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What Are Mind-Tools?

What Are Mind-Tools?

Patient Heal Thyself

What Are Mind-Tools? (main page)

Have you ever felt like our medical system is missing something? Ever sensed that, to your doctor, you were just another appointment, another box to be ticked, another insurance payout–and that your personal wishes or healing capacity were the least important considerations in the exam room?

I witnessed the sad truth as a medical student: many in the medical profession had neither the time nor the desire to really listen to their patients, and to offer them personalized, compassionate healing plans. I also came to discover that in creating an empathic relationship with my patients, my own desire for them to become healthy and happy could significantly boost their healing, well-being, and positive outlook.

My dreams of treating not just the symptoms, but the source of patients’ illnesses were realized when I conceived and developed the concept of Mind-Tools. These are self-applied mental/emotional techniques that melt away anxiety and rescript the unconscious mind to produce healing and transformation.

Many years have passed since then, and the processes and concepts presented and used in Mind-Tools have become so widely used and applied, even within the medical profession, that it may be hard to appreciate the impact of my discovery in 1960s and 1970s. At that time such tools, and the whole idea of Neuroplasticity—the idea that by guiding our thoughts, we can change the actual wiring of our brains to create behavioral and physical healing—were virtually unheard of. I came to suspect that my ability to see these possibilities was the result of my computer programming training and studies. My experience with computers—rare for a physician at the time—gave me the unique ability to understand that the human mind functions, in specific ways, much like a digital processor.

In our conscious mind, we know that we need to change some of our behavior patterns for the better: we need to stop smoking, eat less, kick drug habits, exercise more, manage our anger, lessen our anxiety, and so on. However, successfully making such changes can often seem almost impossible. This is because the subconscious part of our brain, which has learned and over the centuries “perfected” these behaviors because they saved us in life-or-death encounters, resists our feeble attempts to change. This protective behavior makes it inaccessible to the conscious mind, even though wisdom shows the higher levels of mind that soothing the subconscious and making a change is a wise thing to do. It became obvious to me that what we need is a way to “reprogram” the subconscious.

By the 1970s, I had found and researched several novel-to-the- mainstream approaches that could open the door to the deeper levels of . They included meditation, prayer, autogenic training, hypnosis and self-hypnosis. Their use had been shown to create mental, emotional, behavioral, and even cellular change—that is, healing. Each of these techniques involve the use of:

  • Focused awareness
  • Relaxation
  • Clearing of the conscious mind
  • Presenting new behavioral responses (algorithms) to the subconscious in the form of mental imagery

Using my medical practice as a proving ground, I isolated and combined the most effective features of each approach to create what I call Mind-Tools. Around this time, as fortune would have it, audiocassettes came on the market. Now I could design and record unique hypnotic inductions and mental imagery for each patient during their appointment. Using a Walkman cassette player, a patient could carry my voice and access to healing and rescripting around with them wherever they went, and access this “self-treatment” whenever they needed. I witnessed a massive jump in therapeutic effectiveness when patients used the recordings, especially when I set the words to soothing background music.

Eager to spread the word of this incredible mind-body tool, I made cassettes available to forward-thinking physicians, psychologists, and educators all over the country. The recordings focused on relieving patient stress and the illnesses it causes, changing behavior patterns, and awakening wisdom and spiritual awareness. Feedback from professionals indicated that their results were similar to mine, and so I decided to package the tapes and offer them directly to users nationwide. I marketed them as “Software for the Mind” (a reference that was lost on most people at the time).

Through the years I have created many more programs, each dealing with a specific illness, disorder, or goal, and now provide them CDs, DVDs, and instant online MP3 downloads. You can read more about Mind-Tools, how they work, and how they can help you achieve your healing and life goals.

My original dream is now a reality: effective, affordable self-help and self-healing tools available to everyone.

Hypnosis

Hypnosis, Hypnotherapy, and the Human Biocomputer 

(ARTICLE FOR “ABOUT DR. MILLER”

As a young medical student in the 1960s, I came to find aspects of the study of medicine rather perplexing. While I enjoyed learning about the human mind and body, I was simultaneously surprised and disturbed at the lack of attention given to patients’ emotions during their medical treatments. I was also shocked at the inattention to human beings’ innate ability to heal themselves, something I had observed over and over: physical symptoms faded away when people overcame their fear, grief, or anger. 

I began to see the similarities between the functioning of the human brain and that of the digital computers I had learned to program when earning my first degree in Mathematics, back in 1962. Just like a computer, humans can learn algorithms–sets of rules for attempting to solve problems–that lead them to engage in faulty and destructive behavior patterns. This is especially true, in the case of humans, of patterns formed in response to traumatic events. 

When a computer’s algorithms are not returning the results we want, we rewrite the algorithms so that the computer does what we need it to do. So why shouldn’t we also be able to focus the power of our minds to transform negative patterns and unlock our true potential for healing and growth? Seems logical enough, but how to overcome the barrier between the subconscious “monkey mind” and the higher levels of the mindin the prefrontal cortex. In seeking the answer to that question, I came to discover and develop of what I call Mind-Tools.

In 1970, soon after I entered the private practice of medicine, I met two physicians, Clarence Van Horne and Peter Mutke, who had been using clinical hypnosis to achieve what to me seemed remarkable feats of mind-body communication. By guiding their patients to think in specific ways, they were able to relieve headaches, perform surgery without anesthesia, and even control bleeding during surgery. They directed me to the American Medical Association Council on Mental Health report on their study of the use of hypnosis in medical care. In a JAMA article on the same study, they recommended that medical students receive 144 hours of hypnosis training because of its effectiveness in relieving pain, anxiety, headaches, and various skin ailments; and helping with weight loss and smoking cessation. 

I was blown away. The study had been performed in 1961, two years before I entered medical school, yet in all of my training no one had even mentioned hypnosis or hypnotherapy, much less providing 144 hours of instruction! I had to learn more. As luck would have it, Dr. Mutke, who was one of the West Coast’s best-known hypnotherapists, was practicing in Carmel, California, very near Fort Ord, where I had been stationed as a captain in the Army Medical Corps. I reached out to him, and soon I was working in his practice, learning his remarkable techniques and practicing them with patients. In my work with Dr. Mutke, I began to realize there was a way to use hypnosis to actually treat the source of illness, not just the symptoms. This was the breakthrough moment–I had found my Mind-Tools!

