Healing Mindset: Health, Healing, and Disease

Deepak Chopra’s writings found their way into the mainstream health movement back in the 1990s. He has written several books on health and spirituality. Chopra was one of the new breed of healthcare practitioners who began reframing how we understood the mind and the body. Chopra had the credentials that were needed to allow this shift of beliefs to take root. The beliefs that are at the core of a healing mindset.

At the time of his early writings he was an endocrinologist, and the former chief of staff of the New England Memorial Hospital in Stoneham, Massachusetts. He claims the title of a quantum biologist, which means he applies the theories of quantum physics to biology. He states that the body is a quantum mechanical device, and that it is subject to the laws of quantum physics and not Newtonian physics. Quantum physics is the study of matter and energy at the most fundamental level – the level of atoms, electrons, photons and quarks.

Chopra wrote in Quantum Healing, about how often the body renews itself at the cellular level. Chopra estimated that in roughly one year approximately 98% of our cells are new. According to these estimates, you have a brand new stomach lining every 4 days, new skin every 30 days, a new liver in 6 weeks, even the skeleton is replaced every three months. Given this, we need to ask important questions. Why do injured or diseased cells regenerate themselves as injured or diseased? Could it be that the answer lies in perhaps a more important notion of quantum biology which is consciousness is not localized to any one place? Could it be that the core information in these cells has changed or maybe the communication network between or within cells is being interfered with?

The discovery of neuropeptides indicates that what we commonly thought of as consciousness does not just reside in the brain. The idea is that consciousness resides in the mind and the mind permeates the entire biological system. With neuropeptides, we know that every time you have a thought or a feeling, a desire, an instinct, or a drive, each of these affects our nervous system by means of specific messenger molecules – neuropeptides. Science once believed the nervous and immune systems were two separate systems. Recently, it has been determined that these two systems are linked through a strong bidirectional connection.[1]

When the scientists began looking at t-cells and other cells in the immune system that protect us from cancer and infection, they found neuropeptide receptors. Knowing this led Chopra to state, "The immune system is constantly eavesdropping on our internal dialog." According to the NLP communication model, our immune system will respond to the internal representations we make in our mind which are influenced by deletions, distortions, and generalizations. Our immune system will react to what we think but what we think is not reality. Your healing mindset is all about thinking about your well-being.

Since the unconscious mind controls the systems of the body, it is also the connection between the conscious mind and the immune system. One of the major presuppositions of Time Line Therapy®, NLP, and Hypnosis is the unconscious mind can communicate with any part of the body at any time. It appears that these neuropeptides are one of the biological mechanisms used in this communication.

The conscious mind is the primary domain of rational thinking while the unconscious mind is the domain of ideas, dreams, and communication between systems. There are two other minds found in humans: intuitive thinking, and emotional thinking. The rational mind is the “thinking” mind or the “brain” mind. Intuitive thinking may not be centered in the brain at all. Metaphorically we often use “gut instincts” to describe this type of thinking and science indeed has discovered the “second brain” in our gastrointestinal system.

Personally, I believe this level of thinking is directly connected to communication that is spiritual in nature and based on spiritual concepts and truths. There is one other metaphorical level of thinking and unconsciousness and that is the heart. Our heart can ache because of emotions and emotions are primarily in the realm of the unconscious and spiritual. The unconscious mind then controls the body in part by listening to your rational mind, emotional mind (heart), and intuitive mind (gut instincts). Our healing mindset must address all of these "minds".

Every internal representation you have, your emotions, your attitude, is monitored by your immune system. Your immune system reacts to the messages you unconsciously send it! Ruminating has very high correlation to depression. Our thinking, our healing mindset, influences how our body systems perform. It should not be hard to see how cancer and other diseases can be triggered by emotional events.

Knowing this, we should be very interested in understanding how negative emotions may get trapped in the body and why releasing all of a person's negative emotions using Time Line Therapy® techniques can be so profound on so many different levels.

