“Unlocking Health & Healing with Dr. Laura G: Author of Common Wisdom

What's up, my good people? Welcome to the CJ Moneyway Show, the podcast that brings you success behind the, behind the stories. Today we have on the show physician, researcher, and author Dr. Laura G. How you doing today, Doc?

I'm good, thank you for having me.

Uh, thank you for taking the time out today to come join the Moneyway Show. So, uh, Dr. Laura, tell us a little bit about yourself and about your background.

So I was— I'm a researcher and physician, so that means you wear two hats. And so you see patients and you're a clinician, and the days off you do research. And I was busy publishing in academia, and then 2013 my body started to fall apart. As you can tell, I still don't speak well, and I continued to continue. Took me many years to realize, no, this is gonna stay. And I rechanged my focus into studying the wise because I didn't like the labels and all the boxes people put me in, and the wise really don't do that. And so then I, I applied my research skills. I didn't know how to study the wise, and I defined wisdom as 8 elements by interviewing 60 wise people across North America. And, and those 8 elements are really the secret to mastering life, to success, to doing well, to being a good leader, to doing really well in everything.

So, so, uh, Dr. Laura, like you said, you know, sometimes we go through challenges, but it seems like you've had them, uh, quite well with the, with the resume that you, that you present for yourself. So how many years of schooling did you complete at UCLA, and are you still connected with the program? And if so, in what way?

Yeah, I'm still connected. I'm still a professor there. And when you have a certain degree, like if you're a physician, you are a mentor to other people. So you can still have that title without seeing the patients. And so I went to college for 4 years, and then I went to medical school for 4 years, and then I did residency. And residency is kind of like what trained you to be the type of doctor you need to be. So like pediatricians go to a different residency, surgeons do a different residency. So I did one in emergency medicine, and that was 4 years, and then I did an additional 3 years of training, and that's where I learned more about research, and that's when I got my master's. So would you say I was, I was being trained or schooled for 15 years? Long time.

Yeah, that is a long time to be going to school, but, uh, you're here, you made it, so, uh, I guess it was worth it. Uh, Uh, so Doc, tell us a little bit about your book, uh, Common Wisdom.

So, so when— so the reason I did Common Wisdom was, again, I wanted to really learn from the wise, and I wanted to study wisdom. And I did not like being a scientist. I did not like the anecdotal and subjective information we already had. And people would— famous people will say, oh, this is wisdom, that's wisdom, but no one really knew So I decided, well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna study it. I didn't know anything about it, so I was gonna study it. And I spoke with 60 people across North America, so Canada and the US, and I interviewed them. And I put all the findings— what the— I mean, the book is called Common Wisdom because what was common to all of them. And I put those common elements in my book And I'll tell you what they are. They're resilience, kindness, positivity, spirituality, humility, tolerance, creativity, and curiosity. And ironically, you know, I mean, those were the elements, and most had 5. Of the elements. All had 2, and only 1 person of the 60 had all 8. And it's funny because, you know, looking back, he taught wisdom to older adults. He was said— so I only interviewed people who were in the ages 50s, 60s, and 70s. He was 79. He was about to turn 80. And he taught wisdom to older adults. Now, at the time when I interviewed him, we did not know these 8, you know, so we had no idea what they were. We had nothing, none of that. I just had interviews on my schedule. I was just interviewing. It was interesting.

So, so, um, so, uh, Dr. Laura, how did you come up with the idea for, uh, Common Wisdom? How did that come about?

Well, I knew how to do research, and so to do research, you kind of have to, you have to know what's out there. So I looked at geriatrics, sociology, and psychology journals and read about what they found about wisdom. They found that no computer, no test, no questionnaire, none of that will figure out who's wise. The only people who can identify who's wise are other people. And, and that wisdom had an inverse U relationship with age, so that only those in their 50s, 60s, and 70s are probably the wisest. It actually goes down because people lose how flexible they are and open-minded. And so that's when I stick to that age range. And then I realized, well, to do this, I'm gonna need help. So I hired a research assistant and I hired a marketing specialist, and she helped me post it on social media. I know we put on all our next doors, we put on Reddit, we put everywhere to get the word out of, do you know someone wise?