By giving patients mental exercises, I could decondition their negative emotional reactions, heal existing illnesses, and even create new positive responses to triggers that previously caused panic, confusion, or anger.

As fate would have it, this was just around the time when audiocassettes were coming on the market. With this new technology, I could design unique hypnotic inductions and mental imagery for each patient and give them a cassette recording to listen to two or three times a day. Whereas reprogramming a computer is as simple as rewriting the computer code, for humans the new message(s) must be received many times. The cassettes made it easy for people to practice often and effortlessly. Repeatedly being exposed to the desired mental image in the deeply relaxed state made the change happen even more quickly and more permanently. 

Through these new pocket-sized cassettes I was now able to spread the word of this incredible mind-body tool to forward-thinking professionals around the country. The recordings focused on relieving patient stress and the illnesses it promotes, changing behavior patterns, and awakening wisdom and spiritual awareness.

Through my own practice, I developed Selective Awareness Exploration, a powerful age-regression technique for tracing the source of people’s physical, mental, emotional, and habit disorders. Then, after listening to guided imagery to provide a more appropriate response to the usual triggers, they merely needed to listen to the recording daily. In a while, sometimes only a few days, the negative emotions and harmful behavioral patterns they were leading to would be deconditioned and overwritten  The results were nothing short of stunning!

In 1972, I published my first book, Selective Awareness, The New Science of Mind-Body Medicine, {Link to Selective awareness book in catalog} sharing the details of this revolutionary process and the Mind-Tools I had discovered. Soon I published the world’s first series of audiocassettes featuring deep relaxation and guided imagery for self-healing, peak performance, and personal transformation. In the decades since then, I have spoken and taught at numerous colleges and medical schools, and have continued to treat individuals and families in my private practice, testing many different approaches and techniques. As I discovered ways to effectively treat ever more illnesses of mind, body, emotion, spirit, and behavior, I created audio and video tools that could present the new material to people worldwide.

In 1997 I wrote Deep Healing – The Essence of Mind-Body Medicine {Link to Essence book in catalog}, incorporating many of the ideas and techniques I had learned in my 30 years of studying and practicing with these extraordinary mind tools. I have since learned and developed even more ways to integrate my original theories with those of neuroplasticity, cognitive behavior therapy, and psychoneuroimmunology. The many tools I have developed incorporate all of these in a form that allows listeners to practice Self-Healing, or use them in conjunction with other approaches to health care.

Are you ready to unlock the power of your mind? Then it’s time to experience how effective these Mind-Tools can be for you. 

{Insert sample to listen to 

and additional readings. 

See the entire catalog of Mind-Tools.  LINK

Stress

Stress, The Silent Killer

Stress is making you unhappy and slowly killing you. Current medical research demonstrates that 90-95% of all our illnesses and symptoms–physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, social, and behavioral–are strongly related to decisions being made by that two-pound powerhouse between your ears, the human biocomputer, your brain. Stress decisions!

We are all experientially familiar with the concept, and the condition, of feeling stressed. We’ve all felt it, and we use the word in everyday conversation: “I was so stressed,” “You’re stressing me out,” “Don’t stress about it,” and so on.  But most people don’t realize that stress is not something that happens to us. The fact is, stress is simply the highly maladaptive way our nervous systems react to the challenges in our lives–the stressors. 

When stress is acute and severe, we experience it as a pounding heart, shortness of breath, and tense muscles– classic symptoms of the fight or flight response. However, the stress that most of us deal with on a daily basis is often milder and more persistent, a slow drip of toxic stress chemicals seeping into our bloodstream. In time, this chronic stress leads to . . .  

(more)

. . . a range of debilitating problems, such as chronic illness, fatigue, depression, and a general sense of dysfunction. Stress: the silent enemy we’ve grown accustomed to, wreaking havoc on our bodies and minds without our even realizing it–sometimes not until it’s too late.

For over 50 years, Dr. Miller has specialized in helping people release harmful stress and harness its potential energy for healing and optimal performance. Many studies, both in the lab in the clinic demonstrate clearly that stress is a significant factor in most diseases, as well as in depression, suicide, and addiction. Stress can undermine us psychologically and cause us to underperform in—and even fail at—relationships, work goals, and other important life challenges. With a bit of practice, you can learn to tame stress and use its energy to achieve your goals. 

 

When we attack stress as if it is an enemy to beat down or chase away with pain pills, drugs, alcohol, and other addictive behaviors, we are merely hiding the symptoms of stress from ourselves. Meanwhile, the true source of the imbalance and the stress can become worse!

The secret to dealing successfully with stress is to realize:

1. Stress is the behavioral reaction of an ancient part of the brain, the limbic system, inappropriately reacting to our relatively minor social and psychological problems as if they are life or death threats from which we must instantly escape. Unless we have learned to accept challenging situations with relaxation and wisdom, the fight-or-flight stress response kicks in.

2. In our human existence hundreds of thousands of years ago, stress evolved as one part of a two-phase process. The other part of the process was, (and still is,) relaxation. Life or death confrontations were rare, occurring perhaps just a few times a month, and they were over within seconds or minutes. The chemicals dumped into our brains and bloodstream during such moments created the fight-or-flight response. If we survived the confrontation, there was plenty of time to relax; the parasympathetic response–the rest and digest time–would wash the toxic products of stress from our system.

3. Instead of the occasional saber-toothed tiger attacks and landslides that our nervous systems could handle well and recover from our current world bombards us night and day with frightening headlines, ringing cellphones, emails, text messages, angry bosses, demanding clients and customers–endless demands with far too few opportunities and little time to fully relax and recover.

4. It is crucially important to understand that when we are in a stressed state–which for many people is nearly always–one of the effects is that the higher levels of the mind are inhibited. We cannot think, reason, and respond creatively and wisely because the monkey mind, shuts off the prefrontal cortex of the brain to block our being distracted from the imagined “emergency.” This inhibition is most unfortunate because this is the part of our mind that otherwise could develop a wise, creative, inspired strategy to deal with the source of the stress. The behavior that is appropriate if a lion is chasing you, when nature wants you focused purely on escaping, is exactly the wrong behavior in our world of today. Nowadays we need to focus on the source of the stress with all of our intellect, creativity, wisdom, and inspiration.

