Inner you
Ever wondered what a century of living would teach you about the world? Dr Gladys McGarey, the mother of holistic medicine, knows the answers and shares her lessons on finding true happiness
We’re living longer than ever before. Nonetheless, reaching triple digits is a rarity, and thriving while doing so is even more of a marvel. So, what’s the secret? If anyone knows, it’s 102-year-old Dr Gladys McGarey.
With a career in medicine spanning eight decades, Dr McGarey has helped transform ideas about health and healing. She co-founded the American Holistic Medical Association in 1978 and has been described by medics as the ‘mother of holistic medicine’.
After spending her childhood in India with parents who were both doctors, it was while watching her mother heal an unusual patient that Dr McGarey was inspired to follow in their footsteps. She trained as a doctor during the Second World War when few medical schools in the US accepted women. ‘We were told that we would have to be smarter, tougher and overall better doctors to survive,’ she remembers.
While working as a physician, Dr McGarey also raised six children. She has faced numerous challenges in her life, including divorce from her husband Bill, two cancer diagnoses and coping with grief. She describes losing one of her daughters to cancer as her ‘greatest loss’.
Despite the setbacks, Dr McGarey has continued to find motivation and happiness. When she was in her 80s, she travelled to a rural village in Afghanistan, where she taught safer birthing practices to women, and she still practises medicine today. She continues to have plenty of fun, too. ‘I occasionally do Pilates,’ she says. ‘And yes, I do eat cake. In fact, I really love cake. I even popped out of one for my 95th birthday!’
So, what are the secrets to true health and happiness? ‘They have nothing to do with vitamins or supplements,’ she says. ‘Instead, they’re based on a simple shift in perspective. If I could distil my life’s work into one sentence, it’s this: to be truly alive, we must find the life force within ourselves and direct our energy toward it.’
Read on to learn Dr McGarey’s life lessons…
LESSON 1 LIVING WITH PURPOSE
I call the energy we get from the things that matter to us the ‘juice’. Lives filled with juice become purposeful, and living with purpose can actually help us live longer – and better.
I remember the exact moment I found my ‘juice’. When I was eight and living in India, my mother got a patient we never expected: an elephant who had injured its foot on a bamboo stump. My mother wasn’t a vet, but the elephant was very special as he belonged to the Rajah and was his favourite elephant to ride.
With a gentle yet conf
