18. GLADYS MCGAREY: Living Life Well

Episode Transcript

Note: Transcript is AI-generated and may contain errors. Please refer to the episode audio or video for exact quotes.

Dr. Gladys McGarey: everything that happens to you is there for a reason, and you can either learn from it or you don’t.

 

Michael Hyatt: So today we’re talking with Dr. Gladys McGarry, who was born when Woodrow Wilson was president for some scale on that, Joe Biden is the 46th president of the us. Wilson was number 28.

Megan Hyatt MIller: Wow. 

Michael Hyatt: So that’s how far it goes back. But Dr. Gladys is a pioneering, holistic physician, a medical activist, and she’s now 103 years old, and she still has an active medical practice. She’s a founder in the past, president of the American Holistic Medical Association, now called the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine.

She’s a founding diplomat of the American Board of Holistic Medicine. And a lot of other credentials as well. But she’s, 

Megan Hyatt MIller: when you’ve been, when you’ve been alive for 103 years, you’ve done a lot of things. You’ve done a lot. 

Michael Hyatt: Absolutely. She’s the author of The Well-Lived Life, subtitled 102 year old, uh, doctor’s, six Secrets to Health and Happiness at every age, and my wife Gail.

Introduced me to this book. 

Megan Hyatt MIller: Well, she did, and I think the only person more excited than the two of us about Dr. Gladys being on today is mom. Actually, she’s so excited in fact, that we were talking about it and I said, you know what? I need to like step out of this podcast and let mom be the co-host with you because I think that, um, this book has been so meaningful to her and Dr.

Gladys’s work have has been so meaningful to her that she’s the perfect person to sit in this chair for this episode. So I’ll be, uh, stepping out. She’ll be stepping in, and then I’ll be back with you again next week. 

Michael Hyatt: Enjoy

Gail Hyatt: welcome. You have not done a podcast episode with us, at least in this new format. Yep. And so I want you to talk about the story before we introduce Dr. Gladys, I want you to talk about how you found this book and what it’s meant to you. 

Yep, I’d love to do that. So, um, I was at the, we have a lake house that’s about an hour and 45 minutes from us.

And so we try to spend as much time as we can down there. And when we’re down there, we do a lot of walking. And when I walk I typically listen to a podcast, um, or a book or something. And so, um. Believe it or not, Gladys, it was one year ago to this very day,

July the 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: happy 

birthday.

Gail Hyatt: I 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: Uh, 

Gail Hyatt: interview with Ed Millet

Dr. Gladys McGarey: ah. 

Gail Hyatt: I was completely captivated by the interview.

And your whole story and just, just you as a human being. I was just, everything resonated with me. And so I kept walking and walking. It was a pretty long interview and I just kept walking and, and then as soon as I was done, I searched to find other interviews that you had done. And then I said, well, I gotta get the book.

So then I downloaded the book on Audible and started listening to it. And, and once I really got into the book, I was, um, your best evangelist. I was trying to encourage everybody, regardless of what age they were, to read what you had learned through life and, uh, your philosophy toward living. And it’s just absolutely beautiful.

And I particularly love the, the whole. A holistic approach to, to wellness and to health and the body, the mind, the spirit, every part of it. it just really, uh, meshes with the philosophy of our business and what we are trying to, uh, put out to the world as well. So I just wanna thank you for choosing to, to write the book and to do the interviews and to make your wisdom accessible to people, 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: Well, thank you for taking it to the next step, ’cause it life and living and love have to grow and they only grow by being, being shared. And so that’s what you’re doing and I, I’m so grateful for that and then giving me the opportunity to do it now is wonderful. 

Michael Hyatt: well, your message really resonates with us because as a company, you know, we most, we serve a lot of business owners and leaders think that work is. A hundred percent of everything.

And a lot of 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: Yeah, 

Michael Hyatt: have meaningful life outside of work. And we’re committed to helping people get what we call the double win, which is to win at work and succeed at life. 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: yeah,

Michael Hyatt: not either or. It’s both

and and we feel like you’re such the perfect embodiment

of 

the message that we’re trying to, uh, communicate to the world. I wonder if you could start with just your personal story growing up in India and all the things that you learned along the way.

