In The Doctor's Chair

In this episode, Liana and I discuss how approaching life with your character and personal strengths can help you achieve long-lasting benefits to your health, well-being, and vitality. We discuss how individuals can find their character strengths amid a world that focuses on insecurities and imperfection. We explore different ways to discover your character and personal strengths. We describe how everyone can bring their character strengths into their daily lives and develop them. We also highlight the power of knowing yourself and underscore how knowing your personal strengths can help you navigate challenging circumstances.

In this episode, I discuss health being your wealth and outline key ideas to help, support, and improve your health span and enable you to live with vitality. I explain how having a positive view of aging impacts vitality and longevity. I share my G.L.A.D. and W.W.W. exercises to help build your emotional bank account. I also highlight how our interpersonal relationships impact our health, discuss how our daily lifestyles and habits determine our well-being, and underscore the power of gratitude on improving our vitality.

Dr. Akil joins me today to share his life before undergoing open-heart surgery and why he didn’t believe heart disease could happen to him. We discuss his experience with depression and how those negative thoughts and behaviors manifested into physical symptoms. We discuss how undergoing open-heart surgery became the pivotal moment he finally decided to transform his life and make healthier lifestyle choices. We discuss his physical, mental, and emotional state immediately following open-heart surgery and why he chose to avoid taking medication to reduce his post-surgery pain.

In this episode, I discuss forest therapy and how it can improve your overall well-being, creativity, and connection to the world around you. I reveal how nature inspired me to write my book, The Vitality Mark. I explain how spending time in natural environments can help you lower your stress response, increase your relaxation response, and become more compassionate to yourself and the world around you. I also highlight how you can make the most out of your time being in nature to maximize its benefits.

Tony joins me today to share his story of battling drug and alcohol abuse. We discuss the misunderstandings and misconceptions society typically has around drug and alcohol addiction and why medical professionals and health organizations view addiction as a mental health issue. We discuss the struggles of trying to break addiction and what ‘emotional sobriety’ means.

Today, Caroline joins me to discuss where happiness comes from and the science behind goal-setting. She recounts her journey recovering from bulimia and addiction and how it led her to the field of positive psychology and coaching. She demonstrates the importance of positive psychology and provides instructions on using it to pursue difficult goals. She reminds us that it is never too late to start pursuing our goals and how novelty and zest for life can help us through challenges. We highlight how grit can be cultivated and how women in particular benefit from supporting each other in developing it. We also talk about the importance of healthy habits and Caroline’s favorite ways to find meaning in life.

In this episode, I discuss why it’s important to make time to keep your body moving, whether it’s through walking, yoga, or following an exercise routine. I discuss the benefits of walking and how all movement can be considered beneficial. I explain what brisk walking is and how it helps you maintain optimal health. I discuss how walking in nature helps boost your creativity and problem-solving skills and how walking with others improves your relationships. I also share a few simple ways you can add more healthy movement to your daily routine. Moving is medicine. Moving more can transform your health over time.

This episode, I discuss some of the life lessons we can learn from the great minds of ancient philosophers, like Epictetus. I share how he learned by choosing how he responded to different situations, it gave him an inner sense of freedom despite his circumstances.

Ibrahim Halawa, a 25-year-old Irishman, spent more than four years of his life in prison in Egypt after he was arrested while on a family holiday in 2013. Then aged 17, Ibrahim was detained by the Egyptian security forces after he and three of his sisters were caught up in a siege at a mosque in Cairo in August 2013.

This episode, I discuss the opportunity cost associated with an overthinking mind. I explain what the amygdala is, how it works, and how high worry and stress levels can impact your health and wellbeing. I explain how overthinking affects your ability to process emotions properly.