627 thoughts on “Contagion – Part two: Non-communicable diseases, are they really not communicable?”

1. This really emphasises the effects we have on one another and that we role model behaviours, choices, and how to be with ourselves and others.

2. In the same way that cells in our body copy each other and multiply so too can behaviours within a family or social group. In choosing harmony, love, stillness, truth and joy this can inspire both yourself and those around you.

3. The largest causes of death are largely preventable, by modifying our lifestyles. – sort of says it all really. We are the masters of our own making or demise. I know first hand that my body feels and responds to everything, and we continuously have a choice of if we harm or heal.

4. This is very interesting. Reflection is truly powerful and that is basically how we get educated and trained to live a human life, and in that we develop a kind of antibody to immunize ourselves against certain things, and looking at the way things are in this modern day and age, quite a few of us seem to have developed very strong antibodies against Stillness.

5. This is such a great blog. When I looked at the top 4 risk factors for disease, all I saw was the outplay of unhappy lives. The author expanded each one beautifully, exploring what we get out of each Band-Aid for an unhappy/purposeless life. I and significant research would absolutely agree that the coping methods we choose are passed down to us in our families, as a contagious disease is spread.

6. “What if the way we are with each other and the way we live can be passed on just as easily as the bugs we sneeze onto other people when we are sick?” I know how easy it is to pick up mannerisms from other people. Just the other day I noticed that I was sitting in a way that an ex partner of mine used to often sit and at work, if I am not careful, I can begin to pick up bags without bending, or throw bags in to a heap in the same way that some of my workmates do. I have a responsibility to myself, my body, to always take care and I notice how I can pick up healthy habits from others and visa versa. How we do what we do has a much greater influence than we might think

7. The concept proposed here makes a lot of sense to me, as it would be easy to just go along with the common explanation of disease passed on from generation to generation as being caused by similar genetic make-up, but simply learning the same behaviour from our parents as if it is the ‘only way’ to be is much more plausible, as genetics alone do not predict human behaviour so accurately. Also, using genetics as the cause of hereditary illness and disease is a way to not take responsibility for everything that happens to us, which we can not avoid, but attempt to do so by any means.

8. Non-communicable diseases, are definitely on the increase, because as a population obesity, diabetes, drugs, alcohol, cancer etc are all on the rise, and every behaviour has been learnt from another, if we start to change our choices others will be inspired to follow.

9. Tobacco use Harmful use of alcohol Unhealthy diet Physical inactivity… What an extraordinary list… This could surely be on the front page of every media every day until humanity finally wakes up and addresses this glaring discrepancy in our awareness.

10. ‘The largest causes of death are largely preventable, by modifying our lifestyles.’ and the lifestyles we choose are affected by our parents’ lifestyles where we either copy or rebel against how they lived. Consumption of alcohol affects more than just the consumer because of the aggression and poor driving that results.

11. What I can feel is how the term ‘non-communicable diseases’ seems to give it a connotation of it being somewhat accidental and independent, eliminating a sense of responsibility from us as a community of people – how our own choice might have an affect on others.

12. A beautiful prescription: Live in a way that honours and supports your body to be healthy and others will catch on.

13. We all influence each other all the time even if it is only on a subconscious level. How we then act or react to this influence is paramount to our health and continued way of living. Children are most vulnerable in this area as are those under stress or little sleep, so looking after ourselves at continuing deeper levels and being role models for those around us has to be one of our greatest responsibilities.

14. How we live is what leads to our illness and disease, and it either supports the body or slowly wears it down. To ignore this obvious fact you have to be living in a big fat lie and be in denial all the time.

15. In regards to genetics and things “running in the family”, I believe that it has little to do with our genetic makeup. It’s nearly all to do with learned behaviours. You watch people move, act and live in the same way as their parents. Perhaps that is the cause of “genetic” diseases and not simply the luck of the draw with our genetic makeup.

16. In any given moment we have the choice to breathe in the love that we are, or not breathe it, and thus breathe in all that we are not.

17. Bringing the idea of contagious disease to our current range of lifestyle-related illnesses and diseases allows us a different perspective on causation and also on prevention. The simplest form of prevention would be to take responsibility for the way we’re living in our bodies, both for ourselves and for the role-modelling influence that our behaviour has on those around us. It’s clear from the questions you raise, that emotion, whether positive or negative, is highly catching – and it’s simply a matter of choice as to which type we choose to align to in our every moment.

18. The Black Death killed around 50 million people in England in the 14th Century, a shocking figure on every level, but worldwide we have 5 million people dying each year from tobacco-related illnesses. Add this up to a century and that would be 500 million people. Although the population of England was much smaller so relatively a much higher portion of the population were wiped out, the value of one person’s life has not changed and these figures are reflective of today’s standards. Will we continue to self-inflict this current plague of non-communicable and lifestyle related diseases on ourselves, and our society through influence?

