The ability to balance our stress and maintain a strong internal optimism is vital to living a happy, healthy, and productive life. Weekly, I publish messages that serve as reminders - reminders to the importance of seeing the broader picture as it relates to our work, our relationships, our self.

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2008 – Weekly Messages

I am resumming my Weekly Message Series. Using topics from my book, I plan to offer weekly practical insights and strategies to help recognize when the automatic brain of ego is at work. The ability to consistently identify it in ourselves is the first step toward controlling and calming it. My goal is to help everyone develop thoughts and actions that will lead to more health, happiness, and prosperity in our lives. As much as possible I will try to use real-life examples and real-world trends as illustrations. The format will be shorter than my chapter installments.

The ultimate goal is to gain the capacity to reliably believe, trust, and take direction from essence.

New! December 1, 2008 - Opposites Attract
A patient shared with me the following joke: "Three women—one engaged, one married, and one single—are chatting about their relationships and decided to amaze their men. That night all three will wear black leather bras, stiletto heels, and a mask over their eyes. After a few days, they meet up for lunch" ...
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November 24, 2008 - More to Come…
I am experimenting with different media to deliver my weekly message. Earlier today, I've posted my first video message. My goal is to deliver a message that is consistent with the topics in my book, which I hope, will help you manage stress, maintain your optimism, and see daily magic even in the midst of extreme hardship. ...
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November 10, 2008 - Make Yourself Vulnerable
No matter which candidates you supported in this year’s presidential election, it’s hard to ignore the immense positive energy and optimism Barack Obama’s victory has created in the U.S. and around the world. The fact is that if McCain had won, those who supported him would have been happy, but the excitement and sense of hope would be nowhere near the level it is today ...
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November 3, 2008 - The Automatic Brain on Election Day
Tuesday, November 4, 2008, is almost upon us. To many, this marks a critical day for the future of the United States. I have a different take on this election. As I see it, most people, whether they support Senator Obama or Senator McCain, forget a fundamental premise of being human ...
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October 26, 2008 - The Essence of Today
In my book, I showed how the automatic brain of ego uses thoughts of the past and projections of the future to figure out ways to fight or flee from danger. What does that really mean? While we tend to look to the past for reassurance, the past is history and gone forever. Dwelling in the past ...
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The Book Project
It's All In Your Head, A Doctor’s Prescription for a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous Life
I have decided to try something new. Since I publish to my readers a message every week, I decided to engage you in my process of writing a book. over the past months, I have sent out a chapter or part of a chapter. I encourage your feedback and insights. I trust that those whom continue to receive my correspondence will recognize that many of the concepts discussed in the past, I will organize in a fashion that will be equally as rewarding and practical to your lives. So, hop aboard, and join me as the journey begins!

October, 23, 2008
My agent would like me to change the title of my book. My working title is, Finding Essence, A Doctor’s Prescription for a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous Life. He greatly likes the subtitle, but feels the title itself is too broad. I am asking my readers for ideas. What he suggests is “short, sweet, and to the point,” something that really catches the eye of the publisher.

Thank you to all who wrote comments on my book. I have submitted them, along with my completed book proposal, to my agent. I will keep everyone posted.

