When looking for inspirational advice, many people will often turn to spiritual self-help books, internet listicles or even therapy, but in a recent podcast appearance, renowned physician Dr Gabor Maté cited an unlikely source of inspiration.
The Hungarian-born Canadian physician, speaker and international bestselling author is a specialist in trauma, stress, addiction and childhood development and recently appeared on the Feel Better, Live More podcast for an in-depth conversation with host Dr Rangan Chatterjee.
Dr Gabor Maté’s appears on Feel Better, Live More podcast
In the April 2 episode of the Feel Better, Live More podcast, Dr Chatterjee and Dr Maté discussed five life lessons that people often learn too late.
Their conversation was based on the book The Five Regrets of the Dying by author Bronnie Ware, which touches on topics such as working too hard to the detriment of spending time with family and friends.
The thought-provoking discussion weaves through all five of said regrets, which are as follows:
- I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
- I wish I hadn’t worked so hard
- I wish I had the courage to express my feelings
- I wish I’d stayed in touch with my friends
- I wish I let myself be happier
Dr Maté channels Winnie the Pooh
To help promote the episode, both Dr Chatterjee and Dr Maté have shared a video on Instagram – which is in the process of going viral and currently sits on 822,000 likes at the time of writing – that condenses several clips from the podcast.
“If I were to choose to live my life over again, I wouldn’t live it in this way,” Doctor Maté says in an eyebrow-raising statement as the video begins.
“Do you know Winnie the Pooh?” he then asks of Dr Chatterjee.
“Yeah,” replies the podcast host, before joking, “Not personally.”
“The book,” continues Dr Maté. “The end of that book would bring tears to my eyes for years. Christopher Robin has to go to school, and he’s telling his friends, the toy animals, that he won’t be able to play with them so much anymore.”
“And what I wasn’t aware of when I went to medical school and when I was a physician, is how driven I was to justify my existence in the world,” he continues. “I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.”
Dr Maté then references a conversation he and Dr Chatterjee had the night before, saying, “When you’re driven to work too hard, you actually ignore what matters, and what matters is what you were telling me last night about how every summer, you take a bunch of weeks away from your podcast, and you just spend time enjoying your kids, and your wife, and your family.”
“I didn’t do that. I always felt I had to keep working,” adds Dr Maté.
Returning to his point about Winnie the Pooh, Dr Maté says, “The book ends with the statement, ‘And whatever they do or wherever they go in the Enchanted Forest, the little boy and his bear will always be playing together.’ And that phrase would bring tears to my eyes for years.”
“People sacrifice their playfulness, their joyfulness, being driven by unconscious needs to validate your existence,” he continues. “And where does that come from? Again, that comes from childhood trauma.”
“Play is so important and joy is so important,” he adds. “In that sense, we can always keep playing in the Enchanted Forest, and that’s just essential, I think.”
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