YOU HAVE THE POWER!
JACK
I am often asked how I am able to have this high energy and heartiness at the age of 84. I never stopped being grateful for the fact that it is a reality, but it might be fun and helpful to others if I can analyze what makes it happen. I have had the same occasion to look back at my career and try to extract what I did and more importantly – how and why I did it. There is much that is instinctive but there is also listening and learning from the real lessons. Such books that go back many years as “You are What You Eat”, made a profound impression on me, because it sounded right. Therefore, I have been eating healthy for at least 30 years. Now, I am hearing scientific explanations of why you should reduce sugars, fats, transfats, and limit consumption of meat. Thirty years ago, I ate some form of beef every day, but after I read this book it has averaged no more than once a week. But now, I think there are even more important factors coming to light that affects your health, and that is your mental attitude.
HILLARY
Explain what you mean by mental attitude. Are you suggesting that if you’re happy that you’ll be healthier? And, if you’re unhappy that you’ll be sick?
JACK
I do believe that. As a matter of fact there was a recent clinical study that had statistical proof. But, once more, I’ll go back to something I read 30 years ago, which has been my mantra, and that is the “power of postitive thinking”, by Norman Vincent Peale. I have made a constant effort to eliminate, or downplay, all negativity. This includes people as well as elements, and I realized that we do have the power to change our situation if we follow that road. Even in politics, I am much more drawn to the candidate that tells me how things should be done, instead of spending my valuable time telling me how badly things were screwed up by other people.
HILLARY
But don’t you think that there is a difference between saying that you like someone who stays out of the mud versus someone who is a mudslinger, and saying that you can have a physical change by eliminating negative thoughts?
JACK
There is no way you can avoid the mud if you’re alive. I’m not saying that we go through life believing that Mary Poppins is going to come down from the sky. Being positive can also give hard choices, but the real question is: what are you moving towards? In my daily life, I have always been a confronter, but that is not to say that I look for issues to confront. But, when it exists, I must resolve it and get it out of the way. This can be as simple as a disagreement between friends or husbands and wives. There are issues that must be resolved, and therefore they must be faced but in a positive way. I cannot say to a friend “that’s the problem. You keep doing this all the time, and it’s pissing me off.” You can only face the current issue that must be resolved in order for the friendship to go to the next level. I think I am trying to say a great deal in a few sentences, but getting back to the original premise, I totally believe that if you are surrounded by negative people, it will not only bring down your level of joy, but can make you physically sick. It applies to personal relationships, to physical problems and to your every day life. I can moan about the fact that sugar or fat is bad for me, but I can eliminate them from my diet. We almost always have choices. Now, fortunately, so many things that I do enjoy happen to be good for me. Let me ask you this, is there something that you really disagree with or is there a revelation or at least a confirmation?
HILLARY
I happen to agree with you that one’s outlook on life affects their physical being. There are many who believe that the specific words that you use will have specific physical reactions. If you go around saying “I feel like crap” all the time, it’s not hard to imagine that you may have some issues with digestion. It’s like someone who repeated says, “I’m never going to meet a good man. I’m always going to be single.” Well, it’s no surprise that those people are single. I think that people need to be conscious of the words and sentiments that they express for I believe that they resonate into the physical world.
JACK
I don’t want to sound simplistic. I don’t think an evangelist can cure cancer by you finding god. And many different elements go into every decision we make so that even if you take a basic problem, like indigestion, a positive attitude may not cure it but it certainly will help, and every so often the miracle cure happens. Many years ago, I developed a stomach ulcer that was very uncomfortable and painful. I went to a series of doctors that specialized in ulcers and was given (remember this was 50 years ago) a diet that was the accepted treatment at the time, which was eating “soft” foods only, which included milk and cream. I gained a great deal of weight and was a few months later far more miserable that I had been before I changed my diet to the “ulcer” diet. I went to my family physician who said, “Your mental attitude has a good deal to this. You have to learn the mean of two words – ‘Fuck It.’ If you can do the best you can and then say ‘Fuck it, I’ve done the best I can,’ it will help you tremendously. In addition, I’d like to put you on a high fiber diet and an exercise program. Your mental attitude has a great deal to with your physical problem.” The miracle happened. In less than a year, I was back in condition, felt good, and there was no trace of the ulcer. This is no fairy tale, and if I didn’t learn a valuable lesson from that there would be something dramatically wrong with me.
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