My Mid Year Rant 6/21/23 summer solstice.

Everyone is flawed.

I do give a shit about my patients lifestyles.

I pray and don’t pretend I’m not stressed.

I accept what I cannot change and with faith I gain the courage to change things that can be moved.

I can only do “what I can do” but self care comes first for fear that my motivation will extinguish and lead to -FAsT failure.

I accept that I will need to continue studies even at my level of education but I read for pleasure AND professional reasons.

Chasing your calling should be the same as chasing your career…

when there’s a schism, your heart can change to bitter…and as a doctor one can begin to hate going to work; when you lose compassion a healer stops healing.

Regarding how I maintain balance between serving my calling and maintaining my health; I consider myself an athlete and can dial-up motivation by conjuring up high school a college images more than FORTY YEARS AGO. Studying for exams, prepping for track & field season, cutting down for a body building competition, takin a belt test in martial arts, giving a speech to peers….all require focusing resources, cutting down on indulgences, envying others that are having fun while I am in a dungeon of isolation….I got through all that in younger years without blinking an eye so in my mind “I can do that again”.  

BUT

What about my disadvantaged patient in for a consult that doesn’t have a memory to anchor to? -FAsT failure.

What drives most mortals to deploy “healthy lifestyle suffering”? (Lets face it, caloric restriction, exercise, avoiding social media, going to sleep early…all suck!)

-Weddings (if in the party

-Reunions

-Chasing after future mates

-Threat of death

The last point is usually the one that proportionally maintains focused drive the longest. 

-Wedding date accomplishment yields a heavy binge back to prior habits!

-After the reunion trauma from bad adolescent memories…stress eating!

-Winning over the mate leads to indulge together while you both let yourselves go! (Blaming the failing health on aging)

-Threats after your “annual wellness exam” dampens impact since “you 12 months till the doc tests you again” so wait till next week to change habit…(unless the diagnosis given to you is severe and life threatening and doc has you see other 2nd opinions loading up your list of specialists every 2-3 months with “another referal”!)

It is good to test yourselves with new lifestyle changes to try out….but watch out for energy sink holes. You may be investing in something spiritually exhausting. 

Energy required to investigate/deploy/adjust/reinvestigate… is a non renewable resource and if you expend that currency there is higher chance for burn out (me with being an hospital employee). 

Adrenal fatigue enhances -FAsT failure. 

Intentionally allowing FAsT failure looks like this

-ignoring exercise 

-avoiding healthy nutrition for said exercise 

-minimizing restorative sleep for next day exercise 

-not seeking spiritual anchoring to hold you steady during what could be a long implemented lifestyle change.

There are very few free lunches. 

The endpoint to maintaining independence from the hospice nurse wiping your butt and pushing your wheel chair to your favorite morning window vista is usually death. 

NOT INVESTING IN SUSTAINABLE DAILY LIFESTYLE ROUTINES GETS YOU  THAT ENDPOINT FASTER!!!

And don’t talk yourself into saying: “well, if I’m gonna die I may as well live recklessly, intentionally ignoring healthy choices”…

NO! Take that path and your mortality does come faster but pre-death SUFFERING is SEVERE to you and immediate friends and family. 

-Mentally

-Physically 

-Emotionally

-Spiritually

One of my teachers, Andrew Weil taught me to Compress Morbidity. Meaning in lifestyle design physicians are supposed to guide patients to 

-Live Long

-Be Independant

-Die Fast with Minimal Suffering

If you are overly concerned about retiring out of the rat race …find a different race and pour your energy into expressing a newer version of you. 

If the recipe doesn’t taste good…don’t have to start from scratch…just modify a few ingredients till you get it right. And if you can’t find the ingredients..ask a chef to teach you. 

I gave up a huge paycheck to find another way to live with purpose. Now… I don’t see myself retiring anytime soon (malpractice bills for independent doctors is ridiculous) but I love being a “chef” and can do this forever. 

