One of the most important aspects of our lives is our relationships. Everything we desire including love, friendship, happiness, well-being and wealth depends on our relationships. If we are to enhance the quality of our relationships then we must cultivate the most important skill there is: the art of listening. In our modern society where […]

The holiday season is a busy time for most mainly in preparation. There are gifts to buy, food to prepare, parties to plan and attend, meeting work deadlines before the year ends, taking stock of what we accomplished in the prior year and where we fell short in order to start preparing for the upcoming […]

  As a critical care physician I am often asked to intervene in a patient’s clinical course when things go awry. Usually these patients have been dealing with chronic illness for a number of years and have an acute deterioration which lands them in the hospital. They may deteriorate further and go into severe breathing […]

Last week marked the annual Thanksgiving holiday for Americans which is the beginning of the holiday season. This is an exciting time for many people as they prepare to entertain their families and friends, purchase gifts for their children, decorate their homes and get caught up in the magic of the season. It can also […]

Life is truly a beautiful mystery. Do we really have an understanding of how life truly works? For example, look at the human body. We may think that science has an understanding of physiology from the organ system to the molecular level. When you think about it, there is so little we know about ourselves. […]

Our life situations have become chaotic. There is so much vying for our attention at any given moment from our partners, children, extended families, friends, bosses, work colleagues, email, social media, our smart phones, daily chores, meal planning, clothes shopping, entertainment, vacation planning and the myriad of other things that occupy our time. I’m surprised […]

Childhood is a time of wonder and discovery. However, it can also be a time of overwhelm. As a father of three children I know the pressures that children go through with increasing demands on their time from school, extracurricular activities and parental expectations. This does not take into account the many distractions that vie […]

The word truth conjures up many ideas and images including honesty, integrity and authenticity. Truth is usually discussed in the context of our relationships with others in which honesty of communication is usually valued above all else. However, truth is about more than our relationship to others. The word truth points us to the essence […]

In my last blog post I discussed the power of choice and how we are constantly making choices in every moment of our life. I mentioned that many people make choices which are not necessarily in their best interest. This week I’d like to discuss a process for making more empowered choices. The fact is […]

  Choice. It is something that we engage in every moment of our lives. From the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep that night, we are constantly making choices. These could be simple choices such as what clothes we are going to wear and what route we are going to […]

  Nutrition is a very popular and complex subject these days and the weight loss industry capitalizes on this through promoting various diets. There are numerous diets that we are told will help us lose weight and improve our overall health. These include the low carbohydrate diet, gluten free diet, paleo diet, vegan diet, ketogenic […]

The transition from summer to fall is truly a beautiful time of year. I love seeing the change of seasons as the trees start changing colour from green to orange and red, the weather starts getting cooler, birds start migrating south and mammals start preparing for the coming winter. The transition was, traditionally, a time […]

There has been a lot written about success over many centuries with much more focus on this in the last several decades. We are striving to become smarter, stronger, faster, healthier, wealthier and more accomplished. We want to be more connected with others with more meaningful and fulfilling relationships. With so much information on achieving […]

  In my last blog post I discussed the types of fear that we deal with. I distinguished actual fear from psychological fear with actual fear being a real threat to our wellbeing such as confronting an armed attacker. I also discussed that psychological fears are those fears that are not a real physical threats […]

In my last post, I asked the question of why do we fear and where our fears arise from. I discussed how most of our fears are conditioned in early childhood and can affect us throughout our adult lives. Now let’s distinguish the types of fear that we can experience. I make a distinction between […]

Fear is one of the most common and complicated emotions that we can experience. We all experience this in some way or form in our early childhood and throughout our lives. So what is fear? Fear is a learned response which becomes programmed in early childhood, meaning that it is something that we are not […]

  Life is chaotic. There are increasing demands on our attention and time. There’s work deadlines, meetings, email, responding to texts, social media, car maintenance, doing groceries, children’s activities, going to the gym, making dinner, your kids’ homework, staying in touch with family and friends and planning vacations to name a few. This does not […]

    One of the things I look forward to in the summer is all the exciting movies that are released of all genres. There is nothing more enjoyable than enjoying a great movie on a hot summer night. I recently saw ‘Mission Impossible: Fallout’ and I must say that it is one of the […]

I’ve been a practicing physician for 13 years which does not include the 6 years of residency training to become a pulmonary and critical care physician. However, my intellectual journey began long before I entered medical school back in my early childhood. I was a curious explorer and wanted to know as much about the […]

