We all have a power story.
In 2009 I was working in international business development for an education company. I was working 60+ hours a week covering meetings from Singapore to Dubai. I was stretched beyond my comfort zone in all aspects of my life (knowledge, skills and sleep), but I loved the challenge and I met it – helping launch new offices around the globe. But the hours and demands of a high-growth company were taking their toll.
I’d given up on working on myself. I hadn’t been to the gym in years. Pop Tarts and Ho-Ho’s were my daily friend. I slept with my Black Berry. My dog had been ousted from my lap in favor of a laptop. I was the poster child for burnout.
Every Friday afternoon, before heading to happy hour, I would conduct review of the job boards. Surely I could find a job that didn’t suck me dry. But nothing excited me. I felt powerless.
Little did I know, I had tremendous power; the kind of power that can heal not just your body but also your life. Turns out, you have that power as well.
Owning My Pink
I first met Dr. Lissa Rankin, founder of OwningPink.com and author of the new book Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof You Can Heal Yourself, in early 2010 as I was building my art business. By June 2010, I was sharing my developing story of tapping into my own power. I was I the process of reclaiming my life from burnout and multiple sclerosis. What I experienced over the next three years was nothing short of miraculous.
I discovered I had the power to heal. I had the power to become symptom and relapse free of multiple sclerosis. I had the power to leave work at a reasonable hour. I had the power to truly relax and be calm. I had the power to exercise every day. I had the power to double my energy. I had the power to get more done in less time. I had the power to lose weight; going from a size 12 to a size 2. I had the power to end my chronic sinus infections. I had the power to meditate and cultivate a spiritual practice. I had the power to avoid the symptoms of menopause. I had the power to be happy.
When people hear my story they are often skeptical. Just the other day a woman asked “how is it possible you got rid of MS?” For years I was limited in my explanations. I knew I had reduced inflammation through a variety of radical self care practices including diet, meditation and visualization. I even understood some of the biochemistry of the healing process. I knew our minds control our cellular functions and even our genes. I knew that finding my why in life – that thing that got me bounding out of bed each day – made all the difference. But ultimately all I had was my story and the story of my clients. Until now.
Using The Power Of Your Mind
In reading Mind Over Medicine by Dr. Lissa Rankin, I now understand how and why a radical self-care plan works so well for my clients and me as we struggle with burnout, fatigue and stress. In this groundbreaking book, Dr. Rankin has combed the research and brought it all together to explain the unexplainable – how we can exercise our power to have the health and happiness we desire.
This is not another dry book by an ivory tower academic or celebrity doctor telling you impossible things to do. Dr. Rankin writes from her heart while standing solidly in the documented evidence of the power we all have to overcome burnout, illness, bad marriages, soul sucking jobs and our own stories. But that’s not all. The reason I highly recommend you buy and read Mind Over Medicine is Dr. Rankin’s explanation of the role of stress in creating and treating everything from high blood pressure to cancer. It gets to the core of why burnout is so harmful.
As it turns out the placebo effect, nocebo effect, spontaneous remissions and miraculous cures are all rooted in one thing – our stress response. Stress makes us sick. In fact, stress kills. In chapter 6 (my favorite chapter), Dr. Rankin discusses how overwork can literally kill us. She cites one study showing that men who failed to take annual vacations had a 21 percent and 32 percent higher risk of death from all cancer and heart attacks, respectively. I can’t imagine anything that could underscore more bluntly the need to extinguish burnout and ignite our lives with more energy, balance, love, compassion, passion and meaning than the link between chronic stress and our deteriorating health and happiness.
Despite the statistics, this is anything but a doom or gloom book. In fact it is one of the most uplifting “self-help” books I’ve read. Dr. Rankin convincingly makes the case that with simple changes in the way we care for our body, think and be we can heal our bodies and our lives. Thankfully she goes beyond the standard “just meditate and eat kale” prescription of many and dives deep into our cells and souls to the root of what is triggering our stress response and thus our ailments.
Learning to manage our thoughts so we can manage our stress response and give our body a break from the coursing cortisol is the source of our power to create more energy, success, and happiness. If you’re looking for scientific proof that you can heal your body, order Mind Over Medicine now and write your own prescription for a better life.
If you would like to read the first chapter of Mind Over Medicine, visit MindOverMedicineBook.com.
