I have been asked a number of times how I got from being an orthodox medical doctor to caring for my clients' bodies through their mind and which authors I can recommend for further reading. Here is the first of a series of posts in which I will attempt to retrace my journey to honour some of the inspired people who have guided my path.

Rewind 17 years. I was training to become an orthopaedic surgeon when one night, walking through the hospital corridor leading to the surgical theatre, it dawned on me that I would die if I kept living a doctor's life. It was 3.18am, and I had been working non-stop since 7am that day. This might sound crazy, but I had 24 hour shifts every 4 days and normal working days in between those shifts. This was the usual rhythm for a young doctor, so if you have ever been mistreated by hospital staff, now you know why. My regular diet consisted of sandwiches from the hospital cafeteria, it was rare for me to sleep more than a couple of uninterrupted hours per night and I had to wake up at 4.30am to fit in regular exercise. I was an emotional and physical wreck. I had to quit to survive.

I will spare you the transition in between, but five years later, after learning the nuts and bolts of business management, I had set up Mother-Well, a multidisciplinary health centre in Auckland, New Zealand. I had become a lot more aware of the link between mind and physical health through my conversations with alternative health professionals. Also, my experience had shown me that lifestyle, and whatever drives that lifestyle, were instrumental in maintaining or destroying physical health.

Then, I heard Dr Bruce Lipton speak at a conference. Dr Lipton is a cellular biologist who used to conduct research with stem cells. A stem cell is one that has the potential to become many different types of cells, say muscle, or fat, or a red blood cell, etc. Dr Lipton knew that if he put a stem cell in a particular dish with some nutrients it would become a red blood cell, but if he put a second stem cell with identical DNA to the first one in another type of environment, it would turn into a white blood cell! He kept thinking…how can that happen? This was back in the late 80s, when genes were sacred. If 2 cells had the same DNA, surely, they should turn into the same cells, right? However, it was not the DNA, but the environment in which they thrived (or shrunk), that determined the fate and evolution of each cell!

In a leap of inspiration, Dr Lipton realised that the cells in our bodies are bathed in an environment that is determined by our perception…so that when we are scared, our bloodstream is flooded with adrenaline, when we love a baby, we fill with oxitocin, when we are enjoying ourselves, we release serotonin and so on. And he saw too that perceptions are themselves determined by our beliefs. If we believe dogs are beautiful creatures, we produce oxitocin when we see one, but if we believe that dogs are scary, our bodies become adrenaline pumps during the encounter! So, in summary, cell shape and behaviour depended on a person’s beliefs!

Kaboom!!! That was an intellectual bomb that connected all the dots in my biology knowledge with a line of elegant and irrefutable logic. I can assure you, life was never the same after that. If you want to know more, I invite you to read Dr Lipton's "The Biology of Belief", which is written in simple, accessible language and is a great read. For more information, go to www.brucelipton.com.

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