    1. Susie, the figures on tobacco highlight to me the lack of worth and lack of value we hold ourselves with, and the absence of understanding that our life is precious. Your comment would make a great basis for an article or blog. Comparing the Black Death statistics with tobacco deaths certainly puts tobacco use into perspective.

19. ‘What if diseases that ‘run in the family’ (which we now call ‘genetic’) are just as contagious as the common cold?’ We are constantly evolving our understanding of the root cause of disease and illness and this concept is definitely something to ponder on.

    1. I’ve often wondered when I see a cluster of the same health condition in a family if it’s related to lifestyle behaviours passed along in the family.

20. Broadening our awareness of the meaning of ‘contagious’ is a very effective vaccine. We are so vulnerable to catching how our peers and role models behave from such an early age that it is barely given any consideration. How powerful is it to meet a person who does not harm their body in any way, but treats it and them selves with the greatest respect, strong medicine in this day and age when our markers of true health are fast disappearing.

21. The power of learned behavior is somewhat terrifying when you look at what has been normalized in the world to our own detriment… learning from each other that things are ‘okay’ although they may harm us. We have a responsibility to live in a way that supports true health and not cause the opposite, and then reflect the power of that for others to learn from.

22. It is such an important subject you are addressing, I agree, everything is contagious and at the same time nothing is…. Let me explain, every year, there is a certain time when people get sick. I work with people and food, the customers will come in and share how sick they have been or are, about their kids being sick. It’s “going around” is the saying or “I think I picked it up from my flat mate”. Then the staff will call in sick, rolling on over a number of weeks with the line “it got me”. My kids will all get sick, and so on and so forth, you get the picture. I am not denying there is a contagious part to sickness but each person has a timing and flavour to their sickness that is tailored to them. I also noticed that this year, I did not get sick and I did not have a flu shot or anything like that. I was working, sleeping and surrounded by illness but I didn’t get sick? It makes you wonder about the contagious side of things. In saying that, I can be easily affected by emotions and often feel them inside my body affecting my every word and move, so, like I said, they are and they aren’t contagious, it’s up to us really about how we are energetically. We need to be aware that even though some things can’t be physically seen, doesn’t mean they are not happening.

23. We have a society that supports the ways you described how to cope with life (drinking, smoking, foods, inactivity) but what Universal Medicine has shown me is that we can deal with our emotional state in other ways that don’t damage the body. Like being honest to another how I feel can be deeply healing for both as it shows there’s another way to be in life, we don’t have to resort to vices.

24. What a gorgeous blog, very insight-full and absolutely choc a bloc full of truth. Love it.

25. This really makes it so, so simple – the diseases we do or do not contract are the end product of the way we choose to live, which in turn is an end product of the energy we choose to express: either with the all that we are (love) or, with all we are not (not-love). Therefore, we are masters of our own circumstance in the sense that within every moment is the choice to express our love or not and then receive all that comes our way as a result of this choice and the many thereafter that follow.

26. Non questioning the contagion of theses diseases is also a choice. Probably is not as evident as the contagious ones, but the effect is the same. We need to go deeper and see beyond the phisicality to understand how much harmful are the family patterns in which we have grown. To see that relation between the learned patterns and the disease, we have to be honest and observe the absence of love in those reflections we received, that there was ignorance, and also there was a choice about a certain way of living. In my case, I chose to stop my inherited family trends and in the beginning there was a reaction from some of my relatives, because they thought that by not choosing the same I was somehow rejecting them. And this is not the case at all. I reject the pattern, but not reject to them. I choice to take care of myself, to love myself, to offer another reflection to the world… this choice is the love I feel between us, respecting their own choices, knowing that they are much more… and that ‘much more’ is what I always love and will love from them.

27. Whilst reading this what really struck me was how we learn to eat from our parents and that rarely do we question those choices, so we now have generations of people who like fast food, convenience foods and takeaways. It’s scary really when you look at all the diseases that are preventable and related to the choices we make with food, alcohol and smoking – we cannot say that the NHS in the UK has not been educating us for many years and that we are ignorant of the facts of smoking and alcohol due to the ad campaigns on the TV, and on the cigarette packs. So why are we on such a destructive path with our health and why do we find it so difficult to make the healthy choices for our bodies? At what point do we take a hard look at ourselves and see that we are running out of get out of jail cards – in other words, how bad does it have to get.

28. This could be a stand alone article, “If the major risk factors for non-communicable disease were eliminated, around 75% of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes would be prevented, and 40% of cancer cases would be prevented.” I remember how heart disease was in the early 80’s, I was only young but it seemed heart attacks were a regularly discussed topic. Now for me it would seem that cancers are what we discuss and I originally assumed heart disease must have gone away or improved but as we looked a little deeper it hasn’t. In fact it’s gone up as well???? What is this saying? and why aren’t we taking a different angle. I am not taking myself out of this equation and blaming you or them. It’s an ‘us’ thing and only us can turn it all around.