[1]Ganea, Doina. “Neuropeptides: active participants in regulation of immune responses in the CNS and periphery.” Brain, behavior, and immunity vol. 22,1 (2008): 33-4. doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2007.06.014

A highly controversial German medical doctor Ryke Geerd Hamer believed there were five medical laws which he applied in treating cancer patients. Hamer was imprisoned after refusing to stop practicing medicine after having his license revoked because of his use of these controversial ideas. At least two of Hamer’s laws, however, “the psychosomatic ‘iron law of cancer’ (Hamer’s first ‘law’) and the principle of pathogenesis being reversed into salutogenesis (Hamer’s second ‘law’), are well established principles of holistic medicine today.” [2] The first law essentially lays the claim that all cancer forms arise from a significant emotion experience.[3]

Hamer’s second law, “Every Disease has a Pathogenetic and Salutogenetic Phase,” simply says

that the process of getting a disease (pathogenesis) needs to be reversed by “focusing on factors that support human health and well-being, rather than on factors that cause disease.” In other words, salutogenetic phase is a healing phase that is concerned with the relationship between health, stress, and coping.

Hamer’s third law, “Cancer Development Follows a Simple System of Symbolic Transformation from Psyche to Brain and the Organs of the Body” has interesting, if not yet well established ideas. The idea that cancer begins in the mind or psyche, moves to the brain, and then the organs of the body is not the controversial part. The idea that there is a “simple system of symbolic transformation” is not scientifically well established though there is anecdotal evidence [Healing Cancer with NLP and Time Line TherapyTM Techniques Copyright © 1996, 2002, Tad James, M.S., Ph.D.]

Hamer’s fourth and fifth laws, “Bacteria and Virus are Controlled by the Body and Help the Body in the Process of Healing” and “All Diseases are Rational and for the Benefit of the Patients” are the least supported in literature.

If we assume the first two laws of Hamer as valid and even the third law’s idea that cancer begins in the psyche, manifests itself in the brain, and then the body as valid, we can theorize that the releasing of negative emotions as well as limiting beliefs and decisions from the mind and body would improve physical health while also having the potential to improve the mental and emotional health of the person. It would be a foundational component of a healing mindset.

According to Hammer the SEE that triggers the onset of the cancer usually occurs on the average [emphasis mine] of one to three years prior to the onset of the first symptoms of cancer. The theory is that when the SEE occurs it begins in the mind and then the emotions that are created from the representations we have made in our mind become trapped in a certain spot in the brain, and the way Hammer described it, a "short circuit" happens. Hamer has even related the spot in the brain, with the tumor location in the body, with the type of trauma which caused it.

According to Hammer, when a major SEE like this occurs, there is a physical manifestation of this in the brain which causes the brain to begin sending wrong information to a certain part of the body, and then a cancer growth starts in that area. The nature of the SEE determines the area of the brain, and the type of cancer. The SEE also impacts the rate of growth of the cancer. Once the SEE is released, there is an immediate edema, or swelling caused by excess fluid trapped in your body's tissues, that occurs where the negative emotions were “bagged”. The edema can be seen on a CT-Scan.

Apparently, once the edema occurs, the cancer growth stops, and healing begins. A skilled MD can see the edema on the CT-Scan, and know about the area of the brain and, therefore, the type of cancer. It is typical for us to forget about our conflicts and SEE's (we store them in the “bag”), so we do not tend to pay attention to that aspect of the healing process. A CT-Scan would show these areas as "old stroke" areas.

Based on what we have learned about molecular and quantum biology as well as psychology it becomes even more clear that your mindset regarding maintaining health, and healing disease is vital. If you are about to embark on typical cancer treatment plan wouldn’t it behoove you to optimize the body’s ability to communicate internally between systems? I think so. It is this step that is essential in forming a healing mindset.

Hamer’s theories would explain why some people who have certain lifestyles that are highly correlated to cancer don’t get cancer. These people may lack the trauma that “causes” the cancer. It is also important to understand that according to this research it is not an old trauma but it is a more recent trauma that triggers the onset of cancer. Having said that, from the theories of TLT we need to understand that the first event begins a chain of events of which the final SEE that triggers the cancer is connected to. It is the more recent SEE that will create a lesion in the brain, but it may require the previous chain of emotions to get its power from. Hamer has observed in his research that even an imagined SEE is sufficient to bring back a relapse of the cancer symptoms. Tad James’s experience is that the recurrence of the cancer can be prevented if the first event is also released, and cleared.

