focus only on the short term and ignore the past altogether.

As Rabbi Gedaliah Eisman explained in his interpretation of the verse in Tehillim (36:7), “Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains; Your judgments are like the great deep; man and animal You save, Hashem.” The Talmud (Chullin 5b) interprets “animal” as a humble person- one who lacks excessive “knowledge.” After the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, this refers to those who don't overly rely on their own power and intellect. Hashem saves both the person with foresight and the one who lives simply in the moment.

Rabbi Gedaliah explained: “Adam” (human) means one who uses intellect to anticipate the future and correct the past. But sometimes, the future and past are so dark that a person simply can’t cope with them. In such cases, it’s better to adopt the mindset of a “behema” (animal)- living in the moment with simple humility. In that humility, Hashem brings salvation.

This also applies to the past. While cheshbon hanefesh is important, when the past is simply too painful to face, sometimes the wisest move is to set it aside for later. In that case, a person earns merit specifically by choosing not to look backward, but instead focusing on the present, doing their best to rise, so that they will eventually reach a place of strength and healing, and be able to revisit the past from a place of courage.

We may not have answers to all of life’s struggles but the Creator does. In humility and in simplicity, without over-analysis, even the "animal" will be saved by Hashem.