Dr. Princess: religion

Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Hauling Out the Holly

Even though I'm Jewish, we always celebrated Christmas growing up. My dad is Catholic, and my mom was raised in a country where everyone was Catholic. I apologize if this is insensitive or offensive to Christians, but my mom always taught us about Christmas from a more objective perspective. We learned from an early age that Christmas was about peace, joy, and love for God and your fellow man.

In hindsight, I suppose that's a good way to explain it in an Interfaith household. Now that I'm married to a Christian, we often discuss how we'll handle such an education with our future children. In the meantime, we enjoy creating a festive environment around the house for Christmas, Hanukkah, and the New Year. There are a few images of angels, but for the most part, the theme in our decor is joy and fun. And also Disney.

Yes, our tree topper is the Claymations walrus. We named him Smallrus.

{Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas / via eBaum's World}

I told you the theme was fun! It may not be traditional, it may not even be politically correct, but it works for us. Nothing puts me in the Christmas spirit more than coming down the stairs to find an intoxicating evergreen scent, Elf on the TV, and random accents of Mickey in a Santa hat. That, and baking. More on that later...

Does your holiday decor have a theme?

Friday, August 19, 2011

Freeky Friday: Get Happy

Welcome back to another Freeky Friday! Today's topic is:

When are you most happy?

I have a bucket list of things I need to do in my current neighborhood before moving to the suburbs. One of the highest priorities on this list was visiting Drepung Loseling Monastery, a Tibetan Buddhist center near my apartment.

Mandalas are so amazing.

{source}

Emory University, one of my alma maters, has a close relationship with Tibet. In fact, His Holiness the Dalai Lama visits Emory every other year. It's not so much a religious thing; it's about bridging humanity between two of the world's leaders in science of the mind and body. Many physicians at Emory have written about the role of meditation in psychiatry. Some even argue that meditation can alter the very neuroanatomy within our brains.

To me, the idea that we have the power to control our own neurotransmitters to create a happier, more peaceful version of ourselves is absolutely incredible. Don't get me wrong, I don't believe meditation is a substitute for modern medicine. Plenty of my patients have psychological comorbidities (in addition to the laundry lists of diagnoses I'm treating them for), and many of them need medication to even out a physiological imbalance. However, I don't believe that psychological disorders can be treated by medication alone. I'm a firm believer in supplementing medication with counseling, and meditation can play a very effective role in counseling.

I wanted to visit this Buddhist monastery because they offer meditation classes. I'm Jewish, and I had no intention of worshiping of any sort; but I was very interested in learning about the philosophy that was practiced within this culture. I attended a meditation class with a friend. She happens to work in psychiatry and, in an effort to practice what she preaches, she attends this class regularly.

Meditation typically intimidates me. I hate that part at the end of yoga where we just lie there...I fall asleep and then I feel like an idiot! I was much more comfortable in this setting because 1) my friend was there and, 2) the meditation was guided. First, our teacher gave a lecture for about 30-40 minutes. Then, he guided us in a 10-20 minute meditation. I left feeling more relaxed than I was when I had arrived, similar to that post-massage feeling.

The reason I bring up this particular recent experience for this post is because the topic of that class' lecture was "happiness." The teacher began the lecture by asking, "Why are we here on this Earth? What is our purpose?" And then he answered very matter-of-fact, "To be happy." I'd never heard anyone answer such powerful questions with such certainty, but it makes sense if you think about it. It's something that all of us desire, no matter our intelligence, culture, or socioeconomic status. It's what separates us from other species, and it's what drives us towards making our world a better place.

He spoke about how we can't always be happy. Stress, frustration, anxiety, even anger are inevitabilities - but it's what we do with it. He said that you can't make them go away by buying things or eating things or even praying to God or Buddha or whoever. He said that the only thing that can make these things better is compassion, compassion towards yourself and compassion towards others. The concept of "compassion towards yourself" really struck a chord with me. I'm incredibly hard on myself, and sometimes it can really weigh me down.