It is important to note that, according to Hamer, an apparently small or inconsequential SEE can be enough to start or restart cancer symptoms. The SEE can be as “innocent” as the loss of a pet, a financial stressor such as stock market losses, being laid off or fired, or even listening to work place gossip or griping. From TLT, we would argue that for any of these events to trigger the onset of cancer would depend on your own personal history, and whether there is a chain or gestalt of emotions present for the SEE to connect to.

As far as lifestyle choices and carcinogens are concerned, these choices and carcinogens we bring into our bodies do play a role in the communication of the immune system, but according to the previous research it isn’t until the SEE occurs in the brain that all the ingredients are in play for cancer to develop.

Personally, I believe that many lifestyle choices are actually habits that are created to deal with negative emotions and over time the body has stored up more “bags” than the system can handle and a SEE occurs which triggers the onset of cancer. The idea a SEE is needed to trigger the growth of cancer would validate why someone with a typically healthy lifestyle may still develop cancer or conversely, why a person with a typically unhealthy lifestyle does not develop cancer.

The metastasizing of cancer can also be explain with this notion of a SEE triggering cancer. Hamer says that the metastasizing of the cancer is actually a result of a new SEE. When a patient learns they have Cancer a patient may become terrified creating a new SEE. In this example the fear causes lymph cancer, and the fear of death will start lung cancer (two of the major places to where cancer is "known" to metastasize).

Imagine a person who as a SEE associated with a relationship issue and the resolution of that may trigger a SEE associated with being a failure or loneliness or any number of other SEEs which could trigger another location for cancer.

In another scenario, a patient undergoes surgery, and feels a lack of self-worth. If it is the reproductive system that is operated on, the patient may feel like less of a man or woman, and may say – another SEE, another cancer. The process is not the spreading of cancer, it is the spreading of SEE's.

[2] Ventegodt, S., Andersen, N.J., and Merrick, J. (2005) Rationality and irrationality in Ryke Geerd Hamer’s System for holistic treatment of metastatic cancer. TheScientificWorldJOURNAL 5, 93–102.

[3] Hamer, R.G. (2001) Kreft – Gåten som ikke fines. Amici di Kirk Verlagsgesellschaft für medizinische Schr., Ediciones de la Nueva Medicina S.L., E-Fuengirola, Spain. [Norwegian], page 12.

There are two main stages in the process of cancer:

Stage one can be referred to as the “Dis-ease Phase.” In this phase, a SEE has occurred and the client has not adequately dealt with the SEE or is even aware that the unconscious mind made a SEE. The primary emotion became trapped in an area of the brain, the brain began to send wrong signals to the area of the body, and cancer growth began to occur in a corresponding area of the body. There are physical symptoms such as the patient feeling uncomfortable, tense, sometimes sleepless, often with cold hands and feet associated with this phase. Dr. James says this, “This indicates activity of the sympathetic nervous system. (The sympathetic nervous system is the system that we use in thinking, planning, action, etc.) A healthy person can switch from the sympathetic to the parasympathetic nervous system at will. During the Dis-ease Phase the client is in the sympathetic system only.”

The second phase is the healing phase. During this phase negative emotions are released, conflict is resolved, an edema occurs, and the tumor stops growing. In this phase, the client immediately switches to the parasympathetic system. A typical result is that the client will feel more relaxed, tired, and will need more sleep and want to eat more.

A healing mindset is both preventative and healing. It can aid in the prevention of the dis-ease phase and can definitely aid in the healing phase if a SEE does occur and is not properly dealt with in the moment. It is important to understand that a healing mindset is a mindset where you are regularly, daily, working on identifying and properly addressing stress and the negative emotions we experience from time to time. Even with as much preventative care as possible and a well established healing mindset a SEE, such as the death of a loved one, can occur and get stored in the body. A healing mindset will be more attune to your body and more likely to recognize when a disease may have started because of SEE that has not been dealt with. The recognition that comes from this healing mindset then causes you to take action and work on releasing the negative emotions and helping your body's immune system begin functioning properly.

The following case study was recorded by Tad James in his article Healing Cancer with NLP and Time Line TherapyTM Techniques Copyright © 1996, 2002, Tad James, M.S., Ph.D.