Dr. Gladys McGarey: Oh, I can’t do all the things I learned at home,

Gail Hyatt: Hundred and three years in five minutes. 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: but I’ll try. 

Michael Hyatt: Okay. 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: put a little in the niche in it 

Gail Hyatt: for 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: Well, it was wonderful to have the parents that I had, they were both osteopathic physicians. At a time when women were not doctors, you know, in fact, when my mother came out to India with my dad, she came as his luggage. I mean, she didn’t have a passport,

Gail Hyatt: Wow.

Dr. Gladys McGarey: so it was because women, you know, it’s the way it was.

They, they came to India and they just took on their work with the Indian villagers particularly. As a child, I responded to that. So, uh, at a gut level, you know, it was like, yeah, these are the people that we need. These are the ones that are, and so on. So I would play with the little Indian kids and they would try to rub my arm and get the white off.

You know, they wanted me the same color as they were. And I think that’s a wonderful statement for us to hear from other people around the world. You know, that, that we, we are one, we race. I, I mean, we just, one group of people we’re humans 

Gail Hyatt: Mm-Hmm,

that’s right. 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: and, and we’re all the same. So we have different things, but it’s, it’s that human actual deep humanity that we’re reaching for when we’re reaching for, uh, uh, understanding each other.

Michael Hyatt: One of the things that you talk a lot about, and I’m sure your parents this and you certainly have, but you talk about the role of purpose in both health, physical and mental and emotional, but also in longevity. could you just give us a few thoughts on purpose?

Dr. Gladys McGarey: Absolutely. You know, it’s really nice to get up and wake up and have, know that you have something to work for. You know, it’s, it’s not just, oh, I gotta go to work. I got to, I working for this, you know, and it’s something that reaches to my inner space and then, then it can reach to yours. And to the next, and to the next is the way life works.

Life and love have to move and they have to reach out to other people as well as deeper within ourselves. And the interesting too is thing is, as we learn to accept. And respond to our own inner knowing we actually can learn to love that part of ourselves. Um, when I was a kid, I was so dyslexic that, uh, I was class dummy and had to repeat first grade twice and, and I really thought I was stupid.

Fortunately at home it wasn’t that way. I had an IA who I would be the class dummy, but I would climb up the mountain where we were. Our house was up on the higher in the mountain, and our Aya would be waiting at the end of the path for me and she’d hold her child, her shawl out, and she’d say to me, ISRA, come here.

And I’d go and she’d wrap that around me and I’d sit down and wait until my world came back into focus 

 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: or because at home things were great. School Uhuh, it was another story.

Gail Hyatt: That’s fascinating. And then you, and then you went on though and continued your education to the, to the extent that you became a doctor

and, and you’re, and you’re involved with, uh, helping educate other people and consult with people. So somehow you overcame all of that because

of the 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: Well, 

Gail Hyatt: that you were a part of.

Dr. Gladys McGarey: you know, and interestingly enough, when I was in medical school, the dean didn’t think that I understood what medicine was supposed to be about. So she sent me to the psychiatrist three different times because she thought I, she leave. And the psychiatrist would send me back and say, no, I was okay.

Okay. Material for medicine. Fortunately I had a nice psychiatrist. 

Gail Hyatt: Dr. Gladys, you were talking about, uh, how you struggled in school

Dr. Gladys McGarey: Yes. 

Gail Hyatt: yet at the same time you continued your education, you went all the way to medical school, graduated, you have a medical practice, you consult, you teach, you speak.

And so, um, that hard? Like, tell me, tell me the journey of that, because that purpose for your medical degree must have just kept propelling you forward.

Dr. Gladys McGarey: Well, you know, me, the way medicine is thought about in the overall scheme is it’s, it’s there to kill diseases and get rid of them. And I don’t think of it that way. I think of it as that these diseases are here for us to learn something from.

Michael Hyatt: hmm. 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: so, because I had that attitude while I was in medical school, the dean sent me to the psychiatrist three times because.

He thought I, I didn’t belong. And the psychiatrist thought it was okay. 

