PRESENTING THE ROOTS OF CONSCIENTIOUS PSYCHOLOGY
If you felt loved and nurtured from the moment you entered this world, then you most likely grew up feeling fairly self-confident and secure within yourself. However, if you missed out on the nurturing you needed as a newborn baby or young child, I believe you can still heal and grow strong—through conscientiousness—and it’s actually easier than you might think.
For more than 40 years as a neurosurgeon and holistic medical doctor, I have worked with 30,000 patients who came to me suffering with chronic pain and its insidious constant companion—depression. Through drive, determination, and an openness to try new things, I developed the most complete treatment plan I know of in the world. My patients—many of whom hobbled into the clinic doubled over in pain, wracked with anxiety, and often addicted to the drugs they were on—walked out with a new lease on life.
Within the Shealy pain clinic, we had an 85 percent success rate in treating patients who had been written off by the rest of the medical community! Six months later, we would follow up, and these people would still be functioning well—with little or no medications—able to do for themselves and for others. I still hear from past patients who have stayed in touch and who write to thank me for giving them their lives back.
The unique and comprehensive approach that helped them return to health and well-being has been continuously streamlined and documented through research papers, books, and newsletters I have written over the years. What once took months of inpatient care and therapy to accomplish is now available for individuals to read and learn—and it’s geared toward those of you who agree that you don’t want to live half a life anymore.
The people who have followed my radio call-in show for the past two decades every week in Missouri already know many of the techniques, therapies, and products that I have developed for optimal health and well-being. But now that wisdom and my own unique journey through the pain landscape are all in one place within this book, just in time to help you free yourself from illness, pain, depression, or despair.
It can be done—if you will but follow along and take action.
Developing a Conscientious Life
So if the steps themselves are easy enough to follow, you might wonder why so few people choose to lead a purposeful and conscientious life. Believe me, I’ve wondered that myself for over 40 years! And I’ve asked my patients, “What would it take for you to choose healthy habits?”
I have received a few good answers, but the majority of individuals just do not respond. They don’t know what to say. And in my experience and through the extensive research I have done, the statistics also agree: About 97 percent of people do not even follow the four most basic health habits.
First, for too many people, they are carrying too much weight for their frame, and their body mass index (BMI) is too high. Your BMI should be between 18 and 24, but only about one-third of people achieve this. The second critical bad habit is smoking, which about 26 percent of Americans still do, even in this day and age. Third, only one-quarter of us eat at least five servings of fruit or vegetables daily. And fourth, only about 10 percent of us actually exercise a minimum of 30 minutes a day, five days a week.
So my suggested lifestyle adjustments incorporate these elements and a few other crucial steps that are geared to keep your body, mind, and spirit in top shape. You will see as we move along through this discussion that health and longevity are also served well by getting adequate sleep, keeping a positive attitude, developing a good social network, and taking about 20 minutes each day to develop your own spiritual foundation for life. Oh, and sex is good for you, too—how could I forget that? Just about everyone seems to enjoy that one!
These are all ways to live longer and healthier lives. I like to call them “bliss enhancers”—ways to raise the level of bliss you experience in this life. And as you read on and come to understand how all of this works, I will tell you about another route to bliss—a route that is even easier and faster, one that will jump-start you on your path from illness and depression to a brighter existence in this world.
So How Do I Know What I Know?
Perhaps this advice seems rather simplistic and you’ve heard it before. Your parents, your grade-school gym teacher, your doctor, and just about every self-help book out there will point out many of these same techniques. There is a ton of data out there; we know that for sure. Do you need yet another book or expert to tell you to get off the couch and get with it?
I would say yes. If you are not enjoying a full and happy life, being good to yourself and others, and free of pain and depression, then something is wrong, and you are still missing a critical message. Or maybe some of your loved ones are suffering and unable to release themselves from the pain, fear, and anguish they feel each day. If you worry that you might die young or that your final years on this earth might be spent suffering with illness or senility, this is the time to read on and take this advice to heart.
I happen to know this topic inside out. From birth I was cut out for this exact path. One of the great gifts I received in this life is the parents I chose. They did not indoctrinate me with rigid beliefs that serve to strangle creativity. I was encouraged from a very young age to seek and understand the multidimensional reality of life.