“My experience with clients leads me to say that you can tell which phase a client is in. "Marlene" had several bouts with cancer before she came to me. (In fact the Medical Doctor who referred her to me said that he had little hope for her.) The first session, Marlene could barely walk into the room. Marlene looked gray; she could not hold her head upright for more than a minute or two; and she spoke so softly that I had to strain to hear her.

“The first assault of this dis-ease was in August 1984 with breast cancer. The first tip-off was a lump in the right breast in 1983. Between 1984 and 1990, she had cancer in the mid-back, hip, right shoulder, back, pelvic area, left shoulder, neck, and liver. She had surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy in the process of treating all these cancers. Of course, by the time I met her she was very weak, and as I mentioned, she looked gray.

“In taking her history, I found that she was suffering or had suffered all her life from a number of negative emotions including depression, sadness, fear, guilt, anger, hate, anxiety, hurt feeling, pain, low self-esteem, and jealousy. So I asked her what had happened one to three years prior to the lump in 1983. She gasped and said that in 1980, she and her husband had first met, and had gotten together. In 1981, in spite of a number of fears and misgivings, and even though he was extremely aggressive, she had married the man. He had then systematically cut her off from all her friends and family.

“During the first intervention, we released all of her negative emotions including depression, sadness, fear, guilt, anger, hate, anxiety, hurt feeling, pain, low self- esteem, and jealousy. In addition, we cleared her decision to have the lump in the right breast, and any subsequent choices for less than perfect health.

“During the intervention her hands became hot. She felt tired, sleepy, and extremely hungry. That night she had the best night's sleep she had in five years. During the therapy, she shifted over from the Dis-ease Phase to the Healing Phase. The next day she came in alert, smiling, and all trace of the gray had disappeared.”

Healing can be uncomfortable. We all have experienced that with itchy scabs or other minor irritations from a healing wound. Healing cancerous cells may magnify that discomfort. The longer the cancer has been growing the greater the chance the client will not be totally comfortable during the Healing Phase. A healing mindset plays a role here as well.

During the Healing Phase, the client needs to be comfortable. The Healing Phase ideally should have a minimum of stress on the client. While healing, get away from it all, take a nap each time you yawn, exercise daily, and eat and drink moderately. Above all, no responsibilities except healing. This becomes increasing difficult with the traditional medical route, but the principle is the same. A minimum mental and emotional stress is needed because the body will be under stress from the traditional treatment.

In my ideal world, the use of TLT would be done prior to the beginning of whatever medical treatment the doctor and patient have decided on, but it can be done at any time.

Tad James says that “we have had results that now prove the theories we have been using in the processes of healing various symptoms that produce the illusion of dis-ease.”

How are my wife, Donna, and I going to handle this as part of developing a healing mindset?

Action step 1: Donna and I did a detailed history to determine what events may have triggered the cancer. With that information we then cleared all of the unresolved negative emotions we discovered as well as limiting decisions and beliefs. When compared to Dr. Hamer’s chart connecting the emotion to the type of cancer, the emotions uncovered matched perfectly with the type of cancer. That triggered the healing phase.

Action step 2: Regular daily prayer, individually and corporately (family). A particular emphasis on being "in the spirit" during this time of worship and prayer - not just reciting words. In my research, this state seems to be deeply connected to our breathing - slow , relaxed, yet controlled.

Action step 3: Follow the doctor recommended plan of action.

Action step 4: Begin building step by step lifestyle habits for healthy living with an emphasis for Donna on stress management habits.

Update: We did the four steps above. Tragically, we began the process much too late. By the time we discovered the cancer and got the diagnosis it had spread to the liver and had already begun doing its damage. My wife of 28 years lost her battle just 44 days after getting the official diagnosis. The work we did was too late. I will be sharing important lessons learned on other pages.

Was there a beginning? Astronomers tell us there was a beginning. Biologists tell us there was a beginning. Some worldviews have argued that the universe is eternal, or at least the energy that binds everything together was eternal. The major monotheistic religions teach that there was a beginning and God is eternal. The preciseness of the laws that govern the operation of the universe point to a mind behind the cause. The complexity of even the simplest living cell also points to a mind behind the origin of life. The evidence for a beginning to all things seems to be overwhelming.