5. The most effective method for harnessing the energy of stress that would otherwise create disease and dysfunction is to practice and learn to enter the state of deep relaxation, dismiss the physical tension and mental anxiety of stress, and then call upon the creativity and wisdom of our higher mind and engage and resolve any challenges. Amazingly, our culture does not teach us this skill, possibly because advertising and social media depend on our being anxious and stressed to sell us products and candidates and the idea of success, and to keep us working to be ever more “productive.”

One of the central features of all of Dr. Miller’s products is his world- famous stress reduction imagery, as this offers the most rapid access to healing, change, and transformation.

Additional Information on Stress

More about Stress:

Mindfulness

Mindfulness

Dear Reader,

Mindfulness is a state of being that involves clear awareness of the present moment, non-judgmental attention, and self-compassion. At its core, mindfulness is about learning to live in the in the here-and-now, letting go of negative thoughts and emotions, and cultivating a sense of inner peace and calm. Most people learn to reach the mindful state through meditating in silence, sometimes twice a day for several weeks. I found that I could guide people into a mindful state through a single experience using a high-speed technique I developed combining guided imagery, self-hypnosis, and deep relaxation.

LISTEN TO SAMPLE of????

While developing the Mind-Tools of Mind-Body Medicine and self-healing, I found that states of deep relaxation were crucially important in disarming the subconscious mind of its  stress reaction. Disarmed, the subconscious can no longer pour the corrosive and disease-producing chemicals of the stress reaction into the blood stream. Moreover, when a person is in a deeply relaxed state, it is much easier to communicate with the subconscious mind because the mind’s protective barriers are removed. The subconscious becomes receptive to rescripting unwanted behaviors of mind, body, emotions, or behavior and the brain is literally rewired.

The Benefits of Living Mindfully

Simply training oneself to be mindful brings many general benefits. Studies have shown that regular mindfulness practice can reduce stress and anxiety, improve sleep quality, boost immune function, and increase overall well-being. Mindfulness has also been shown to improve focus and concentration, increase empathy and compassion, and enhance relationships.

One of the most significant benefits of mindfulness is its ability to reduce stress. In today’s fast-paced world, stress has become a widespread problem. We are confronted with literally hundreds of problems, ranging from climate change, the threat of nuclear war, social unrest, crime, financial challenges, relationship misunderstanding … the list is endless. And each one of these triggers another burst of stress chemicals meant to help us in physical fight or flight situations. This gradually leads to a host of health problems, both physical and mental. Mindfulness helps us to become more aware of our thoughts and emotions, allowing us to identify stress triggers and manage them more effectively. By helping you reduce your stress level, mindfulness can help you improve your overall health, enabling a more fulfilling and enjoyable life.

Another benefit of mindfulness is its ability to improve mental health. Mindfulness has also been shown to be an effective treatment for anxiety and depression, two of the most prevalent mental health disorders in the world today. As you cultivate self-awareness and non-judgmental attention,  you will find mindfulness helps you to identify negative thought patterns and break free from them, leading to a greater sense of inner peace and happiness.

In addition to its mental health benefits, mindfulness also brings physical health benefits. Regular mindfulness practice has been shown in clinical studies to reduce blood pressure, improve immune function, and even lower the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer. Mindfulness reduces inflammation and boosts immune function, and can help you to stay healthy and vibrant, even as you age.

How to Practice Mindfulness

Despite its many benefits, mindfulness is often misunderstood or overlooked by many people. Some see “mindfulness” as a trendy but ultimately empty buzzword, while others believe that its practice would be too difficult or time-consuming for them. Still other people may view mindfulness as part of an esoteric spiritual system or religion to which they do not belong or to which they cannot relate. The truth is that mindfulness is a simple and accessible practice that anyone can benefit from.

To start practicing mindfulness, all you need is a few minutes of quiet time each day. You can begin by sitting comfortably and simply focusing on your breath, observing the sensation of air moving in and out of your body. Whenever your mind wanders, gently bring it back to your breath, without judgment or criticism. Over time, you will find that mindfulness becomes easier and more natural. It is as if mindfulness is a new muscle you have discovered, and each time you practice using it, your mindful focus becomes stronger. You get into the rhythm of mindfulness faster each time, and you become more aware of how much clearer is your thinking, how much brighter the colors and sensuous the sounds and textures around you each day. fMRI scans begin to show the neural tracts leading from your prefrontal cortex (your brain’s brain) to your limbic system grow thicker, giving you ever greater ability to calm and direct your emotional reactions.

Indeed, mindfulness is a powerful practice that has the potential to transform your life in countless ways. By learning to live in the present moment, letting go of negative thoughts and emotions, and cultivating a sense of inner peace and calm, you can improve your mental and physical health, reduce stress, and increase overall well-being. So why not give mindfulness a try today and see what benefits it can bring to your life?

Sincerely,

Emmett Miller, MD

Outtakes

Mindfulness and Stress

The subconscious is the storehouse of unwanted thought patterns such as those that produce uncomfortable or dangerous physical symptoms, emotional distress, and maladaptive and addictive behaviors. The state of deep relaxation leads to more rapid and more complete acceptance of suggestions, affirmations, and positive guided imagery to replace faulty patterns with more positive, healthy ones. The Mind-Tools I provide to my patients and clients usually include guided imagery preceded by deep relaxation produced through mindfulness.

The benefits of mindfulness are numerous and wide-ranging.

In addition, very deep states of relaxation often referred to as deep hypnosis,

much deeper than most

The benefits of mindfulness are numerous and wide-ranging. Studies have shown that regular mindfulness practice can reduce stress and anxiety, improve sleep quality, boost immune function, and increase overall well-being. Mindfulness has also been shown to improve focus and concentration, increase empathy and compassion, and improve relationships.

One of the most significant benefits of mindfulness is its ability to reduce stress. In today’s fast-paced world, stress has become a widespread problem, leading to a host of health problems, both physical and mental. Mindfulness helps us to become more aware of our thoughts and emotions, allowing us to identify stress triggers and manage them more effectively. By reducing stress levels, mindfulness can help to improve overall health and well-being, leading to a more fulfilling and enjoyable life.

What Are Mind-Tools?

What is Mind-Body Medicine?

Mind-Body Medicine is the revolutionary approach first introduced by Dr. Miller in the 1970s. It differs from mainstream medicine in that it recognizes the profound connections between mind, body, emotion, and spirit, and harnesses their power to unleash healing and transformation. Mind-Body Medicine comprises a dynamic, all-encompassing paradigm that blends ancient wisdom with modern science to tap the innate healing potential of the human body.