29. ‘The largest causes of death are largely preventable, by modifying our lifestyles.’ When people are diagnosed with an illness or disease, they start to change their lifestyle in order to support themselves, and yet rather than making all the self loving choices that are available, they choose to change their lifestyle enough to help support their condition yet at the same time they are not prepared to go to the next level, because they still want to hold onto the comfort that they have, which is really leaving the door open to more illness and disease.

30. As I am again remembering the harmony that resides naturally within I am constantly astounded as to how much my body responds when I choose this harmony. It settles, for it feels held and supported and it fills for in the settlement there is no tension which creates a spacious feeling in which I can feel my cells literally tingle with the pleasure they feel. In this it is easy to honestly feel how I have been caring for it, or not. It is given the space to communicate what it divinely needs for its ultimate support, to listen and respond to this communication is a learning like no other and one that grows in depth, awareness and information daily. This is not difficult unless we allow that which another dictates to be true to dominate our mind, instead of choosing again to reconnect to the harmony that our bodies know inside out.

31. Sometimes it seems as though the most contagious disease of them all is called ‘normal’, followed by ‘that’s life’. They have been passed one from generation to generation, jump from one family to another, one nation to the next, they know no boundaries or borders. ‘Normal’ and ‘that’s life’ make us numb and despondent, lethargic and semi-comatose, only capable of reaching for the next stubbie (a beer bottle in Australia), another fag, a packet of salty chips or that cream meringue.

32. It is crazy to feel how simple it is, that it comes down to choices. The difficulty comes from making the loving ones for ourselves. Simple self loving choices can get the ball rolling on a greater quality of life. Being tender with ourselves is a big ask for some. Tenderness is key.

33. ‘If the major risk factors for non-communicable disease were eliminated, around 75% of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes would be prevented, and 40% of cancer cases would be prevented. (4)’ Wow. These are certainly sobering statistics that bring a whole new level of responsibility to our daily lives and would also noticeably reduce the demand on our overburdened health care system.

34. It certainly makes sense that we pick up ways of behaving from other people and if those behaviours lead us to illness and disease then we have actually got those diseases from other people however it is not to blame them for we are the ones who have taken up those behaviours. When a behaviour becomes a habit and we begin to identify with it it can be hard to let go of but in order to stop the onset of more serious illness that is in truth what we have to do. I have found that as soon as I make the choice to change there is support for that change and it can come from the most unexpected places. Likewise my mind can sometimes try and convince me to go back to the very behaviour that I am wanting to get away from. Becoming very still and reconnecting to the true place within allows me to feel the truth again and allows me to stay steady in my commitment, knowing that this choice is deepening my care and love not just for me but for everyone.

35. Such a beautiful thought provoking blog Anne. We tend to think that plagues are things of the past but clearly we have modern plagues in the non-communicable chronic illnesses that are just as contagious and just as deadly to large proportions of the human population.

36. Wow, Anne and Paul, you have opened up a whole new way of looking at and treating disease!

37. Yes Anne and Paul, living in a way where we see ourselves as individual and separate allows us a big dose of numbness and means we can keep going with the way ‘we like to behave’. The thing that we neglect to see is that this desire and impulse to indulge is not actually ours. And so the passion or belief we cling to is nothing more than a pollution that has for this moment contaminated us. Here’s to our opportunity now to clean it all up and disinfect our life, with Love.

38. This really does prove the enormous responsibility we hold in everything we do. It’s great to be reminded that not only diseases are contagious and all these things like joy, laughter and love are the best medicine of all.

39. It always comes back to honesty and responsibility – when these two qualities are present, true change is possible, whether that be lifestyle choices, non communicable diseases or the poor state of our world.

40. ‘The vast majority of these behaviours are set up in our family home.’ this is a very powerful statement and something to consider – our first relationships or our primary relationships begin in our home with our parents, siblings or who we are raised by. This is an enormous influence of how we learn to relate and have our needs met. When our needs are not met we substitute it for example with food. It’s more than our physical and emotional needs, it’s that very deep part of us, our essence, do we get met for who we are in our own homes, our very first relationships?
    The real disease is the cyclical pattern established by way we live from our formative years – from generation to generation that trains us to substitute our lives far from who we, are but to construct ourselves to try and be in life, yet we miss the truth and replace it with vices, which can never substitute the richness of the truth of who we are.

41. So the responsibility of the well-being of the world is in our hands, or our breath, to infect the world with laughter, joy, harmony, truth and love.

42. The stats are crazy….and so very telling of where we are at! ‘What if the way we are with each other and the way we live can be passed on…’ Yep, I’m open to that theory. It’s very easy for to pick up on someone else’s emotion, like anger for example and take it on if I choose to. We are all connected, but when we are not connected to ourselves first, we allow the emotions of others to enter us, often without realising. In saying that, when someone is standing straight in their power and all their amazingess, that can also be contagious, but the energy is different, it’s inspiring, and so we are met with a reflection that says we can access that too.

