Dr. Gladys McGarey - The Well-Lived Life - A 103-Year-Old Doctor's Six Secrets to Health and Happiness at Every Age - ENCORE

Dr. Gladys McGarey was born in 1920. She spent her childhood in the jungles of North India. Her parents were both osteopathic physicians and Dr. Gladys knew she too was destined to be a doctor. She had a moment of deep connection with Mahatma Gandhi when she was ten-years-old that would forever change her life and set her on a path of love.

In this episode Dr. McGarey shares the five L's of life. She teaches us to listen to the wisdom of our own bodies. We are the healers, the physician assists us. We discuss "femifesting" as opposed to manifesting, finding your "juice" in life, the power of dwelling in gratitude, how everything in our path is a lesson, and the importance of REALLY letting go of things that don't matter. She knows a thing or two about living and we were so lucky to have a conversation with this wise elder.

Over the past sixty years, she has pioneered a new way of thinking about disease and health that has transformed the way we imagine health care and self-care around the world. The founder of The Foundation for Living Medicine and cofounder of the American Holistic Medical Association, Dr. McGarey has mentored everyone from Dr. Mark Hyman to Dr. Edith Eger and has helped hundreds of patients live happier and healthier lives. In April 2024 with the release of the paperback version of The Well-Lived Life, she became a best-selling author at the age of 102.

The Well-Lived Life - A 103-Year-Old Doctor's Six Secrets to Health and Happiness at Every Age

https://gladysmcgarey.com/

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Transcript

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Hi, friends. I just want to introduce this week's episode. It's an encore presentation with Doctor Gladys McGarry. From season one with Lisa Rice. And I just found out that doctor McGarry passed away in September at the age of 103. And it just makes this episode that much more of a treasure that she shared her knowledge with us before she passed away. She was a doctor. She had six children. She grew up in the jungles of India, and she taught us about the five ills of life. She met Gandhi. I mean, this woman lived. But what really stuck with me is that she learned this concept of, I think it was a Hindu concept from her mother. And she she said company. And she made this like hand gesture like she was dropping something company. It doesn't matter. Let it go. And that really stuck with me and resonated with me. And over the past months since I interviewed her, when I start getting worked up over something, I'll recall this saying company, it doesn't matter. And honestly, it doesn't. It hasn't. And so I really hope that you'll give a listen. We will. I'll be back in, February with all new episodes and a new look. And so until then, take care. I'm Lauren and I'm Lisa, and we're flipping the script about growing older. Our guests have been influencers since before that was even a thing. Welcome to the anti Anti-Aging podcast. Welcome to age like a badass mother. Doctor Gladys Taylor McGary is internationally recognized as the mother of holistic medicine. Doctor Gladys, as she's affectionately known, is board certified in holistic and integrative medicine and has held a family practice for more than 60 years. She is the co-founder of the American Holistic Medical Association and past president, as well as the co-founder of the Academy of Parapsychology and Medicine. She was the first to utilize acupuncture in the US and trained other physicians how to use it. Doctor Gladys has authored six books, including her latest that she authored at 102 years old, called The Well-Lived Life. A 102 year old doctors, six Secrets to Health and Happiness at Every Age. The book is absolutely brimming with love and positivity, just as the author is. Doctor McGarry has indeed lived a well-lived life from her early childhood in India, where she helped her parents with their medical practice when she was around eight years old, to her life as a physician and mother of six children, to her survival of both heartbreak and illness. She is now 103 years old and has a ten year plan. I know we say this a lot, but doctor McGarry truly is a badass mother in every sense of the word. Please welcome her to our podcast. Welcome, Subhash. Oh, good to be here. You know that word? I learned it from you from your ten. Can you tell people what Shamash means? Shamash. It means congratulations. I mean, beyond just. That's a good thing to do. It's graduations. Oh. That's fantastic. So, what did you do for your hundred and third birthday? How are you? Great. I don't remember. Oh, we had we had a party and we had a little cake and stuff. But when is your birthday? What? What's the date? The 30th is coming up. Coming up. Right? Yeah. Okay. So planning something. The time before that, I rode in, tricycle into, onto the stage, you know, on a tricycle. But this time I wasn't able to do that because I, fell