The biggest barrier to happiness + health

I had a patient ask me this recently and it really got me thinking and really had me ruminating and meditating on it because after all like in medicine if you know the root cause of an illness you know where it comes from and you know the medicine to treat it then you can prevent that person a lot of suffering and fix them but if you don't then no matter how many times you try that person could stay sick for years or even a lifetime so if you know the few things to do to live better what would those be we're talking about that in today's video hey guys I'm Dr Alex Hine board licensed doctor of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine and author of the health book master of the day let's jump in you know when I think about people today when you look at people around you what is the way that they're living and I thought about really my own life I mean my story is the story of a lot of professionals that have sort of the same issues that other professionals have when I get up in the morning sometimes I'm thinking do I check my phone and social media or my email or do I not and sometimes I scroll through for 30 minutes and I feel really unhappy because I could have had 30 minutes to meditate instead of going through some random Instagram video other days I go to a cafe for the first 90 minutes of the day and I study medical topics and Medicine overall and then I'm ready for the patients that I see the rest of the day and then on my lunch break I feel that little add tick again do I just check the phone do I just dip my toe in the pool of social media or of my email or just to see if there's a little dopamine hit from someone that reached out to me and then I go through a long work day some days it's very stressful and then at night I go home and I think did I actually do enough today so you know what I go home I have dinner and then for another 2 hours from 8:00 p.m. until 10: p.m. I work on my business a little bit more I feel over stimulated over stressed I don't feel like I've achieved enough I don't feel like I am where I want to be and then surprise surprise I can't sleep either I can't fall asleep for an hour or two or I wake up in the middle of the night because I was too stressed during the day and I was working and doing too much trying to make me do more when I think about the trials and tribulations of people today it's of course different it's different if you're a single mother it's different if you're a mother or father of young kids and you have a career it's different in a two-income household it's different in a single inome household but what do I think are the key struggles of people today to me the combination is of living too hurried of a life and of living a life with too much complexity so let's talk about these more for example I have some patients that come in I can knock out their acid reflux or gird like that even if they've had it for years severe gird on medication and yet in 6 months they could be right back in my office again because they're still an executive working 80 hours a week who doesn't exercise they're doing too much there's too much complexity they haven't been able to figure out how do I shave the hours down and still be happy and successful and so they need to figure out what is the origin of my life of this problem before they can change you know that's why I've put together that free quiz right below this video it's the root cause quiz what is the origin of my health issues what is the origin of my symptoms according to traditional Chinese medicine that quiz goes through a lot of those organs the root cause the branch cause and as a link to other videos that will help you sus that out but it helps you figure out what is that thing that makes this issue stay chronic the daa Jing has this amazing chapter 67 that talks a lot about Simplicity and I want to read it to you here because I think it will help it says I have three things to teach Simplicity patience and compassion these three are your greatest treasures simple in actions and in thoughts you return to the source of being patient with both friends and enemies you Accord with the way things are compassionate towards yourself you reconcile all beings in the world I was in the Philippines a couple years ago and as I was just walking around in a very remot part of the Philippines where people were looking at the only white boy some had ever actually seen and there were these kids playing soccer and they were all laughing and having fun they had tattered shirts and tattered shorts the homes and the little stores looked just disheveled but I noticed that these kids were running around having such a good time big smiles on their faces that day they had smiled probably more than I had in the last month and it really got me thinking about what makes people happy and what makes life fulfilling and really worthwhile worth it at the end of the day so I asked one of the mothers and I said what is most important to you in life what is the reason that you live and she just said it's family like as long as I have my family she said everything is okay she didn't mention her health she didn't mention financial success she didn't mention writing a book she didn't mention traveling to Australia or New Zealand every summer all she said was having her family and it made me think about what lza said in the doubt of Jing about Simplicity if your only major focus in life is your family that's so much easier not to mess up and not to be confused about your priorities and not to be confused about how