43. Bring this on, I welcome the love, truth, joy, stillness, harmony and laughter…
    ‘We have a responsibility for the choices we make, that affect the energy we are in, that then affects everyone, just as if we passed on an infectious disease.

    But hang on!

    Laughter is also contagious.

    Joy is contagious.

    So is harmony.

    So is stillness.

    And truth.

    And love.’

44. I so enjoyed this blog, thank you. The ending is wonderful and so true, the power of joy, harmony, stillness, truth and love is huge and so much stronger than the force of emotions that lead to illness and disease. Let’s have a world epidemic of these feelings.

45. Thank you both for another brilliant blog with a very powerful message throughout but, in particular, “It is our choice – whether to live in a way that leads us to illness and disease, or to live in a way that offers harmony, love, stillness, truth and joy, for ourselves and for everyone we meet.”

46. Lifestyle diseases are contagious. Although this is the first time I have read this presented like this and so clearly, I have read plenty of studies that support this notion. It has been shown that we take on the coping mechanisms we see in our families as kids. These become our fall back mechanisms that pop in before we can think, anytime we feel stressed or unable to cope. This body memory of a harmful default setting is what makes it hard to change when we are adults and know better. This is why it is so important for people to see role models who actually are healthy, vital and joyful to know there is another choice.

47. I had grown up with parents that had only been social drinkers, they are now both no longer with us. The social bit was only on public holidays with the exception of my dad that would have one or two beers. There was never any yelling and screaming in the house. So, how did I become a 50 a day cigarette smoker and a functioning alcoholic? The only thing that was abundant in my childhood was the lack of love, joy, stillness and truth that should be the obvious suspect! As you have said Anne these were the choices I made.

48. So true, we must choose which contagion we want. When so many non communicable diseases are preventable we have to choose to be the change we what to see in our lives.

49. It is amazing that we see many occurrences where diseases seem to run in the families – but it is never 100%. We need to look at why some get it and the others don’t, instead of leaving it as luck of the draw, and then maybe we will find it happens by choice, and not by chance.

50. ‘What if the way we are with each other and the way we live can be passed on just as easily as the bugs we sneeze onto other people when we are sick?’ Awesome question. From my observations and experience of life I feel that this is indeed the case, although I had never thought about it in this way until reading this blog. Therefore does it not then mean that we have an absolute responsibility to live in away that inspire self-care and self-love? For we are all watching and learning from each other all of the time so if I am consistently self-loving and caring then that’s a pretty inspirational reflection I am offering to those who see me throughout life.

51. So much common sense wisdom in what you’ve shared here Anne and Paul… you are highlighting the fact we are all connected, we all affect one another constantly, and that the things we ‘suffer’ are the consequence of repeating choices… many of which we learn from our families. Understanding that a genetic predisposition is nothing more than the seemingly unconscious following of a familial pattern of behaviour. We have the power always to break that pattern and make different choices, and break the genetic predisposition for those who follow us in life.

52. Laughter is definitely contagious and so much fun to catch. Lets start an epidemic!

53. This is a brilliant blog. What I found so empowering is knowing that we do have a choice.

54. To consider emotional patterns such as anger, sadness, grumpiness, withdrawal, etc as non communicable dis-eases, is like the new frontier of approach to health and wellbeing, as over time, these patterns most certainly would have an effect on our biochemistry and thought patterns, that in turn, would effect the body.

55. ‘If we saw that chronic diseases may also be contagious, through passing on the way we live, we would see that how we live can make a difference to our own health, and to that of everyone around us.’ – this is a powerful call to the responsibility that we all have with the way we are with each other and what we bring to our relationships from the love we hold ourselves in. It is this responsibility accepted and embraced, coupled with the wonders and support of modern medicine, that will bring a loving change to our state of well-being within ourselves, our families and as all as a society.

56. When we choose to explore and embrace the power of love within us we will discover that the emotions that we engage in and are driven hold no truth or reflection of who we naturally are, and in fact serve to diminish and hinder the vitality we are all born to live with. And what is truly empowering to realise is that it is only us that has the power to choose how are lives are lived in every single moment of every day.

57. This is such a brilliant blog that calls us to deeply consider how and why we focus only on the symptoms of dis-ease to define the problem and how we then address the dis-ease, whilst overlooking the actual root cause of the dis-ease. Eliminating risk factors will not eliminate the unnatural behaviours that drive us to make lifestyle choices that cause us harm in the first place. This is why we so often see people re-lapse into dis-ease after medical attention. Unless we are willing to address, understand and heal the cause of our unnatural behaviours, we will continue to reinfect our lives with behaviours that do not support our well-being.

58. This really makes everything so simple. It is up to us, our health and well being is all up to us, the way we feel the way we respond. And what’s more how we are has an influence on everyone else too. It becomes so obvious that the mess in the world is our mess and to change it starts with us changing ourselves.