Make your calling the same as your career, trust and have faith that this path is the right one to keep walking …(if you don’t have the “faith” …maybe that’s the first ingredient to change. 

DrRic

Healthy Spirit

DON’T WAIT TILL THE LAST MINUTE! I spoke with Father Joe from St Matthews this am and he gave very good insight to my dilemma! How do I get my patients, friends and community to manifest health and longevity (and avoid early disability/death?). Wearing a collar gives him wisdom and obviously he is biased toward what he believes the most. BUT….he also is thriving in his golden years and inspires our community share, love, support and pray. He specifically advised me to not “pressure sell” my patients/clients on one religion but inspire them with living healthy….BEING THE CHANGE!…and when those that are ready for change start to ask questions….that would be the time to share my journey and beliefs as inspiration to lead a balanced life.

When working for large hospital corporations, the facade is they are anchored in some form of faith BUT the practice of medicine inside the halls of healing is SO ENTRENCHED IN PROFIT. Making money for the system, promoting the elements of healthcare that get the highest reimbursement, manipulating reviews and social presence to attract unsuspecting patients to their team of “better” specialists. I don’t have a problem with a business turning a profit but when newly graduated neophyte docs get massive paychecks while salty/experienced guys like me go month to month to just pay for malpractice….something is wrong.

Everyone remembers “Let Food Be Thy Medicine” from the great philosopher Hippocrates. Do people know that the first line in the oath is “Do No Harm”. Yet with the speed of an average healers visit, you are give a specific prescription for a common complaint without using old school medicine of figuring out what the patient in the room is actually suffering from…my computer IT folks and engineers know this as ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS. Don’t just weld a cracked bridge frame where it is weak, fix the reason for the weakness! Unfortunately learning how a person thinks and reverse engineering their journey to the present moment takes time.

Since the advent of the microwave, everyone is leaning on “time saving” devices, techniques, and fixes. Ancient wisdom (like Father Joe provided me with today) says you cannot fool mother nature.

-If you starve yourself to lose weight, the body just adapts to the decreased calories and makes you fat.

-If you take steroids to get big, your liver will kick back at you and throw a cancer at you

-If you take anxiety medicine but refuse counseling to change your way of thought, the anxiety builds and relationships fall

-If you have no spiritual practice, your durability with maintaining lifestyle change will be short.

If you look at Dan Beuttners The Blue Zones, all 5 of the earths societies that live the longest while maintaining independence are entrenched in whole foods, constant activity, a sense of belonging and some FORM OF SPIRITUAL PRACTICE!!! The food type and activity engagement will vary from continent to continent and from decade to decade of age BUT one thing that is pervasive for any Blue Zoner no matter what language, age or education level is having a belief system. Most religions are organized methods of practicing spirituality. It used to be that old towns would have a chapel or temple as the highest point in the town so wanderer would have line of sight to seek worship/healing. in the 60’s, the priest would be the person to go to if you had no money, food or shelter. Now the tallest building it usually the biggest industry, the church doors are locked for fear of vandalism and religion is not allowed in our national anthem. “One Nation Under God" doesn’t exist and disease is rampant.

This is not a causal relationship but only an anecdote from a quiet old fashion doctor that believes in letting patients speak the truth. I find that myself and my oldest long lived patients have a common practice that that is deploying some form of spirituality. For me knowing that Jesus went through hours of torture and death to pay for the sins of others….makes me think my little hunger or pain or difficulty with “making it” is tiny ripple in the ocean of suffering.

For what I see and feel with all patients going through struggle, the strongest warrior I have are ALWAYS anchored in some form of spiritual practice. You dont have to join a religion to manifest spirituality but without any practice at all, your chances for maintaining the arduous process of living healthy while being oversaturated with hyper-palatable foods, cool gadets to improve power, injections to get you skinny while eating shit food….are going to be futile and short lived.

God save us all!