 

This cutting-edge discipline recognizes that our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs profoundly impact physical health and well-being. Mind-Body approaches to treatment emphasize the fact that human beings are not just a collection of organs and tissues but complex, integrated living systems. This perspective empowers us to take control of our own health by drawing on the vast, untapped reservoirs of healing energy that reside within us.

 

Accessing this potential through a range of transformative practices such as meditation, deep relaxation, hypnosis, cognitive restructuring, and guided imagery, you can unlock the healing power of your mind and body and overcome challenges to your health, happiness, and success. These Mind-Tools will show you how to focus your mind and emotions to promote healing and well-being, and connect with your true Self.

 

Mind-Body Medicine and Emotions

It is important to note that from the beginning, Dr. Miller’s approach acknowledged the contribution to healing of Mind, Body, Spirit, and Emotions, even though for ease of pronunciation, its name has been shortened to “Mind-Body Medicine.” It is vital to recognize that our emotions are directly produced by the subconscious Limbic System and commonly serve as the trigger of physical symptoms and diseases, as well as mood disorders such as anxiety, depression, and rage, and habit disorders such as addiction. When we have learned to quiet the Limbic System–what Dr. Miller often refers to as “the monkey mind”–through meditation, self-hypnosis, or prayer, our higher mind becomes free to deal with the source of our problems through analysis and strategizing. By guiding yourself into states of deep relaxation, you can let go of distracting thoughts and sensations and allow yourself to be present in the “now.”

Once your awareness is no longer being diverted by disquieting thoughts of the past or anxious projections of the future, guided imagery can begin to work its magic on you. Initially it can take you to a special place–perhaps a sacred place–in your imagination, where body, mind, spirit, and emotions can begin to heal.

Here you can gain access to your wisdom and visualize making life choices based on reality and your tr abilities. What’s more, this deeply relaxed and focused state frees you to open fully to your inner spiritual guidance.

Mind-Body Medicine and the Spirit

 Authentic Mind-Body practitioners always consider the “spiritual” dimension of each patient/client. Each of us has a higher mind, the conscious, intentional, rational, analytical intellect. Most illnesses and dysfunctions represent situations in which the subconscious “monkey mind” is making decisions, triggering emotions and behaviors, and frustrating our conscious intentions. Sometimes, however, the choices we are making to try influence the subconscious, are often unwise or illogical, usually because they are affected by anxiety and stress reactions which inhibit the clear thinking of the conscious mind.

Fortunately, there is another level we might think of as the “spiritual” or philosophical level. We all have this; it is the part of us that storehouses our spiritual principles, our deepest values, our ideal selves, . . . Even if we practice no established religion or faith, we all have an inner model of the kinds of thoughts, words, and actions we “should” have or perform, although we often fall short. This level is closely allied with the place of wisdom and wise action within. To act wisely is to make a choice in the present that you will look back upon approvingly in several weeks, months, or years and think, “that was wise.”

The state of deep relaxation enables us to bypass the anxiety factor and access the highest sense of who we are or want to be. It enables us to align our choices with these principles and visualize ourselves behaving according to them in thought word and deed. This is one of the ways Mind-Body Medicine includes our spiritual dimension. 

The Evidence Basis of Mind-Body Medicine

In the 1970s and 1980s, mainstream medical and psychological professionals were hesitant to adopt an approach that, although logical and based on sound theory, could boast very few peer-reviewed double-blind studies. Those studies were slow in coming for many reasons, including the following:

• We did not yet have measuring instruments that could detect the changes the mind was creating (e.g., changes in antibody levels).

• Pharmaceutical companies, the prime source of funding for research, were not interested in proving the efficacy of tools that would lower their profits.

• Much longer timeframes are often needed for such studies, compared to the few weeks or months necessary to show the usefulness of a new symptom-reducing drug.

But, by the 1990s, our ability to carry out these experiments had improved, and in the decades since the mind/body approach was introduced, tens of thousands of studies have clearly demonstrated the enormous impact our thoughts, beliefs, and emotions have on every system in the body. Mental and emotional stress has been linked to nearly every illness, right up to and including the top five causes of death: heart disease, cancer, respiratory disease, accidents, and suicide. 

Most modern training institutions have begun to teach this new field, but huge systems change slowly, especially when success would lead to significantly lower profits. If pharmaceutical companies could make the kinds of multi-billion-dollar profits from these techniques they do from peddling pills to treat symptomatic relief, they would have sold you these mind tools long, long ago! Dr. Miller offers you these empowering techniques here for a small fraction of the cost of mainstream medical care.

 

Mind-Body Medicine Programs

 

OUTTAKES

Get started now . . . for FREE!!!   {sample experience INSERT}

More About Mind-Body Medicine

Using Guided Imagery For Mind-Body Healing – Software for the Mind

The New “Old” Approach to Healing

How You Can Learn the tools of Mind-Body Medicine

Possible Video Clip from Webinar

 

Mind-body medicine is the thrilling, groundbreaking field that brings together the power of the mind and the body to heal and transform. It’s a visionary approach that recognizes the inextricable link between our thoughts, emotions, and physical health, and harnesses this connection to unleash the full potential of our healing abilities.

Mind-body medicine is a thrilling, life-changing journey of self-discovery and healing, that offers us the opportunity to tap into our full potential as human beings, and create a future of limitless possibilities.

In short, mind-body medicine is a dynamic, transformative approach that recognizes the extraordinary power of the mind-body connection, and empowers us to harness this power for optimal health, wellness, and vitality.

Meditation

Meditation

Meditation is a powerful tool that has been used for thousands of years to promote inner peace, reduce stress, and cultivate a state of mind that is peaceful, focused, and free from distraction. Generally, in all of these cultures, meditation is part of the religious practice of the shaman, priest, or medicine man, and sometimes it is taught to all members of the community, often in the form of “prayer.”  However, at the heart of all forms of meditation lies the goal of achieving a mind characterized by clarity, calmness, and presence.

Traditionally, meditation involves sitting quietly while focusing on an object, a sound, or the breath, for instance. Dr. Miller has developed ways to augment the meditative experience with the soothing guidance of his voice, enabling more rapid entry into a deeper meditative state. When the doorway to the subconscious has been opened, we can travel through time and space to decondition past patterns and create new behaviors and beliefs. This “guided meditation” is at the essence of his self-healing approach.