59. Firstly I have to say I Love the way you write blogs together, building on each others ideas, forever expanding….
    Secondly you have offered a new way of defining communicable, if this new meaning were to be accepted as a truth of mainstream society there would be massive consequences to how we live with each other especially those in our private homes.

60. Thank you Anne and Paul – I loved reading what you share here. It is especially awesome to connect to the fact that love and harmony are far more contagious than any disease or harmful way of being. You allow me to feel how joyful it is to live responsibly.

61. There is plenty of information around us these days about the ill effects of smoking, alcohol, overeating, poor diet and lack of exercise / movement in our lives – and yet so many people still make these choices. We still choose to neglect our long-term health and wellbeing for a short-term fix that we have to keep repeating over and over again. My feeling is we must look deeper, to truly understand the reasons we are so desperate to change or deny what we are sensing in life. So desperate that we will indulge in activities that make us unwell, reduce our vitality, depress us etc. Blogs like this one give us an opportunity to reflect on what is behind these choices and offer us an alternative to consider. Contagious Love feels like a great place to start.

62. Maybe we can go even further and look at whether there is a level of societal consciousness that affects us and the lifestyle choices we make – just as there is a family consciousness as we grow up. Are we born into a contagious fog that presents a lifestyle that we just buy into without being aware that we are doing so? Worth pondering in my view – and worth pondering how, if it is the case, how we can choose a different consciousness that is founded in Love, joy, harmony, stillness and truth. Oh, and laughter.

63. Love this concept, what a revelation. People get so freaked out that they are going to get sick or make someone else sick when they have the flu, being careful not to hug or exchange drinks ect. We do not often see this care displayed when practising habits with your family, such as a coffee to wake up before anything can be done or a block of chocolate at night, we do not hide these things or worry that our kids will learn them, very interesting indeed.

64. The way we live is certainly a choice….but as you say Anne it can be difficult to change the patterns we grew up with…. I think most people would be shocked to think that their lifestyle choices are contagious and could be infecting their loved ones. This in itself is an incentive to start making the necessary changes, taking responsibility for our own health and well being, and in the process that of our families and friends.

65. The statistics you share are a real wake-up call, but a call that unfortunately I feel is not being heard. Maybe that is because so many of us have the belief that “it won’t happen to me”. But really looking at the figures it is so obvious that the majority of humanity is being affected in one way (directly) or another (through a family member or friend). I know that it can be quite daunting to take a close look at our life style choices and to acknowledge the changes that need to be made, but often the changes are sadly put on the back burner and life goes on as before until the person is stopped in their tracks; maybe then they will finally see that there is a much more enjoyable and healthy way to live.

66. “It is our choice – whether to live in a way that leads us to illness and disease, or to live in a way that offers harmony, love, stillness, truth and joy, for ourselves and for everyone we meet.” I absolutely love the directness in this sentence. It is one way or the other, there is no in between. Without question I know which way I am choosing and that is to live my life in joy, love, stillness, harmony and truth to the best of my ability in every moment. Thank you Anne and Paul for sharing… beautiful to feel the togetherness and equality of you both.

67. I too like the turn around at the end Susan, offering us another way to be and live that is indeed far more powerful than any emotion. To live in truth, stillness, love, joy and harmony is desperately needed in our world today and as I develop this natural way of being in my day, I am indeed inspiring others.

68. We carry our hurts within our body in every moment unless we make a choice to deal with them. The more I let go of my hurts the more I am getting to know the real me. Unless I am prepared to take responsibility for my hurts I will always be at the mercy of blaming someone or something for my ills and therefore living in a way that harms another even if I were to say ‘it’s in my genes.’ I am blaming those who have gone before me for my condition; ‘I have this because of them!’ So it makes so much sense to me to say that non-communicable diseases unless dealt with are without a shadow of a doubt communicable.

69. It’s like we know all of this and yet continue to accept lesser than our true way of living. Is it possible that we have chosen to accept something over and above the love that we are because it suits us to live and be less than all we truly are? Or more to the point it suits the part of us that chose to separate from this common sense and knowingness and not actually the whole of us?

70. OK so it does seem that we have a choice … chronic illness, or some really wonderful stuff!!!… joy harmony love ?? It a no brainer if we look at it like this but we are constantly looking in the wrong direction to even notice this choice …. And that’s inwards instead of outwards.

71. These are remarkable statistics Anne and Paul about how much the predominant illness that are killing people today can be reduced simply by changes in lifestyle choices. This fact along with what you have offered about why we make specific choices that are harming even though we know it, clearly highlights the deep hurt so many are living in. This alone is something that brings every fibre of my being to attention so that I may reflect deep care and love back to people, in order to offer the truth about there being another way to live. It feels important for me to address any arrogance or superiority around blaming people for the choices that they make and that in truth there is no us and them, there is only us.

