Inspiring quote for today: “My mission, should I choose to accept it, is to find peace with exactly who and what I am. To take pride in my thoughts, my appearance, my talents, my flaws and to stop this incessant worrying that I can’t be loved as I am.” — Anais Nin What’s your mission? …Read More
Author: Dr. Joel Ying, MD
Physician-Educator-Storyteller. Integrating the power of story into medicine, healing sessions, workshops, speaking and performance.
The Dance by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
“What if the question is not why am I so infrequently the person I really want to be, but why do I so infrequently want to be the person I really am?” — Oriah Mountain Dreamer, The Dance: Moving to the Rhythms of Your True Self In her prior book, The Invitation, Oriah Mountain Dreamer …Read More
Pandora’s Box: A Story of Hope
“Be careful! You might be opening a Pandora’s Box.” Today, this means that a seemingly small and innocent action might have large and dire consequences. What are the lessons that most people take from Pandora’s Box? Be cautious! Don’t be too curious! Be careful what you wish for! You might be opening a Pandora’s Box. …Read More
Nobody Can Make It Out Here Alone
Alone ~by Maya Angelou Lying, thinking Last night How to find my soul a home Where water is not thirsty And bread loaf is not stone I came up with one thing And I don’t believe I’m wrong That nobody, But nobody Can make it out here alone. Alone, all alone Nobody, but nobody Can …Read More
Two Ways to Be Rich
“There are two ways to be rich. Make more or want less.” I saw this quote on a surfer’s T-shirt in Hawaii many years ago. Since then, I’ve seen many variations attributed to different authors. As a goal-oriented person, the words just took me into the present moment. I can be “rich” right now. Excitedly, …Read More
Dear Sugar’s Advice on Life and Love
Dear Sugar, WTF, WTF, WTF? I’m asking this question as it applies to everything every day. Best, WTF This is the letter that launched the “Dear Sugar” advice column on TheRumpus.net as something new and different. In an uncharacteristic style for an advice column, Sugar begins with deep personal sharing and “radical empathy.” She walks …Read More
Nocebo Effect and Medical Hexing
Many people have heard of the placebo effect, but fewer have heard of the nocebo effect. The Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial The gold standard for medical research studies is the double-blind randomized controlled trial (RCT). The simplest RCT study might take a target population (e.g., patients with high blood pressure) and then randomize them into …Read More
Poem: I Will Keep Broken Things
I Will Keep Broken Things —by Alice Walker I will keep Broken Things: The big clay Pot With raised Iguanas Chasing Their Tails; Two Of their Wise Heads Sheared Off; I will keep Broken things: The old Slave Market Basket Brought To my Door By Mississippi A jagged Hole Gouged In its sturdy Dark Oak …Read More
Kelly McGonigal: Getting Good at Stress
With so much of the country facing the stress of natural disasters, we see communities coming together and neighbors helping neighbors. However, in the face of tragedy there is also the other side of humanity. Stress brings out both the best and the worst in all of us. For years, health professionals have been telling …Read More
Reclaim Your Body Wisdom
If you’ve ever been stuck in your head (like me) with recurring thoughts racing around to create chronic anxiety, then you know that sometimes stopping to take 10 deep breaths just isn’t enough to calm the mind down. (Don’t get me wrong; it helps sometimes!) How can we align the mind and body, head and …Read More