The meditative state of mind is almost a pre-requisite for achieving spiritual, physical, and emotional well-being, and it profoundly impacts our overall health and happiness. A meditative state is often achieved simply through mindfulness, a practice in which we are free of thoughts, feelings, and sensations that trigger anxiety and confusion and instead focus our attention on the absolute peace of the present moment. Mindfulness is characterized by a deep sense of serenity and contentment, a feeling of connectedness with the world around us, and a heightened sense of awareness and clarity.

Another popular form of meditation is loving-kindness meditation. This practice involves cultivating feelings of compassion and kindness towards ourselves and others. By focusing our attention on feelings of love and kindness, we are able to shift our focus away from negative emotions and cultivate a greater sense of connection and well-being.

No matter what type of meditation practice we choose, the benefits of achieving a state of mind characterized by presence, clarity, and calmness are clear. By cultivating a regular meditation practice, we can experience greater spiritual connection, improved physical and mental health, and a greater sense of happiness and contentment in our daily lives.

Meditation has lately achieved a measure of mainstream popularity because of its remarkable physical and emotional benefits. It has been shown to reduce stress, lower blood pressure, improve sleep quality, boost the immune system, and reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety. Regular meditation practice has also been demonstrated by fMRI studies to increase gray matter in the brain in areas associated with memory, attention, and emotional regulation.

Emotionally, the meditative state can help us develop greater self-awareness and emotional intelligence. It can help us better understand our thoughts, feelings, and reactions and give us greater control over them. We are less likely to be overwhelmed by difficult emotions or external circumstances and more able to experience inner peace and joy regardless of those circumstances. Through meditation, we discover how to navigate the ups and downs of life with equanimity and grace.

Nearly all religions include some form of meditation among their sacred practices. Religious practitioners find this state of mind important spiritually because they believe it allows a deeper connection with our deepest selves and the ability to tap into the infinite wisdom and guidance within and all around us. Quieting the mind and cultivating inner stillness enables us to access a higher level of consciousness and expand our awareness beyond the limitations of our physical bodies.

Perhaps most importantly, the meditative state is essential for our overall happiness and well-being. When we are in this state of mind, we can let go of the worries and stresses of daily life and focus on what is truly important. We can connect with our inner selves and find meaning and purpose in our lives. We can cultivate a deep sense of gratitude for all of the blessings in our lives and develop a more positive and optimistic outlook.

How to Meditate

Here is a simple meditation exercise for learning how to meditate. By practicing the simple meditation technique described below, you can gradually learn to clear your mind and become more centered.  It consists of two parts:

First you will focus on the flowing nature of unlabored, easy breathing,
Second, enjoy a simple technique for clearing your mind.

1.  Flow of Breath Technique
When learning how to meditate, first choose a quiet place where you will not be disturbed for ten minutes or more, and be seated in a comfortable position. You may choose to sit in the traditional cross-legged posture but this is not necessary in order to gain the benefits of meditation. Allow your eyes to relax closed, or leave them open just a tiny slit, and focus your attention on your breathing.

Breathe naturally through your nostrils. Avoid trying to control the breath and focus your awareness on the sensation of the breath as it enters the body – the cool feeling in your nostrils, and the warmth as it leaves. Feel the rising and falling of your chest and abdomen, and let a steady rhythm of your breathing in and out be the object of this meditation. Concentrate on your breathing, especially the exhalation, to the exclusion of everything else.

 

2.  Mind Clearing
You may discover your mind will be very busy with mind-chatter. At first it may seem meditating is making your mind even busier. This is an illusion; you are simply becoming more aware of how busy your mind is, ALL THE TIME.

Continue your focus on your breathing. Ignore random thoughts that may tend to clutter your mind. Let them slip away; focus on your breathing. You might imagine that the thoughts leave your mind with each exhalation.

 

Benefits of Meditation

Practice this for 10-20 minutes once or twice a day. You will soon notice your mind feeling clearer, not only right after you sit, but throughout the day. You may or may not notice the benefits of meditation immediately. These methods of meditation require attention – and practice. Don’t expect that you will eliminate all the mind chatter on your first or second try.  Stick with this process as a daily practice and you will soon be able to evaluate it’s effects.

Though meditation may seem frustrating or a bit tiring at first, after daily practice and patience, you will find the distracting thoughts subside and eventually yield to a deep sense of restful alertness and deep relaxation. You will feel refreshed and think more clearly at the end of your meditation exercise. Similarly, as you quiet your distracting thoughts through your focus on your breath, you achieve the clarity that you so desperately crave.

 

Follow through

Stay with this Breath and Mind Clearing meditation exercise for a while. You will rapidly feel positive physical and emotional results with daily meditation. Allow yourself the time to enjoy this Breath and Mind Clearing meditation technique and notice a decrease in stress and the open feeling that comes to your relaxed mind.

OUTTAKES

OUTTAKES

possibly insert sample meditation before products?

 

Meditation is a practice that has been used for centuries to help people cultivate a state of mind that is peaceful, focused, and free from distraction. This state of mind is often referred to as “meditative state” or “mindfulness,” and it is the foundation of many forms of meditation. This state of mind is so important for our spiritual, physical, and emotional well-being, and has a profound impact on our overall health and happiness.

At its core, the meditative state is a state of profound calm and relaxation. It is a state in which we are able to let go of the thoughts, feelings, and sensations that usually distract us and focus our attention on the present moment. This state of mind is characterized by a deep sense of peace and contentment, a feeling of connectedness with the world around us, and a heightened sense of awareness and clarity.

From a spiritual perspective, the meditative state is a vital aspect of many spiritual practices. It is a state in which we are able to connect with our inner selves, and with the divine or universal consciousness. In this state of mind, we can experience a sense of oneness with all that is, and a deep understanding of the interconnectedness of all things. This connection to something greater than ourselves can be a profound source of comfort, guidance, and inspiration in our lives.

The benefits of the meditative state are not just spiritual, but also physical and emotional. Meditation has been shown to have a wide range of health benefits, including reducing stress, lowering blood pressure, improving sleep quality, boosting the immune system, and reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety. Regular meditation practice has also been linked to increased gray matter in the brain, indicating that it may have a positive impact on brain function and cognitive abilities.