off the. Actually, the tricycle kicked me off, and I broke three ribs, so. Oh, goodness. You know, I couldn't do it anyway. It's here. You're a prolific celebrator, though. One time you jumped out of a cake I read, so. I love it. I love that you embrace it. So. So you were born in 1920. Did. And I know you. You were born in India. But did you have electricity in your house when you were a child? Was electricity? We lived in tents up in the villages, the jungles of North India. Because my parents were both physicians. They were osteopathic physicians. My mother was, 1913, got her last classic license, which just you women just didn't. And when she got run out to India with my dad, she had to be part of his luggage because she was actually, And is a real person. Anyway, my parents were awesome people who took their medical work to the jungles of North India, which involved, living in tents, which to me was, you talk about that as good stuff to do. This was wonderful. You know, we just ran around in and out of the jungles and climb trees and all sorts of wonderful things. And the little Indian kids, were my friends, you know, little kids out in the village. And they spent a lot of time rubbing my arms trying to get the weight off. Oh. That's funny. Isn't that incredible? We. Yes. What role models? Your parents were, awesome until the day they died. In fact, my mother had a sense of humor that could take almost anything. And just as a little twist. Add humor to it. Like the day before? Actually, yeah. It was a couple days before she died. We were sitting on my back porch, and, she looked at my dad sitting beside us, and she said to him, John, look at that two in your bush. It has more than four, 400, flowers on it. And he says, oh, this doesn't have more than 40. She says, what's another zero? How old was she? 96. Okay. So maybe some longevity runs in your family. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Did your siblings live to be. Are you the only surviving sibling, or are you still have siblings? The only surviving sibling. But, they live in their 90s. And you have four children? Six? I'm sorry. Six. Six. You've got this one here. I, I'm astounded, though. I just want to, hear a little bit about your, I think, your philosophy, you live your philosophy because I watched a little bit of a video of you talking about recovering from this accident you had on your bicycle, which for, you know, your age is pretty incredible that your healing journey and what you, one of the things you talked about was listening to your own body. And I also notice a theme, in, in your medical practice and even your advice to your son about your role as a physician, about finding the physician with each within each patient and the person's ability to heal themselves, where the physician sort of assist that. I know that's a lot to talk about at once, but, but you but the point being that how you attributed that philosophy to yourself recently when you healed from your accident. Yeah, yeah. To actually my whole life when I was two years old, I had, malarial hepatitis and almost died. But my parents, you know, right, helped me through that. And it's it hasn't been easy road. But then who's who wants the easy road? You know, you want something that allows you to reach beyond where you thought you could, reaching up and out instead of back and down. But I think you're good at listening to yourself. I think that's the key. And and and really just treating everybody, including yourself, with love. Is that that kind of your philosophy? It's essential. It's essential. In fact, I have when I put on my five L's, which, along the line have helped me, to position these in a way that makes it makes it understandable for me and therefore, I think, understandable for other people. The first two go together. They can't work without each other. That life and love have to be together. It's like a woman's pregnancy when we're pregnant. That baby and me, the one being everything I eat, the baby eats, everything I say. It's a baby. Things. So we're one ferments the organism. And in the process of, some of that see this being who is growing within my body, within me, become one. But the baby becomes a real person. The moment it takes its its first breath. It then becomes itself and it manifests. So, you know, we we women, our job is to eat them, of us. And it's a guy's job to manifest. But we have spent eons of time trying to manifest and wondering what was, you know, how come? How come not us? You know, this is this has been the song I, someone should make up a song about that. You, it's it's a, the whole concept. Some of us. You want to hear about that? Yes, please. I there's a lot, a lot of years spending time with my dreams. If I have a dream that is important, it'll get me. And or if I have a subject that I think really is an answer. All work. Work with my dreams. So this one time I woke up and, it was a loud crash that woke me up. It's just like a huge something falling down. And I woke up, and I was found myself