Working as an ophthalmologist-surgeon, the medical director of Clínica Baviera, overcome the humility of revealing the corners of her inner life with the idea of presenting vital teachings, published the book “Así lo veo yo” (Ediciones Vitruvio). tools to help others. Jaime Javaloy takes a practical approach to more than 80 issues and thoughts on personal development in his book that always keeps the ego, its worst enemy, away from itself.
QUESTION: Why would an ophthalmologist write a book on self-help?
ANSWER: To be honest, I never thought of publishing my notes. In the first year of the pandemic, I was taking notes on my cell phone, the thoughts that came to my mind at the moment of the day when I thought it was the most clear and creative: the moment following my early meditation. morning hence the name of the book. One day I gave it to a friend who is also my boss to read and he insisted I share it. In fact, Fundación Baviera took all the necessary steps with the publisher to bring the book to light.
Q: What is “that’s how I see it” about?
A: Well, it deals with how I perceive the main aspects of life. At first these were unconnected notes. When I decided to publish them, I tried to give them a common theme to present them with a certain order and meaning. In this way, I first present my vision of our core strengths and weaknesses to then relate them to other issues such as life itself or relationships with others. In short, it expresses my philosophy of life, a snapshot of my soul at a certain moment in my life journey.
Q: In your presentation of the book, you highlighted some vital experiences that have caused you to view life in this way from a failure perspective. Is it better to fail than to succeed?
A: To some extent yes, because we learn little from our successes and much from our defeats. On the other hand, many of the circumstances that I once thought were unfortunate eventually turned into blessings, causing me to misunderstand our irresistible tendency to quickly judge what happens to us as good or bad. Reality is not good or bad, it just is. It is we who give it a positive or negative color depending on what we think is advantageous or disadvantageous at a given moment.
Q: So what does success consist of?
A: Success is living a life in harmony with your life goals. Famous neuropsychiatrist Viktor Frankl survived the horrors of the Auschwitz death camp. There he observed that prisoners who had a reason to continue had a better chance of coming out alive. The current pace of life invites you to run wild without thinking about where the goal is. A meaningful life is a successful life.
Q: Some activities that you dedicate your life to, such as competitive sports or co-operation in Africa, will undoubtedly have something to do with what you project into the text.
A: We are the result of the combination of the genetic load we inherit and our experiences. Sport has given me willpower, discipline, ability to excel, understanding the importance of teamwork, and endurance. Collaboration has been a source of adventure for an important part of my life, as well as intense human and professional experiences. Today, above all, it contributes to pursuing one of my most important goals in life: to do useful things.
Q: You spend pages and pages talking about ego. Is the ego really the enemy?
A: Undoubtedly, much of human suffering is caused by the ego. It gives us the illusion that we are different from everyone and everything. It is the source of fear (we fear for ourselves and love others), greed, and aversion. On a collective scale, the stupidity of thinking that one group of people is different and therefore superior to another has caused millions of deaths throughout history.
Q: Wars, economic crises, injustices… Do you think you can look at the world optimistically today?
A: The world has never been better than it is today, given the level of wealth achieved through technological advancement. The life of a low-income person in a country like ours is objectively better than that of a well-to-do bourgeois who lived a few centuries ago. It is quite possible that my generation was the first in Spanish history to have had no experience of war. Injustice and inequality have their roots in the nature of human relationships, but there is no denying that today’s world is better than yesterday’s. What happens is that happiness and well-being are boring headlines on the front pages of newspapers.
P: The book is already on the street. And now this?
A: To live now.