Daily Life Tweaks: Important Things That Have Nothing To Do With Living Healthy And Everything To Do With Living Happy

I don’t watch Dr. Oz on TV very often, but I’m so glad I was watching the other day when Marilu Henner was on.

She started her interview with Dr. Oz talking about how the most noticeable difference in her life came when she stopped eating dairy products. Personally, I’m nowhere near there in my own life.

In fact, Marilu Henner made much more of an impact on me when she started talking about making little, random life tweaks each and every day.

I found 2 important nuggets in what she said that I will always hold onto. Her ‘life tweaks’ help you live a happier life, whether you choose to focus on the healthy things or not.

The following things actually have nothing to do with living healthy, and everything to do with living happy.

 

Marilu Henner’s Daily Life Tweaks

Here’s the first video of Dr. Oz talking to Marilu Henner.

The best takeaway is this quote:

Everybody’s at a different stage in their [health] journey. We’re all really trying. You know some of us have this ‘someday person’ — we can’t wait to be when our kids go to school, or finally get the job, or meet that person — whatever. But we’re closer than you think. It’s so important to take your life and to make these little tweaks and to find what works for you. It’s so so so important.
— Marilu Henner

Amen!

By the way, I put the word health in brackets because that the word she used, but that word could be substituted for just about any other word and the quote would still be just as powerful.

In your own personal journey, you might be dealing with any number of things:

• A relationship
• Dog training
• Pregnancy issues
• A health ailment
• Your weight
• Relatives
• Your body image
• A problem child
• Mental issues
• Depression
• Money issues
• LIFE!

You see? Whatever journey you happen to be focusing most of your attention on right now, the above quote still rings true. Right?

We’re all at different places in our journey. We can only know what we know by what we’ve personally experienced — or researched — and chosen to accept as true.

We all get from Point A to Point B in very different ways. It’s a long and winding road… rarely a direct path.

And now my favorite part from Marilu’s interview with Dr. Oz about living healthy has absolutely nothing to do with health. It has everything to do with living.

In this next video, Marilu Henner summarizes — almost to a tee — my own feelings on how we all navigate through this world and try to do the best things for ourselves… our families… and our pets:

Everybody’s at a different space. Progress not perfection! Progress not perfection! Because I think people tend to think, “Oh I can’t do everything she does” Well, it’s taken me 33 years to become vegan and to do all the things that I’ve done to change my life. And I didn’t set out to do any of these things. I just thought, “Let me read this. Let me take that. Let me use a little bit of this.” This works for me. This might not work for someone else. This is what works for ME. I feel better than I ever have … Every day you’re in the laboratory of your life. And every day is an experiment. Sometimes it’s a good experiment. Sometimes it’s a bad one. There’s no such thing as cheating. There’s no such thing as beating yourself up. You’re just collecting data. That’s it! So every day you’re saying, “Okay, this worked. This didn’t work. Let me try this. Let me try that.”
— Marilu Henner

I appreciate this unique point-of-view about life (moreso than just about health) so much because it’s, honestly, how I try to live my own life.

Whenever I hear someone on their soapbox stressing how their way is the best (or only) way to do something. I can’t help but wonder: Who in the world are YOU to say? Maybe I’m not at the same place in my journey as you are. Maybe that’s the best way for YOU. But please don’t try so hard to convince me — or others — that it’s the one best way for everyone.

That’s why I probably seem so middle-of-the-road on most things in life. To me, few things are black & white. There is no one best way to do anything. There’s only a best way FOR YOU… right now… based on what you know and what your goals are. I can’t speak for you. And neither can anyone else.

If you’re interested, here’s the final video from Marilu Henner’s interview with Dr. Oz. In it, she talks about the very simple, everyday things you can do to energize your life in just 7 days.

She’s an amazing individual. We all are… in our own way.

I’m enjoying my journey. Are you?

I think it’s both challenging and rewarding to try to find unique and helpful nuggets every day — because constantly making daily life tweaks is what living is all about! That’s what makes life FUN.

 

My Own Experience

My master’s training in Family Counseling helped me better understand that we are who we are and we believe what we believe based on these 3 things:

1. How we were raised,
2. The experiences we’ve lived; and
3. What we’ve learned through training and research.

Since we all haven’t experienced those 3 things exactly the same way, it’s clear that we all take a different route on our journey through life.

We’re not all going to be at the same point at the same time on any particular topic.

We’ve all done things that we might regret, or done things in the past that we’d never do now. (Yes, even veterinarians.) That’s because we’re not born perfect, and we all learn at our own pace.

I think it’s important to have patience with those who aren’t exactly where you are, and appreciate their journey too.

 

In the words of Maya Angelou…

Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.

Thanks for that reminder, Amy Munns!

Amy’s experience working at Sea World and then watching Blackfish years later reminds me of the fact that we all learn what we learn when we learn it… period. Then we can can grow — and be even better — from that point forward. We never stop learning and getting better at things.