Dr. Dao's Year End Reflections

By Dr. Daoshing Ni

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As the year rapidly ends, I want to thank you, my patients, who have taught me much about love and tolerance for pain and suffering. I see you going through your challenges, and this makes me realize how my challenges pale compared to yours. I have learned much from you, and I want to share some of these tips with all of you.

 

Little Changes Can Yield Big Results. 

There is a field of study in mathematics and physics called Chaos Theory. It is a work-in-progress understanding that seemingly chaotic complex systems can arise from underlying patterns, interconnections, constant feedback loops, and repetitions. Disease and sickness, especially chronic ones, appear to be messy, with many symptoms and multiple systems involved. But a lot of these chronic illnesses and suffering can be traced back to minor initial conditions that steered us off course, especially in our lifestyle. After many years of being off-course, we have moved far away from good health. Sometimes, we need to make quick wholesale changes to yank us back from the sickness pool. But most of the time, we can make minor tweaks to our lifestyles to reap significant benefits years later. The minor tweaks can be getting to bed half an hour earlier, stopping eating that sweet dessert every night before bedtime, cutting drinking from daily to every three days, or walking a few extra steps per day instead of driving a car. We do not need to wait for the new year to arrive to make that small step of positive change. If we develop a habit of regularly tweaking our lifestyle to include more small positive changes, we will become healthier quickly. 

 

Tame Our Demons. 

We all have desires, a natural part of our physical body and soul. But when they are out of balance, excessive, or start to harm, they become our demons. We have several greedy demons in our bodies: greed for power, food, material possessions, and sex. These desires can provide a good foundation for health and fulfillment when in balance. However, they will consume our essence and soul when they become excessive. They can change us and make us sick. They can alter healthy habits into addictions. These addictions will take us down a deep rabbit hole until they destroy our essence and the true purpose of our lives.

 

Actual Truth is a Rose with Thorns. 

In our lives, we do not always seek truth even though we think we are. We often seek convenient truths, i.e., truths that fit our beliefs, pleasures, and lifestyles. We tend to articulate the facts of what we like. Some reality is hard to swallow, so we shun them. Some truths are hard to control, so we avoid them. Some realities require sacrifices and suffering; we run away from them. The rose can stay beautiful because the thorns protect it from being eaten by animals. Truth is just like a rose with its thorns. There will always be some challenges, suffering, or even pain. That is what makes fact accurate.  

 

I hope you have a great holiday season and find deeper meaning in your existence and health.