We then meditated on everything that caused frustration or anxiety in our lives. Then we thought about how we could show compassion towards each of those things, people, or events. Then we did the same with the things that caused anger. I appreciated how frustration/anxiety and anger were on different levels of depth. Then, we thought about compassion again. I thought really hard about each of the stressors in my life. Rather than analyzing them and trying to explain them, I tried to understand where they were coming from. I tried to feel empathy towards them. As I let go of some anger and some stress, I felt more relaxed and therefore more happy. Throughout the next few days, I made a conscious effort to show more compassion towards others. It felt good. That class was a lot more effective than I had anticipated.

Basically, the teacher taught us that happiness isn't something you find; it's something you create by taking accountability and responsibility for yourself and your own actions and feelings. I suppose if I had written this blog post a week ago, I would have said that I'm happiest when things go my way, or when something new and exciting happens. Sure, that's true. But if you're stuck in a funk, what good are those things?! The truth is, I'm most happy when I'm happy with myself.

What about you? When are you most happy?

Remember, anyone can get Freeky on Fridays! You can participate in three different ways:

Write a blog post using the badge html above, then comment on my post with a link to your post
Tweet your answer using the tag #FreekyFriday
"Like" the Freekware Facebook page, then comment on there with your answer

Every time you post, tweet or comment in the month of August, you'll be entered to win some homemade cookies and a contribution to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in your name. There are still two Fridays left in August, so you can be entered to win another six times!

As we say goodbye to summer, we like to bring things full circle. Come back next Friday, August 26th, for summer's last Freeky Friday and reminisce with us:

What was the best thing that happened to you this summer?

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Sunday Brunch: Passover

When I was little, my mom always had me bring a driedel to December show-and-tell sessions. We were living in North Carolina at the time, and I'm sure most kids in our area had never met a Jew before. I remember feeling like a strange, exotic animal on display at the zoo. My classmates would run home and tell their parents about this weird thing that they learned; almost instantly, I'd receive phone calls from my 7-year-old friends inviting me to church to save me. Now that I'm all grown up, I've learned that most Christians are kind and nonjudgmental (in fact, I married one). Religion has turned into an interesting topic of adult conversation, and talking about customs and beliefs is a wonderful way to learn about different cultures.

On that note, I'd like to spend this Easter Sunday morning sharing a bit of my culture with you. Today also falls during the days of the Jewish holiday, Passover. It's basically the story of Exodus from the Old Testament. Watch The Ten Commandments or Prince of Egypt; I'm not gonna bore you with the nitty gritty. We were slaves in Egypt, and now we're free. It's a time of celebration, most of which involves ~~lots of~~ wine, food, and family. Oh, and eating these nasty crackers called matzo.

Matzo is unleavened bread. The reason we eat matzo on Passover is to signify the sacrifice our ancestors made to get the hell out of Egypt stat before the pharaoh changed his mind. They didn't have time to bake bread, so they put the dough on their backs and fled. The harsh desert sun cooked the bread, but it was flat. We're supposed to eat this, and get rid of our leavened bread (or if you're a laid back Jew like I am, you just feed it to your gentile husband).

The good news is that even though matzo is kind of dull, there's a lot you can do with it! I'm sure you've heard of matzo ball soup, but did you know it also makes a pretty good sandwich? I'm a big fan of the fancy PB&J: almond butter and TJ's pumpkin butter. It can also be used to make french toast...which brings us to...

Imagine for a moment that you have invited some folks over for Passover Brunch. You're dressed to the nines in your fabulous springtime hostess gear:

{1-4} Anthropologie

Then, you wow them with some serious Kosher nosh:

Matzo Brie (or Matzo French Toast)

Ingredients

3 matzo
2 large eggs
1 T skim milk
1.5 T butter
Maple syrup, powdered sugar, fresh fruit, or all of the above

Directions

Lightly beat the eggs and milk in a large bowl. Well, the bowl doesn't really have to be that large, but it does have to be deep. You'll see.

Crush the matzo into 1-2 inch pieces and throw it in the bowl. Toss to coat (this is where you'll thank me for using a deep bowl. Let it sit there and soak for at least 40 minutes.