NEW! Monday, October 13, 2008
Chapter 19:I’m Just a Drummer in a Rock and Roll Band
"Faith certainly tells us what the senses do not, but not the contrary of what they see; it is above, not against them." -Blaise Pascal. Where the boundary occurs between the swirling energy of essence and the reality limited by our five senses is not readily apparent. Because of the intermittent nature of this boundary, we easily fall back on the reliable sensory perception on which our automatic brain of ego relies. We can experience the interaction...
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Monday, October 6, 2008
Chapter 18: Death, Dying, Quantum Physics, and Possibility
"Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine." -Arthur Stanley Eddington
Death. Throughout our lives, people close to us die. One day they’re here, the next moment they’re gone. This experience is as human as eating and breathing. As a physician for 20 years, I am inevitably around death and dying. I have developed the ability...
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Monday, September 28, 2008
Chapter 17: Healthy Body, Healthy Mind, Strong Essence
“A sound mind in a sound body is a short but full description of a happy state in this world.” – John Locke
How do you feel when you wake up in the morning? Do you ever feel grumpy? How do you feel if you go without food for a whole day? Do you ever feel lightheaded if you don’t drink enough water? ...
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Monday, September 22, 2008
Chapter 16: Cultivating Essence
“Growth itself contains the germ of happiness.” – Pearl S. Buck
Music. The challenge when living a life of essence rather than one controlled by ego is to resist slipping back into a belief and trust of the ego. Sharpening your awareness of essence through meditation and recognizing daily magic makes the task a little easier, but the challenge can appear daunting ...
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Monday, September 15, 2008
Chapter 15: Daily Magic
“Coincidences are God’s way of remaining anonymous.” – Albert Einstein
About 3,200 years ago, according to traditional historical accounts, the Pharaoh Ramses II released the Israelites from their 400-year enslavement. This release was not voluntary. During that time, according to religious belief, God through Moses inflicted 10 plagues upon Egypt ...
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Monday, September 8, 2008
Chapter 14: In the Eye of the Beholder
“You give birth to that on which you fix your mind.” – Antoine De Saint-Exupery.
The automatic brain of our egos is continually running with its danger antennae raised. Being unaware of this phenomenon leads to a state of chronic low-grade stress. Let me clarify: The mechanism by which the ego exerts its protective abilities is the fight-or-flight response ...
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Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Chapter 13: The Right Choice
“Ego is to the true self what a flashlight is to a spotlight.” – John Bradshaw.
Now that everyone knows that their trusted doctor is getting his guidance from a little man named Abe, you can all finally start to feel confident! I recall during my medical school rotation in behavioral science, the doctors felt that one of the schizophrenic patients was getting worse because of his paranoid delusions ...
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Monday, August 25, 2008
Chapter 12: Finding Essence
“Life is just a mirror, and what you see out there, you must first see inside of you..” – Wally “Famous” Amos.
An integral part of every human being is an ego imbedded in the automatic brain. Another integral part, which mostly goes unnoticed, is essence. The physical manifestation of essence lies somewhere deep within our neocortex. As we learn to tap into our essence for guidance, we can drive our automatic brain toward our true desires...
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Monday, August 18, 2008
Chapter 11: Food for Thought
“Just when I think I'm out, they drag me back in again..” –Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), Godfather III.
As we move away from our automatic brain’s influence on our lives, situations arise that seem to drag us right back into its clutches. Through the manipulation, seduction, and lies, the ego remains quite persuasive as it operates 24/7 to “protect” us. Since it is so powerful and omnipresent, it doesn’t need us continually to feed it...
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Monday, August 4, 2008
Chapter 10: Manipulation, Seduction, and Lies
“The child is grown, the dream is gone, but I have become comfortably numb.” –Roger Waters and David Gilmour (Pink Floyd). It can be supremely liberating to first recognize and then accept that what controls the destiny of most people is the automatic brain, our ego.  This revelation opens the door to understanding a deeper truth, a new world where our dreams and visions, our simple thoughts and ideas, can become manifest...
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Monday, July 28, 2008
Chapter 9: True Desires
“Just what you want to be, you will be in the end” –Justin Hayward (Moody Blues). Ever since I began sharing my book installments, people have been coming to me with issues that they feel I can address from my unique perspective. In this chapter, I will illustrate a technique I use to help those people, others, and myself move in a direction opposite the driving force of their automatic brains. ...
