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A Conversation with Dr. Susan Biali Q. What kind of doctor are you?
A. I’m a medical doctor, I have a Doctorate of Medicine from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. After medical school, I completed two years of a five year Emergency Medicine residency (specialty training) program. This turned out to be the pivotal point in my life, as the profound depression and frustration I experienced during residency inspired me to make the dramatically different life and career choices that I’ve made since. I have a license to practice medicine as a general practitioner, which I still practice on a limited basis in clinics in Vancouver. I also have a Bachelor’s of Science in Dietetics, which is the study of human nutrition.
Q. How are you different from other physicians in the media?
A. Rather than focusing on specific health problems or issues, I prefer to look at the bigger picture of a person’s life. When I was practicing medicine full time, I felt frustrated by the fact that I was forced, by the situation and time constraints, to focus on a patient’s specific problem, without being able to spend much time talking about their biggest life concerns and dreams. In my work as a writer, speaker, and life coach, I’m finally able to do this, and on a large scale.
I prefer to look at all aspects of people’s lives, and how they come together to create the whole. If you have perfect health, but hate getting up to go to work every day, you probably aren’t enjoying life as much as you could. Eventually, your frustration or boredom with your job might in turn begin to affect your health. I work at helping people identify and create a significantly more fulfilling experience of life, health included. I do sometimes talk about specific health issues, but in addition to using known health facts and statistics, I incorporate information from success and motivational theory, psychology, spirituality, etc. My training in nutrition also makes me unique, as most medical schools don’t provide much nutrition education to their students.
I really try to live what I teach, and my own life experiences drive my interests, my studies, and areas of expertise. I’ve created a life that’s uniquely suited to me and my own happiness. I commute between Canada and Los Cabos, Mexico. I’m also a travel writer and photographer, and I perform and teach Flamenco and Salsa dancing professionally. I believe wholeheartedly in following your bliss.
I also prefer to relate to other people as a regular person. Most people share the same goal: to make the best of this life we’ve been given. I may be an “expert”, but I know what it’s like, firsthand, to negotiate those ups and downs and to search for ways to make life better.
Q. Do you live in Mexico or Canada?
A. Both. I actually commute between the two countries! Los Cabos, Mexico is my haven for writing, reflecting, and dancing. I regularly spend time in Vancouver, where I still practice medicine from time to time, and I also fly around Canada and the U.S. for other business-related activities, such as media appearances and speaking engagements. I travel to Spain once a year to study flamenco.
Q. What are your areas of interest and expertise?
A. In one sentence, I’m passionate about improving the quality of people’s experience of life – including my own! I’m interested in preventative medicine, stress management, mind-body medicine, psychology, principles of motivation and success, life balance, creative expression, nutrition (I have a degree in Dietetics), and the fundamental spiritual principles which create a healthy, meaningful life.
Q. What’s the single most important thing a person can do for their health and quality of life?
A. Stop. Stop, and reflect on where you are, right now, and what you’d like to experience in the future. This works for health, relationships, career, finances, everything. Until you become clear – and this means being honest with yourself! - about where you are now, and decide where exactly you’d like to eventually be, you probably won’t be very effective at making real, lasting changes in the quality of your experience. And it’s very important that you look at yourself and your life through your own eyes – it’s about what you think, feel and dream about, not what anyone else thinks or insists is best for you.
Q. What do you mean when you talk about “Body Language”?
From years of working with thousands of patients, and from observing my own health difficulties over time, I’ve come to appreciate the brilliance of the human body through its ability to provide feedback on the state of our lives. So many patients have asked me: “How long will it take for these antibiotics to cure my bronchitis?” It would have been far more helpful, in many cases, for them to ask: “Why do I keep getting bronchitis? What could I do to support my body more? What might this recurrent illness be telling me about my life?” So many people ask me what drugs they can take in order to keep functioning at work through their illness. We’ve forgotten that illness is often our body’s way of saying SLOW DOWN. We ignore it, at our peril.