There is just one chance in 1076 for “a random chain of amino acids [to] have the special physical properties needed to fold into a stable structure that’s suitable for a particular function.” That is an astronomically small chance. If these amino acids could try a different combination every nanosecond (billionth of a second) and began that process when scientists estimate life began on earth 3.7 billion years ago they would have only gotten through 1.688322 x 1026 combinations. In the scenario just described the amino acids were purposefully trying different combinations to get one that worked. That process is not random. It is akin to you or I going through all the possible combinations to a highly complex padlock. We are not simply randomly choosing numbers. It presupposes a mind.

Even if the process of creating a stable structure out of a chain of amino acids that had a special function denied all odds and got it right in one of the first attempts, you would need to replicate that feat over and over and over for all the different proteins within a single cell. We haven’t even begun to talk about the mutations required to create different cells that would join together to create different functions within more complex life forms. Evolution has no logical or rational explanation for the origin of the information needed to make life possible. Yet, very intelligent scientists want us to believe that through this magical process of natural selection new proteins, cells, parts, and systems can all randomly occur to create the variety of life we see around us. They want you to believe humans, all life, evolved from a single celled organism in only 3.7 billion years. Why do people choose to believe all plants, animals, birds, fish, insects and we humans could possibly have evolved from a single celled organism, especially given the mathematical improbability shown by the complexity of creating just one working protein?

The claim of the major monotheistic religions, in particular Judaism and Christianity, of which over 65% of Americans claim to be, is all things, and all life was created. It was designed and created. Specifically, Christianity claims all things were made by the word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.” The word is Jesus Christ. In the book of Genesis it says man was made in the image of God. That should have a profound impact on how you look at humanity.

If you look at a computer generated image of the big bang shown on the NASA website, you will notice that there is no thing outside the boundaries of the big bang. All of time, space, and matter begin with the big bang. Outside of that were the laws that acted on and act within the universe yet they predated the universe. They are non-material and eternal. They presuppose a mind. They presuppose a law giver. They presuppose God.

Precision indicates a mind. When there are such precise physical laws needed throughout the universe to allow the universe to exist that presupposes a mind. When the preciseness of many factors coalesce into one planet to create a habit perfect for life to flourish that presuppose purpose and a mind. Knowing indicates a mind. Within every cell there are protein molecules that know they are to decode DNA. These molecules not only know what they are supposed to do they also know how to do it. There is a mind at work. Cells are listening in and communicating instantly with other cells through the entire body. All of this presupposes a mind inherent throughout the entire life system. Traditionally, we had no problem referring to this mind as God. Behind a healing mindset is a spiritual component - the idea of God.

You have one chance in 10E77 to get something right or “death” is the result. Seems highly implausible that life will happen, doesn’t it. According to experiments done by molecular biologist Douglas Axe, the idea that a new functioning protein can evolve from genetic mutations is essentially mathematically impossible. He writes, “assuming a particular new capability that can be achieved with a new protein fold would benefit an organism, and that a genetic mistake in that organism has produced a gene sequence that differs substantially from what existed before, this fraction is the probability that the new gene happens to encode a new protein that performs the desirable new function. Using the results of my experiments on the penicillin-resistance enzyme, I estimated this probability to be in the ballpark of:

1/100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.”[8]  To put that number into perspective, if these amino acids tried one combination every nanosecond (billionth of a second) and started that process when scientists say life began – 3.7 billion years ago, they would have only gotten through 1.866382 x 1026 combinations. They wouldn’t have even got through half the possible combinations. Highly implausible that what we observe in our own bodies is the product of evolution through natural selection.

Given the information provided earlier, along with the staggering improbability of natural selection to explain the “evolution” of life from single celled organisms to human beings, it seems far more reasonable to believe that the human body was designed. That belief has enormous implications when it comes to your well-being, the onset of “dis-ease”, and healing. It will shape your healing mindset. According to the Judeo-Christian teachings, humans were made in the image of God. If that is true, it shouldn’t seem far-fetched to imagine that God also created communication systems within the body and gave us different “minds” that allow for communication between mind, body, and spirit. It is this communication and understanding it that is at the heart of creating a healing mindset.