72. This blog highlights the fact that we have a choice in the way that we live. Even if we cannot see as a reality that we have a choice, just being open to this can be life changing, as I have discovered. We then start to see in small ways how we can make changes. It’s the small changes that are most significant not the big image we are often going for. One small change for me came about by going to bed earlier every night as a way of taking care of me. Now I see how this benefits others as I am much fresher, clearer and productive in the mornings and have far less mood swings.

73. There is forever the possibility that we are contagious because we are always reflecting how we live… and this is easily picked up by those around us. But the way we are is also adding to the pot of possible behaviours – that any one could pick up and be affected by.

74. Such a great blog, Anne and Paul. It would seem that our lifestyles are contagious. I think about when a new chocolate bar is advertised on TV- everyone who likes chocolate goes out and buys it. Many families tend to eat the same things whether these are good or bad for you.
    It is great to feel that leading a more healthy and joyful life is contagious as well. Our family is evidence of that!

75. Love what you present here Anne and Paul, this is a great blog to raise discussion and to further ponder on. An emotional outburst of someone’s rage, anger, frustration or violent behaviour could equally be considered contagious in the way it affects a recipient of this outburst or, how it influences an impressionable young child that this emotional behaviour is ‘normal’. The infection and transmission rate of this contagious behaviour is then passed on down through the generations…

    1. I absolutely agree johannebrown17, an emotional outburst of any kind could be considered as contagious as it most certainly does have an impact on those around them. It is a behaviour deeply entrenched throughout generations but a behaviour that can be broken with love and support and above all a willingness to go there.

    2. To hold steady and not react from another’s emotional outburst may be challenging at times but it is possible with love, care and an understanding for oneself and another.

76. I love the end of this blog, really cementing in the truth that we hold the power to reflect to others whether that be the illness or the joy.

77. This is an awesome blog, thank you. Again blowing the lid on modern medicine, bringing true responsibility to ourselves and those around us.

78. How much more gorgeous is it to be around those with contagious laughter, joy, stillness and love than anything else.

79. The term non-communicable diseases refers to the fact that a dis-ease is non-infectious or non-transmissible. What this doesn’t take into consideration is that the way we live, which includes our behaviours, the beliefs we hold, how we move, what we say, what we put into our bodies and so on, are continually communicating and reflecting to others ‘lifestyles’ or ways of living.

    If how we are living is harming and creates dis-ease in our body, then we could most definitely say that our lifestyles are infectious and transmissible. What we see and what we observe in each other is constantly providing messages. This is where the word ‘normal’ comes from. If there are enough people choosing the same thing, suddenly it becomes ‘normal’ even if it is completely harmful to our body.

80. “If we saw that chronic diseases may also be contagious, through passing on the way we live, we would see that how we live can make a difference to our own health, and to that of everyone around us.” The level of responsibility that we are being asked to have if this possibility was true is far beyond what many want to take. Yet medicine is already showing us that the way we live is the main factor that effects our health, therefore it is only us that is denying what cannot be denied. In any case a great blog which raises some great questions.

81. “It’s it the genes” is such an easy response. It takes no awareness, no responsibility and in truth an idleness to not even contemplate other factors. Our everyday choices are clear demonstrators of how we live and therefore what our body is enduring moment to moment. We all know that there is a consequence to everything we say and do, so why would this not be the case for our bodies too?

82. What I like about this article is that it not only addresses how much of a difference to our health we could make by making small lifestyle changes, but also it looks at the underlying causes of the behaviours we undertake. It makes sense that we carry hurts from childhood and that behaviours such as food choices or drinking or smoking allow us to dull our senses. If we were to honour more our sensitivity as human beings we would see that there are deep unresolved emotional issues that we are constantly trying to smother with our lifestyle choices. The more we understand this the easier it is to address and thus allow us to become much healthier beings. It’s not rocket science but it does require a willingness to want to know and to want to change, and perhaps that is the part we haven’t quite reached yet as a humanity.

83. Beautiful, I love this blog . Common sense in a nutshell. Thank you Anne and Paul.

84. To start to understand diseases that ‘run in the family’ will give a whole new awareness to the responsibility we play in whether we ‘inherit’ or ‘catch’ the diseases that are indicated through our families. As you so wisely offer most disease are actually life style based and the predisposition is very likely because the choices children make are the ones they copy from the adults as they grow.

    1. I agree, Sandra – we try to be different from our parents but it’s amazing how similar habits turn up generation after generation.

       1. Very true Carmel. Children copy and learn from the adults around them from day one, so what do we really want to teach our children, our responsibility is huge.

85. Our choices will determine the quality of our lives.

86. When did we stop asking why and start just accepting blindly what we are told or even what we believe?

87. There was a video out recently of a guy on a train laughing, and that laughing was contagious, it made everyone on the train start to smile and then laugh themselves just by seeing his reaction. That was a clear example of how contagious our actions can be, so it stands to reason that emotions can be harmful and can cause us to affect others if we are caught up in reacting to life and not coping with what is occurring.