Q. You like to talk about a person’s “authentic self”. Why, and what do you mean?
I believe the majority of people are born “programmed” to do, enjoy, or be a certain thing. If you look at a group of young kids, you’ll see what I mean. Some are obsessed with cars, while others prefer reading, or play-acting. I was obsessed with reporting household and neighborhood news, and rehearsed for hours, every day, preparing for my inevitable dancing debut on network television (a moment which finally arrived, in 2003!).
At a certain point in our young lives, well-meaning adults take over, and tell us what things we should do, or be interested in. A potential career in the Arts gets shoved over to “hobby” status, far better to be a professional or something that’s sure to produce money and stability. I often wonder what this world would be like, if kids were left to choose their own passions and were then nurtured and supported in their natural interests and talents, however “impractical” these may seem.
My youngest sister Laila, who by the age of 23 was already an internationally acclaimed award-winning jazz musician, had been pushed by my well-meaning parents to get a degree in science. To their dismay, she rebelled and insisted on studying music. Her long list of fans includes Diana Krall, and some of the greatest jazz musicians alive today. Imagine if she’d bowed to the pressure to be “practical”?
Q. How do you define success?
Like many people, I have a tendency to get caught up in my career, business activities, accomplishments and finances. Certainly, if I were to put all my eggs in my career basket, I’d probably enjoy an extremely “successful” and prosperous life. However, I’ve discovered over the years that material success means little if “enjoyed” in the absence of meaningful values, loving relationships, good health and real fun. I am so impassioned by my work, and easily go into overachiever mode and neglect the rest. Through my writing, speaking and coaching work, I teach others how to enjoy truly successful and fulfilling lives. This way, I constantly remind myself of the importance of practicing what I preach.
Q. Where does creativity fit in?
A. In our materially-oriented culture, most people focus the course of their lives on developing skills which will generate reliable income. People who are born artistic geniuses, like my artist sister Tania, often find that their overwhelming talent simply takes over at an early age, and propels them into their gift. Those of us who are less obviously gifted end up telling ourselves “I’m no good at artsy things” and retreat into the world of normal school and life. This is such a shame. I believe most of us are able to be wonderfully creative on some level, though we often live lives deprived of creative experiences. I remember getting invited to a pottery painting wedding shower a few years ago. The smell of the paint and baking clay, the simple joy of designing a fun pattern and slopping it onto the ceramic surface, brought back hours of joy spent playing and doing crafts as a child, when nothing had to come out perfect, or have a purpose. As a culture, most of us simply don’t play enough. Sometimes I still feel like I’ve forgotten how, and when I look at the pretty blue and white ceramic pitcher that emerged from my efforts that day, I’m reminded that I really must make a point of including creative forms of play and fun in my life.
Q. How did you become a professional dancer?
A. Dancing is the one thing I’ve done all my life, since I could walk. Though I yearned for dance classes growing up, I never got to go. Instead, I studied photos of ballet in encyclopedias and other books, copying the dancers’ poses. From about the age of five, I began the habit of “rehearsing” in the basement every night, watching my reflection in the sliding glass doors. I did this until I hit high school, when I finally saved enough babysitting money to take jazz classes, at the age of 16. Thanks to all those years of “practice”, I got placed in the highest level class in the dance school, and actually qualified to compete in a regional dance competition.
I stopped dancing during university and med school, and didn’t rediscover it until I went to Cuba, alone, during a stress leave from my residency. There, I fell in love with salsa, and I became a professional salsa dancer in a couple of years. I still occasionally perform and give salsa workshops.
That led to flamenco, which is the reason I tell people that they should never, ever, give up on a dream. I worked hard and became one of the regular dancers at Vancouver’s Kino Flamenco Café, but when I decided to take an extended sabbatical in Mexico, I found myself without studios, teachers, or a legal ability to perform. I went to Spain every year to study, and in the meantime practiced with DVD’s and danced wherever I could. At one point, all I had was a hot laundry room, in the middle of a scorching desert, to practice in, and no performing opportunities in sight.
