Dr. Susan Biali

Are there people in your life that you try so hard to get along with, but you somehow always leave the interaction feeling disheartened, sad, angry, or demeaned? Are there people you dread running into or spending time with because there's just something about them that strips you of your power, either provoking you into acting "crazy" (when you normally are quite a sane, nice-to-be-around person) or somehow always managing to make you give up something that's important to your well-being?

I love new beginnings and love this time of year. As a life coach and a person who's generally obsessed with helping others maximize health, happiness and quality of life, I'm always watching life as it unfolds in wise, magical and surprising ways.

Here are the top things that I've learned in the last year or so - hopefully they'll accelerate your own learning curve and save you some of the stress and effort I went through to figure this stuff out:

A few weeks ago, after meeting and sharing the stage with integrative medicine pioneer (and my personal wellness hero) Dr. Andrew Weil, I shared some of the best gems I learned from him in another article, Ten Awesome Health Tips I Learned From Dr. Andrew Weil. Recently, I was going through some papers on my desk and came across some additional notes I'd made while listening to him discuss the latest in nutrition. Since the first Weil article proved to be so popular, I thought you'd enjoy highlights from these as well.

Dr. Andrew Weil

The other week, life came full circle in a way that left me with my mouth agape. During my medical training I read a book that completely changed the way I saw medicine and wellness: Spontaneous Healing, by Integrative Medicine Pioneer Dr. Andrew Weil. His ideas that the body is inherently designed to restore health (if we get out of its way and help it along as naturally as possible), and that patients should be viewed from a holistic, big-picture perspective rather than focusing on their “disease”, set the stage for the physician I am today.

Driving home the other night, I was flipping through the channels on my radio when suddenly the words that emerged from the speaker system made me almost stop the car.

This past weekend I watched a movie on Netflix called “One Week”, starring Joshua Jackson as the main character, Ben Tyler. Stunned by a sudden diagnosis of end-stage cancer, Ben mercilessly assesses his current life circumstances, impulsively buys a motorcycle and takes off on a cross-country solo trip.

The moment he heard the chilling words from his physician, Ben's first two thoughts were: “I want to call off the wedding” and “I don’t want to go back to work”. Funny how an expiry date on your life can throw things into perspective.