Marcey Shapiro, MD

The Golden Rule states: “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” Consider instead that a more accurate statement of the Golden Rule is “What we do to others, we do to ourselves.” There is a relationship between our thoughts, intentions, and actions and the outcomes we achieve. What we focus upon we attract to ourselves.

For the last two thousand years, most of us have thought of human “others” when considering the Golden Rule. But the universe does not distinguish among types of others. The emotion of hatred is always detrimental to us, whether it is directed at “terrorists,” our neighbor whose new house addition is blocking our view, the swarm of flies buzzing around our head, or Lyme spirochetes in our bloodstream. We are never enriched by hatred and fear. They diminish us because they magnify our illusion of separation.

Love, on the other hand, amplifies the best in us. It makes us whole. Love for our pets, a lavish spring garden, a butterfly alighting on a blossom, or a star-filled sky is not different from love for our fiancé, our child, or ourselves. Love is always life-affirming and deeply sustaining.

Our emotions affect our selves and not others—whether we are feeling love or fear. Love is deeply nourishing. Like oxygen, it is essential for life. It nourishes our life force, our immune system and our cells. In contrast, the emotions of hatred and fear are poisons that literally stop us in our tracks. They paralyze us, physically halting energy production at a cellular level. We are not meant to hate.

What we feel shapes us emotionally and becomes interwoven and stored in our physical body. The sum of how we feel, act, and react through the stream of moments is our creation of life. It is the painting that we paint, the book that we write. Each chapter, each word, is written in present time. As we create our life, we create our physical and emotional health, or lack thereof. It is the soul, the inner being, that forms the body as life is lived.

This “Transforming Health” inspiration is from Marcey Shapiro, MD, Integrative Medicine Physician 

Excerpted from Transforming the Nature of Health: A Holistic Vision of Healing That Honors Our Connection to the Earth, Others, and Ourselves by Marcey Shapiro, MD, North Atlantic Books, copyright © 2012 Marcey Shapiro. Reprinted by permission of publisher.

Stay tuned for more thoughts from Marcey Shapiro, MD, on “Transforming Health” and Heart Centered Living.