Never give up. Three months later, on Christmas Eve, I was performing flamenco for Hollwood celebrities, with a pair of internationally recognized guitarists in one of the most prestigious resort hotels on the planet, Las Ventanas al Paraiso.
The biggest miracle of all? When I was practicing in that laundry room, I danced to a beloved flamenco mix CD. My brilliant new guitarist friends, Guitarras de Luna, turned out to be the artists featured on that very CD – without knowing it, I’d been “practicing” with them for months already.
Q. Don’t you feel guilty, after all that education, and given the shortage of doctors in Canada? Isn’t it a waste for you not to be practicing more as a physician?
A. I get this question all the time, often it’s the first thing a stranger asks me once they learn what I do, especially if they’re Canadian. I agree that it’s unfortunate that there are so many patients and not enough doctors, and that our healthcare system experiences so much stress. I certainly felt the weight of it when I worked regularly as a doctor, there would often be a one or two hour wait to see me. People came morning, noon, and night, the flow rarely stopped and most people wanted and needed more of my time than I could give them.
When I finished medical school, I had every intention of working a long and productive life as a family doctor. Unfortunately, I soon discovered that I became frustrated and depressed, and watched the clock all day long, counting the minutes until it was over. I’d take lavish vacations to recharge, escape, and cheer myself up, but I’d feel terrible again a couple of days after returning to work.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed most of my patients, and often felt that I made a real difference to people’s lives. But something deep inside me just wouldn’t let go, I knew that I was in the wrong place, doing the wrong kind of work. It was something that was very hard for me to accept. Believe me, life would have been so much “easier” if I had been fulfilled working as a physician, with regular paychecks and a predictable life. But that’s not what life had planned for me, nor do I believe that it would have been my greatest contribution as a human being. I believe that my real “job” in life is to educate people on a large scale, and help them improve the quality of their life on all levels, not just their health. That’s just the way it is.
Q. You talk a lot about how depressed you were as a physician. Did you actually have real, clinical depression?
A. Yes, I did. During residency, I actually took antidepressant medications, to try to help me get through. I didn’t need them anymore, once I decided to leave. However, as long as I spent the majority of my time working as a doctor, I was still very moody and cried a lot of the time, out of frustration and a sense of hopelessness for my life.
I discovered that the more time I spent dancing, writing, speaking and traveling, the happier I felt. I also developed a passion for inspirational and motivational books, which helped me see life and all of its ups and downs in a much more optimistic, positive light. I also began to believe more and more in God – the evidence of that presence in my life helped dramatically, as I no longer felt like I was alone. I began to believe that all experiences, good and bad, carried some kind of gift within.
As well, I found that I thrive in Mexico’s wonderful culture, so friendly, warm and fun and perfectly suited to my more “Latin” personality. These days, when I find myself crying about something, it actually surprises me – the other day, I realized that I couldn’t remember the last time when I had cried. It used to be every day.
Q. You have the opportunity to interact with a wide variety of patients, coaching clients, readers and audience members. What have you found to be their common issues and concerns?
A. People want more out of life, so many simply aren’t satisfied with the “standard life plan”: go to school, get a job, get married, buy a house, have a family, and retire ASAP. Not that there’s anything wrong with any of these things, but it’s a formula that doesn’t necessarily work for everyone, and it certainly doesn’t guarantee happiness or fulfillment.
People are looking to experience satisfaction, and joy, in all areas of their life. People are asking more from life, and from themselves. More and more individuals are starting to realize that they actually have the ability to choose many elements of their lives. Many people are searching within themselves and identifying - perhaps for the first time- who they really are and what dreams they may have buried. I think these are very exciting times.
In so many ways, our life as a culture and planet has gotten overwhelming and way out of balance. I think it’s wonderful and so encouraging to observe that people seem to be increasingly powerfully attracted to discussions of love, kindness, generosity, gratitude, spirituality and making a difference. © Copyright Dr. Susan Biali 2007
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