Emotionally, the meditative state can help us develop greater self-awareness and emotional intelligence. It can help us better understand our thoughts, feelings, and reactions, and give us greater control over them. It can help us cultivate a sense of inner peace and contentment, even in the midst of challenging circumstances.

Perhaps most importantly, the meditative state is essential for our overall happiness and well-being. When we are in this state of mind, we are able to let go of the worries and stresses of daily life and focus on what is truly important. We are able to connect with our inner selves and find a sense of meaning and purpose in our lives. We are able to cultivate a deep sense of gratitude for all the blessings in our lives, and develop a more positive and optimistic outlook.

In short, the meditative state is a state of mind that is essential for our spiritual, physical, and emotional well-being. It is a state of profound calm and relaxation, characterized by a deep sense of peace and contentment, and a heightened sense of awareness and clarity. It is a state in which we are able to connect with our inner selves, with the divine or universal consciousness, and with the world

This state of mind is invaluable spiritually because it allows us to connect with our deepest selves and tap into the infinite wisdom and guidance that lies within us. By quieting the mind and cultivating inner stillness, we are able to access a higher level of consciousness and expand our awareness beyond the limitations of our physical bodies.

In addition to its benefits, meditation is incredibly valuable for improving physical and mental health. The practice of meditation has been shown to reduce stress, lower blood pressure, improve immune function, and alleviate symptoms of anxiety and depression. Regular meditation practice has even been linked to an increase in gray matter in areas of the brain associated with memory, attention, and emotional regulation.

Beyond its health benefits, the state of mind that meditation aims to achieve is also crucial for our overall happiness and well-being.

What is Self Healing?

What is Self Healing?

 

What is Self-Healing?

What? We don’t need Doctors, or Hospitals, or expensive drugs? We don’t need healthy diets, or regular exercise, or Chiropractic adjustments?

Not exactly. Self-healing does not dismiss the importance of medical treatment, especially for acute injury or illness. And beneficial practices like exercise and a healthy lifestyle are excellent complements to Self-healing. However, at its core, Self-healing refers to activating the innate ability our bodies possess to heal themselves, through the use of powerful, self-applied Mind-Tools.

As you have noticed, when you cut a finger or bruise your knee, your body heals itself. Antibiotics don’t heal you, they just weaken the bacteria. Your immune system must kill and remove them. Similarly, the cast on your broken arm just prevents movement from disrupting the repair, and the surgeon who removes a cancer just removes an impediment. In every case, the body must repair the damage to its tissues.

Consider this: our bodies are intricately designed to repair and restore themselves, eagerly engaging in the healing process unless there are obstacles hindering this innate capacity. Sometimes, these obstacles are physical. Excessive consumption of alcohol, drugs, or unhealthy foods can impede the body’s healing mechanisms. At other times, the hindrances are emotional. Emotions such as grief, rage, frustration, and anxiety can negatively impact the immune system and other vital processes, leaving our bodies vulnerable to infections and illnesses. Remarkably, research has revealed that many, perhaps most, diseases, including the top five killers, are strongly linked to stress.

 

Claude Bernard and Homeostasis

In the late 1800s, two prominent doctors presented contrasting theories about the causes of disease. Louis Pasteur, well known for developing Pasteurization to kill bacteria in milk, taught that diseases resulted from being invaded by external organisms. Conversely, Claude Bernard proposed that the primary factor in disease development was the loss of homeostasis—a balanced state within the body’s internal environment.

Studies in the new field of neuroscience harken back to Bernard’s theory, confirming that certain thoughts, self-talk, beliefs, and emotions we generate have a profoundly negative impact on our health and functioning. The stress from these factors significantly disrupts our body’s homeostasis, leaving us vulnerable to physical diseases, mental illnesses, poor health habits, addictions, and even strained relationships. A considerable portion, or even most, of our sickness and unhappiness, can be traced back to these imbalances. Our ways of thinking, reacting, speaking, and behaving block our healing and wellness!

In other words, science is proving the value of Self-healing. By intentionally engaging in self-healing practices, we can first learn and utilize specific Mind-Tools to melt away our stress into deep relaxation and meditation states. Next, through Guided Imagery and Mental Image Rehearsal, we can reshape our thinking patterns and transform our reactions to challenging stimuli. Moreover, these same tools can now be used to create healing imagery that addresses past wounds and programs in a future filled with optimal health.

And this entire process is relaxing, enjoyable, empowering, and energizing. Self-healing is a holistic approach to well-being that will empower you to tap into your inner healing potential. Take an active role in your health by promoting the mind-body connection and unlocking the immense power within you to rejuvenate, restore, and thrive.

 

What is Healing?

Healing means becoming more whole, more able to accomplish what you wish to accomplish, and more able to enjoy your life. This wholeness may involve the healing of a physical wound, an emotional disturbance, a maladaptive behavior (rage, addiction, shyness), or conflictual relationships.

Healing is an active, living process. You can learn how to heal yourself. Medicines, supplements, surgery, exercise – they help but are only support for the self-healing process. Antibiotics can weaken a bacterium, but only your immune system can actually kill and get rid of it. Studies show the single most important thing you can do is to learn to create mental and physical relaxation and balance. These, along with guided imagery, meditation, self-hypnosis, and prayer are very potent mind tools for getting you well and keeping you well.

Patient, Heal Thyself

Self-healing refers to the things you can do to cause your internal system to function better and heal you faster and more thoroughly. Self-healing involves behaving wisely, tuning into the true needs of your body, mind, spirit, and soul and making wise choices – to eat the right way, exercise the right way, and get the right amount of sleep. Learn deep relaxation for ten or twenty minutes each day, three times a day if you want even better results.

During this time focus on peace, harmony, beauty, love, and other similar experiences. Meditation, prayer, and other deep relaxation techniques will help you eliminate distractions. During this time, allow yourself to feel completely accepting of yourself, exactly as you are and accepting the world just as it is at this moment – after all, it cannot at this moment be any different from how it is at this moment!

Fill your mind with the things you feel grateful that you have to feel and experience in your life. Give thanks and feel the gratitude in your body. Visualize your body healing itself and becoming more whole and functional. Then picture yourself as completely well, happy and healthy.  That’s the key to the secrets of self-healing!  Just remember to do it several times a day.

