three of you will develop some sort of
chronic disease problem chronic pain
high blood pressure depression amongst
others I know as a society we have come
to accept this we have come to believe
that this is our natural lot in life the
result of our humanity and of our aging
but really is it do we have to be doomed
to bad luck to suffer from illness or
disease if you or one of your family
members are suffering
you may feel powerless unsupported and
even hopeless it can be a very lonely
and scary place if this happens to us we
go looking for help we may have long
wait list for appointments do trials of
medications maybe even surgery and
therapy but often we end up exactly
where we started sick in pain and
deplete it what we discover is that cure
that we’re looking for cannot be found
in the pill bottle so what do we do is
there hope I believe there is but I
believe the place for finding that hope
may not be where we are looking as a
practicing physician I am deeply
passionate about the topic I would go
from examining room to examining room
working with like patients like this
every day I would go an armed with
evidence-based knowledge on
pharmaceutical treatment for patients to
help them as much as I could but time
and time again I would feel powerless in
effecting true change in the suffering
of my patients lives the cost for this
problem is not just our healthcare costs
but it’s the cost for the suffering of
this patients lives it’s the cost of
their mood their relationships their
finances all of these factors eventually
build and effect
society as a whole not too long ago I
was one of those patients my body was
riddled in chronic pain my mind was
cluttered and confusion and sadness and
my immune system was crashing my motor
road to recovery was not the
conventional one and one that took me
outside of the medical model and that
was the most astonishing thing for me I
discovered what teachers had spoken
about for decades but few of us pay
attention to scientists call it stress
at the time I would never have said it
was stressed out what I have learned to
understand is that what they’re speaking
of is not just the stress we might feel
when we’re busy chasing our kids or
sharing a great idea in front of it a
more amazing audience but also something
that impacts our nervous system on a
daily basis but few of us are aware of
the American Medical Medical Association
says that at least 85 to 90 percent of
our visits to our family doctors are for
a reason directly related to stress so
what is this thing called stress and
what is it doing to our bodies stress is
anything that puts our body into a plate
of place of fight-or-flight or out of
its natural element of ease at the time
that I was sick I had no idea that the
emotions I felt every day like
frustration over overwhelm it could
affect my body but they do as adults we
have no idea of the impact of our
emotions on our body all we know is we
wake up one day feeling sick exhausted
and depleted the emotions that we are
feeling are affecting us much more than
we realize for many myself included we
are raised ignoring our emotions my own
upbringing was to do first and feel
later this is incredibly common
we are ways to be doers and thinkers not
feelers of beers I remember being really
in my head and thinking a lot I was an
overweight teen and discovered exercise
in my early 20s and I became obsessed
with my body every time
would pass by a mirror I would look at
the profile and go you can stack that
stomach and make it shrink and before I
knew it I was calorie restricting /
exercising and literally spiraling into
anorexia I used to think I’ll be liked
more people will think I have all
figured out if I’m just skinny the more
I obsessed with my body the busier my
mind got I want to get everything right
the body obsession spilled into my whole
life and I want to get everything
perfect my mind never shut off and the
busier it got the more tired I got I hid
the ripe old age of 28 and I had chipped
all of my childhood dreams I’d become a
family doctor I’d made the move out west
and I got married too then mad at my
he’s not so much anyway
I should have it all right because you
know this is why I lived for I should
find a place of bliss that’s what I was
taught
instead of finding bliss I fell apart my
body literally hit its exhaustion point
the fatigue intensified my mood
plummeted the pain became crippling and
my immune system crashed on a daily
basis I was requiring antibiotics
painkillers antihistamines just to make
it through the day this loop that I was
in was more than tiring and out of
desperation I decided to try something
different it took a lot for me to think
that something might be wrong here
somewhere in me I thought maybe there’s
a connection between how busy my mind is
and what’s happening to my body in all
of my years in medicine I had not
studied this once but it was a gut
feeling if you will and one day much to
my own surprise I ended up at a yoga
class and began yoga and meditation on a
conscious level I didn’t really know why