And that I did! I soaked up learning from anywhere and everywhere—first from all my grade-school and high-school teachers, leaving with my diploma at 16 and heading to university. Then I learned from my professors and clinical training at some of the best medical facilities in the country when I was just barely 19 years old. Later I had to learn some rather brutal lessons during my neurosurgery residency, but that was short lived and I moved on as soon as I could.
Fortunately, along the way I had the most amazing mentors, too—consummate professionals who answered, and challenged, and supported me. Then, when I was working in different hospitals and within my own chronic-pain practice, I learned from my patients, listening to them and really trying to get at what was wrong and how we would and could fix it. I had to believe we could cure the kind of chronic pain that we were seeing. It was frustrating though; I had devoted my whole career to the study of pain, and yet people were still suffering.
Testing Medical Insight from Any and All Sources
As my world continued to open up, my own spiritual awakening began in earnest. I was fortunate to be on the leading edge of the holistic medical movement in America, which was also growing around the world in the 1970s. Suddenly there were no barriers to the world of health—it was not just surgery and drugs that I as a physician had to offer, but a whole range of new therapies and natural health products that were springing up everywhere. Many were based on the wisdom of the ages, but some practitioners were too crazy for words (for example, those who drank herbal tea, sang “Kumbaya,” and expected to cure themselves or others with feathers or some other such thing; I stayed well away from them!).
But I was drawn to the new ideas I was finding that seemed to have merit. I’d already tried and used the theories that the acupuncture field had presented, but I was later introduced to autogenic training (AT), behavior-modification theories, past-life therapy, and various kinds of supplements for the elements that our bodies seemed to need but were lacking.
I was in a unique situation to be able to test these new modalities and supplements in a clinical setting, in a safe and measured way, with patients who had tried everything else and were still unable to function due to excruciating pain and debilitating depression.
I also met some of the world’s most incredible and accurate medical intuitives, and I realized I had that gift, too—when it first happened early in medical school I was chastised for it—but I later learned that many others also had this gift, and it was called medical intuition.
My first experience of it was during my sophomore year of medical school in physical-diagnosis class. We were asked to examine a patient and write up the diagnosis without asking the patient any questions. Intuitively, I made a correct diagnosis, but the doctor overseeing us accused me of cheating. He said that we should not have been able to make the diagnosis based solely on the physical exam. Then he said he would write up a highly critical report for my student file.
In my junior year, I wrote a 19-page history, physical exam, and diagnostic impression on a patient who came in over the weekend. I diagnosed the person with sarcoidosis of the pituitary gland. When I presented the case to the chief of endocrinology, he exclaimed, “You’re a junior medical student. You can’t make that diagnosis!” But I was correct, and he and I wrote a definitive paper on sarcoidosis of the hypothalamic-pituitary system.
Finding New Ways to Cure the Body, Mind, and Spirit
Later in my professional career, I often found that I was able to see beyond what the rest of the world sees—to know intuitively what was wrong with someone or suddenly understand how a new sort of therapy could work or what to try next. My scientific background in research, both in the lab and clinical settings, allowed me to construct tests of the various new ideas and keep adjusting them until we found what truly worked.
I also returned to school to take my Ph.D. in humanistic psychology, because more and more of my clinical-practice work seemed to be involved with curing matters of the mind and spirit, not just the physical body. The more I learned about how it all intertwined, the more I wanted to know. I just kept learning, as I still do today!
So that’s how I have come to know what I know—but that is just the broadest of overviews. As you read along, and I explain further about the development of my own life path and about how conscientiousness has served me and those around me, these and other matters will become clearer.
I know that once you apply this knowledge and reach the ultimate goal of caring for yourself adequately, you will have ample energy, and even a strong need, to help others. Regardless of the circumstances of your birth or early years, you can overcome your past. Even those who suffered abuse or abandonment during their childhood or in their adult lives can be helped.
That is the purpose of this book. As you proceed through it with me, I will help you understand the concept of conscientiousness. In addition, I will describe practical ways in which you can improve yourself and significantly increase your own health and well-being—while also laying the foundation for your own psychology of conscientiousness. All you have to agree to right now is “I want to know more because I want a better life.”