Self Healing Stress

Stress is a very important part of most of our illnesses. Some it causes, others it makes worse. Physical tension and mental/emotional stress produce disordered (incoherent) neural impulses in the nerves and circulate stress chemicals in the body that cause, for example:

      • Emotional imbalance (anxiety, irritability, anger, depression, unhappiness)
      • Mental dysfunction, (low creativity, insomnia, procrastination, attention deficit)
      • Behavioral disorders, (drinking, smoking, eating)
      • Chronic stress over a long period actually shrinks the brain, killing neurons by the millions
      • Muscle pain and dysfunction, (backache and headache, muscle tension, elevated blood pressure, colonic disorders)
      • Inflammation, (tendonitis, arthritis, GI problems)

Deeply relaxed states re-balance the system. Most imbalances and disorders, (illnesses, dysfunctions, symptoms, or diseases)  are either caused or made worse, by physical tension and mental/emotional stress.  Deep Relaxation is the direct antidote to stress and is thus widely used in self-healing techniques.

So, to help speed up your healing, be certain to wisely guide the mind, its thoughts, and emotions, to function in a way that is congruent with the healing process you want to facilitate. In other words, be the change you want to create.

 

 

How to Heal Yourself

You can learn how to heal yourself!  In fact, you are the only one who can.

The right food, the right exercise, the right medications, the right relationships -all these can help support your healing process, but not unless you intentionally cause them to. Your conscious, intentional mind (which is separate from, though connected to, your subconscious mind and nervous system) is the key to your self-healing.

The process is simple, actually.

  1. First, you need to understand the process with your intellect, the part capable of critical thinking that realizes the value of evidence-based reasoning.
  2. The next step in healing any system is that the system becomes aware of its identity as a system. For you, this means freeing yourself from distraction and focusing on who you are, your true values, purpose, goals, and vision.
  3. Third, you learn how to read the signals and messages that come from within and how to balance your system — physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Fortunately, you can learn to do this in a remarkably short period of time using the powerful Mind Tools Dr. Miller has developed. These tools can help you to reach a very pleasant state of deep relaxation and meditation, bringing you into the present, emptying your mind of distractions and your body of toxins, and preparing the cells of your body to receive your self-healing instructions.

Another very valuable tool for self-healing is guided imagery. This process involves holding specific healing imagery in the mind while in the receptive “Healing State.” This results in relief of stress, and the activation of your unconscious healing and corrective processes are mobilized.  In a very real sense, you are “reprogramming” your mind and rewiring your brain. Your goal is to restore internal coherence and balance, and thus to help heal your body, emotions, mind, and behavior.

Each time you repeat these experiences, you are re-scripting your body, your emotional state, and how you will respond in future situations. You will discover this is a powerful way to mentally rehearse, through guided imagery, your desired behaviors of mind and body, much as athletes or actors mentally rehearse their performances.

These new behaviors may have to do with modifying how the internal organs of your body operate, how you talk to yourself, your personal habits, how you interact with others, etc.  Diet, exercise, rest, prayer, meditation, and other modalities of re-balancing the system may be needed, but all these require us to change our mental behavior in order to apply them. Thus, the mind-body axis is always primary in healing yourself.

The Six Steps of Self Healing with Guided Imagery Audio

  1. Education — Obtain as much accurate information as possible about health and healing. Learn as much about your constitution and about your condition, the symptoms, etiology, and therapy, including the role of stress, diet, emotions, and exercise. Learn about the different options for treating your condition. To begin your education consider reading about Mind-Body Medicine.
  2. Relaxation — Deep Relaxation is essential for rapid healing because it is the direct antidote to stress. In addition, relaxation empties your mind of distractions, and thus allows you to self-program new, more desirable self-healing behaviors — both at the visible (macroscopic) level and in the microscopic behavior of the cells of your body. Deep relaxation is also the key to programming mind and body for peak performance in any endeavor — sports, profession, or personal life (yes, even sexual).
  3. Entering “The Healing State” — Here the mind is open to re-scripting and the body accepts new healthy images and emotions. Re-scripting is a powerful way to mentally rehearse desired behaviors of the mind and body, much as athletes or actors mentally rehearse their performances. These guided imagery & meditation CDs and MP3 downloads will teach you to do this through simple, logical, straightforward, and highly enjoyable guided imagery experiences. The experience and your ability to use the Healing State becomes progressively more powerful with a few minutes a day of pleasurable practice.
  4. Forming Powerful, Transformative, Healing Images—Intentional mental imagery through Selective Awareness — Software For The Mind — allows you to make a commitment to healing yourself by directly influencing the behavior of the cells of your body (e.g., the immune system), initiating and sustaining health-producing behaviors, (exercise, diet, non-abuse of alcohol or drugs, quit smoking), and produce a health-sustaining self-image. This inner image serves to change the behavior at every level of the mind-body system.
  5. Rehearsing These Images Daily — Reprogramming your mind is actually retraining the mind. Just as you might practice musical scales or typing in order to improve, the regular practice of the appropriate imagery trains the brain, the nervous system, and the immune system to easily carry out the desired changes. Your goal is to restore internal coherence and balance and thus to help heal the body, emotions, mind, and behavior.
  6. Reinforcing Positive Changes — Reward your mind for responding to your entreaties so that the new behaviors prevail. Take yourself out for dinner, to a ball game, or a movie, for instance. Or take time off to be with loved ones.

 

 

What Is Guided Imagery?

What Is Guided Imagery?

Guided Imagery – Noun 1. a self-help or therapeutic intervention during which a person visualizes or imagines things suggested in order to create physiological and psychological healing. 2. the least expensive, safest, and often most effective way to resolve most illnesses.

You can learn how to heal yourself using guided imagery. Perhaps the best and quickest way to gain an understanding of deep relaxation is to take a few moments and experience a short meditation using guided imagery. Listen to a sample of a recorded guided imagery experience in a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed for a few minutes. Your experience is the best teacher.

The Origin of Guided Imagery

Early in Dr. Miller’s career, he discovered that if a patient is taught a way to relax and direct their thoughts in certain positive, healing ways (Selective Awareness), they can reach deep relaxation and implement self-healing techniques. Millions have discovered by using the tapes and CDs, as well as the DVDs, and guided meditation mp3 downloads Dr. Miller has created, you can learn how to enter a deeply relaxed state of awareness. After reaching this “Healing State,” Dr. Miller will guide you through a carefully selected sequence of guided imagery experiences – scenarios designed to create positive physical, mental, emotional, behavioral, and relational changes (healing). Practicing these guided imagery exercises on a daily basis gradually trains your mind, rewires your brain, and changes your body.

