“I have to eat healthier”, “I have to exercise more”, “if I find an expert who has the right help for me”. Such thoughts spin for many of us. We are peppered with advice and exhortations about food and exercise.
– More of this and more of that… It is in human nature to do more when we want to solve a problem. But this is wrong, says celebrity doctor Kaveh Rashidi.
Speaking to us as he drives to Stryn to promote his fourth and latest book, he says: “Lower your shoulders!” Do less for your health and get healthier”.
– Is it a self-help book?
– I have written a self-help book so that people can avoid self-help books! You can quickly end up feeling that you are not up to anything, if you have to be super good all the time.
We need rest and opportunity to process – just let life sink in,
Kaveh Rashidi General practitioner, speaker and author
Rashidi himself has been very good. Already as a child, he left the others at school and skipped a grade. The industrious refugee boy became the country’s youngest fully qualified doctor at 23 years young.
In addition to having 4-5,000 patients in his doctor’s office a year, his column in A magazine has made him “all of Norway’s GP”, and in 2022 he received the General Practitioner of the Year award from his colleagues in the Norwegian Medical Association. The 35-year-old has already appeared in a number of TV programmes, including “71 degrees north – celebrity”, is an active voice in social media and has his own podcast. In addition (take a breath!) he has published three books and is the father of two children who are now under the age of three.
So one day was enough. More than enough. Although the day may seem to have 30 hours for Rashidi, he felt exhaustion – so severe that a year ago he had to send himself to a doctor and now goes to a psychiatrist every Tuesday.
While others who “go on a rampage” may be on sick leave for a few months, the super doctor wrote a new book.
– If you constantly grit your teeth and accelerate, you miss something, namely the peace of mind to process. I believe in doing less. Sit more quietly and look out the window. Important things happen for our health then too.
– It’s always tempting to be clever and ambitious, just drive on, always logged in, but we need rest – just let life sink in. That’s when important things happen for our health.
Photo: Jorunn Valle Nilsen/Vigmostad Bjørke
Stop to charge
We Norwegians are very concerned about our health. Extremely. From the moment we open our eyes until we go to bed, for many of us the brain is churning:
Is this healthy enough for breakfast? Should I walk or drive to work? Will I make it to the spinning class? Is this dinner organic or ultra-processed?
Phew! And if children come into life, a thousand new choices appear: Are the nappies environmentally friendly, are the pyjamas non-toxic, are the wool trousers from free-ranging game sheep? Is the baby food organic and produced sustainably? Is the family going on trips at the weekends? All these “should should should should should”…
– All the advice for the right lifestyle can be healthy enough individually, but the total can make us sick. Baked into the well-intentioned lifestyle and health advice is a message that you should not be satisfied with yourself as you are.
Kaveh Rashidi interrupts himself and asks if it’s okay for us to take a short break while he charges the car at CirkleK before we continue. Soon he will be back on the thread:
– Yes, hello again. The car had 40 percent left, so it wasn’t a crisis, but I thought it was a good idea to charge before the battery was empty.
– A bit like in life, in other words? Take a time-out and charge before it’s completely empty?
– Hehe, yes – that picture is good. It’s always tempting to be smart and ambitious, just drive on, always logged in, but we need rest and the opportunity to process – just let life sink in. Then we sit down with a screen, a TV series or social media – and the brain is still working at full blast. But then we rob ourselves of something. I myself am working on seeing the value of doing nothing. Just sitting and staring out the window, without “being in production”, admits Rashidi.
Finding the “enough spot”
The community physician Per Fugelli talked about the “enough point”. Kaveh Rashidi has undertaken to carry on that legacy. He talks about the value of “good enough”.
– We strive to find a balance. The key to better health is to ignore more health advice and be more content with what you already do. One of the most important things you do for your brain and psyche is to exercise. But it goes perfectly well even if you don’t exercise every day.
– With your fourth book, have you found a prescription that you have written for yourself – and all the rest of us?
– And… Kaveh drags it a bit.
– Prescription is strictly an active treatment, while my goal is to do less of something. We easily want too much. But too much of a good thing also becomes difficult and wrong.
– “The truth is actually quite uplifting. Because little is needed to live a healthy life, you write in your book. Aren’t you afraid to give us good reasons not to stretch, to sit back on the sofa, lazy and satisfied with the bag of crisps?
– Neither crisps nor sofas are harmful to health, if you follow the golden mean. So lower your shoulders, trust the advice of the health authorities and trust that you will get far by being good enough – rather than aiming for perfection!
In the book, Kaveh Rashidi gives many examples from the treatment room.
Photo: Liv Ekeberg
Grief method that is not recommended
Sometimes life hits us midships – like when we lose someone close to us. It can affect both physical and mental health.
– In connection with the launch of your book, you shared some of the most painful and worst things from your own life in a portrait interview with A magazine. You talk openly about how you suppressed the loss of your sister by pretending she was just on vacation. What will “doctor Kaveh” say to “patient Kaveh” about such a method of mourning?
– It is probably a strategy and an attempt to master a challenge. But it is a method of grieving that lacks a little patience, acceptance and generosity towards oneself. It works better in the short term than in the long term. But you, I have to hang up now, says Rashidi.
– Okay! Have a good trip – and you, remember to charge before the battery is empty!
2024-02-21 22:28:43
#prescription