to spend your time not to be confused about working 80 hours a week in some job in New York and claiming your family's priority when it probably isn't if you're working 80 hours a week if your family were your priority maybe you wouldn't be doing that and you'd just earn less money and spend more time home the Simplicity of that answer reminded me of focus and if you're focused on what is most essential and most important to you in your life it is very easy relatively to do what is important and to live a life aligned and congruent with what you say is important because it's so clear and so simple so let's talk about some simple practices for daily life because again for some of you that may even come to see me eventually the lifestyle aspect may be the way you prevent yourself from coming back into some kind of doctor's office in the future most Internal Medicine issues we can treat with acupuncture traditional Chinese medicine formulas whether you stay that way is really your work so when we talk about complexity just sit and reflect what leads to complexity in your life I'll give myself an example because my life is the only one that I know the complexity for me comes from being self-employed which means that I have much higher stress than a 9 to-5 person much less certainty in terms of my personal income so I have to be careful about buffering it and also every single week I have a 45 Point checklist of things that have to be done every week that is totally different from 7 years ago when I was an office worker doing a boring marketing job where maybe I had 3 hours of work to do every day and I had 9 hours to do it in my practice there's a 45o checklist for what I have to do outside of seeing patience 3 days a week the shooting videos the prepping videos everything related to this whole content educational aspect of the business that is a lot of work outside of seeing patience so for me the complexity exists only in my career life my practice is how can I make my business as simple as possible as low stress as possible as streamlined as possible and bring in as many other people to hire in that help that will make this much much easier for me for me the complexity is how can I make my career and business life a simple as possible that becomes my focusing question for you it may be that you're a mom who has young kids but you're also driven and you're pushing yourself to succeed and you feel this tug and this mom guilt because you're always being like how can I be more successful and how can I be a better other who's around you're going to have to figure out what is the simplest way I can succeed or maybe it means lowering the bar for now for the next couple years or maybe it means becoming self-employed so that in 6 hours a day or 4 hours a day you could have the same money that you'd make working 9 or 10 hours a day you can do that as an entrepreneur figuring out what leads to the most complexity in your life and trying to chop away at that now what about when it comes to living A hurried or rushed life when it comes to living A hurried or rushed life I would challenge everyone to think about what is most important for example I noticed that I push myself to do a lot because I want to achieve a lot and why do I want to achieve a lot because I want to be successful and why do I want to be successful because it makes me feel good about myself why does it make me feel good about myself because it makes me feel like a somebody not just someone who's living a life of the status quo accepting their lot in life and they're content with every day being the same for 70 years so for me it's really a self-esteem route as to why I push myself so hard there's a great recent interview with Gabor mate where he talks about his life regret of only working through his life and he realized it was the exact same route it made him feel like someone important and significant and I would arue the root of a lot of high Achievers is exactly that is low self-esteem actually so thinking why do I live such a rushed life it may not have anything to do with self-esteem like it did for me what it may be is you just have a lot to do as a career person and as a mother and having young kids but there may be a way to simplify that dramatically is it really necessary to work past 6:00 every day or can I be home by 4:30 and get an hour and a half back to go to the gym or be home with your kids is it really necessary to do all these obligations you do on the weekend because really you feel obligated and you feel guilty if you don't or could you not and guess what maybe some people will judge you but you're going to be a lot healthier and happier so think about what is causing the rushing is it just an emotional thing a drive to succeed or is it a logistical thing and you can find other ways to work on that so just a practical philosophical rant today for you guys that I think will help you think about why is it that we are often so chronically ill from an emotional point of view a lifestyle point of view right a lot of what we have today are what are called diseases of affluence diseases of the modern world so think about that now if you guys want to work with me personally I see a limited number of new Pat every month in my clinic in Los Angeles or virtually via tele medicine so you can just check out the info from my clinic in the description of this video or just go to Dr alex.com slcl Clinic to reach out and also there's another specific habit we didn't talk about here that leads to a lot of these same health issues and I covered it in this video over here