My mom has always been full of wisdom…the kind of wisdom with a perspective of a bird’s eye view of life. I guess the longer you live, the further up in the sky you can glance below and your lens just gets wider.
We were talking about food and nutrition (a common discussion in so many latitudes in my life and for so long–much of it started in my early teen years when she taught me how to cook) and though I’ve known about her perspective on this, I thought I would share with you here.
I’ve mentioned before that food-is-medicine but food isn’t everything, nor is this culinary nutrition and micronutrition focus that I am passionate about for everyone either. It certainly isn’t the focus for my mom. She isn’t the healthiest, but she’s enviably, the most content. She is at peace day to day with who she is and the state of her health and her journey. I can’t say the same for me.
There is something to be said about the greed for life and longevity vs this content for her present being that my mother has. She has always been content in the moment and I, on the other hand, have focused all my time and energy on building a practice around optimizing health and nutrition and also managing self-care (why is that such a process?!) and for what? For the future. It may feed partly into the present, but much of the work is for nourishing my potential future….and nobody knows their future.
So I give you two people (me and my mom) with totally polar opposites of lifestyles. She does not carry the stress of managing stress. She generally eats what she wants to. She exercises when she wants to. She follows intuition. She takes the bare minimum of pills (prescription or supplements). She goes to the doctor when her body tells her, not her mind (or me for that matter lol). On the other hand, I am talking daily with my patients about managing stress and practicing self care and eating well and exercising, and I’m constantly reading longevity books and biohacker podcasts, all while continuing our Western stressful lifestyle. Surely there is a balance. I am proud to say I’ve worked on it, likely because I hear her philosophy whispering in my ear, like that bird coming down from the sky reminding me of that wisdom.
In our phone conversation the other day (and I’ve heard this version numerous times), she said the following: “So I request to all young generations to reduce your stress, don’t eat all kinds of pills. You are smart and educated. Manage your time and learn to relax. Learn to be satisfied.”
I love her wisdom. Love you Mom!