Best-selling author and retired pediatric surgeon Dr. Bernie Siegel delivered a positive message in Page Auditorium on Sunday night as he instructed his audience to "love yourself.... Accept yourself as a work of art."
In a special event sponsored by the Duke Mind-Body Medicine Study Group, The Janis Foundation for a Course in Miracles and Magnetic North Inc., Dr. Siegel spoke on the subject of seeking spiritual oneness and maintaining a positive attitude towards life.
Siegel emphasized living your life as if you only had six months left to live. "You get smart real quick," said Siegel. You begin to place more emphasis on God, family and health and that is what is truly important, he said. "I call life a labor pain... It's about giving birth to yourself."
Feelings are not expressed appropriately in current society when they should be a primary focus of a person's well being, Siegel said. "We don't deal with our feelings," he said. "If you feel good, your internal environment totally changes."
Halfway through his speech, Siegel invited his wife, Bobbie, on stage to do her comedy routine in an effort to add some humor to the lecture. She proceeded to evoke laughter from the audience with one-liners such as, "Retirement is twice the husband and half the cash," and "Behind every successful woman is a sulking man."
Following a brief intermission after her performance, Dr. Siegel put on a slide show with pictures his patients had drawn about their diseases and treatments. Using these slides Siegel explained how important feelings are and how they effect the way we live our lives. Sometimes people need to stop thinking so much and instead concentrate on what they are feeling, said Siegel.
"You can either change your life or change your attitude towards your life" in order to provide a sense of meaning and be spiritually satisfied, Siegel said. One piece of advice Siegel gave to his audience was to "pick a role model and behave as if you were that person." Siegel told the listeners that Lassie is his role model because he is "just straight love."
Love, he said, is the most powerful weapon we have. "The problem is that we just don't know how to handle it."
Siegel credits his close relationships with his patients as the foundation for his beliefs. He said a person's attitude towards his illness is closely related to his survival, citing that those with a more positive attitude often exceed their doctor's expectations for living.
Diane Gensar, a member of the audience who was diagnosed with an unknown lung disease a year ago and told she had only a month to live said Siegel's advice has helped her cope with her condition and provide her with the motivation to battle the disease. "A positive attitude has a lot to do with healing," she said.
George Smart, a member of Magnetic North and producer of the event, said he chose Siegel to speak after attending one of his previous lectures. "He connects with the humanity inside each of the people in the audience. He reaffirms that we are more connected than we are apart," said Smart.
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