This post is
dedicated to my good friend and colleague Michelle.
I drink the
expensive wine now, says
Dr. Susan Love, the well known surgeon and cancer researcher, after being
treated for leukemia. Besides being a nationally recognized breast cancer
researcher, Dr. Love, wrote the book “Live a Little!: Breaking the Rules Won’t Break Your Health .
In
discussing her book, co authored with Alice Domar, a Harvard Professor and
senior staff psychologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Love notes “Is the goal to live forever? I would
contend it’s not. It’s really to live as long as you can with the best quality
of life you can. “ Her
recommendation Relax, take a breather, and give up trying to follow the
narrowly prescribed health “rules” that are constant sources of unhealthy
stress and guilt. The key to being in good
health in the absence of good data is to use your common sense, eat good food,
move your body regularly, laugh, and love!
While
Love wrote this book before her diagnosis, her message remains consistent. …none
of us are going to get out of here alive, and we don’t know how much time we
have. I say this to my daughter, whether it’s changing the world or having a
good time, that we should do what we want to do. Susan Love’s Illness Gives New Focus to Her Cause
There
are lots of pop expressions around the idea of doing what you love-“Do What You
Love the Money Will Follow,” “Follow Your Bliss,” and “Leap and the net will appear.” However, this post isn’t about bumper
sticker expressions. Instead it’s thinking about the choices we make every day
and picking the ones that bring us the most joy.
All
too often our decisions-be it about jobs, food, health care choices and even
who we socialize with and date/marry,
are made on what we think “we should be doing,” rather than actually
what we want to do. According to Aristotle, “We are what we repeatedly
do.” So if you aren’t doing what
you love, or you can’t find the love in what you do, what’s the message you are
sending to yourself? Do you think that’s a healing force? Most likely not.
In
July, I wrote a post called Super Better, which described a game that can increases life
expectancy by as much as ten years. Doing what you love was right up at the top
of the “to-do” list.
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ReplyDeleteThanks Margo. I have been mulling over our recent conversation. What is the difference between being grateful, feeling content, and experiencing joy? Are they the same? Can you be one without the others? More thinking to do. Michelle
ReplyDeleteMy favorite quotes on this topic come from Ben Franklin. Happiness consists more in the small conveniences of pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom to a man in the course of his life.” He also wrote “Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances.” I wrote a post on this topic a year ago tomorrow. Check out Contentment is happiness http://healingwhole.blogspot.com/2012/02/contentment-is-happiness.html
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