Here's what makes me happy
Reading something that puts into words something that's just plain true. Something I sort-of-kind-of-knew but had never put into words. Something that makes life clearer, more understandable for me. Until you can put a name on something, you can't understand it.
This Week's Wisdom (for me)
Elizabeth Fuller, commenting on The Perfect Gift
What I do know is that challenges aren’t what make me happy.
My husband and I recently said to each other that our lives seem to have become a series of events to be gotten through.
Even though we enjoy many of the things we’re doing, we’re often so exhausted all we can think of is getting the most pressing projects done and putting them behind us. Finishing something successfully leads to relief rather than joy.
And yet we do have joy in our lives.
I’m not sure of exactly what that happiness depends upon, but I think it has to do with feeling deep down that something is right–--something as simple as our family being at home, engaged in doing different things, but together, joined inextricably in love.
Alex Lickerman, commenting on Want to Be Able to Predict If Someone Will Be Happy in the Future?
When happy people enter a room, it tends to pull everyone up.
When sad, depressed people enter a room, it tends to do the opposite.
In fact, in medical school, we were taught that if we found ourselves as doctors feeling depressed after interviewing a patient, that was a good indication the patient was depressed!
I often think about the effect of "dueling life-conditions": when two people interact, who's life-condition will have more of an effect? Will I pull you up or you pull me down? In effect, who at that moment is stronger in their current state?
So I'd say, good advice would be to make a genuinely happy disposition one of your criteria for a mate, but it's far better to focus on strengthening your own life state--to be able to resist the downward pull of others' negativity.
Dr. Mary E. Tinetti, a geriatrician at the Yale School of Medicine, on Treating an Illness is One Thing. What About a Patient With Many?
Very often, there is nobody looking at the big picture or recognizing that what is best for the disease may not be best for the patient.
Fred Powledge, a 74 year old writer with multiple health problems, who takes a dozen pills a day:
But what’s missing is someone who can look at the big picture and see my health as a whole. That falls to me alone, with the help of my very wise wife and frequent visits to reliable Web sites. As our population ages, we need some kind of overseer to juggle all the diagnoses and prescriptons and look for conflicts and duplications. This would also help to counteract the notion in many people’s minds that the doctor knows best — because often the doctor doesn’t.
For complete article click here.
A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words
69% of us are eating too much sodium. If you're over 40 the goal is under 1500 mg of sodium a day. Here's where it's coming from. Best to cook it yourself and eat at home.
Source: Mattes, RD, Donnelly, D. Relative contributions of dietary sodium sources. Journal of the American College of Nutrition. 1991 Aug;10(4):383-393
Someone I know just told me a quote she heard (don't know the source)...a present is a gift ..and the present equals " a gift". Live in it.
Posted by: Roz | April 01, 2009 at 11:18 AM