Guided imagery meditations are effective for reducing stress and tension, and have been clinically proven to:

    • Reduce stress and improve health,
    • Increase depth and speed of healing,
    • Enhance wellness,
    • Awaken self-awareness,
    • Improve self-respect, self-confidence, and self-esteem
    • Optimize creativity
    • Inspire peak performance for you and your family

Dr. Miller shows you how using guided imagery exercises can lead to deeper self-healing through the wise choice of thoughts and mental images. Through a special process, he developed called Selective Awareness, you will learn how to use your mind to heal your body. Discover how an enjoyable series of images and emotional experiences can lead your body, mind, and emotions too deep healing and peak performance.  The power of guided imagery can help you tap into your inner spiritual resources and take your health and happiness to a higher level.

Benefits of Guided Imagery

    • Deep relaxation of muscles and other organs
    • Letting your body work with you – not against you
    • Faster recovery from illness and injury
    • Improved athletic and creative performance
    • Stress reduction and anxiety relief
    • Improved quantity and quality of sleep
    • Richer spiritual connections
    • Eliminating self-destructive behaviors, habits, and addictions
    • Achieving optimal performance – physically, mentally, creatively
    • Increased capacity for communication and authentic relationships

How Guided Imagery Works – the Mind-Body Connection

The thoughts that pass through your mind create internal images that, to your body and nervous system, are indistinguishable from actual physical reality. Create a positive inner image (of your body, health, or performance), and the deeper levels of your mind (subconscious) make it come true!

Here is an example of how Guided Imagery audio can help you to control normally involuntary processes.

Step 1: Say to yourself, “salivate!” You can’t – the act of salvation is not a conscious one.

Step 2: Now try this…

Imagine a lemon. Imagine you are holding the lemon in your hand. Visualize it clearly in your mind. You can see its color, feel its bumpy surface, and see the stem. Imagine that you drop it on a wooden table and hear the sound it makes. Imagine you have a very sharp knife and are cutting the lemon in two. See the cut surfaces glistening and notice that you have even cut one of the seeds in half. Now visualize a sparkling clean glass and squeeze the juice from one of those halves into the glass. See it run down the side of the glass.

Now imagine that you are lifting the glass towards your face so you can smell the lemony flavor of the juice. Place the rim of the glass in your mouth and as you tilt the glass up, let the lemon juice flow down the side of the glass into your mouth. Taste the lemony taste. Taste the sourness of the juice as it flows over and around the sides of your tongue. Savor the tart flavor and notice the flow of saliva.

 

Chances are you can feel the saliva flowing freely. In a similar manner, the thoughts and images you hold in your mind all day have impacts at subconscious levels of the mind and can cause changes in your body, your behavior, your feelings, and your thinking.

Your inner images affect all your behaviors – your thoughts, your emotions, and right down to the behavior of the cells of your body – as well as the behaviors of your body as a whole. The process of carefully controlling and guiding your thoughts has been the secret to most healing traditions and is at the core of self-hypnosis, faith healing, and the performance visualization techniques used by most top athletes, performers and creative professionals, among others.

You can learn to wisely guide your awareness to harness the power of your mind and focus it to realize your full potential. Because different people learn in different ways, DrMiller.com offers you a variety of opportunities to tap into Dr. Miller’s wealth of experience.

  • You can download guided imagery audio mp3 files or browse our online store for guided imagery CDs and guided imagery scripts.
  • His free eNewsletter Healing Times is where you can find fascinating articlesdiscussionshealing tips, and stories of personal success through guided imagery exercises.
  • And the guests on his internet radio/podcast show bring you even more ideas about how to use the power of your mind. Take a listen to the leaders and healers on the shows in the Radio Show Archives.

Suggested Guided Imagery, Meditation & Self-Hypnosis Programs

An experience is worth a thousand words; take a moment to enjoy this brief clip from Healing Journey (coming soon), the program that awakened the world to the power of guided imagery to reduce stress and heal: A Trip to the Beach.

Mind, Medicine, Miracles: A Conversation With Dr. Bernie Siegel (Podcast)

Mind, Medicine, Miracles: A Conversation With Dr. Bernie Siegel (Podcast)

We are happy to present one of the true giants in the field of patient-centered medicine, self-healing, Dr. Bernie Siegel. Bernie, the author of numerous bestsellers including the groundbreaking 1986 book, Love Medicine and Miracles, will explore some of his personal histories, and what attracted him to the practice of Mind-Body Medicine.

Bernie, a top-ranked student, graduating with honors, Phi Beta Kappa, as well as Alpha Omega Alpha (the Medical Students’ Honor Society), Dr. Siegel was a professor of medicine and a staff surgeon, a clinical professor of surgery at Yale, and was a real non-believer until a surprising event occurred in the mid-seventies that would cause him to redirect his life.

Bernie will discuss the miracles he has seen – things that happen that we don’t understand. When a person heals his cancer, that’s no longer a miracle to Bernie – he has learned that when your body knows that you love your life, it heals itself. There’s a good reason. He says that strokes, suicide, and myocardial infarctions happen on Monday.

We will explore the remarkable ability of the body to heal itself – something that now has been well-documented by medical studies, and how living a life of purpose and Love can sustain our health and our life. After all, as Bernie says, “If we don’t love our lives, our body sees death as the solution.” Probably not the solution we’re hoping for though.

We’ll discuss some of the current studies as well as some of Bernie’s anecdotes – like the study that indicates that people above 50 years old whose parents said, “I love you,” have less than half of the number of major illnesses of those whose parents never said it.

Bernie will also share with us the rules for living he received from his mother and how they have affected his life and the lives of millions more. We’ll talk about the power of story – and how the only thing truer than the truth is a story, how to create the authentic life you’re here to live – not merely accepting the one that’s given to you, along with all of the warmth and humor we’ve come to expect from Bernie.

For many, Bernie needs no introduction; he has touched many lives all over our planet. In 1978 he began talking about patient empowerment and the choice to live fully and die in peace. As a physician, who has cared for and counseled innumerable people whose mortality has been threatened by an illness, Bernie embraces a philosophy of living and dying that stands at the forefront of the medical ethics and spiritual issues our society grapples with today. He continues to assist in breaking new ground in the field of healing and personally struggling to live the message of kindness and love.

His website is www.BernieSiegelMD.com.