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Monday, July 21, 2008
Chapter 8: The Ultimate Challenge
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” –Benjamin Franklin. To provide further insight into the above definition of insanity, let me enlist the insight of two of the most profound and influential thinkers of our time: Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. In the following conversation from an episode of Seinfeld, you will see the power of not listening to the automatic brain ...
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Monday, July 14, 2008
Chapter 7: Ego and the Automatic Brain
“I’m afraid sometimes you’ll play lonely games too, games you can’t win, because you’ll play against you.” –Dr Suess. Years ago, I heard a silly joke that goes something like this: On his birthday, a young boy went to visit his grandmother. She presented him with two sweaters – a red one and a blue one. The next week he went back to visit and proudly wore the blue one. His grandmother looked at him and replied, “What, the red one you didn’t like?” ...
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Monday, June 30, 2008
Chapter 6: What’s Love Got to Do with It?
“Love is like oxygen, You get too much you get too high, Not enough and you're gonna die ....” –Sweet (1978)
Phyllis is a 48-year-old mother of two. Phyllis: Dr. G, no matter how hard I try, I continue to struggle with my weight. When I was married, I was 125 pounds, and now I am 200 pounds. I really don’t eat that much, but sometimes I just feel like I have no control—something just takes over. ...
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Monday, June 23, 2008
Chapter 5: Independence – An Unlikely Suspect
“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.” –Marcus Aurelius. When Albert Einstein first came to Princeton University in 1933, he was invited into a classroom to meet with the Mathematics Department chairman. The chairman was furiously working on a difficult proof, one of which he was especially proud. As he wrote quickly, Einstein interrupted in a quiet voice, “Excuse me, but could you please work a little more slowly? I was never really very good in math.” ...
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NEW!  Monday, June 18, 2008
Chapter 4: Childish Minds
“So, like a forgotten fire, a childhood can always flare up again within us.” -Gaston Bachelard. At around 1:30 p.m. on November 22, 1963, little three-year-old, almost-four-year-old, me, played in the small living area of a two-bedroom apartment in the Northeast section of Washington, DC, (the city of my birth and first few years of life). Suddenly, my mother ran into the room clutching her head and screaming, “Oh my God, President Kennedy’s been shot!”. ...
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Monday, June 9, 2008
Chapter 3: The Race
As soon as there is life, there is danger. -Ralph Waldo Emerson. It was a hazy, warm early June afternoon. We were competing against five other schools in the Millbrook Invitational Track Tournament. It was my senior year at the Hopkins School in New Haven, and my last high school track meet. The tournament came down to the final 880-yard relay (in those olden days, track meets were measured in yards, not meters; 880 yards is about the same as 800 meters, and is about a half-mile). We needed to finish first in that event to lock up the victory and give our team a winning record. ...
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Monday, June 2, 2008
Chapter 2: In the Beginning – The Automatic Brain
“…man is descended from some lowly-organized form…. Man still bears…the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.” Charles Darwin. In order to begin to understand why some unwanted thoughts seem so entrenched, and lead to heightened stress and lowered optimism, we must make a brief exploration into the origins of our nervous system. A simple word of caution: some may find this chapter a little complex. Bear with me—to understand why we think the way we do today, it is important to have a sense of where we came from. ....
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Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Chapter 1: Stress and optimism
Life will always throw you curves. Just keep fouling them off... the right pitch
will come, but when it does, be prepared to run the bases. -Rick Maksian
As a physician, I find that the two pillars of optimal health are the ability to both manage stress and to maintain strong optimism. This is not a casual presumption.....
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Monday, May 19, 2008
Installment 2 – Introduction (continued)
This week I continue sharing with you the chapters of my new book, a work in progress, as I write them. As always, I welcome your comments.] The humanity that we share, I believe, exists in our essence, and it is my search for this nebulous concept that is the reason for this book. Our essence is that which some call the spirit or the living soul. It is a feeling, a sense, perhaps an instinct. When we are alone in our quietest moments....
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Monday, May 12, 2008
Installment 1 – Introduction
During the almost 1 ½ years of writing my weekly messages, I have enjoyed sharing my personal insights. As I have said to so many, “Some people go to a therapist once a week, I write my weekly message!” Your feedback has been inspirational to me and often has made me emotional. Probably the most prevalent comment has been, “You should write a book.”...
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2008

