“Fine” This is the answer to a question most of us ask or asked several times a day, usually with no desire or expectation for a more thorough answer.  But there are times when it’s more than a pleasantry and the program for Maximized Living Doctor Emmett Blahnik offers can help you find an honest answer.

At work, in the mall, in passing:  Every day we all ask and are asked, “How are you?”  “Fine,” is the standard answer.  Nor in most cases does the asker want to know about the answerer’s gout, lumbago or bi-polar cat, we’re just being polite (in the case of gushing blood, the questioner may be looking for a little more detail).  The problem is that we often give that answer when we shouldn’t and without knowing how we really are.

In pop-therapy jargon F.I.N.E is an unprintable acronym for a not so good condition and thus the word gets a bad rap.  However, in the real world, the same can be said for “good,” “ok,” and any number of other non-informational answers.  While it certainly inadvisable to dump your entire life story on everyone who happens past, there are two people to whom it is very important to give an honest answer.

I’m saying you’re lying when you say “good.”  But as the second person to whom you should be honest and thorough with when answering this question is your health-care practitioner, it is important that the first one be yourself.

The world we live in can get very busy and it is too easy to be concerned with everyone else and forget about us.  So, it is a good idea, even if you have to deliberately run into yourself somewhere while trying to make it look casual, stop and ask sincerely, “How are you?”  And then take the time to inventory yourself and be sure of the answer.