in one of the valleys of the high Himalayas. And on the right hand side was a young woman just splayed out on the ground, almost dead, just barely breathing. And on the left hand side was a huge man dressed in armor. And, he was in the same position and they were just lying there. And I, said to myself, I got the words in my head actually saying these to beings have been fighting each other for eons of time with their fists. It's time they open their fingers and we recognized each other and, did things together and stopped the fighting. So that was my dream. And I thought, you know that up there, right? And to come to think of it, the woman was on the right hand side, which is the feminine aspect of our being. And the man was on the left hand side, which now this was the masculine and this is still them. Let us let them. And so I knew that there was this was an important message. And I had a friend who was psychic. And so when I had things that I had to talk over was erroneously dear. I called her in Virginia Beach and she says, you know, I've been thinking about another word that I think we should start using. And she says, we're so busy trying to manifest things that it's time that we start recognizing our own being and start them off as I live. And as we talked about that, we realized that in order to manifest, you're climbing Jacob's Ladder. You get you get a degree, you practice, you die to die. Have a, house. You know, you get something, you manifest something to family, says a woman. We, as women, some of us all the time. We don't time Jacob's Ladder. We live in a spiral, evolving. You can be on the fifth around, on the top second rung of the spiral and, know what's going on. On the first and second on down below is the fact that we know, you know, you can be doing dishes with one baby in one arm and the other kids playing on the floor. It's that kind of a, ability that, we as women naturally have. But when we try to manifest it, it bugs the heck out of us. You know, it sounds like this could be your next book. Yes, I, I love it. Well, you know what, though? We didn't finish your five L's. You said life and love and life. And then what? Then what? Then it's laughter. Laughter was, is code. It's name invokes outbreaks of families, causes wars. It's not nice, but laughter with love is is joy and happiness. The fourth one is labor. Labor without love is. Oh, man, I gotta go to work. 2 or 3 diapers. Just life is too hard and we just drag ourselves through it. But labor with love is bliss is why you're doing what you're doing is why I'm doing. What I'm doing is what makes us ask for a good challenge. That labor with love is is okay. This is what I want to do. This is work. Well, I'm here for. And so that's bliss. And the fifth one is is listening. Listening without love is empty. Sound me crying. Gone. But listening with love is understanding. So these five L's help help me put love in context with my life. And what I think and what I work with and what I ask people to work with. As as we work together. Yeah, love is like a central theme in your life, and I, I imagine or as far as I read, that it kind of came from from your moment with Gandhi. Can you, can you talk about that or. Well, I don't know that it came from that. I recognize something at that point. I was nine years old, not ten. We were on the path. I was on the train and we were coming back to United States. My parents every six, every seven, seven years were allowed, to come back home so they could, you know, see their family and reconnect and so on. So we were on the train going to court and coming to America. I was ten years old and I didn't like I didn't want, I didn't know what America was. And it was I didn't like it. I didn't want to go home. I want to stay in India. So I was having a hard time on the train. But my self, I was by myself and I was by the window and outside was a huge. We came to a train station, the train slowed down and the huge crowd of people, which isn't unusual. Then you have crowds of people all wrong. But this one crowd was being. There was a small man walking in front of the crowd he had on a white hoodie. He was carrying a, like t a staff and just walking along and people would be chanting, I wasn't sure what they were chanting, but they were chatting to something, and he came right in line with where I was looking out of my window. On the train. My face pressed and he reached down to take a flower from the little girl. And when he reached, when he stood up, he looked straight into my eyes, and I looked straight into his. And something happened. I can I've never been able to explain it. I just know what I experienced. I experienced a connection that was very real, and I knew that something was really, really important going on here. And so it made my, leaving India something that I could accept better. But anyway, 30 years later, my parents worked with Gandhi in the partition of India because it was that kind of a connection where when India was really tearing itself apart with the