Let me introduce an idea to you that is symbolic in nature. The mind-body connection is becoming well-documented in the medical or scientific literature. If we consider the idea that mind is simply a reference to the God of the bible and we presuppose for a moment that God’s son became flesh – became “the body” – we now have a symbolic as well as historical reference to the mind-body connection and the healing mindset.

God not only has designed a mind-body connection, his son fulfilled that connection, experienced it in actuality, when he became human flesh. He became the body. If we now consider the mind-body-spirit, the spirit becomes a reference to first, the breath of life from God and second, the holy spirit for those who have professed their faith in Jesus and received the holy spirit. Outside the religious aspect of that, understanding the importance of the breath and establishing healthy breathing practice and its implications for maintaining health and fighting disease becomes important in the formation of your healing mindset.

How does disease happen? The explanation can come from a western medical or philosophical perspective, an eastern medical or philosophical perspective, and a theological perspective. The western medical approach has traditionally been about understanding how viruses, bacteria, trauma, and other factors that occur within or to the body impact the operation of the entire system. Because of this perspective we have been able to make amazing advances in medicine, surgical techniques, and machinery or equipment to help a patient fight disease, overcome trauma, or diagnose disease.

Chinese and Indian medicine are two of the primary traditions in eastern medicine and they both are concerned with balancing different systems. The Indian system of medicine known as Ayurveda is concerned with balancing the different chakras that comprise the human system. Ayurveda was made popular in this country by Deepak Chopra among others. Chinese medicine is also concerned with balance, and they focus on energy flow throughout the body. The energy is how communication happens between the systems and if there are blockages to that flow of energy disease can result. At the risk of being overly simplistic, in both of these systems if our energy or our chakras are out of sync our immune system won’t function properly and disease results.

Preventative medicine considers what we can do to optimize our body’s immune system so it is fully capable of fighting off disease. While that is certainly an approach each person would be wise to consider and look at, the great advances made by western medicine have had a profound impact on prolonging life through surgical care and medicines that fight viruses and bacteria that have commonly killed millions should not be ignored when trying to heal from disease or in preventing disease. Think of the impact of vaccinations for diseases like smallpox, and the measles.

Looking at lifestyle choices and preventative care, there are three (or four) general areas one can focus on. Nutrition is obviously one such area. A mantra you may hear in some of the wholistic medicine approach to wellness is food is medicine. Properly fueling the body influences the energy flow and provides necessary nutrients for every cell of the body. There are volumes of books you can read on nutrition, but they can be summed up in three key principles.

Principle one is do not overeat. Overeating has been associated with health risks such as the storage of excess body fat, disrupting the hunger regulation system, increased risk for disease, and impaired brain function. The adage everything in moderation certainly can be applied to this principle and be an important component of a healing mindset.

Principle two is the less processed the food the more nutrient rich it is. Eating whole foods provides nutrients in their most natural state and most readily accessible to be used by the body. The greater a portion of your diet that is made up of a large variety of fresh foods the better for your body’s systems.

Principle number three is to practice mindful eating. Learn to listen to your body. Not everyone’s digestive system works the same. Some foods may cause you discomfort but for someone else they create no problems. Learning to be aware of the impact of various foods on your energy level and digestion can help improve your short and long-term health.

Beyond nutrition, exercise is vital. Learning to embrace exercise is part of a healing mindset. Exercise impacts the flow of energy in your system and improves the functioning of every system in your body. We are learning so much on the impact of exercise on the brain [I recommend reading Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain by John J. Ratey, MD]. Fitness should be a goal for all of us. Like nutrition there are some basic principles for exercise that can shape how you choose to exercise.

Principle number one is to move through a full range of motion. There are seven basic movement patterns the human body does and ideally you would like to be able to move through those movements with a comfortable full range of motion. Those patterns are pulling, pushing, squatting, lunging, hinging, rotating, and striding (your gait). You want to work those movement patterns.

Principle number two is you want to maximize your cardiovascular systems ability to move oxygen through your system. There are numerous ways to improve your cardiovascular health beginning with simple activities like walking. In terms of maximizing the impact on your ability to improve your emotional state cardiovascular work would ideally be no lower than 60% of your maximum heart rate.