April 28, 2008 - Stop The Insanity
During the course of our lives, all of us have heard certain quotations that have given us momentary pause. Since sometimes it seems that we have an unquenchable thirst for these “aha” moments, I want to explore how to blend them into more of a constant pattern...
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April 14, 2008 - All Grown Up
As children, many of our parents told us that we could be anything we want when we grow up. Some of us also were reassured that our parents would still love us, “even if you are a garbage collector.” Then life experience seemed to tell a different story ...
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April 7, 2008 - Passing Judgment
In general, thoughts influence our behavior, actions, and outcomes. This is a common thread within my weekly messages. I have determined that we have two main channels of thought. The first is automatic and reactionary; the second intuitive and reflective. The purpose of the former is to help us flee danger, ...
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March 31, 2008 - The Wonders of Music – Part 2
In one of my weekly messages last year, I wrote about The Wonders of Music (11.12.07). This week, I wish to write a follow up message dedicated to this topic – music. Several occurrences happened to me this week that prompted my revisiting this topic. The first was a video attachment to an e-mail I received from a friend. The video featured the audition of Paul Potts from the television show, Britain’s Got Talent ...
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March 24, 2008 - In the Box Training
Wouldn’t you agree that sometimes it is just so hard to be an optimist? Once, my son was complaining about something. I then interjected that he should practice being more positive. He replied, “You’re always so optimistic.” Obviously, he could not or did not desire, at that time, to see the glass as half full. ...
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March 17, 2008 - Ego vs. Essence
A week ago, many of us received a great shock, when the news reported that the FBI had busted Eliot Spitzer in a prostitution ring. The shock comes from the profound deviation between the activities of his public, political life and his private life. Nevertheless, this story did not shock me so much. ...
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March 10, 2008 - Childish Minds
A common theme throughout my messages and discussions with patients is the idea that our automatic brain will do whatever possible to remove us from harms way. This process primarily arises from the “fight or flight” response that generates the release of hormones that make our hearts beat faster and lungs breathe more rapidly. Following the instantaneous burst is the automatic thought cascade – a domino effect of thoughts ...
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March 3, 2008 - Creating Possibility
Recently my friend shared with me the following story. After finishing the presentation, listeners flocked to a popular motivational speaker for further questions. As he spoke with one woman, the speaker had a deep feeling that he needed to get out of the conversation. Never had he felt such a strong sense to end a conversation. Therefore, he gathered his fortitude and interrupted the woman telling her that ...
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February 25, 2008 - Moments of Everyday Life
You have read my words and heard the mantra about living in the moment. What if living in the moment prevents us from seeing the broader picture? What if living in the moment, getting swept up with events as they unfold, prevents us from stepping back and seeing other moments as they unfold or as they already exist? ...
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February 18, 2008 - Daily Magic
Weeks have passed since my first e-mail of the New Year. In that message, I urged you to make a resolution never to let the magic fade from your life. Have you fulfilled that resolution? On my Google home page, I receive daily quotes attributed to Albert Einstein. Yesterday the quote was, “Coincidences are God’s way of remaining anonymous.” I submit that much of the magic that we experience ...
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February 11, 2008 - Passion, Valentine’s Day, and the New York Giants
Even if you are not a New York Giants’ fan, the Super Bowl last week was arguably one of the greatest sporting events of all time. Some of the plays in the game might even be labeled miraculous. How the Giants pulled it off supports the reality that the whole, in many cases, is greater than the sum of its parts. ...
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February 4, 2008 - Balance and Super Bowl XLII
As I write this message, the results of Super Bowl XLII are not yet known. When asked what characterizes the winning team, one might respond, “the team with the most points.” That, of course, is a true statement; but I predict that the team that does score the most points will be the team that successfully achieves a balance between offense, defense, and special teams. (Hopefully the Giants!). ...
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January 28, 2008 - Gifts and Google Earth
One of the most interesting developments by Google is Google Earth. For those of you unfamiliar with this technology, it is the ability for one, through their computer, to zoom in from satellite images to very narrow areas (close enough to make out cars, shadows of people, individual houses). In some ways this technology parallels the world in which we live. ...
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January 21, 2008 - A Tale of Two Minds
Although I am not a neurosurgeon, this week I have decided to perform a little brain surgery. Not the type of brain surgery that you envision, but more a peeling back of the layers of our own minds so we can peak in and see what makes a particular segment tick. ...
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January 14, 2008 - Strengths, Weaknesses, and Envy
One need not look very far or listen very closely to recognize that a lot of our news is directed at another’s misfortune. What intrigues me is a very particular type of misfortune – that which inflicts a person in the public eye, perhaps one of high financial status, popularity, or celebrity. ...
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January 7, 2008 - Resolutions and Magic
We are now upon the first Monday of the New Year. I am excited to begin a new series of weekly messages. During the past two weeks of not writing, many ideas came to me. I thought it appropriate though to focus on the transition into the New Year. Resolutions are always a hot topic ...
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