separation of the Hindus and the houses, and that they needed some loving connection to bring them together. Gandhi was doing that. He was going around. That's what he was starting back, when I saw him, when we connected. But he was working with my parents at the time when it was being carried off. So I have upstairs a shawl that Gandhi gave me, gave my parents, my mother. And, there is a blanket that, blanket the Gandhi gave my dad. In other words, they were friends. They were colleagues working together, and they were friends. But the connection had started way back when I was ten years old. Were you ever able to tell him that? No. I didn't need to. Nah. Yes, yes. Yeah. Yeah. It sounds like the, his, his, his ability to approach everything with love really impacted your ability to see through that lens. Yeah. And it sounds like, I know that you treat you know, you had a do you still practice. You do you still see patients or. I'm calling life practice life. You know, their own life. Not I'm not I don't have a license. I can't practice medicine. So I don't practice medicine. But life counseling. Nobody told me I had to stop talking. Exactly. And that's. And you're so comforting. It's it's it's it seems like, you know, you know, what's missing from medicine. And that's love, compassion and teaching somebody to believe in themselves. And you spent a lot of time just loving on your patients and holding their hands and asking them what's really going on in your life. And I don't we just don't have that where did you learn that? From your parents? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, they never turned anybody away. And these were most of them. But people that they worked with out in the villages were the poorest of the poor. These were the villagers who lived out in the village and, villages. How did the jungle. So, you know, it was different. Do you think that's where I mean it sounds to me like that's where it was really ingrained in you, the value of the individual. Because what I've learned from, your teaching is about, how you view each person as very unique and how we, each one of us play an important role. And this sort of cosmic web of the universe. And it seems to really be part of your practice and what you teach when you're helping, empowering your patients to heal themselves. Well, I knew when I was a child, a little child, that I was a doctor mean it wasn't a question of, oh man, I was became a doctor. What my sister and I, she wouldn't let me play with her dolls because my daughter got sick and I shouldn't. That's. No, you know, it was that kind of an understanding. And I let my parents know that I was a doctor and so when, when I was. Have you read this story about the elephant? Can you talk about that? Okay. When I was nine years old, one day, one weekend, my dad and my brothers, two older brothers went on a hunt. The they did these hunts because in the jungles there were tigers. And and there were leopards, and there were hyenas. And these animals attacked the villagers. And I have a big tiger skin on my wall, which my dad shot. And a leopard skin, a shell that my the life shot. Because these were animals that were attacking the people who had no protection so they would come and ask my parents, my dad, to do something so that at this time, my dad and my brothers were off on the hunt, and my mother and I and my sister, little brother was the ones who were left there. So I felt that it was my responsibility to help. My mother was the work that was going on in the medical town, and that was fun. And all of a sudden, in the in the camp, here comes a man walking with an elephant. And, he walks up to my mother and he says, name. So he says, this is the Maharajas favorite elephant. And we were on the hunt and the elephant stepped on a bamboo stump and hurt his foot. And he's not getting it, not getting over it. We don't know what happened. And so the Maharajah wants you to do something about my mother. Sent him my mother's flat one. Okay. This little I don't treat elephants. And he said, you're a doctor. And she said, oh, yes. And so she walked up to the elephant, began putting its huge leg, which is, you know, much, much bigger than she was, and talking to him. And the elephant doesn't. But that night it's standing perfectly still. And so she says to me, she asked me to go into the tent and get a, a potassium permanganate, which I knew how to fix, and of of forceps, so that she could work with it. Anyway, I knew what she was talking about, and I went and got it. And, in the meantime, she's talking to the elephant. All this time. I tell him that she'll do what she can. She did? Sure. You know, just good, friendly talk. And the elephant doesn't move a grip a lot, and he just stand. There was anything but. So I brought the, equipment, and he gave it to her, and then she began, poking around in the bottom and the sole of his foot until she found a piece of, bamboo that was about six inches long and was stuck there. And she worked with it with the forceps, loosened