Extract from The Chemistry of Connection: Five Keys to a Richer, Happier, Fulfilling and Meaningful Life by Patrick Holford 2016
The Mind Body Connection
As important as good nutrition, exercise, reducing stress, not smoking and creating a toxin-free environment is, your state of mind and spirit have enormous effect on one’s ability to recover health. This should not be under-estimated. Everyone knows someone who have beaten the odds of a life-threatening disease with amazing focus and will power.
A great example of this is Danny who had spent the best part of twenty years in the Sinai desert. Danny had a real love for the Bedouin and the Sinai, the biblical desert where Moses crossed the Red Sea. He took people on retreat into the wild open space of the desert. “To see the canopy, to see the stars, all of the sudden there is the realisation of Galileo, that we are moving. The awareness, the perspective, the vision is so vast. It is spectacular. It is a balcony of God. I have always felt safe, and held in this desert. Talk about Mother Earth. It is a very feminine landscape and the Bedouin people are so hospitable.” He helped people take charge of their life. To live in the present and stay conscious. “The reason why Moses never reached the Promised Land was that that was never the goal. His was a ‘no destination’ journey. The real point of this journey was the total faith, the leadership in doing the impossible, in crossing the Red Sea.” Danny told me. He had been helping to build a school for the local community with his son when he started to get sick.
“My health was deteriorating but I carried on regardless. I refused to acknowledge that something was wrong with me. I had always been healthy. I was fighting, almost with rage, denying that my health was deteriorating. I worked with Dr Ahmed, a Bedouin herbalist. People travel from far and wide to see him. He is a serious doctor and healer, taking care of his tribe. People come with serious diseases and they get better. I knew he had some real power, but he had tried everything he knew yet nothing was working for me. I was getting worse so I flew back to the UK.
“I thought I just would get better if I rested. But I was getting worse, something was really wrong. I went to the local farmers’ baling festival, when they bring in the last of the bales. Ironically, was just picking up the last straw bail, when I collapsed and went unconscious. For me it was literally the last straw.
“I was taken to the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital where they connected me to equipment to monitor my liver and ran tests. They said I had broken the NHS record for liver inflammation and they needed to take me immediately to Birmingham for a liver transplant where, luckily, they had a liver. I was drifting in and out of awareness but this news was a turning point. It didn't match my state of mind. It didn't generate any anxiety, fear or panic.
“I was lying down so I sat up and said “We need to have a conversation. We need to make a decision. I don't think this is what we are going to do.” They probably thought I was a nutcase. I asked to speak to the doctor in charge. He arrived and informed me that this was serious, a life or death situation, and that a liver transplant is no small deal. He was very charismatic person and we made a connection immediately. He wanted to know where I was coming from. I told him “With respect to all of you I am the CEO of my body, and we need to have a discussion together. There is something that I need to do for myself.” I needed to take charge of this. Energetically, this was a massive turning point for me - to take leadership.
“I told him “I need 24 hours to think about it, to do some work, to meditate, and I need a quiet room and we’ll have another conversation about this tomorrow. I’d appreciate it if you would disconnect me from all this equipment.” There was a long moment of silence – there were six people around me with clipboards. He asked me all sorts of questions to see if I was clear in my mind and then said “I get you and I’ll support you - but on one condition which is that we will come every half an hour and check in on you and we need to keep monitoring your liver function.” I had to sign papers that this was my choice, to not have the operation.
I was sitting upright in my bed for several hours, not drifting. It felt like my life was dependent on staying present. I must not go to sleep. It reminds me of that Rumi poem ‘don’t go back to sleep!’
“The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you
Don't go back to sleep!
You must ask for what you really want.
Don't go back to sleep!
People are going back and forth
across the doorsill where the two worlds touch,
The door is round and open
Don't go back to sleep!”
Rumi
“There was a certain urgency in the body and the body’s intelligence takes over. I knew that I had a lot of health in my body. My focus was on my body community of billions of cells supporting this crisis. I don't remember doing anything calculated or controlled. I had no fear. I was confident that I could cross this ‘Red Sea’. This was my challenge. I cannot really name what I was doing or what was happening. I felt completely peaceful. I was not in my mind.
“There was a turning point after seven hours. The room became very busy with quite a few medical staff. The doctor came back in and said “I don’t know what you are doing but keep doing it. The blood flow is improving.” The liver inflammation had come right down. He interviewed me and asked what was happening. My liver had made a completely unexpected turnaround. They kept me another two days and then I left. I went completely yellow and had a long recovery rebuilding my liver. The first two months were very painful as my body detoxified. It was the first time that I put myself on the list, and right at the top. I needed to heal, grow vegetables, cook, eat well, read and walk. It took me about two years to get back to full health.”