88. I love the expansion of life that naturally is felt when living and sharing the essence of joy, truth and love.

89. This blog has raised the stakes for me in terms of what responsibility truly means and the difference I make by taking responsibility for everything I say do think and feel. We re powerful beyond belief! I am powerful beyond belief!

90. this is a great blog, it raises a great point being our own choice in behaviours causing the illness and disease so present in these days. In core we have our own responsibility regarding our health, we are not victims of the illness.

91. ‘The vast majority of these behaviours are set up in our family home.’ The fact that this is the case, and it is, brings the meaning of responsibility for parents to a whole other level. Meaning to be more responsible for themselves and how they are first so as to teach children that self love and self care are invaluable.

    1. As I pause to reflect on our behaviours as parents and how they have an impact on our children we have an enormous responsibility in how we raise our children; we live in such arrogance of this fact.

92. ‘What if the way we are with each other and the way we live can be passed on just as easily as the bugs we sneeze onto other people when we are sick?’ I feel this is very much the case now, for example…children being raised in homes that either drink or smoke or both, learn that this is a way of life, a way to be.

    1. Michelle there are so many learned patterns that take place from one generation to the next, when we consider most illness and disease is lifestyle related and we pick up lifestyle choices from others then Anne’s blog makes complete sense.

93. ‘The largest causes of death are largely preventable, by modifying our lifestyles.

    Knowing this (and we do) why do we still choose to live in a certain way, especially a way that is known to cause illness and disease?’
    This is very true. Those of us who have lit up cigarettes either now or in the past, have known the harm we are doing to ourselves. I can say for myself it came out of a deep arrogance and that by indulging in what so many others also chose to do, it seemed ok at the time. I am very glad I now make a different choice.

94. Awesome blog, you are a dynamo couple to write – loved it! Everything I want to comment on is actually the whole blog. It is simple, expresses and communication what is and how it is – the way of health is defined. I recommend to read it again and again.

95. Yesterday on the news there was a story that 50% of people were at high risk of cancer because of family traits. Or, should it have more truthfully presented we have a very high chance to die the same way our family members have died if we live 100% the way they lived and with the same choices they made?

    1. A good point Steve, how we live affects our health, and if we learn our behaviours and ways of living from our family as we grow up, then we have a good chance of having similar health issues to them.

    2. Love what you say Steve. ‘it’s in my genes’ puts great fear into people and renders them helpless. Making different and healthy choices changes the playing field.

    3. Let’s also consider many people end up with illness disease through rebelling against their family traits and trying to live differently, still not truly honouring themselves.

96. No other species on earth suffers from illness and disease the way we do. No other species is so hell bent on the destruction of its own kind, and yet here we sit at the top of the evolutionary table (apparently). Surely the disregard with which we treat ourselves as species gives pause for reflection to consider just whether our origins are truly as a pure result of the fact of nature’s path of evolution. We certainly do not act in a way that is honouring of how this process naturally seems to occur in the wild. Any other species that eats itself out of home and house, and destroys the very environment it relies upon for its survival has perished and gone extinct. No, there is something about our level of intelligence that is truly not of this world.

    1. Yes, Adam, we are so arrogant in our superiority and not even humble enough to understand that God has been continually offering us beautiful reflections in nature and the wider universe, which we choose to ignore or destroy. There is nothing intelligent or loving about that.

       1. I agree Anne, there is nothing intelligent about destroying our bodies by treating them the way that we do. There is a huge need for all of us to develop a healthy and loving relationship with our bodies.

97. What’s interesting Anne and Paul in this, was what you suggested about those who smoke… and in the past often I’ve asked friends/people why they do smoke, or even non-smokers who join the smoking compartments of trains… and the answer so often given is that it’s more social, fun, a way to come and be together with people… and yet what you share as: “We may smoke because we are lonely – we miss ourselves, we miss true connections with other people” it seems to be the exact opposite. So, could why we say we like something be an actual truth that’s been subverted?

98. It is incredibly empowering to understand that these are all learned behaviours and that we have a choice. It is something that I am constantly reminding myself of if I try to go into a helpless or victim mentality. We have the capacity to learn so much – choosing what we put into our bodies and our homes has a big impact on how we are on a day to day basis.

99. Great blog Anne and Paul, it really opened my mind to how simple, joyful and virtually disease free life could be, if we could only embrace the things that are not harming, break old patterns and emotions passed down, and truly look at why we need harmful substances to numb us from truly feeling what is really going on.

100. Interesting points you make Anne and Paul, if all these things such as smoking, drinking alcohol and excessive eating are learned behaviours and not our natural way of being, then it is time to look deeper into our lives instead of accepting that this is the way life is. This is where Universal Medicine is so supportive, because it helps us look beyond our behaviours to what is really going on. Emotions are contagious and harmful to the body, yet we so often choose them over joy and laughter.