it up and got it out, and then took this syringe that I had brought and clean the whole world with that, and applied some ointment on it. And so she dressed it. And, elephant still had moved at all. And so, when it was all done, she explained to the mahout, the elephant, elephant boy, what they should do and how to take care of it, and so on. They never hug the man that comes here. Let us walk. The kids walk over to the elephant, and the elephant picked us up one at a time with his snout and put his on his back. And a couple of Indian kids, two, two were sitting up there and we walked because this cab was on the edge of the eggs. We walked down into the Ganges and he gets water and sprays us, like with his, we just had a, hallelujah time. I mean, lovely beyond sha bush and experience. It was just great. So that was that day. The next day, here comes the elephant back into into care and doesn't pay any attention to what the Mount Mahouts tell him to do. Walk straight over to where my mother is, puts his trunk around her and pick her up and start swinging around until finally she had some other slot and she said, now be a good boy and put me down. And that's love. Another example of love I love it. That's so good. Well, what it is, is unconditional love. You know, she had her condition that was treating people until the world told her that it wasn't. So she had to treat people who came to her no matter what shape they were in. That's incredible. Well, or should we? I don't want to not touch on the six secrets of a well-lived life. We. I want to come back to some of your incredible childhood. But let's talk. Can you can you walk us through the six secrets of your well-lived life? Because we all want to know how we can live like you to 103 and still be so sharp and intelligent. Well, let me. I told you this five mils. You know that. That's a great thing. The six secrets. We came for a purpose. We need to look for that. If we don't look for that, we're not going to find it. And we need to be able to, find that I want people to read because I want them to read these. Because the importance of finding in yourself is very important, and I can tell you, but. Well, it's sort of like the elephant my mother had to wake up to the fact that she was a doctor, you know, it said, get the book, read it, and find out what the six secrets are yourself. Because it's essential that you understand what it is that you're looking for in the long run. You're looking for your own juice. You're looking for what it is that's going to let you live your life wildly. So you spend your juice doing the things that your inner for tells you are the things that you are supposed to bring to this earth. No one else can do it. It's your job, but you have to find that out yourself. You, just like you say that life's challenges point us to the part of our soul that's ready to transform. I mean, I think that's what people struggle with. Like, how do I know what I'm here for? How do you find that? How how do you know when you've got. How do you know when you've found your juice? You never know until you find it, you know. So it's it's something that you're looking for. If you're not looking for it, you'll never find it. If it's if you're always looking for something in the darkness or something that's hidden or something, but start looking for the light. Start looking for the thing that makes you juice up my heart. Maybe my mother. Wake up. You know, you think that at her age she'd know. But no, there was more to it. And then you don't. You don't limit it. You can't. You can. And then you're stuck. But if you are always at any age looking for the love light and hope in your life, you'll find it. And no one else can find it for you, and no one else can use it for you and no one else can make a decision. See, I have this kind of idea. This isn't any kind of theology. This is just an idea that when God, whatever God is to each one of us, created the earth. It was beautiful. It was perfect. Everything was right the way it was supposed to be. Nothing was out of order. It was wonderful. And so then he she created human beings and said to us, you're the only being in this creation. It has freewill and choice. So I therefore give you dominion over this creation. And we in our arrogance so that he said dominance and so we took over. Yeah. Oh boy. We got you know, and look what we've done when in an extinction. Yeah. When God dominion means taking care of. It's what a mother does when she takes care of her baby. Not just in utero. Throughout life, this old man sitting over here is my baby. You know, is this ability to understand that we have dominion over the earth, and so we should treat the earth with love and concern, not tell the earth what she needs to do for us. That's not what we're supposed to be doing. Yeah, that is a huge distinction and very powerful. You you also seem to have like a, another theme in your life which is around birth and helping. You know, you talked about labor without love is, just labor, but also you're