The Julia Roberts film did surprisingly well on Amazon – 82% 5-star ratings versus just 3% 1-star dings for “Eat, Pray, Love.” Nevertheless, some of movie protagonist Liz Gilbert’s experiences may give us pause.
The problem is that any strength, when exercised to excess, risks becoming a weakness. As the 16th-century Swiss physician and philosopher Paracelsus cautions us, “Only the dose makes the poison.” Too much of a good thing is, well, too much.
The three-percent of viewers who were disgusted by Liz Gilbert’s quest for self-actualization interpreted it as merely yet another highly privileged woman’s delusive quest for satisfactions that the world has never really been willing to grant us. Is marriage to a Brazilian stud duck really the all-fulfilling answer to the deepest longing of our hearts?
It’s a question of perspective – in our lives, we are continually confronted with a clear choice: to act from a consciousness of “I, my, me, mine,” or of “thou and thine.”
The most fruitful approach to the search for happiness is scientific – it asks not “What’s reasonable?” or “What will set my nerves a-tingle?” but “What will give me a joy that is free from desires that constrict my heart, and that will extend my boundaries into an bliss that comes by expanding my heart’s feelings to include realities outside my own?
Still, “Eat, Pray, Love” isn’t a bad formula for happiness, especially in this Holy Season, when a spirit of giving sweetens the air – so long as we interpret it expansively and scientifically, that is, by doing What Works.
To put it simply, the very best Eat, Pray, Love experiences come finding what our souls are unceasingly longing for. The happiness formula is really very simple: use your body, heart, will, mind, and soul in ways that give you more health, love, strength, wisdom, inner freedom and joy. That’s where the magic lies.
Eat. Happiness expands when we do what’s expansive for the body. Let’s use our common sense. Let’s apply our wise self-knowing and intuition to make conscious, healthy choices about what we put in our bodies. A happy body is the foundation for a happy heart and mind. A remarkable thing happens when we eat healthy foods: we begin to enjoy them and we feel less hungry. The body lets us know what it likes by making us feel good.
Pray. We (Drs. Connie and Marcel) find it difficult to imagine how lonely it would be not to have a sense of something greater than our small selves. Much less, not having someone to thank for the seamless blessings that are constantly pouring into our lives.
Without a sense of our oneness with a higher source of wisdom, love, and joy, our only option is to burrow into the egocentric rabbit hole in which many people find themselves.
Even if you don’t believe in a greater universal consciousness, just pretending that you do can create a shift in your life that will lead you by still waters of inner happiness.
Love. Speaking of love – well, the word means so many things, doesn’t it? “Love” simply can’t carry the proper charge – unless we attach it to actions. Stories of people who’ve expressed great, self-offering love inspire us profoundly. From a spiritual perspective, if we can pierce the veils of delusion that hold us bound in a tiny web of selfish ego-attachments and desires, we’ll be surprised to sense the presence of divinity in all beings, including ourselves. We may then understand the true meaning of the word. Each of “love’s” meanings, including the most epic, begins with simple qualities of kindness, compassion, and a sincere desire to help.
Now that we’ve covered the high side, here are some fascinating recent findings from the earthy world of health research.
Research News
GREEN SALT AND WRIGHT SALT
Many people love salt but are told for reasons such as heart failure to radically lower their sodium intake. Processed table salt (sodium chloride) is heavy on sodium. Natural salts are less processed and contain higher levels of potassium. Increasing potassium (and the potassium to sodium ratio) helps you eliminate sodium from your body, counteracting the adverse effects of the sodium. Two great options are Wright Salt and Green Salt. Wright salt is a heart healthy multimineral blend of Himalayan Sea salt, magnesium, potassium and iodine. https://a.co/d/6i0n23n
Green salt is plant based, from dried powdered Salicornia (Sea asparagus), and is a low sodium, high potassium substitute for salt. See www.saltwise.us or, on Amazon https://a.co/d/fPZSWXg
NON-TOXIC PRODUCT RECOMMENDATIONS
If you don’t know this resource, take a look. Mamavation works with an EPA certified laboratory in testing products, commissions consumer studies, offers blogs and newsletters on health research, organic food, air quality and more. You can find which ghee has less phthalates, which chocolates contain less lead and cadmium, which coffee brands are mycotoxin and pesticide free. And that’s just in the food investigations. There are investigations of products ranging from air fryers to diapers to detergents and water filtration systems. This company supports health, wellness, lifestyle, sustainability. (www.mamavation.com )
NEW CANCER THERAPY REPORTEDLY KILLS 99% OF CANCER CELLS
There is no doubt in our minds that non-invasive, energy-based “Star Trek” medicine is the path of the future. Just as we now look upon blood-letting as a remnant of misguided past medical interventions, many of the invasive procedures we practice today will be looked upon as primitive in the future. New research shows the power of non-invasive, near-infrared therapy to effectively destroy cancer cells. Some of our patients are already using red light and near infrared equipment in their treatment protocols. You can read about the research HERE.
COVID VACCINES PRODUCE SHORT-LIVED ANTIBODIES
The Covid vaccines have created still-raging controversy among medical professionals. New research shows that, unlike tetanus and influenza vaccines, COVID-19 mRNA vaccines do not prompt the generation of durable antibody-producing cells. The study explains why people who receive the mRNA vaccine can still contract the virus shortly after receiving the vaccine. It appears that the mRNA vaccines cause the body to produce short-lived plasma cells that can only generate antibodies for a short period of time before dying off. The study report can be found HERE.
May Peace and Happiness be Yours Always.
Drs. Connie and Marcel Hernandez
DrConnie@DrsHernandez.com
DrMarcel@DrsHernandez.com
650-602-8972 (voice and text)