Gail Hyatt: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: back. But even after I’ve been in practice for many years, I was reported to the board, the Maricopa County Medical Board, and called up in front of them. And they, this one time, uh, I had gone to the meeting and I’d accepted my reprimand and I had the, the, the piece of paper in my hand about how I was supposed to start, you know, doing things that I, anyway, I, as I walked out of the door, one of the doctors from the room came out behind me and he walked up to me and he taps me on the shoulder and he says, now, let me tell you something, honey.

Oh. That word honey just pushed a button in me. I turned around, I had my keys in my head and I started punching him on his shoulder and I said, you will not call me honey. I’m your peer age wise and professionally, and you will not call me honey. So he kind of backed off and I looked over and my lawyer was leading against the wall laughing.

I came back to my office where my daughter, who is my partner at the time, you know, we worked together. I told her what happened. She said, oh mom, you didn’t, you know, the whole thing. in my life there is a limit to which I’m going to be pushed. And because if it’s going to affect the message that I’m here to give, I’m not gonna let that happen.

Michael Hyatt: mm-Hmm. 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: And so it’s, it’s that kind of a, acceptance of how people think and how they wanna do things and so on. But to have them tell me that I shouldn’t be doing something, uh, pushes the wrong button, and, um, because I know what I’m here for and what I’ve been working towards and, you know, and, and people around the world are beginning to know it too, and it’s awesome.

Gail Hyatt: Mm-Hmm.

Michael Hyatt: It really just. 

Gail Hyatt: me, uh, you were a pioneer in so many ways. So as I have learned your story and, and read your books and listened to you speak and on podcasts. Not only were you a, a pioneer for women in the medical community because, and your mom was too, as you tell her story, and so that was when I think of the magnificent female doctors that, that I’ve known over the years, it’s just you, you paved the way for them and that was just such a gift. But not only were you a pioneer. Uh, in the medical field. But you were a pioneer, I mean, for women, but you were a pioneer in the, in the medical field itself by introducing this holistic approach to healing. And I would love to hear you talk about that a little bit more because, um, one of the things that we try to teach in our business and, and to our, to our clients and podcast listeners and people who we work with, is that you have to see yourself as a whole person.

And the 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: Yeah. 

Gail Hyatt: for our clients a lot of times is their primary focus is just on, I’m a business person. I run a business,

I 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: Yeah. 

Gail Hyatt: and, you know, produce this or that, but they’re also, um, a human being. They’re also probably a parent or a spouse or a brother or a sister or whatever. And so, um, they have to see themselves in a holistic way.

And you, you help pave the way for that. View and way of seeing life, and I’d love to hear how did that even come about because you were going against the grain.

Dr. Gladys McGarey: Well, you know, I’m calling it living medicine now because that word puts, puts it in perspective Mm-Hmm life has to live and love is a way to make it live and reach and life and love. See, I have these five in my mind. I have these five elves that help me, structure what I’m. We’re working towards. And what I’m working with, the first two are life and love.

They have to go together. They’re, it’s like when you’re pregnant. When I’m pregnant, the baby and I and are one 

what I eat. The baby eats what I think the baby thinks. Up until that baby takes its first breath and then it becomes its own being. It accepts its place in the earth. Until that time it was my, joy and my, uh, responsibility to have that unit as one complete unit.

Michael Hyatt: Hmm. 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: when that baby took its first breath, that baby became its own person. 

Michael Hyatt: Hmm. 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: And you know, when I was working with helping mothers have babies. I swear when that baby took its first breath, I heard the angels sing. It was like this, ah, and, and 

so for me it was such a, um, blessing to have that energy coming in with this new being on the planet, you know, 

Michael Hyatt: Mm-Hmm. 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: on its own breath, on its own person.

 

Michael Hyatt: question I have about purpose, would you say you’ve always had the same life purpose or that’s changed in the various seasons of your life? Is your purpose today different than it was say 50 years ago?

Dr. Gladys McGarey: Oh, it has to grow or it does, it dies, you know? So it’s not exactly the same by any means. Um, when I was a kid, uh. I knew I was a doctor. My do, my sister wouldn’t let me play with her dolls because my dolls got sick and hers didn’t.

