In The Well-Lived Life, Dr Gladys McGarey, the mother of holistic medicine and a still-practicing doctor at 102, reveals her powerful secrets for how to live with joy and vitality at any age.
In your words, what is “the juice” in life and why do we need it?
Our juice is our essence. It’s what makes us human. It’s the individual part of us that is not like anyone else. In the whole world, no one else could be you. It is getting in touch with the true humanity in each of us. That’s where healing is and that’s where the stem cells are, in the bones of our being.
How did an elephant help you “find your juice.” What’s the most important thing about that story for you?
For me, the most important part of that story is the way my mother dealt with it. My mother was five foot one, and she never treated an elephant, but here was an elephant like any other patient who needed help. She took things as they were and treated it as any person, with tenderness, love, and caring.
How has the change in medicine over the last 60 years affected you?
Completely. I don’t see medicine as a war against disease. I see medicine as reaching for life and love. My medical training was in Women’s Medical College in Philadelphia. I started medical school in September of 1941 and the war started in December. The war in medicine we were fighting after the official war ended was disease, pain, and suffering. Now I choose to see medicine as a way to live through these processes and become more aware of who we as human beings are. It was a paradigm shift in consciousness.
How daring and different was the idea of holistic medicine when you first tried to popularise it?
People said I was a witch doctor and didn’t understand science. I developed this practice as a woman, but this also counted against me. The whole concept of holistic medicine was new. Developing this practice, it took two years to figure out the spelling to communicate the big “H” principles, health, healing, and holy. Little things like that are important but they take time to understand and work with. The idea of holistic medicine was something we were trying to get across but people often wrote us off for being too woo woo or outside of the box for medical care.
The Well-Lived Life by Dr Gladys McGarey is out now.
READ MORE FROM THIS INTERVIEW IN THE PENGUIN POST MAGAZINE >>
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