So, so, uh, uh, Doc, you, you talked about the, some of the elements, the 8 elements that you, you guys came up with. So let's go, uh, by them individually and just give me one or two, you know, markers where you say that people had things in common. So let's just start off with spirit— spirituality. What—

sure. And so remember, the, the name of the book is called Kongoism. Like you said, it's because the common traits or elements they had in common And spirituality was our fourth element. And it was the idea that there's a higher power. And all believed that there was something. They didn't know what— not all, the majority— but they didn't know what it was. But there was something. And they didn't— like one woman, I won't forget, when I interviewed her, she had lost her son when he was 6 years old. And at the age of 4, she— this son started signing biblical texts that he— that no one had ever shared with him, ever. The mom didn't believe in it, and she had no idea. And so, so at the age of 4, he started, and then age of 5, he kept it, and then he died at the age of 6. But that just made her more spiritual. That made her realize, wait, there must be something bigger.

Yeah, that, that's a good one right there, because that would make you think that the little child, you know, the little child had the spirit of God in him, and, and he spread that, that love and that spirit throughout that family. And it took something that tragic to, to realize that, you know, it is something bigger than us out there. That's That's a good one. How about, uh, creativity?

So it's funny because a lot of people think creativity is only what the creatives have, you know, the artists, the people who think of things. But I'm like, no, think about who you were when you were a kid. You were creative and you were curious, right? You asked questions about everything. And you know, a fort. Like, just sheets straight from something could be a fort. So we all have it in us. It's a matter of how much we take it out. So it's creativity. I tell people, I'm like, your signature is creative. You're— the way you dress, the way you eat, who you are, that's all creative. And, and there's only one you. And so it's It's important for people to realize that they have it in them.

Yeah, we was all born with gifts and talents, you know, so—

and not everyone realizes that, but yes, I agree.

And, and, and some of us bury them, and some of us, like yourself, go 15 years and you multiply them to the fullest. And that's what we were meant to do.

Well, I know I came from the Middle East And I— a big part of me, I don't get me wrong, I love medicine, I love seeing patients, but a big part of me also likes to, to prove people wrong. And so, so that was very important to me.

Yeah, yeah. And I'm pretty sure you have, uh, over these years, over that time, because if nothing else, you got that DR in front of your name, and that's pretty cool.

Yeah, but you know, it's funny, I say that, I say that often about humility. It doesn't matter if someone has letters before or after their name. It's really what we all deserve respect. It doesn't make someone better because they have those, you know. It just makes them, oh, they know more about X. That's it.

Yeah, that's your expertise. So speaking of humility, how about, uh, humility, uh, when you, when you did your research for Common Wisdom?

You know, one of the people I interviewed, and, and I talked about him in my humility chapter, his name is Tom. He is the CEO of 5 companies, and we talk— and, and I also mentioned the chapter how they— Carmen's talked about how humility is the secret to success as a, as a leader. And Tom said, well, when he leads, if you think about a triangle, he always leads from the bottom part of the triangle, this part, you know, because he feels like the role of a CEO is really to be involved in the shareholders But everyone else, a lot of people in the company really know the products more than they do. So it was very interesting how humble he was.

Yeah, to be CEO of 5 different companies, you know, that evidently he's a very smart guy. But like you say, to humble yourself, to know the value of those that, you know, that, that's actually in, in the trenches every day, you know what I'm saying? Because a lot of people don't step down off that high horse like that. And so off of humility, tell us a little bit about kindness. What, what did you find out about kindness?

So kindness was my second element. The first was resilience, the second was kindness, and third was positivity. Now I do feel like they're all related.

Mm-hmm.

And, and often it's, it was interesting, it was the second because as I said, I'm from Middle East. Kindness is viewed as weakness. Where I come from. And but it was interesting when I asked, so I asked all 60 the same questions, and when I asked them the quality that they look for most in another person, a lot said kindness. Kindness was very important to them. And the thing with kindness is, was it was not only the people they surround themselves with, it was what they did, how they gave, of course, how they were but how they treated themselves and them being kind to themselves. And the more you think about it, you know, if you're kind to yourself, then you really do have room to be kind to others.