talking about literal labor. You've you've helped a lot of women bring their babies into the world peacefully. And, you know, when I started my, education in medical school, it was just as World War Two started. So everything that we were taught. But killing and getting rid of. And we're still doing that in the field of medicine. We're still trying to kill diseases and getting rid of pain. Well, I don't think that's what we're supposed to be doing. I didn't take it when I was in medical school, and that Dean sent me just a psychiatrist three times because she did it, so I had the right attitude. Anyway, he sent me back, and that good person, I got my degree. But it's the whole idea that we as human beings, with our choice, not only have the right to make these decisions, but it's our obligation to choose between light and darkness. And if we have chosen and we're stuck in a dark place, we can stay stuck in that dark place. If we think that we're so stuck that we can't get out and we stop looking for the light. But I'm telling you, if you want to see some light. My husband and I, we were coming out, here to Arizona. We stopped in the Carlsbad Caverns and went down deep, deep into the earth. And we got the. Oh, we I don't know whether we each had, a flashlight. When we got down there, we turned off our flashlights, and the. It was so dark. It was black velvet. It was the darkest ever. And the god lit one match and it lit up the whole cavern at one match went up the whole cavern. It doesn't take a lot of light to light something else. If I'm walking down the walk this dark and. And I have a flashlight and a good flashlight and it's telling me, but then I step into it. So if I'm walking like that and I feel like flickering over at the left hand, that looks like it's not going to be very much, and I add my light to that, it shines the whole thing up. In other words, we as we're walking our path, it's our pleasure and our responsibility to look for others who are walking their path and maybe have a lot of trouble find it yet. But if we add our light to their light, oh, it's Carlsbad Caverns. That is just wonderful wisdom right there. It's powerful. You know, Doctor Gladys, you said something earlier that reminded me of the expression, it's not what happens to you, it's what happens for you. About, how we, view and deal with our sort of life's experiences that we consider setbacks or problems. And you've lived 103 years, and you've certainly have had your set of challenges. What what is your can you talk a little bit more about your advice and empowering people to embrace that, rather than you know, avoid it? Absolutely everything that we experience is a lesson, whether it's a hard one or a joyful one. Everything that we that's in our path to experience is a lesson. And if we look at it as such, instead of, oh, you know, what am I going to do now? Or oh, what's this lesson? You know, what's this teaching me? Well, I broke my ribs. I had, this last time, I learned and my kids said in no uncertain terms, I'm not allowed to ride a tricycle anymore. Fair enough. So, you know, I mean, we can be facetious about it, but really, it's. There comes a time when I have to say no, this, I can't do that anymore. So what's the lesson. What is it. Acceptance or what. It's accepting what I can do. You know I look at what in my wildest dreams I could have never thought of be able to talk to somebody like you the way we're doing it right now. Right. I mean it's like space age, way beyond the tricycle, you know, it's so it's finding out what you can do and what's important to you now. And that's what was important to you then. I mean, when I rode in on the tricycle, to buy it, what was it, 102nd birthday? Yeah. That was an important change where you do not get it, but it isn't anymore. You know, there's a time and place for everything. Sounds like you also have a lot of gratitude. Oh, absolutely. Years, years ago, my oldest daughter and I had done an actually, woman came up to me and said to me, what's your secret? And I was like, about something huge. And, and smart like I was. I couldn't come up with anything. My, I got the elbow, my daughter's elbow and my ribs, and she says, oh, mom, you do. So no, you dwell in gratitude. I said, yeah, that's right. Because that's true. I absolutely dwell in gratitude. And I'm so grateful for everything, every breath that I have take, every step that I take and and every person that I meet. Look at you guys. Oh, no. It's our honor. I really we're so grateful for your wisdom and sharing it with us and your life experiences. And you're the only person I've ever heard chuckle after they said they broke three ribs. Right? It's great. And and I think your mom also was so good about teaching you. You were about letting things go, right? Yeah. Talk about that. Which oh which one. Yeah. Is, is to like say that again. That's like a Hindu Kush, but one they my sister died in our 90s and we were talking and then we'd say, coach for a while and, and, and all of a sudden we looked at each