Hi, I’m Angela Alfaro, MD, a family physician, and I’m here to share my journey of finding my passion and purpose in life through this blog. As a doctor, teacher, listener, and counselor, my passion for writing this blog comes from my many experiences as a physician, a mother, and a woman who understands the importance of healthy aging.
Like many of you, I have struggled with finding my passion and purpose in life. Despite being a doctor, I still found myself searching for something more. We all have our ups and downs, and we all have a goal we are working towards. While there are many sites out there that offer advice on finding your passion and happiness, this blog is not intended to replace them. Rather, it is a place for me to share my experiences and provide sound advice on how to live a healthy life.
As physicians, we often find ourselves unfulfilled. We treat end-stage diseases when we know there are ways to prevent them. Many lifestyle-related choices can lead to diseases, and we all have a responsibility for our own health. Unfortunately, the system doesn’t always make it easy. My goal is to make it easier. There are so many questions people have about what to eat, how to exercise, what supplement to take, etc., and there is so much misinformation and scams out there. I hope this blog can answer the question: what can I do to live well?
Recently, I attended a conference in Napa Valley, California, sponsored by the Harvard School of Public Health and hosted at the Culinary Institute of America. It was the best medical conference I have been to, bringing together clinical providers, administrators, businesses, dietitians, nutritionists, and chefs to discuss nutrition, wellness, and healthy living. During one of the breaks, I started jotting down some ideas about wellness. Being from Valdez, Alaska, located on the Prince William Sound, the word SOUND kept ringing in my ears.
According to Dictionary.com, sound can mean excellent and free of moral defect. When it comes to wellness, don’t we want to hear sound advice? A sound can also be an idea or impression that can be heard, a way to convey or express an idea. Sometimes medical information can be confusing and just flies over the intended recipient’s head. To “sound” something means to measure its deepness, which speaks to the need to treat individuals as unique and with different ideas, goals, dreams, illnesses, and characteristics. To reach a deeper understanding of ourselves and others in order to convey a message of wellness, we need to measure one’s readiness. Not everyone is ready to dive right in, and some will need to dip their toe in the pond to gauge the information and decide if it is worth the effort. But I hope that someday, you will take the plunge, invest in yourself, and live well.
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