it was going back I would feel
temporarily better a little less in my
head and somewhat energized over time I
started to realize my thoughts are an
overdrive but I recognized I had a
choice about it I would ask myself to
feel a little bit more and think a
little bit less I asked myself to feel
my way through my day rather than plan
every moment of my day it was gradual
but over time I was moving from my mind
and thinking area to my heart and
feeling area as I was doing this my body
start to unravel from its illnesses and
oh I was excited so I returned to my
science to understand what had happened
how I had gotten sick and more
importantly how the heck had I gotten
better what I discovered is that these
beautiful bodies of ours they’re
sensitive to those emotions that we feel
the anger the guilt the frustration the
resentment the sadness these bodies
interpret that emotion as fear and when
we feel that our body literally turns on
the fight-or-flight
system so this is what’s happening in
the fight or flight system that’s pretty
isn’t it we had these things back here
called adrenal glands
these are drill glands sit right above
our kidneys they secrete the majority of
our stress hormones cortisol and
adrenaline adrenaline you may also note
is called epinephrine adrenaline goes to
many body organs but most generally the
heart causing an increase in heart rate
and increase in blood pressure cortisol
also cascades to many body systems we’re
only going to talk about five of them
but there are many more the first place
we see cortisol going is into the heart
what it does there cause the dysfunction
to the cells lining the blood vessels of
the heart this damage then leads to
plaque buildup which leads to clogged
arteries the other place we see cortisol
affecting is our digestive tract our
ability to move food through it actually
slows down making us feel bloated and
gaseous over a period of time the guts
ability to deal with the normal acid
secretion decreases causing us to feel
heartburn and peptic ulcer disease
symptoms the appetite we can all relate
to this we’ve come home from school or a
day at work we’ve had dinner and then an
hour later we’re eating ice cream and
potato chips cortisol caused us to crave
carbohydrates to replace their energy
stores that just causes us to gain
weight
then there’s the good old immune system
cortisol cascade goes right there making
us more prone to infections and then the
muscles the muscles tighten making us
more korone to chronic pain this fighter
flight system has been spoken about by
researchers scientists clinicians
forever as physicians we see this every
day in our examining room
despite the science we are conditioned
to rely solely on medications for
treatment in North America we spend 400
billion dollars on prescription
medications the top prescribers I just
described up the top on the list high
blood pressure medications stomach
medications painkillers and antibiotics
just to name a few
now these medications are phenomenal
because they will help us
with our symptoms but they do nothing to
address the root cause so cure for that
root cause is not in that pill bottle
the your cure for the root cause is only
inside of ourselves instead of our minds
and our emotions that’s where it lies so
if the cure is not in the pill bottle I
thought to myself there must be a better
way
after I got better I went off to learn
how to help people mentally and
emotionally then many years ago I
started teach this to my own patients
alongside of my family practice I would
teach them about stress I would teach
them brother emotions now teach them how
to deal with tensions differently and
how to repattern their emotions
ultimately I was curious to see if this
would make a difference in their disease
state their health outcome their quality
of life I was shocked that we had
discovered with just a little bit of
mental and emotional coaching the stuff
actually works every day I see clients
come in with chronic pain and it shifts
high blood pressure depression anxiety
even infertility endometriosis gut
issues food allergies and the list goes
on and on and on it is so possible for
all of us and the thing is it’s not hard
it just takes a desire to be open to new
ways of healing so y’all are probably
one ingrate dr. Devi how do I start how
do I not be the one in three here the
place to begin is with ourselves our
minds our emotions and our belief
systems so we have about 900 people in
the room today each of us will live life
in a very distinct unique and individual
way if we were all exposed to the exact
same external event we would have 900
different actions and behaviors in
response to that event why do you think
that is our actions and behaviors are
direct response to our values and our
belief systems the thing about our
belief systems is they are taught to us
passively by our parents our teachers
our
school system our media and so on and if
we look at our belief systems more they
actually originate from the thoughts
that have been thought over and over and