other and we said, why don't we do that in make a hand gesture and see that you're making a hand gesture of letting something go. Right. It's a hand movement is due to. It's like taking petals in your hand and letting the hand drop down and letting those petals just go. But my sister had the city doing this hand movement and saying, oh, great for why? And then we go on and then we stopped and we looked at each other. We said, why do we do that? And then we said, who did? And we said, moringa. And then we did. And what was it? She said. And we both said spontaneously, which for one, they it doesn't matter. And we started laughing and we realized that we had gotten to all kinds of things that were could have stopped us all along the way. But we realized that they didn't matter. We could either take that like somebody said something, you mean about me or yeah, you know, something like and take it in and say, oh, that hurt my feelings. Then you take it in, it becomes very, very nasty. And you go on to it and it makes their day bad. But if you just if it happens and you think, oh, which for a while you let your item drop, you don't even remember it. You don't even remember what that was that you were talking about. It just doesn't matter. I love the idea of having a physical thing that you do. Yeah, to help you unload it. It doesn't matter. It could really. It could fall off. Which means it for while means matter. And, you know, it doesn't matter. Doesn't matter because when you hold on to those things, you even talk about that hold, like holding a grudge makes you physically sick. Oh, yeah. How do how do you how do you for somebody who is holding on to a grudge, how do you get to that point of forgiveness? What? How can you talk about that a little bit when we put too much emphasis and we think, is we something we should learn from that? And, so, let me tell you a funny thing that happened when I was I had had my 99th birthday, and I was coming home for the birthday party. I stopped at the grocery store and I was taking myself out of the car, and an elderly gentleman came by and he said, oh, may I help you? And I said, no, no, I can do it myself. And he said, so he puffs himself up and stands up and he says, well, I'm 86 years old. And I looked up at him and I said, I'm 99. And I marched up with myself and got into the car, and I sat down in the seat and I said, you nasty old woman. He was just a nice old man that was trying to do a nice old thing. And you, you better get up and go. And the grocery store apologized. But then I got to thinking, no way. First of all, it doesn't matter. Secondly, it's downright funny. The kindergarten kids sandbox just puffed up and I just laughed and laughed so hard I couldn't have gotten up anyway. And I thought, by now he's gone home. And he's said to his wife, you know what happened at the grocery store? I said, you know, I could help her. This last year, old woman said. So I, I thought, you know, it's a story. It's funny. It's really something that could be laughed at. And it's that kind of acceptance of something that you do. I mean, that was nasty. It really was nasty thing for me to do. But it really was funny, too. Well, I love that how you're telling the story, though, because you you're practicing and I don't know how to say it. The, the the letting go. Say it again. Yeah. On yourself. Because I think, you know, you had this moment where you realized, oh, that was a nasty thing for me to do, but then you let it go, and you saw that other side of this man probably has this fun story he gets to tell everyone. And I think that's a huge lesson because we beat ourselves up so much for things that that are sort of, you know, instinctual on whether or not you do. Yeah. And for another story. Yes, please. When I was nine years old, my third grade teacher appointed me as class governor because prior to that, I had I'm dyslexic, and I was so dyslexic, I couldn't read or write, and but I could talk with the my first grade teacher called me the class dummy. And everybody, probably the class dummy and all of that. It was horrible. But Mr.. The guy saw something and I could talk, I could read, I couldn't write, nothing made sense. But I could I was doing something that she saw that I was worth something. So I became the class governor, and I was, asked to take the work that we did the third grade to the, to the whole student body. And part of that was a play, and the play was the frog jumped over the pond. And so I was the frog because first of all, I was bigger than anybody else in the class. I had to take the first grade. Secondly, I had, you know, I could do this. And so my mother made me a frog suit and dyed it green and came out onto the platform full of knowing I could do this. I mean, this was something I could do. And I walked out with full of confidence. But in the first role of the audience, my two older brothers were sitting there and it just threw me off my just enough so that instead of jumping all over the pond, the frog jumped into the pond. So