As an undergraduate at Harvard in the 1960s, I was fascinated by my visits to psychologist B.F. Skinner's laboratory. Andrew Weil More Quotes by Andrew Weil More Quotes From Andrew Weil Among other things, neuroplasticity means that emotions such as happiness and compassion can be cultivated in much the same way that a person can learn through repetition to play golf and basketball or master a musical instrument, and that such practice changes the activity and physical aspects of specific brain areas. Andrew Weil basketball golf mean I have argued for years that we do not have a health care system in America. We have a disease-management system - one that depends on ruinously expensive drugs and surgeries that treat health conditions after they manifest rather than giving our citizens simple diet, lifestyle and therapeutic tools to keep them healthy. Andrew Weil health simple years If I had to limit my advice on healthier living to just one tip, it would be simply to learn how to breathe correctly. Andrew Weil breathing would-be advice Imagine a world in which medicine was oriented toward healing rather than disease, where doctors believed in the natural healing capacity of human beings and emphasized prevention above treatment. In such a world, doctors and patients would be partners working toward the same ends. Andrew Weil doctors medicine healing Happiness is a skill. It requires effort and time. Andrew Weil effort-and-time effort skills Practicing regular, mindful breathing can be calming and energizing and can even help with stress-related health problems ranging from panic attacks to digestive disorders. Andrew Weil panic-attacks breathing stress You can't afford to get sick, and you can't depend on the present health care system to keep you well. It's up to you to protect and maintain your body's innate capacity for health and healing by making the right choices in how you live. Andrew Weil sick choices healing Human beings and plants have co-evolved for millions of years, so it makes perfect sense that our complex bodies would be adapted to absorb needed, beneficial compounds from complex plants and ignore the rest. Andrew Weil would-be perfect years Technology has a shadow side. It accounts for real progress in medicine, but has also hurt it in many ways, making it more impersonal, expensive and dangerous. The false belief that a safety net of sophisticated drugs and machines stretches below us, permitting risky or lazy lifestyle choices, has undermined our spirit of self-reliance. Andrew Weil technology real hurt Please keep in mind the distinction between healing and treatment: treatment originates from outside, whereas healing comes from within. Andrew Weil treatment healing mind Healing is making whole, restoring a state of perfection and balance that has been lost. Andrew Weil balance perfection healing Health is wholeness and balance, an inner resilience that allows you to meet the demands of living without being overwhelmed. Andrew Weil resilience demand balance Health is wholeness--wholeness in its most profound sense, with nothing left out and everything in just the right order to manifest the mystery of balance. Far from being simply the absence of disease, health is a dynamic and harmonious equilibrium of all the elements and forces making up and surrounding a human being. Andrew Weil balance profound order Get people back into the kitchen and combat the trend toward processed food and fast food. Andrew Weil health food people Improper breathing is a common cause of ill health. If I had to limit my advice on healthier living to just one tip, it would be simply to learn how to breathe correctly. There is no single more powerful -or more simple- daily practice to further your health and well being than breathwork. Andrew Weil ill-health powerful simple Whenever the immune system deals successfully with an infection, it emerges from the experience stronger and better able to confront similar threats in the future. Our immune system develops in combat. If, at the first sign of infection, you always jump in with antibiotics, you do not give the immune system a chance to grow stronger. Andrew Weil antibiotics stronger giving Most disease is lifestyle related and preventable Andrew Weil related lifestyle disease I am a particular fan of integrative exercise - that is, exercise that occurs in the course of doing some productive activity such as gardening, bicycling to work, doing home improvement projects and so on. Andrew Weil gardening exercise home The best way to detoxify is to stop putting toxic things into the body and depend upon it's own mechanisms. Andrew Weil toxic body way Treatment originates outside you; healing comes from within. Andrew Weil treatment healing
