Mornings at the beach in Southwest Florida are calm and serene. The Gulf of Mexico has fewer waves before the sun wakes up, and more importantly there are fewer people. Unless there is a storm coming, the air and the water are calm and almost still. Many years ago, I walked the beach as my …Read More
Author: Dr. Joel Ying, MD
Physician-Educator-Storyteller. Integrating the power of story into medicine, healing sessions, workshops, speaking and performance.
The world is too big
I asked a friend why people seem more anxious in this modern world. She thought for a moment and quickly answered, “The world is too big.” “We are so connected,” she said, “The world that we live in is so much bigger than it used to be. We have so much more information, but we …Read More
The Feeling of Love ~ Vivek Murthy
“It is beyond rare to be in the presence of a person holding high governmental office who speaks about love with ease and dignity — and about the agency to be healers that is available to us all,” says Krista Tippett as she introduces Vivek Murthy in her podcast interview. The U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. …Read More
Positive Aging
How does our attitude to aging impact health? A Yale study published in 2002 by psychology researchers “found that older individuals with more positive self-perceptions of aging, measured up to 23 years earlier, lived 7.5 years longer than those with less positive self-perceptions of aging.” In other words, a positive attitude towards aging will help …Read More
After the Fire ~ Ada Limón
Ada Limón is the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States. In her recent interview “To Be Made Whole” with On Being by Krista Tippett, Ada Limón creates laughter in the very same moment that she launches us into serious contemplation. As she reads her poetry, she is at once genuine and humorous, holy and …Read More
Artificial Intelligence and Living the Present Moment
“Is using artificial intelligence to write your blog post like using a calculator to solve a math problem?” ChatGTP, Google’s BARD, and Microsoft’s Bing AI are all the buzz on the internet. These conversational artificial intelligence programs will answer your questions, write blog posts, create new stories with prompts, and much much more. What is …Read More
Adapt Martial Arts to You
“I’m too old. This is for young people. This is crazy for me to try to do,” thought Deb A. Zion, one morning after waking up with arms so sore that she was unable to move. Living in Mansfield, Massachusetts, she had been practicing martial arts for many years, and last night had been a …Read More
Where good ideas come from ~ Steven Johnson
I am guilty of this too. It’s what we do as storytellers. We look for that pivotal moment, that eureka moment, that stroke of insight. Lifechanging moments are the stuff of good stories. It creates tension to move towards this great climax where the aha moment strikes you with an idea, and your life is …Read More
Find your punchline and deliver it ~ Michael Jr.
Comedian Michael Jr. will tell you that the secret to comedy is also the secret to life: “Instead of trying to get, find an opportunity to give.“ When he shifted his mindset from getting a laugh to giving an opportunity for laughter, his comedy career (and his life) changed. Comedy In comedy, there’s the setup …Read More
This too shall pass
“I would like a ring that will make a happy person sad… and a sad person happy,” said the King to his ministers. The ministers went about the land looking high and low, near and far, but they could find no one who knew of such a ring. The weeks turned to months. The months …Read More