I'm standing in the pond. My my suit is fading because my mother and shoes chief died and it's fading into the pan. I'm cry, I can't move, I'm absolutely stuck, I can't move. The audience is hysterical. Girl. They're just doubled up laughing. They're hooligans laughing. And I'm just. I'm broken. I'm totally lost. The teacher has to come and take me off the stage. And I. You know, when I get home, we're at the dinner table with my brothers and telling my mother about what happened, and I'm giving them the devil's eye, and they're not looking that way. So, you know, this was going on. Finally, my mother says, all right, boys, you've had your fun. What can we do as a family to help? Gladly. If she ever does anything like this again so that she is able to handle it. I have no idea what the family decided, but I know that as a family, we decided that there is some way of handling this that will let me have people laugh with me and not at me. And so that because, you know, I still have this dyslexia, think I still quite often will stumble as I'm coming up. I'm awkward when I walk, so I might sell gold and you know, when I'm coming up. But if I do, I've got the audience in my hand before I can even say anything. Because I know certain other things that I can say like, oh, I'm such a drama queen. And they're, you know, some little thing like that that catches the audience. And I've got my audience before I need to, you know? Anyway, it's it's my mother's ability to help me understand what was worth taking and what was worth learning from. And what was the pitch for one boy, you are lucky to have that family in that subject, and I'm so lucky to be able to share it with you. Yes, and with everybody sharing your mother's wisdom of making that. And I love you know, that. You know, you go to finding the humor in it because, you you said that when you laugh, it tickles your adrenals. And I didn't know that. I read that in your book. That's crazy. That that, you know, we always know. They say laughter's the best medicine, but now we know why it actually has a physical effect on you. That's incredible. Take on the drain on your diaphragm. Rise right over. The adrenals and adrenals are where fear and hate and anger and all those amazing energies are, but also laughter. And if the adrenals are tickled with when you laugh the catapult, it helps. I love the image of the tickle tickled adrenals. Yeah. Do you meditate? My meditation is something that is so personal and so deep that it's very hard for me to even explain to anybody. I say each one of us find your own, and when you find your own, you don't know which. Oh. Do you have any like very specific practices that you do to help keep you both mentally and physically strong, like daily practices or weekly practices that are very conscious as you age? Well, I have a walker and I try to walk 3000ft, which I'm not doing a very good job of a lot of times, but it's, I walk as much as I can with the walker. I, I didn't want to walk with a walker, and then I avoided it for a long time. But now it's my body and I'm taking a walk wherever I go. I need the support of that walker. So, you know, there are things like that as, as my body is able to do some of the things that like, for instance, what we're doing right now, how in the world could I have ever imagined being able to do what we're doing right now? I mean, this is beyond my imagination. And and yet here we are. So I don't want to limit myself to a certain specific, practice that I've done at certain times in my life that were really important. And then this something else came along, and, and, you know, life moves. And in the process of moving there, those triggers around the edges of the block where things get blocked and they are what sometimes are, I really important and what you pay attention to. So I really feel that each one of us needs to pay more attention to each one of us, to what it is that we're saying to me, not to me, but to to you, you know, and to me, you. It sounds like embracing change is also a very powerful practice. Yeah. If you if you really look for this, the answer in everything that you experience, you find the answer. Yeah that is huge. I'm going to write that down and put it on my refrigerator. Thank you so much Doctor Gladys. And we look forward to what's coming next. Yeah we'll see I hope you'll stay in touch. Thank you. Thank you so much. Be well. Can't wait to see what you do on your hundred and fourth birthday. Take care. Thank you. Bye bye. Bye. Hi, friends. Lauren here. Well, that's a wrap on season one. My big takeaways from season one are to get adequate restorative sleep. Something I am desperately working on to eat real whole foods. To lead with love and kindness, and to advocate for yourself in any situation, but especially in a health crisis. And most of all. Listen to yourself. That little voice inside your head knows what she's talking about. I'll see you soon for season two. I have some phenomenal guests lined up. Until then, keep living like a badass mother.