July 10th, 2010 by John Mandrola, M.D. in Better Health Network, Humor, True Stories
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After a long weekend there are procedures to add to an already-busy schedule, colleagues are on summer vacation, and of course there are many “action tags” or ”tasks” — or other likewise unreimbursed chores — to check off the to-do list before clicking in the pedals for a pre-dinner ride. And so it was recently.
Today, though, Jack was visiting. It was a good decision to ask Jack, our nine-year-old nephew from Hoosier-ville, to accompany me for some evening errands.
I had forgotten the unabashed curiosity of a nine year old. Nine is indeed a good age for children — a sweet spot, so to speak. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr John M*
June 12th, 2010 by John Mandrola, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion, True Stories
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Life sometimes gets in the way of daily posting. Specifically, the treadmill of life sometimes roars too fast.
But as I strolled through the hospital this morning, there was a plain piece of white paper taped to the wall around the nurses station. Although I’m not overly religious (and even highly conflicted about which rituals are the right ones), these words from a pastor/celebrity stopped me for a moment:
Attitude
The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill.
It will make or break a company, a church, or a home. The remarkable thing is that we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.
We cannot change the past, we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is plan on the one thing that we have, and that is our attitude.
I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it. And so it is with you. We are in charge of our attitudes.
As a cardiologist programmed to “alert” most of the time, words such as these help me. I haven’t seen the studies yet, but I’m guessing that positive attitudes reduce inflammation, which is good for our atria, and our arteries.
JMM
*This blog post was originally published at Dr John M*
