The Science of Place and Well-Being

“Esther Sternberg is a rare writer—a physician who healed herself by going back to ancient truths known by the Greeks, and proving them. With her scientific expertise and crystal clear prose, she illuminates how intimately the brain and the immune system talk to each other, and how we can use place and space, sunlight and music, to reboot our brains and move from illness to health.”

I used to blow off this type of stuff prior to my cancer diagnosis. Just nonsense. Then on my second trip to the University of Texas, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, I was sitting in the airplane next to a doctoral student who was studying the mind-body connection. He set me straight on why my mental attitude was essential to beating cancer, and with exercise, meditation, and some serious self-reflection I’ve never looked back… and it’s coming up on seven years from my diagnosis with stage 3 breast cancer.

If you have a chronic illness, and even the best treatment doesn’t seem to be working, I suggest two things:

get away from your home area and get a qualified second opinion at a medical center that specializes in your illness, then take a good honest look at how you - both your mind and attitude - are working with or against your illness. You may need to challenge some fundamental assumptions, but to get well, that’s often how it works.

A little dirt: good for what ails you

When I have company over, I do things a bit differently. I wash the daylights out of everything when preparing a meal. Not so much, when it’s for family and self. I’m talking about veggies and such- not meat, fish or dairy. It’s mainly because I have, for years, believed what I just read by Jane Brody of The New York Times,  “Babies know, a little dirt is good for you.”

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