Principle number three is to maintain, or improve your strength. The ability to move weight through a full range of motion is important to a well-functioning body. It becomes especially important as we age.

Principle four is to maintain or improve your flexibility. Your flexibility is crucial for being able to stay active as you age and still minimize the risk of injury.

Principle number five is to work your balance. Our balance decreases with age but with a proper exercise program can be maintained or improved.

The next lifestyle choice(s) and the one in my professional opinion is the most overlooked and yet, vitally important in training your healing mindset. It really is all about caring for your spirit. Part of that is learning to control and harness your breathing. Breathwork could be considered a separate principle for caring for your body and I wouldn’t argue against that, but it is so connected to spiritual practices and your spirit which I will include it the next section.

[8] Axe, Douglas, PhD. "Can New Proteins Evolve?" Evolution News and Science Today, Discovery Institute, 8 Oct. 2021, evolutionnews.org/2021/10/ can-new-proteins-evolve/. Accessed 21 June 2022.

Finding joy in life is all about your mindset. One summer when I was in high school I worked for the Police Athletic League baseball program. In the pee wee division there was a young boy who had a stump for a hand and walked with a severe limp. He was all smiles and you could see his joy every time he came to the field. He was a delight to be around.

Watch videos of Nick Vujicic and look at the joy he has despite being born with no arms or legs. I have worked with students who have been born into some extremely unfortunate circumstances whose mindset was such that they struggled academically, behaviorally, and or socially. They had a hard time finding joy. While they were young, they were still not very healthy – emotionally, spiritually, or often physically. As you are aware, the physical well-being is directly connected to the emotional and spiritual well-being and the spiritual and emotional well-being can be impacted by your physical well-being. It is not enough to teach them about risk factors for poor health. We need to help them to develop the habits, beliefs, and attitude for wellness. We need to help them create a healing mindset. Doing this will impact every area of their life.

What is the difference between taking a course and taking a training program? In my opinion, a course provides knowledge while a training program provides knowledge and a system for implementing and applying that knowledge. A course on mindset will teach you about the important aspects of having a growth mindset or financial mindset or healing mindset or any mindset someone is trying to teach you about. Articles, books, and most courses – including some I offer – are knowledge based. You learn what you should do and why you should do and maybe even how to get started, but it does not provide a system to help you get started, stay engaged, and most importantly build the habits necessary to make the knowledge part of your life.

As a teacher and coach, the most difficult part of my job is getting people to follow through and do what they say they want to do. There are usually far more reasons in their mind for them not to do than there are to do. The delicate balance is in giving enough knowledge while at the same time making it simple and easy enough so people can do it with a minimum of time and effort. The whole structure of this mindset of a champion really is about wellness as much as it is about performance. If your mind-body-spirit are not in sync, not balanced, not performing optimally your outcomes will not be in sync or balanced or optimal.

The entire process of building this mindset begins by clearing the ground and creating a system for wellness. It is building this discipline – the habits – that are essential. The longer you wait the more challenging it becomes; I know from personal experience. The process is easy. The knowledge is easy to understand. Applying the knowledge and making it a habit is not easy. The commitment necessary to do that is not easy.

The first order of business for anyone looking to master their growth mindset, which includes having a healing mindset, is to let go of the past. You must find and deal with unresolved negative emotions. You then need to address limiting decisions and beliefs. Time Line Therapy techniques are the tool of choice for us because of its ease of use, speed, and transferability (once done you can often do it on your own as a “maintenance” process). The next component would be to align your values and your dreams. With those tasks done you can then focus on the daily rituals that will allow you to then build the mindset of a champion, which is a healing mindset.

Let’s be clear about one thing. We must understand how we spend our time, why we spend it the way we do, and what that says about our values and quite possibly what we fear. There is one resource that has been divided equally to every one of us. Time. We all have 1440 minutes a day to spend. We will spend it. We may spend it by choice – conscious or unconscious – we may spend it by circumstances, but those minutes will be spent. We have to get control of that time and time is something many families feel stressed about, especially when their children are young. Within those 1440 minutes you have to meet your personal, professional or school, civic, and spiritual responsibilities as well desires. Many of our health and performance related issues stem from the stress of how we try to spend that time – we get out of sync or out of balance.

