The Story of Alfred Nobel: Changing His Legacy
June 26, 2009 by dr. lam · 4 Comments
As we transition to a new blog series, I thought it would be great to talk briefly about a man, Alfred Nobel, who changed the world with the Nobel Prize and is remembered especially for the Peace Prize. However, where did he make his fortune? The answer surprisingly was in dynamite. Quite the contrary to how the world remembers him.
Nobel developed nitroglycerine and then was able to harness that energy more safely in the form of his invention he called dynamite. Nitroglycerine took the life of his brother Emil in the process. At the age of 55 living in Paris, Nobel read the account of his own death in the newspaper’s obituary when in fact it was his brother Ludwig who had died with the newspaper confusing the two siblings’ names. Alfred saw that the words used to describe him were “merchant of death” and “dynamite king”, which left a bitter taste in his mouth and forced him to reexamine what his true legacy would be.
At that moment, he saw that his life would be remembered for everything terrible so he set up a private will that established that his money would go to prizes in chemistry, physics, medicine, literature and peace (with the economics prize started in the 1960s) so today he is remembered as the father of the peace prize, the exact opposite of what his life and business stood for.
What will your obituary say about you? What legacy will you be leaving behind when you pass away? How will you be remembered? What are you doing to secure that legacy in the hearts and minds of those around you? Are you contributing to your legacy each and every day or are you leaving nothing behind?
I think we all can see a much larger vision for what we want in our lives. I hope that the one word that will be associated with me will be “healing”. I know I love my family and friends a lot. I know that I am passionate to the point of being crazy about my work. But my true work is in healing those individuals with whom I have the honor to come into contact. I told a woman yesterday who came from Florida for my services and who had some bad eyelid surgery (3 in total) before me that I fixed with fat grafting, “Your journey has ended with me and it will now begin with me.” The journey that ended concerned her plastic surgery; and the journey that began was her healing through my blogs. I think these blogs are fundamentally about healing: healing the wounds of those around me and also healing my own wounds. So I close this week with the message that we opened it with, i.e., healing, and I look forward to commencing anew some wonderful blog adventures in the coming weeks, months, and years.
Namaste,
SML
Mindfulness Mondays 4: Healing
June 22, 2009 by dr. lam · Leave a Comment
I am really enjoying Wayne Dyer’s Excuses Begone! book and audio-presentation, which will be a blog series in a couple of months. I really like the idea of programming your own biology toward what we want to be rather than what we see as a limitation. He talks specifically about a sham operation performed in arthritic patients that led to the same healing capacity in these individuals as for those who actually underwent a legitimate operation. People with canes started to walk without canes simply because they believed that they were healed. Many times we are given a diagnosis: cancer, heart disease, back pain, sickness, and we simply program our body toward that end. He talks about a guy that he encountered on a treadmill who was sniffling and Dyer asked him, “How long have you been sick for?” The man responded, “In 3 weeks, it will have been a month.” That is negative programming. Dyer cites the book, Biology of Belief, that exemplifies how we actually can program our DNA the way we want by creating the right belief system. He mentions he was listening to the nightly news and Brokaw at the time said, “Stay tuned, in a few minutes, we will list the things to look out for as early signs for Alzheimer’s.” He thought, “Why the heck do I want to hear the list of things that will program my mind toward a negative belief?”
In short, this week, program your mind toward healing whether that be physical or mental. He clarifies that the law of attraction (a la Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret) does not say that we will attract those things that we want but those things that are like us already. We need to not only want it but be that. So it is not enough to just want healing but to feel the healing spirit throughout and through you already. If you are in the path toward healing, do not indulge sickness. Focus your mind on where you should be and be there now. Be healed. Reprogram your biology. Program healing. We will discuss more about Dyer’s new ideas in the coming months.
For all of you blog devotees, waiting for a new blog and website, my web crew and I are diligently working to make that a reality. Hopefully, any day now. Even with the new design, there will be a ton of tweaks so please have patience, especially the blog design because I have not even gone through a first edit on the blog design as I have been focused entirely on the web design overall.
The Mastery of Love Part 10 of 10: Healing and Freedom
March 27, 2009 by dr. lam · 24 Comments
How do we restore all of this emotional pain and wounding that resides within us? First, we have to stop believing me, Sam Lam. Second, you have to stop believing yourself. Third, you must stop believing everyone else. When we stop listening to our own lies and anyone around us, we can start to listen to our own hearts. When we come to that peace, we will begin to achieve happiness and freedom.
