My Personal Approach
MY GOAL
My goal is to improve and maintain your overall health and to empower you with an understanding of your condition and wellness plan. Let's get started today on a path to your life-long wellness.
MIND, BODY & OVERALL HEALTH
Your mental health and overall outlook can and does impact your physical health. I believe in the mind body connection, and how that impacts overall physical health.
One of the ways I deal with mental health issues to to help others see that they have more control over their emotions than they thought possible. I point out that one reason the framers made freedom of religion a part of our constitution is that after days in a hot room wearing a hot wig, they got nowhere telling others what to believe.
You're not supposed to murder people but you can believe in anything you want, ie, what you think doesn’t matter to others, just what you do. The implication being, what we think is made up and so to the extent we understand that, we can change it. But we’ll still be responsible for what we do.
Our beliefs are about survival. That is our prime directive. The utility of our beliefs is closely related to how well they align with what is real. For example, you can believe anything you want about gravity. The more your belief aligns with the fact that there’s a force pulling you toward the earth’s center, the more useful that belief is.
There is a lot pain, a lot of potential pain, that comes from believing something that doesn’t align with what’s real. Reality doesn’t care what you think about it, what’s true is what’s true the more you resist that, the more you are likely to suffer. The more you realize that you are not your mind and that you can control what you believe, the more creative you can be at problem solving and enjoying your life.
ELDERLY PATIENTS
It took me twenty + years to get comfortable taking care of elderly patients. When my mom died, I was impressed that she totally directed how her death went down. All us kids were home with all the grandkids. She was clear that she wanted to sleep in her own bed upstairs, and eat with family downstairs. And she was very clear that she wasn’t going to the hospital anymore. We had 4 or 5 wonderful dinners with her. Then, Thanksgiving morning, she didn’t come downstairs and we found her where she sat down next to the tub in her bathroom. She had the kind of smile on her face one might have taking a summer nap under a breeze coming in an open window.
I realized then what she had taught me. There’s a certain age, after which power struggles don’t make sense anymore.
I don’t wag my finger and push old people to do what I want or what I think they should do. I ask them what THEY want and then if I can, I give it to them. I tell them, “If you want it and it’s legal, we’ll do it. If it’s illegal, we have to discuss it.
And I tell families, the memories people want to keep of their loved ones aren’t about arguments won or winning power struggles. The best memories are about giving and receiving love and respect.
