Boys and Girls Adrift
by Theresa Oswald, MD • April 6, 2010
While considering the impact self esteem has on health and healing, I read a very interesting and frankly disturbing book, “Boys Adrift” by Leonard Sax, M.D., Ph.D. In his book, Dr. Sax explores what he calls an epidemic of unmotivated boys not growing to their full potential. Why are boys adrift? One key problem is girls and women are acting in masculine ways to feel strong. This is not necessarily how they want to act or what feels natural but what society mandates by definition of what makes someone strong, successful and powerful. As a society we measure strength and power by a masculine yardstick. There is not a readily available role model of feminine power. When girls and women act like men to be powerful this puts both boys and girls at risk. When everyone is trying to act masculine to succeed, there is no balancing feminine force in society, although the world itself is defined as feminine, Mother Earth. It is ok for a girl to look and act like a boy, but for a boy to look like a girl is degrading. So what purpose does a boy have?
Women and girls are most powerful when moving in a feminine manner. What does feminine strength look like? It may look a lot like Mother Nature, nurturing, accepting, at times quiet, accommodating and supportive and at other times tempestuous, wild and seemingly chaotic. I am still learning and exploring what a truly powerful woman would look like but I know it involves love in fact fierce love, loving until it’s uncomfortable or unfashionable or unpopular. For men strength is presence and stability; for women it is love and fluidity. What would our world look like with strong leaders both men and women living to their full potential naturally and comfortably in their own skin? All it would take is a broader appreciation of power in both its masculine and feminine forms. It definitely would be worth a try.
Hold the Tomatoes
by Theresa Oswald, MD • November 21, 2009
I was talking with a friend about ways to deal with recurrent troubling thoughts. From years of experience with my own thoughts and many discussions with friends, it appears we all have thoughts that are unhelpful. If you are like me and have not found the off switch for the negative thought stream, here is an analogy that may be useful. Thoughts are like horsd’oeuvres. If you don’t like tomatoes, the bruschetta is not a problem if you don’t put it on your plate. The thoughts, like horsd’oeuvres being served at a party, will keep passing by but if they are not useful you can just leave them on the tray.
Albert Einstein
by Theresa Oswald, MD • November 21, 2009
“A human being is a part of the whole called by us “the universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest – a kind of optical illusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening the circle of understanding and compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
An Experiment
by Theresa Oswald, MD • November 11, 2009
There is so much debate about health care reform and much political posturing. The problem, from my viewpoint, is that the conceptual framework they are using for the basis of change is itself catastrophically broken. I am not really interested in health care reform.
I am interested in health care transformation. While healthcare reform seems like a daunting task of immense proportion; healthcare transformation involves each person evaluating their own health and reclaiming their body’s innate power to heal and to be healthy. Have we forgotten the immense power our bodies have to heal?
Our bodies know exactly what to do to mend our skin after a cut. Vast arrays of chemical reactions are occurring within us daily to keep our internal ecosystem in balance. When given the needed ingredients; fresh whole food, clean water, rest, shelter and a clear and calm mind, our bodies can do amazing feats to maintain balance and repair any damage.
How about an experiment of health care transformation where you are the captain of your own health care team, knowing we all come outfitted with all the needed equipment?
I feel Happiness Revolution in the air as we all are empowered to treat ourselves and our health with tender, loving care.
Buddha
by Theresa Oswald, MD • November 11, 2009
We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world.
Speak or act with a pure mind
And happiness will follow you
As your shadow, unshakable.
From the Dhammapada
Robert Frost
by Theresa Oswald, MD • November 11, 2009
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
from “The Road Not Taken”
Shakespeare
by Theresa Oswald, MD • November 11, 2009
“…for there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.”
(Hamlet Act 2, Scene 2)