Let’s imagine one of the worst possible sins against us, rape. What if you were raped 10 years ago? If you continue to hold that anger against someone else, then it will lead to your continued suffering. If you say, “I cannot forgive that person” then you will not be free. You will continue to live in your own personal hell. The past is gone. If you forgive the other person, you are doing it for yourself. You are freeing yourself. Once you forgive yourself, you will forgive those around you. Once you have offered unmitigated forgiveness, you will begin to love again and to be free from your own dream of hell. Forgiveness will give you freedom from your own personal, emotional wounds that dwell so very deeply within you and me. We will be able to offer a voice of healing and by doing so we can create our own freedom from that hell in which we reside. Create your own dream today and create the dream for your life. Begin with forgiveness, starting with your own. Love yourself, and be free. That is the beginning of the mastery of love…a journey that I am on myself.
Story of the Week: Healing
January 23, 2009 by dr. lam · 3 Comments
It’s been close to a month since my last story of the week, but finally here is another story. I believe all of my patients’ stories are real and worthy. That is why I have created a section in the forum of this website for patients to tell their own story: the story of how LFP has affected them (patient submitted testimonials) and what they love in life (tell me about your passions). This is a story that has profoundly shaken me and reinvigorated me.
I had one of the nicest ladies come to me a couple of weeks ago who was going through a divorce and other major life changes. She told me that she had kept an ad of mine for quite some time before deciding to come in. She was clearly shaken a bit and nervous. I reassured her that she would be fine and that I would not waste her money or time and would do the right thing for her whatever her decision might be. She said she trusted me, and we talked a bit about life philosophy and healing. I truly felt compassion for her as a human being first without the imposed barriers of gender, race, etc.
She decided on some Restylane treatments, which were within her budget, and I was able to focus on small areas of aging to get her tear troughs, anterior cheek, and anterior chin balanced and looking good. I saw her as I usually do a week later to photograph the improvement and to make sure I could answer any of her questions. In the photography room, her hands were shaking and she had multiple post-it notes and note cards where she was composing her testimonial about what I had done for her. She apologized that English was not her first language so she needed time to compose her thoughts. I said the words did not matter as much as her expression of them. I was in tears as she was during her reading of her testimonial to me. I showed her the before-and-after photograph comparison, and we were both elated with the improvement.
She then told me the most profound words that I have heard in a long while. Paraphrasing a bit, she said, “I was about a year from entering medical school to become a doctor when a mentor of mine whom I respected said these words to me, ‘A doctor heals bodies, and a teacher heals souls.’ So with those words, I became a teacher of little children, which I have never regretted. However, Dr. Lam, you have shown me that a doctor can heal both, and you have done that for me.”
I can say that I was on a very high cloud for the entire day and for several days thereafter. It gave me back once again a profound mission of why I have been put on this earth, and it far exceeds what I do as a plastic surgeon. That is why if you wonder if there is some kind of incongruity in a surgeon writing a lot of blogs on self-improvement, life philosophy, and life psychology, there really isn’t. I am not here just to fix faces. I am here hopefully to touch a life. Thank you Sylvia for touching mine.
Ritual Baths & Sea Salts
January 2, 2009 by dr. lam · Leave a Comment
The Roman Baths in Bath, England
As many of you know, I am a big proponent of taking a little time for yourself to decompress and to heal. As a spa owner, I frequent my own spa to attain much needed escape from my daily routine. One thing that I do for myself at home is take a bath with hydrotherapy jets at least once a week if not more frequently. I have some sea salts that I bought but ideally I try to sneak into my spa and mix Epsom salts with Dead Sea salts along with various other Chinese herbs to help my skin, muscles, and nervous system.
For time immemorial, hot baths and springs have served as a vehicle for healing and renewal. I remember fondly the time that I spent in the natural onsen (Japanese hot springs) outside of Tokyo. German studies have shown that high magnesium content found in the Dead Sea can help enhance one’s skin barrier and also reduce skin inflammation. Other studies have shown improvement in psoriasis as well as helping deepen one’s sleep. Minerals are absorbed during bathing that can lead to increased blood circulation to aid in minimizing different types of arthritic conditions. Skin aging can be improved with some studies showing a 40% reduction in wrinking. Certain acne conditions can be ameliorated as well. Bromides and magnesium can serve to control allergies and detoxify and cleanse the skin. Epsom salts, which have been widely studied, have been shown to heal a damaged muscular and nervous system. I always try to mix some Epsom salts in with my Dead Sea salts after a hard day or after a massage session. Bath salts can also minimize the pruning effect otherwise typically observed following prolonged water immersion because it maintains a better osmotic pressure gradient across the skin. Phosphates can help to soften calloused skin and to aid in exfoliation. These salts can also act to enhance the effect of soaps to clean one’s skin.
All in all, even if these touted benefits do not hold 100% true, the ritualistic bath can serve as a much needed time to heal one’s mind and soul as well as one’s body. I use it as a time not to think of anything or at times to enter a quiet time of deep reflection. I truly enjoy my bath time even without the rubber duckie.