  In my last blog post I discussed that life always hangs in a delicate balance. We experience seeming opposites in our relative experience in this world as part of that balance. The truth is that we are not our life stories or the thoughts and emotions that they generate. Who we are is far […]

Life is a continual interplay of opposites. This is evident both on a personal level as well as a global level as we look at the world around us. Whether it is light and dark, compassion and hate, joy and grief, win and loss, elation and despair, life always hangs in a delicate balance. Just […]

Life is full of challenges which can often lead to setbacks. Whether its in your health, your relationships, your career or finances, sooner or later you are bound to hit a pothole on the road of life. This is unavoidable and inevitable. It does not matter what obstacle you face but what matters is how […]

  In my last two articles I started to discuss the path to emotional mastery. I discussed how to deal with negative emotions which arise from negative thinking and how to manage those that arise from what we experience on a daily basis. In this article I’d like to discuss emotional blocks. We first have […]

In my last blog post I started to discuss the fascinating topic of emotional mastery. Here is the link to that article in case you missed it. The fact is that we all have emotions but most of us feel like we’re at the mercy of our feelings. This is because few of us have […]

This marks the beginning of a new blog post series on mastering your emotions. Emotions are one of the most misunderstood aspects of human existence. We all experience them but few of us know how to manage them effectively to the point that we often appear to be victims of our emotions. In order to get […]

  One of the most difficult events in the human experience, besides the death of a loved one, is the end of a relationship. This is an all too common occurrence on a global scale as statistics tell us that the divorce rate is close to 50%. This does not take into account the countless […]

If you have lived in this world long enough then you realize that, at times, our personal relationships can deteriorate into something more than just a simple disagreement. They can progress into serious conflict and a major rift and things can snowball downhill quickly from there. The divorce rate of 50% is a testament to […]

In the last several posts I have discussed the importance of cultivating your relationship to yourself as the first step towards elevating all of your relationships with others. I discussed doing this through stillness and I also explained how the purpose of all of our relationships is for our consciousness to express its true nature […]

In my last blog I discussed the importance of cultivating your relationship with yourself and how to do this through practicing stillness. This week I’d like to discuss why this is important for all of your external relationships. The fact is that most relationships are plagued by conflict and stress. All you have to do […]

  In my last blog I introduced the topic of relationship and discussed all the various relationships we have including our romantic relationships, family and friends, work colleagues, people we encounter in our daily routine and also our relationship to nature and the universe. I started to discuss the most important relationship which is the […]

This week I’d like to discuss the importance of something that is a part of all of our lives and that is relationships. Now when I say this you are probably conjuring up images of your current or past romantic partner and what experience you had with him or her. This is, however, a very […]

In the last several posts I have discussed the importance of setting the intention to overcome depression which must be tied to a greater meaning or higher calling. I have also discussed the importance of optimal nutrition and movement in healing depression. I’ve also discussed how to release emotional blocks. In this post, I’d like […]

In the last several posts I have discussed the importance of setting the intention to overcome depression which must be tied to a greater meaning or higher calling. I have also discussed the importance of optimal nutrition and movement in healing depression. This week I’d like to talk about the role of our emotions. Most […]

In the last several posts I’ve discussed the importance of setting an intention to heal from depression which must be tied to a greater meaning or higher calling for your life. I’ve also discussed how we must optimize our nutrition to eliminate inflammatory foods and only eat the highest quality foods for our health and […]

In the last post, I started discussing the effective management of depression which starts with intention. I discussed that in order to set an intention to heal from depression, one must have a greater meaning to their life and answer a higher calling because we are all here for a reason. Most of us live […]

In my last blog I started to discuss the growing global epidemic of depression. I discussed modern medicine’s approach to treating depression which is to prescribe a pharmaceutical agent whose goal is to affect the brain’s neurochemistry. I discussed how this is a misguided approach to treating depression because it does not address the multifactorial […]

Depression. It is a condition that we have been hearing about more and more in recent years and there is not a single person I know who does not know someone who suffers from it. It is one of the most common conditions in modern times and is one of the biggest causes of workplace […]

Do negative emotions affect your health?  Conditions such as depression and anxiety have been shown to affect how we manage and treat our other chronic conditions but, even if one does not suffer from these conditions, unresolved emotions can pave the way for chronic diseases to manifest.  These unresolved emotions include grief, anger, jealousy, hatred, […]