And so anyway, it was, and I told my parents when I was quite young that I was a doctor and, uh, it wasn’t I was going to be one. It was, uh, that’s what who I am.

Gail Hyatt: things too, Gladys, that I noticed in your book, um, that you talk about at 103 years old now a 10 year plan. And to some people that seems audacious. Um, but I just was riveted when I heard that and then, uh, you talk about exactly what that is.

But maybe you could briefly tell us why you even have a tenure plan and what is it?

Dr. Gladys McGarey: for me it’s something that’s to reach towards and it’s a village for living medicine. Uh, I don’t know where it’s, you know, it can be any place. In fact, it is any place. There are blue zones around the world that are places where people have lived. Uh, quite a long time, but they have lived in a way that is, well, it reaches for life and love.

It doesn’t reach for, uh, the conflict and stuff that comes along it deals with, but that’s not what it’s reaching for. It’s reaching for life and love. So it’s constantly growing. So a village for living medicine is what I think, uh, would, is a purpose that I can reach for. however that’s happened, I don’t know how it’s gonna happen, but it’s happening.

It’s happening along.

Gail Hyatt: that, um, how does that vision that you have for this, community, uh, what is, what does that, how does it impact your daily life? Having a vision, having goals, um, looking forward, having purpose, what does that, how does that impact your decisions that you make each day?

Dr. Gladys McGarey: It lets me talk to you. You know, Yeah. me, it gives me a VO voice because there’s certain things that I think human beings are reaching for. See, I have this idea, this isn’t a theology, it isn’t anything. It’s just my idea Okay. that when God created the universe, it was beautiful. It was exactly everything that is in place.

It was just right. It was so gorgeous and everything. And then he created the human being. And he said to us as human beings, now here’s the universe that is just exactly perfect. And now I’m giving you humans dominion over this earth because you are the only beings in this entire universe that have free will and choice.

So I therefore give you dominion over this earth. And we, in our arrogance decided, he said dominance. So we said, oh boy. And we took it over. And now look what What’s happened.

Gail Hyatt: Mm 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: Dominion means taken care of.

Gail Hyatt: mm 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: So if we are here to take care of Mother Earth, let’s do it. 

Michael Hyatt: Mm-Hmm 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: You know, what a privilege that is. 

Michael Hyatt: mm-Hmm 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: But if, if we don’t uneven even understand that, then we misunderstood our mission on this earth.

And that is to help each other, help every other being, every other living process on this earth. Let me tell you about, friend of mine, and because this carries a message, a story, I tell stories because I think the message gets across 

Michael Hyatt: Uh, 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: better from, from 

me. 

Put it this way. 

Michael Hyatt: Yeah. 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: this man was a family friend of ours.

He used to. Eat dinner with us a lot of the times. And the kids loved him. And you know, he was just a family friend. And then he moved into dementia. And so we found a really nice place where he could, we, we, we knew he was being taken care of and, and things were going along just fine. And, um, so one week I took a little plant and a little pot, a little green plant to him as a gift.

So when I came into the room where he has this really nice room and all, I came into the room and I gave it to him and I said, James, this, here’s a plant and it’s here for you to love. And, uh, and I talked and I’m talking around that theme. And he’s just look, you know, looking around. He’s not paying. It seemed to me he wasn’t paying any attention to us, but that’s all right.

I knew him and I loved him, and it didn’t matter. He could take what he needed to take. And so when I was finished, I put it on the window sill and I, I gave it some water and I said, you just need to get, you know, so on and so forth. And then I left and I came back a week later and he meets me at the door and he says, magic, magic.

And I said, what, what? And he says, look, box. And he takes me into the room over to, to the, uh, box, which was the air conditioner box. And you know, like right now it’s 112 out here. Well we 

need air conditioning, you know, so he says, magic. He says, push this button. Everything gets cool. Plant loves cool.

Gail Hyatt: Oh, 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: And then he pokes over the other button over here.

He says, push this button. Everything gets hot. Hot plant doesn’t like hot.

Michael Hyatt: oh,

Dr. Gladys McGarey: And I said, oh my. Isn’t that amazing?

