Q & A with Dr. B.

Dr. Larry Berkelhammer

The purpose of this website, my book, and the Community Education course I teach at the College of Marin, is to teach people how to live a vibrant, meaningful life through the cultivation of self-empowerment and self-efficacy. In this weekly Q&A column, I post questions from students and from people who attend my presentations along with my answers.

Here is this week’s question:

QUESTION: How can I best know what my body needs?

ANSWER: Loving self-care includes tuning in to your psychobiological needs. Whenever you are not feeling well, mentally or physically, ask yourself what you think your mind or body needs in that moment. For example, sometimes when I am getting my twice daily exercise or working in the garden, I become lightheaded and tremulous. Tests have ruled out cardiovascular and endocrine causes. I have learned that I can resolve the problem by simply resting for a minute. I don’t know the etiology of these symptoms; no one does. But with loving self-care and past experience with the symptom, I can fix the problem.

This website is offered as a free public service, supplying information that has been found helpful to certain people living with chronic health challenges or issues related to wellbeing. No treatment is offered on this website. The advice is general, and may or may not apply to your individual situation, and is not a substitute for psychotherapy or medical treatment.

If you would like to ask me something, you can type your question in the comment box below. An answer to your specific question may not necessarily appear in this column. The reason for that is I wait until I get a certain number of related questions, then I pick one that covers them all and I answer that one.