This week I’d like to discuss challenges in our lives. We all grow up with certain expectations based on how we’re influenced early in our lives by our parents, our teachers, our peers and society at large. Most people expect to establish a successful career and find someone with whom to have a close personal relationship with […]

Happiness. The word conjures up images of fun, relaxation, spending time with family and friends, travelling and any number of leisurely activities. Even though these are the things that most are seeking, we spend very little time doing the things that make us happy. The reason is that most of our time is spent trying […]

Intention. It is the word that comes to mind no matter what you are currently doing or planning to do in your life. Intention is the precursor to setting and working towards any goal that you want to accomplish. This makes sense because how can you achieve anything without setting your intention towards that goal? […]

Here is an excerpt from my newly released book, ‘Healing From The Inside Out,’ about our relationship to the unknown: The true nature of life is uncertainty. Although we like to believe that we know where we are headed and what to expect in the seconds, minutes, hours, and days ahead, the truth is that the plans […]

Hello everyone! I hope you’ve all had a great start to the new year. In the last few blog posts, I’ve been talking about setting and achieving your goals. We’ve talked about setting goals that are in line with your highest values and vision for your life. We’ve also talked about taking the smallest step […]

The new year is now upon us and this is the time when we start setting our goals in the form of new year’s resolutions. In my last post, I discussed how most people have given up on their new year’s resolutions by late February. The reason for this is that most people do not […]

The holidays are upon us and it is a time of joy and renewal as we celebrate the season with our family and friends. However, it is also a time of reflection on the year that has passed and planning for the coming year. When the holidays are over, people start setting goals for the […]

We are well into the holiday season and its a busy and fun time for most with thoughts of getting together with family and friends, attending holiday parties, giving gifts and just reveling in the spirit of the season. Although this is a joyous time for most, there are a lot of people for whom […]

American Thanksgiving is upon us and those of you who live in the US will be celebrating with family, friends and the traditional turkey dinner. This marks the beginning of the holiday season which extends from Thanksgiving straight through to New Year’s Eve. This is a time of reflection over the past year as well […]

People often wonder what inspired me to write my book, ‘Healing From The Inside Out: Overcome Chronic Disease and Radically Change Your Life.’ They also wonder how I could possibly find the time for such an endeavour given my busy schedule as a physician and family responsibilities. What I tell most people is that it […]

In my last blog post I discussed the problem of overwhelm which is becoming all to prevalent in our fast-paced multitasking modern society. I discussed the factors that lead to this including the increasing demands on our time and the increasing complexity of our lives which is fuelled by modern technology which allows us instant […]

Overwhelm. It is a term which is all too familiar to most of us. We are all dealing with an unprecedented amount of responsibilities and tasks on a regular basis. This can include work deadlines, shuttling our kids between home, school and their activities, doing the groceries, making dinner, getting your car’s oil changed, picking […]

This is one of the most intriguing questions which can give us deep insights into our being. The shadow is that aspect of ourselves which most like to ignore and often manifests as negativity in our lives. This can take the form of depression, incessant worry and anxiety, anger, regret and shame to name a […]

I’d like to talk about one of the most controversial and emotionally-wrenching subjects that affects everyone: Love. Love has been the subject of countless books, television dramas, movies, songs and pervades all aspects of our popular culture. It is, however, one of the most misunderstood subjects there is. I am no expert in love and […]

Healing From The Inside Out: Overcome Chronic Disease And Radically Change Your Life   If you were to ask me the origin of this book, I would have to say that it began in my early childhood. As a child I had a keen intellectual curiosity and devoured all the knowledge I could through my […]

Adversity. It’s a word that is daunting and causes anxiety, and one that we are all too familiar with. There is nobody who ever has been or ever will be born in this world who will not, at some point in their lives, face adversity. Adversity can throw us off course in our lives by […]

A recent report by the Canadian Cancer Society warns that, in coming years, 1 in 2 Canadians can be expected to be diagnosed with cancer. As a specialist working on the front lines, these statistics are not surprising. Over the 18 years of my career, practicing in both the United States and Canada, I have […]

Why do you do what you do? That is not the most important question but is the question I’d like to start off this inquiry with. Have you ever stopped to ask yourself this question? Let’s look at one aspect of your life: your profession or your career. What do you do for a living? […]

Life is about choices. It is the choices we make which shape our outcomes in life. When we are children we make bolder choices as we do not have the context of experience out of which fear arises. We follow creeks when we don’t know where they’ll lead, we easily talk to other kids and […]