Our rituals are about trying to create systems that will either maintain balance or bring us back into balance when life knocks us for a loop. There are key elements that should be in place. These elements include:

• Prayer-mindfulness-meditation [morning & evening]
• Preview of the day including your mission statement, your stand, and your calendar
• Movement [morning & evening]
• Personal growth – learning
• Family/partner communication
• Reflection – journaling

Prayer, mindfulness, meditation can all be connected. Personally, I believe meditation is about being in a physiological state where your minds (plural intended) and body systems are in complete sync. Technically meditation is said to be about thinking of nothing or completely clearing your mind. Mindfulness is about learning to improve your awareness by focusing on one specific thing. Prayer is about communicating with God.

You can communicate with God by directing your thoughts toward God, but I also believe that there is another level of prayer where you can listen to God which would be connecting your internal minds (unconscious, conscious, heart, and intuitive) with the mind of God. Prayer can have several preventative health benefits and while more controversial may have direct healing benefits [for a very academic look at this idea I refer you once again to the book Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts, 2 Vols.].

Meditation and mindfulness also have numerous direct health benefits. While not technically meditation, mindfulness, or prayer, the daily use of time line therapy techniques to preserve life lessons that may need to be learned and letting go of any negative emotions or limiting beliefs that may have tried to take root is incredibly valuable for managing your emotions and attitude. One of the ideas behind meditation is to learn to declutter your mind. Decluttering your mind can be about letting go of negative emotions or it may entail letting go of items on your “to do list”. Some people have strategies where they put “too much on their plate” and get overwhelmed and stressed. Meditation can help by helping you deal with the feelings of overwhelm, but it won’t necessarily help with “putting too much on your plate.” Decluttering your actual physical environment can be stress reducing and it can help with environmental health issues such as dust and mold.

Previewing the day along with your purpose statement and stand helps to ground you and get your mind focused on what you have coming up for the day. It helps minimize “surprises” that can create stress. Planning and knowing your plan for the day helps you be more productive which decreases stress. Reminding yourself of what your purpose is and what you stand for can help fend off potential values conflicts or temptations.

Personal growth means learning. It requires seeking knowledge, wisdom, and truth. Those three things stimulate the mind and a healthy mind helps make a healthy body. Beyond simply “exercising the mind” it can aid in your ability to earn money [depending on what you do with that knowledge and wisdom]. Seeking to become better aids in your ability to make decisions in the moment and improve relationships that are crucial to every area of your life.

Family or partner communication greatly improves those relationships and when done well reduces conflict which reduces stress.

Reflective journaling when coupled with the use of TLT techniques to process events of the day is an incredibly powerful tool for bringing stability. The habit of journaling brings the TLT work to the material by getting thoughts on paper. That process simply reinforces the connection between the unconscious and conscious minds that was done during your TLT work. This daily practice creates stability and better prepares you for managing your life when more serious events happen.

Addressing your fitness, the movement in this list of rituals may or may not be an actual workout but at a bare minimum some deliberate and purposeful movement patterns when you first get up and before you go to bed are incredibly valuable in getting your body ready for the day and ready for sleep. Beyond that general movement you do want to factor in time for a well-planned and thought out fitness program that incorporates the principles discussed earlier. You may want to seriously consider looking into learning Yoga and or Qigong as those practices may have more direct impact on your body’s energy systems or qi or chakras depending on the philosophical background you are looking at.

The other lifestyle elements that need to be factored into a wellness lifestyle would be nutrition, eating habits, anchors, family time and me-time. People need to find a system for making sure they eat well both from a nutritional standpoint and process standpoint – remember the ideas of eating slowly, mindful eating, and not over eating. Planning meals, preparing meals, and eating together requires time and communication. Building anchors into your lifestyle that link positive emotions cannot be overstated. Two very powerful anchors that are easy to incorporate are the use of music and aromas. A home with pleasant smells and sounds is good for the mind and spirit and thus the body.

The challenge is building these into your life. The challenge increases the more members of a family you have living at home. The rewards are priceless and possibly lifesaving.