The Mind Body Connection
As important as good nutrition, exercise, reducing stress, not smoking and creating a toxin-free environment is, your state of mind and spirit have enormous effect on one’s ability to recover health. This should not be under-estimated. Everyone knows someone who have beaten the odds of a life-threatening disease with amazing focus and will power.
A great example of this is Danny who had spent the best part of twenty years in the Sinai desert. Danny had a real love for the Bedouin and the Sinai, the biblical desert where Moses crossed the Red Sea. He took people on retreat into the wild open space of the desert. “To see the canopy, to see the stars, all of the sudden there is the realisation of Galileo, that we are moving. The awareness, the perspective, the vision is so vast. It is spectacular. It is a balcony of God. I have always felt safe, and held in this desert. Talk about Mother Earth. It is a very feminine landscape and the Bedouin people are so hospitable.” He helped people take charge of their life. To live in the present and stay conscious. “The reason why Moses never reached the Promised Land was that that was never the goal. His was a ‘no destination’ journey. The real point of this journey was the total faith, the leadership in doing the impossible, in crossing the Red Sea.” Danny told me. He had been helping to build a school for the local community with his son when he started to get sick.
“My health was deteriorating but I carried on regardless. I refused to acknowledge that something was wrong with me. I had always been healthy. I was fighting, almost with rage, denying that my health was deteriorating. I worked with Dr Ahmed, a Bedouin herbalist. People travel from far and wide to see him. He is a serious doctor and healer, taking care of his tribe. People come with serious diseases and they get better. I knew he had some real power, but he had tried everything he knew yet nothing was working for me. I was getting worse so I flew back to the UK.
“I thought I just would get better if I rested. But I was getting worse, something was really wrong. I went to the local farmers’ baling festival, when they bring in the last of the bales. Ironically, was just picking up the last straw bail, when I collapsed and went unconscious. For me it was literally the last straw.
“I was taken to the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital where they connected me to equipment to monitor my liver and ran tests. They said I had broken the NHS record for liver inflammation and they needed to take me immediately to Birmingham for a liver transplant where, luckily, they had a liver. I was drifting in and out of awareness but this news was a turning point. It didn't match my state of mind. It didn't generate any anxiety, fear or panic.
“I was lying down so I sat up and said “We need to have a conversation. We need to make a decision. I don't think this is what we are going to do.” They probably thought I was a nutcase. I asked to speak to the doctor in charge. He arrived and informed me that this was serious, a life or death situation, and that a liver transplant is no small deal. He was very charismatic person and we made a connection immediately. He wanted to know where I was coming from. I told him “With respect to all of you I am the CEO of my body, and we need to have a discussion together. There is something that I need to do for myself.” I needed to take charge of this. Energetically, this was a massive turning point for me - to take leadership.
“I told him “I need 24 hours to think about it, to do some work, to meditate, and I need a quiet room and we’ll have another conversation about this tomorrow. I’d appreciate it if you would disconnect me from all this equipment.” There was a long moment of silence – there were six people around me with clipboards. He asked me all sorts of questions to see if I was clear in my mind and then said “I get you and I’ll support you - but on one condition which is that we will come every half an hour and check in on you and we need to keep monitoring your liver function.” I had to sign papers that this was my choice, to not have the operation.
I was sitting upright in my bed for several hours, not drifting. It felt like my life was dependent on staying present. I must not go to sleep. It reminds me of that Rumi poem ‘don’t go back to sleep!’
“The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you
Don't go back to sleep!
You must ask for what you really want.
Don't go back to sleep!
People are going back and forth
across the doorsill where the two worlds touch,
The door is round and open
Don't go back to sleep!”
Rumi
“There was a certain urgency in the body and the body’s intelligence takes over. I knew that I had a lot of health in my body. My focus was on my body community of billions of cells supporting this crisis. I don't remember doing anything calculated or controlled. I had no fear. I was confident that I could cross this ‘Red Sea’. This was my challenge. I cannot really name what I was doing or what was happening. I felt completely peaceful. I was not in my mind.
“There was a turning point after seven hours. The room became very busy with quite a few medical staff. The doctor came back in and said “I don’t know what you are doing but keep doing it. The blood flow is improving.” The liver inflammation had come right down. He interviewed me and asked what was happening. My liver had made a completely unexpected turnaround. They kept me another two days and then I left. I went completely yellow and had a long recovery rebuilding my liver. The first two months were very painful as my body detoxified. It was the first time that I put myself on the list, and right at the top. I needed to heal, grow vegetables, cook, eat well, read and walk. It took me about two years to get back to full health.”