over again and these thoughts originate
from single thoughts now the thoughts
that we think the actions we take the
beliefs we have all of these prongs
create an emotion and if the emotion
doesn’t feel good then we trigger the
cortisol cascade so you’re probably
wondering how do I break the cycle the
place to begin is to first identify the
emotion that you’re feeling and then to
identify the thought that creates the
emotion now you might find us funny but
sometimes we may not know how we feel I
know I didn’t I actually didn’t have a
clue when we’re so busy doing doing
doing doing be doing it can be actually
a little challenging in those moments to
know exactly how we’re feeling once we
identify the emotion then we want to
identify the thought that creates the
emotion this can be a little bit tricky
too because for some of us we feel like
a slave to our thoughts it feels like
our thoughts think us as our
consciousness and awareness increases we
actually start to realize that we are
the thinker’s of the thoughts we start
to recognize their emotions we start to
slow down the thoughts and here’s the
thing if we recognize that we think the
thoughts the clincher then we can change
the font because a thought is flexible
and malleable it’s not stagnant and
fixed so how it works is once you
discover the emotion that you’re feeling
and the thought that creates the emotion
that doesn’t feel good then you just
want to find a new thought that feels
just a little bit better than that old
thought just a little bit better then
hold that new thought purely just hold
that new thought purely just for the wow
I always tell my clients three or four
deep belly breaths then after you find
that new thought just feels a wee bit
better than your last thought then
before you know it you’re gonna find
other thoughts will come in then over a
period of time you’ll actually find new
clusters of thoughts
and then over time you’ll actually have
new actions and behaviors then over time
you’ll actually create a better feeling
belief system and guess what’s gonna
happen you’re gonna have a better
feeling emotion that’s how we change the
cortisol cascade in my own case when I
was desperately searching for a solution
for my own illnesses the emotion I felt
most often was fear and anger it took me
a while and I had to dig deep to figure
out what the thoughts were but the
thoughts and beliefs I had were I am not
good enough I am not worthy I used to
believe that my Worth was completely
dependent on my external achievements
when I actually realized I had these
thoughts I thought there must be a
better way to think I had no idea that
there was a connection between my
thoughts and my illnesses all I knew is
I wanted to release from these spots so
as the old thought stirred to quiet I
was started to introduce new thoughts it
was impossible for me to go from the
thought of I am not good enough to I am
good enough I just didn’t believe it it
was too big of a gap so I just went up
one thought at a time I went from I am
not good enough – who the heck says I’m
not good enough – maybe I’m good enough
with each step I would wait a few days a
few weeks until it landed and then it
was the next one then I went to maybe
she’s good enough maybe he’s good enough
maybe they’re good enough maybe I’m the
only one who gets to decide I’m good
enough then finally I settled at I
decide I’m good enough by doing that
sequentially I was eventually able to
create a new belief system my new belief
system is I am worthy I’m not worthy
because of what I do but I am worthy
because of who I choose to be I choose
to be kindness I choose to see the grace
in others I choose to feel loved and
appreciate
my worth is internal the new emotion I
feel more often is peace and ease I am
happy to stand in front of you and tell
you yes my body and mind are healthy and
well now those old thoughts they still
creep in and I just gently bring in the
new ones and then they leave there are
so many people we all know in our
communities that are suffering despite
maximum therapeutic intervention as
clinicians we are equally puzzled as to
how to help them further what I now see
is that there is hope we do not have to
feel powerless and victim in these
bodies of ours Hippocrates who is
thought to be the father of medicine has
been quoted as saying it’s natural
forces within us that are the true
healers of disease what I have
discovered is no the cure is not in the
pill bottle the cure is not in that
blood test taking that pill can buy us
some time
Alivia alleviate the symptoms and bridge
us while we do the true healing work the
true healing work lies in the mind and
in our emotions healing is not a
mysterious black box as we recognize the
thought behind the emotion then we
realize we have a choice within that
thought exercising that choice is the
most important part it is time it is
about time for us to move our emotions
from disempowerment to empowerment it is
our time the freedom that our bodies are
a key for is actually the freedom that our minds are crying for thank you