Michael Hyatt: Hmm

Dr. Gladys McGarey: He, in his dementia, has connected with this plant mm-Hmm which obviously has dementia too. You know, what does the plant know? But it knows something enough that it’s connected with him, and he connected with that,

Michael Hyatt: mm-Hmm

Dr. Gladys McGarey: and they had a loving relationship going on that I never could have imagined.

Gail Hyatt: Wow.

Dr. Gladys McGarey: But it’s so amazing when you. Begin to really see and feel what’s happening with the world around us.

 

Michael Hyatt: you think that this idea of having a future you’re looking forward to, related to longevity? And if so, what have you seen in your practice with people? Because I, ’cause we meet people all the time that so stuck in the past. All they can reflect on is the past the people that don’t look forward to something that’s bigger and better, you know, or people that are often struggle with mental issues like

anxiety or depression or whatever.

But how, how is this related to longevity?

Dr. Gladys McGarey: Oh, it’s critical. I like, I like to think of it as like if we have a, a bag of stuff. That we’ve been carrying and we’ve been carrying it a long time, and it’s not very nice and it’s actually kind of nasty or maybe not nasty, but it’s not something that we brag about, but we carry it on our shoulder so it, it’s on this’s, this bag that’s on our shoulder.

And if we keep looking at that bag, if we keep turning our head and looking at that bag of stuff that we’ve been carrying all this time, we’re gonna get a stiff neck. I mean, how are we ever gonna pull our neck back again? You know, we’re, that’s what we’re looking at. If we know we’ve got that back there and it’s taken care of itself, but we’re looking for the light, we’re gonna find the light.

Michael Hyatt: Mm-Hmm. We don’t need to be stuck in that bag over our shoulder. It’s, it’s. It’s there. If, if we ch actually we can let it go. We may not need to let it go because there may be a lot of lessons that we still have to learn in there. And, uh, so we, maybe we need to hang onto it for a while, but we don’t need to be stuck with it.

Yeah, that’s a good answer. don’t have to be stuck with it,

and I No.

progress really happens when we can, when we can learn from the past, but not be stuck in the past

and we begin yeah, 

forward.

Dr. Gladys McGarey: yeah. It’s part of our story, 

Michael Hyatt: Yeah. 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: know, it’s part of the story we have to tell, and everything has lessons. 

Michael Hyatt: Hmm 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: if we learn from that story and don’t just try to get over it, like we say, oh, well just get over that Uhuh, learn from it and grow from it. And live from it. Your, everything that happens to you is there for a reason, and you can either learn from it or you don’t.

Michael Hyatt: things you say in the book is Spend your energy wildly. you mean by that?

Gail Hyatt: Usually Well,

Right? Spend your spend wisely.

Dr. Gladys McGarey: you can be wise about it if you know, and it probably should be, but don’t, don’t hold back. Hmm You know, there was a time when I had to punch that doctor. He really needed to be punched, you know, so that you spend, if the energy rises and you need to have your voice heard, use it. Hmm. don’t be afraid that somebody will judge you because of course they will.

Michael Hyatt: Yeah.

Dr. Gladys McGarey: You know, it, it is not, it’s not. If somebody is going to criticize you, of course somebody’s going to criticize you because, you know, we criticize ourselves all the time. But, but the whole fact that what we’re doing is working with understanding things that we need to understand and if we need to understand something, we need to talk about it.

Michael Hyatt: Mm-Hmm

Dr. Gladys McGarey: And if we need to talk about it, sometimes we need to write about it. And some, you know, it’s a, it’s a, a process. Life and love have to move. In order to stay alive, they have to move.

Michael Hyatt: hmm.

Gail Hyatt: So, I have the, so one thing guys started to talk about the five Ls.

yeah.

Dr. Gladys McGarey: The first two are, are, uh, together, and that’s the pregnancy.

But when the baby takes its first breath, it’s on its own. You know, it has its own space in the world. But then the, the third, uh, those two are together. But the third one is, is laughter. Laughter without love is cruel. It’s mean. It breaks up families, it causes wars. It’s just not nice. But laughter with love is joy and happiness.