Yeah, I truly agree with that. You know, first it starts within, you know, because it sometimes it's like, uh, like repetition. You have to build things up, you know. Like you say, once you have a capacity to be kind to yourself, then that can flow, that can flow out into others. Now I can be kind to Dr. Laura. Now I can be kind to, you know, my wife or my children or whatever. So over time, I think that, you know, it builds on you. And once you build your capacity with that, you can spread that type of kindness out to the world and it can be very effective. So Dr. Laura, For one more on this tolerance, I, I thought that was very interesting. So what did you find out about tolerance in Common Wisdom?

You know, it's funny because that was my fifth element, or it's fifth, sixth. And, and with tolerance, people, it's interesting because people really talk about how important it was for them to be open-minded. And we only initially think of tolerance, okay, we think about religious and racial, but it's really more thoughts too, perspectives, being open to other thoughts. And when I think about the best way to connect with others, you want to be kind and tolerant and humble, and those are ways you can build relationships, is that You know, you're open to what someone else has to say. You don't have to agree with them, but you should definitely think and listen to them.

Yeah, I agree with that too. And I agree with what you said, that, uh, a lot of these go together— kindness, humility, tolerance. You do got to have patience. And, and again, you know, like you said, I can, I can listen to you, may not agree. Like me and my wife, we agree to disagree a whole lot, you know, but that don't mean that she's wrong and, you know, saying, and I'm right or whatnot. And sometimes when you listen to other people, you, you tend to get an idea or something that you may not have thought about, you know, like, wait a minute, I didn't, I didn't think about that. So it's always good to go in with an open mind because you may learn something that you actually did not know and then can implement it in probably some of the things that you're doing.. But if I just turn you away, then, you know, but that's how some of us are. I don't never want to be the smartest one in the room, you know. You like to have people around you that know more than you do.

Well, you know, that brings me up to another point, is initially, remember I hired a research assistant and a project kind of like a marketing manager, and she assumed that wisdom was equal to being smart. I'm like, no, we all know— and I thought about it multiple times— I know we all know people who have all those degrees behind their name, or may not, and are not— don't make good decisions, don't live great lives. And under— and the reverse, we may know people who don't have all that formal knowledge, who don't— are not what we would call smart per se, but they make really good decisions and they live good lives. So the two are not— they're not synonymous in any way. True.

First thing you said, the principal thing is to get wisdom and understanding. That is the key thing in life. And so, so that's a good topic that you got. So, Dr., um, Dr. Laura, Go on another side here. So tell us about some of the health challenges that you faced that caused you to question your teaching.

Well, you know, it's not— so, so I found out after the fact that all of it was chronic Lyme disease. I was bitten when I was in college, and the, you know, the bugs sat there in my body this whole time, and and now they kind of manifested, and the whole process had me rethink my devotion to academia, my commitment to only thinking about that. It kind of made me really think outside the box, and it brought me to this book. So in many ways, as hard as it was, and hard as it still is, it gave me the gift of writing this book.

Mm. So yeah, so it took some things to, to go through some things to give you the ideas and the wisdom, you know, as we talk about wisdom, the common wisdom to produce something that you're doing now. Um, so talking about the, the wisdom with the Wisdom Research Project, what are some of the questions you were asked?

So I was never asked questions, Tony. I asked others questions when I interviewed them. They never really asked me, and I asked them. And, and for example, what I asked never said, oh, what do you think wisdom is? And the questions were more about them and their lives and how they live their life. And based on that is how we arrived at those 8 elements. So we never really— I never got asked questions.

Okay.

And in Khan Wisdom, I mean, the book as well, I do have the 10 questions I asked in my book, in the beginning parts of my book. Then those are the same questions I asked everyone.

So, so what now with your book and you say you, you question like 61 people, right?

60.

60 people. So, uh, so when you did it and you did your research, you had to go back and break it down and see how many, like, okay, 30 said this and they ranked this one up here.

