by Dr Anne Malatt MBBS, MS, FRANZCO, FRACS

Modern medicine is amazing. What we are able to do to support the human being in existence is incredible.  The recent advances in technology, surgery and pharmacology that we work with today and the research that will bring us new advances in the near future are nothing short of miraculous. Doctors and allied health professionals are dedicated and hardworking individuals who practise their professions with the greatest integrity they can.

So, why are the rates of illness and disease rising?

Why are people getting sicker quicker, and younger?

Why are we getting multiple symptoms and more complex illnesses that are becoming harder to diagnose and treat?

Why are we, as individuals, as health practitioners and as a society, becoming more exhausted, even given up?

These and other questions led me to search outside my traditional training for answers.  This search eventually led me back to my roots.

The roots of modern medicine are ancient.  They are grounded in the work of the ancient Greek philosophers.  Pythagoras proposed that there was a way of life, which if lived on a daily basis, would not only largely prevent us  being sick, but would lead us to true health.

What is true health?

Most of us consider health to be the absence of serious illness and disease.

We say we are healthy, or well, but do not consider how we would feel without that coffee to jump-start us in the morning, the pain killers to dull the niggling aches in our bones and joints, the other tablets we take to manage our chronic conditions, the sugar and caffeine we ingest to fuel us through the day, and the alcohol we use to pick us up after a hard day and to take the edge off the pain we are feeling. We also do not consider how we would feel if we could not have the “treats” we use to reward and distract ourselves- cake, movies, sports, holidays, etc.

True health is a state in which we feel joy-full, loving and harmonious, every single day.

Anything less than this, is living less than who we truly are.

What if there was a way of life that could lead us back to true health?

The ancient Greeks proposed that there was, that there was a way of being that could lead us back to our true selves.  This was not a set of rules, but a way of living connected to the body, listening to the body, understanding that the body was a marker of truth and that if we listened to it, we would learn how to live.

This way of living leads to a simplicity of being.  It may not look so exciting from the outside to begin with, and some of the things your body tells you may be hard to hear, but if practised with dedication and love, it leads to a feeling of joy you would not have dreamed to be possible. From the outside, your life may look much the same, but living from the innermost out, changes everything.

Medical and scientific research is starting to support this.  Much of this research (psychoneuroimmunology, epigenetics) has been around for decades, but it has not been embraced by the mainstream, because it tells us that the way we live matters, that what we think, say and do affects ourselves and everyone else, and this is a level of responsibility that most of us are not yet ready for.

Medicine is slowly coming to the understanding that the way we live makes a difference.  Research is finally focusing on “lifestyle” factors and their contribution to illness and disease.

But why wait for research to prove what, in truth, we already know?

We all know what heals us and what harms us. We have just chosen to ignore the truth of what our body knows and feels. We all know that alcohol is a massive sugar hit and it numbs us and takes the edge off our pain. We all know that coffee picks us up, but we feel even worse (and hungry) half an hour later. We know that gluten makes us feel tired and heavy, often bloated, and can upset our digestion. We know that dairy increases mucus secretion and can block our sinuses, ears and lungs. We know that sugar makes us racy, running our body faster than its natural rhythm, and in a way that leaves us feeling exhausted, so we crave more. We know that we start to feel tired around 8-9pm, and that we need to eat, drink, watch TV or do something stimulating to keep us up past this hour.

If we know all this, why don’t we live this simplicity?

We also know that if we take away all the stimulants, the distractions, and the things that numb us, we will have to feel the pain we are truly in. Most of us don’t want to feel that. Most of us don’t even realise we are in pain, because the way we live numbs and distracts us from this fact. The pain is deep and old and buried under layers of coping mechanisms, and we have been living this way for so long that we think it is normal.

If we were to truly feel and focus on the pain, it would be overwhelming, so we do everything we can to avoid it.

But what if the pain was on the surface and nothing compared to the greatness of who we truly are?

Where we get stuck is thinking the pain is everything, but this is the grand illusion.

We are amazing. Beyond our understanding. All we need to do is take the time to stop, be still, and feel who we truly are. It just takes a few moments each morning, before we get caught up in the day, to stop, be with ourselves and breathe gently, so that we are breathing our own breath.  This will allow us to feel who we truly are, and if we live from this knowing, we will make true choices in our daily lives, that will bring us back to true health.  It is just a choice, to live from within.

My life and work have been inspired and informed by the life and work of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.  May you be inspired, too.