How Our Beliefs Shape Our Actions in the World
The other day a friend told me a peculiar phenomenon: take your birthyear (e.g., 1955=55) and add it to your age (you will be this year, eg. 56); they will always add up to 111. My friends tried it and it was true. I knew the math behind it was simple, but my friend’s interpretation was on a very different plane: “See how we are all interconnected — we are all 111.” She’s a very spiritual and beautiful person — fun-loving, an artist and world traveler, completely compassionate and...
Read MoreMake Mistakes: Life Has a Way of Righting Itself
Our three children are now in their 20s and exploring the diverse roads of life. By that I mean they are making decisions about whether to go to graduate school, what jobs to seek, and what career trajectories they might pursue. It is a time of decision-making, but unlike decisions of the past, these are made on their own — with requested parental input pondered, but decisions resting solely on their shoulders. And I see how such decisions weigh heavily upon them at times. Thinking back to my...
Read MoreChristmas: It Is Love, Actually
With the holidays approaching, many of us travel to be among our families, distant in physical proximity so often today. As we do, it may be worthwhile to ponder the foundation of family. A family is much like a building. A building of strength has a foundation strong enough to bear the challenges of life — defeat, disappointment, failure — yet a roof protective enough to contain us when success or individual gain fuels a sense of pride. The walls need be transparent enough that our inward...
Read MoreMind Body Medicine: Can What You Think and Feel Affect Your Physical Health?
How you think and feel emotionally can contribute to your physical health and well-being — it’s just that simple. The list of scientific studies demonstrating that point comes from diverse fields of study including medicine, neuroscience, immunology, genetics, psychiatry and psychology. Integrative medicine is fast becoming the examplar of approaches to healthcare based on the importance of treating the whole person — taking into account body and mind — in health promotion, disease...
Read MoreWhy Well-Being Is Not the Absence of Suffering
In “The Road Less Traveled,” M. Scott Peck wrote, “Life is difficult.” Whether you are rich or poor, old or young, male or female, religious or atheist, employed or unemployed, or a politician, doctor, lawyer, teacher, parent, son, daughter, sister or brother, we all face difficulties in life. I once thought that understanding the genetic basis of disease would remove pain and suffering in the world. As I moved through my career, mapping genes for psychiatric disorders, I began to...
Read More