And the fourth one is labor. Labor without l love is drudgery. 

Michael Hyatt: Hmm. 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: Oh man, I’ve gotta go to work Too many diapers. This is too hard, you know? And, and we drag it heavy load along, but labor with love. You work twice or 15 times harder with labor, with love. Think of what you are doing. 

Think of what I’m doing, the time that we’re spending doing the thing that we love, because we love it.

Michael Hyatt: Mm-Hmm 

Dr. Gladys McGarey: I love talking to you and you love talking to me because that’s where the energy is flowing.

So, and the fifth L is listening. Listening without love is empty sound, but listening with love is understanding. So these five Ls, so kind of form a, uh, foundation on which. We can build a lot of, of really good stuff for ourselves and for the people that we work with.

Thank you. you so much for visiting with us here for a few minutes. We’ve really enjoyed this conversation. You’re kind of a hero to us, and I wanna encourage all of you listening buy the book, the Well-Lived Life, a 100 and 2-year-old doctor’s, six Secrets to Heal with Happiness at every age. Uh, and it’s gotta forward by one of my medical heroes, Dr. Mark Hyman. So

Yes.

Michael Hyatt: that was really the first thing that got my attention. I 

Gail Hyatt: also wanna say that the audible version is fantastic. The person you got to read it extremely talented in capturing your voice and your enthusiasm and everything. It was a very enjoyable book to listen to.

Dr. Gladys McGarey: Thank you. again and you’re just an inspiration. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Michael Hyatt: Okay. So let’s talk about our takeaways, and I think the biggest one I have is that health and longevity have more to do with your psychological state. And your connections with community, then they have to do with all the things that we do to our bodies.

And I’m not saying that’s not important Mm-Hmm. But I think our psychological state and the connections we have with other people, you know, love and life trump everything else. 

Gail Hyatt: Yeah, exactly. And when you, when you get to know Gladys Moore and her story, you also learn that she had cancer twice. And so, uh, it just, her journey of healing through that was, is very inspirational.

Um, so, uh, I know that the, the, the mental, physical, the spiritual and psychological aspects helped her healing, uh, so much in, in those days. Uh, for me, I think the takeaway was I had to, I have to just say I love her positive view of life. And I think when you see all of life as a teacher. Regardless of what happened, there’s the, the, the illusion that life will be hunky dory and have no issues.

Um, if you do everything right or whatever is, is just fantasy. It’s just not reality. And so in this world, you will have tribulation. I mean, that’s just a reality. And so what are you gonna do about it? How are you gonna respond to it? And I think when you do begin to see everything. As a gift, everything as a teacher, um, which she talks so much about.

She also talks about gratitude a lot. And, um, the fact that gratitude is just knowing that you have enough, you know, I forget the exact quote that she has, but it is just a, it’s a whole huge way of looking at all of your life. And I think when you start living from that position of abundance and gratitude and love, love, as you heard her talk about with the five Ls, love was in every single one of them.

Mm-Hmm. And it transforms and experience into something growth producing and valuable, and which leads to a longer, more satisfying life. 

Michael Hyatt: Well, the longer I live, the more I see love as the essential ingredient. 

Gail Hyatt: Mm-Hmm. 

Michael Hyatt: You know, and hatred and conflict and division. Is not healthy. It’s toxic. It’s toxic, physically toxic.

And, and I think that that’s one of the things that if we’re gonna be ambassadors for the double win, which we are, and hopefully all of you listening are mm-hmm, then we’ve gotta make love sort of the foundation of everything that we do. Well guys, look, thanks for joining us for this episode, A very special episode with Dr.

Gladys McGarry. And Gail, thank you for joining me. This is the first time we’ve done a podcast. 

Gail Hyatt: Well, 

Michael Hyatt: uh, like this. 

Gail Hyatt: Thanks for letting me be a part of this today. It was fun. It was just, just a blast. I loved every second. 

Michael Hyatt: Okay, guys, we look forward to the next episode with you, by the way. In the meantime, if you wouldn’t mind, write a rating or give a rating for the podcast and write a review that helps us tremendously in getting this message of the double win out to the masses.

See you soon.