How did that go? We try to, we use the method of research. So there's quantitative and qualitative. Qualitative research is taking a story and converting it to data. And so we— that's how— and then with qualitative data research, you take ideas, many different themes or ideas, and you collapse them. So for example, the positivity chapter, that one had a theme being of gratitude in there and humor. So if we saw someone that was very funny and talked about how humor was a big part of its life, or someone talks about gratitude and how gratitude is important, having journals, doing journaling in the morning or whatever, or having their students have gratitude— what gratitude was a big part of their life— then they also got positivity. So that's how it kind of went into the 8 elements. It first started big and then it went small. And the people who kind of looked at the videos with me, it was me and two others, were the same people who helped me get the word out initially about the project. And so, and they were the reason I was able to do it.

Oh, so, so, Doc, so with the book, comment, comment with— because I only got one more question for you. So with the book, uh, Common Wisdom, where can we find it at? Uh, what can we find you on social media?

So I am, I am all over those things. LauraGubayan.com, LauraGubayan.com is my website. The problem is that's a hard last name to remember.

Yeah.

So, so I, I, I mean, the website I use start the— to even do the project, to get the 60, was called the wisdomresearchproject.com. And that's where they went to find out that, you know, it exists. So initially I used that website to kind of find my 60, and then I— now I have it as a link to my website. So, so I would use the, the wisdomresearchproject.com because that's the website that makes sense. And both link to my website. My website links to Amazon, and the book is called Common Wisdom because of the common elements that the— all those people shared. So that's why it's called Common Wisdom.

So on that note, and my last question to you is, in your research, what is wisdom?

No, it's funny because I, I like to break things down. I like to make it more like logical. And what is wisdom? It's definitely not, I know it when I see it. So I mean, based on my work and my book, Common Wisdom, it's, it's those 8 elements. And the one that is really wise has a majority of those 8 elements, and the one that— and all the rest of us are— can learn what's good for us, what we're good at, and what we're not. So it's something all of us can attain. It's not going to happen overnight, it's going to take time, but it's, it's important to break it down. Like, for example, you know, you may say this, this topic or this That, like, spirituality is not something I really understood beforehand because I'm a physician and I'm a scientist, but it's something I'm working more on now that I wrote the book. Or kindness is definitely something I didn't grow up with because of where I was born, but now it's something I'm focusing on. So I think all of us can look at parts of the book parts of these 8 and common wisdom and realize we're good at this and we're not good at that.

And so certain things that we, we need to work on. And like you say, uh, as they say in the book, in spirituality, sometimes we plant seeds and sometimes some people water. So, you know, so you plant seeds out there just for people to, you know, you never know what, what may grow out of that seed, but once, once you plant it to— I may not be spiritual, but it's something in, in this book that, that, that, that got my attention. And so right now I'm paying attention more to that because there's something that I can build up. So I get what you're saying, it's certain things that, you know, you probably can just learn and just— like you said, it ain't gonna happen overnight, but once you get that idea, once you get something in you, like we talked about earlier, just start Certain things sometimes you just don't know. We just don't know certain things. And once you get a taste of it, it's like, man, this may not be a bad thing. And then you can start working on things yourself. So I really appreciate you sharing your wisdom and understanding with us today. So Dr. Laura, is there anything else that you would like to share with us before we leave?

Yes. I think this whole process and me writing the book, and it's a quote, I think I, I don't know if I say it in the resilient chapter, but which is the very first one. I believe that things happen for you and not to you. And the reason is you may not see the long-term picture. You may have no idea. Like, I, years into having, you know, my body starting to fall apart, I was, I was so resentful. I was like, I'm gonna fight this, but I couldn't. And I was so sad this was happening, but now I look back and I'm so grateful. So when I say things happen for you and not to you, I want people to live life with that sense of positivity and to live in faith and not live in fear. I'm sure I lived in fear my whole life, having to, you know, accomplish this, do this, do that. I lived in fear. And so I, I believe that you should live in faith, know that things are gonna work out and things are on your side.

So here, work those things out for the good. What some people meant for, for evil, God will turn it around for your good. I like that. And so, uh, Dr. Laura, I appreciate you coming on the show. Hey, go grab the book Common Wisdom. You may learn some things from there. Go Go check out her, uh, check out her program on her website that she mentioned once before. Check out the 8 Elements of Wisdom. You may learn something today. I hope you learn something on the CJ Moneyway Show. This your boy CJ Moneyway Johnson, and we out of here. Peace.