101. NCDs should be one of the simplest to cure, there is no need to spend years doing research and spending billions on a cure… It all starts with the root cause that has always been known but dismissed, the person that looks back at us from the mirror every morning that is making all those bad choices for us!

102. Thanks Anne and Paul – what you have presented here is a real deal breaker. To stop and consider what has truly been passed on down through the generations in our families would show, in the majority of cases, that the illnesses and diseases that seem to follow one generation to the next are actually preventable and not inevitable. Unfortunately the comfort of the contagious lifestyles with its vices often seems easier. Yet very importantly – we can’t have just one side of the coin without the other – what we add to in the ‘life bank’ also has the capacity to enhance our lives. Now that is an investment worth taking a much deeper look into! The choices we make will be passed onto another generation, so it makes enormous sense to invest in the future more wisely than what many in the world are currently doing.

     1. Well said Helen. Generational illness and disease is definitely, as you say: “actually preventable and not inevitable”. Unfortunately so many of the behaviours that have been passed down through families have become accepted as normal and not questioned even when a member of the family gets sick. Then you tend to find that everything is else is blamed for the problem and the illness causing behaviours are ignored. It is time to look very closely and honestly at our lifestyle choices armed with the knowing that there is always another choice that we can make.

     2. I agree Helen, it does make enormous sense to invest in the future more wisely. I often find myself observing the behaviours of my family and the family I have married into. I know that what my children see around them is their ‘norm’ so if I feel uncomfortable about something because it is not coming from truth, it is my responsibility to make the changes necessary; to break the cycle and re-imprint with new choices.

103. Recently I remember someone talking about how they changed the culture of their work from people gossiping to working together and addressing niggles as they arose within a couple of weeks. Proof that harmony, love, stillness, truth and joy are contagious.

104. It’s quite interesting that generational re-occurrences of social norms within families are generally accepted as learned behaviour – for example substance/alcohol miss-use, domestic violence, family dysfunction – and is expected to repeat unless intervention supports families to stop the cycle; yet the health issues associated with such lifestyles people are reticent about conceding they are a direct result of how one treats ones body and those around.

     Is this because we all do know the truth of our health being a direct result of how we have treated ourselves and others at some point but we don’t want to go there so we do a version of better – I’m not as abusive as I was or as another so I’m ok. Rather than living ‘ in a way that offers harmony, love, stillness, truth and joy, for ourselves and for everyone we meet.’

105. Thank you Anne and Paul for sharing this view on the so called lifestyle diseases. This shows a whole new level of responsibility in that these disease may not be passively inherited through some genetic predisposition but actively shared through our choices. As you say, joy, love and harmony can also be contagious, which leads to the question of what are we sharing with others? This is where the responsibility kicks in.

     1. Yes, so beautifully said. Love is contagious. Let’s share that!

106. Once we start to accept that we are never not feeling – if we can’t feel it is it because we just develop strategies to bury the feeling deeper into our bodies.

     1. Dear nicolesjardin I was good in not feeling what is really going on as I didn’t not like what there was for me to feel. It took me a while to understand that I will feel it even if I bury these feelings deep inside my body. And that on top of it my body was reacting to all these buried feelings – my illness was what allowed me to have this deeper look. So my experience was that the body will find also strategies to get rid of what I was burying before.

     2. We are experts in burying the treasure that we truly are.

     3. Burying my feelings makes me feel dreadful in my body now. What I am learning is to address what I have buried as soon as possible, as there is no point in delaying, as it is there to feel whether I choose to in the moment or later.

     4. I have come to realise how vital it is to be present with ourselves to feel. The more present I am the more I can feel and know exactly what the feeling is showing me.

        1. Burying what we are feeling also creates complications and it means there is further to dig to uncover the original feeling. To stay present with all that is going on means we can bring so much more to the people around us.

107. I love what you share here Anne and Paul – it is so true that diseases that we don’t see as being classically contagious, diseases such as heart attacks etc, that come from our choices and life styles, do always have an impact on others. In fact everything we do in life has an impact or an effect on some level on those around us. Should we choose to be disregarding or uncaring for ourselves or others (such as eating things that don’t support the body) then this sets the example for others to do likewise, saying that it is ‘ok’ to do such things, giving permission to others to not feel what they are doing and just do it because someone else is doing it. This is a form of contagion that comes from being shut down, from not taking responsibility.

108. Everyone has experienced how laughter is contagious, but also sadness and if we were sensitive to what happened in our bodies we would acknowledge how relatively contracting and suppressing an emotion like sadness is and how tension producing something like anger. It is not a great leap to then deduce that this has a physiological effect and when frequently occurring will begin to accumulate as illness. Our sensitivity allows us to accept how everything occurring can affect us and also that when solid and consistent, we can choose not to take things on.

     1. So true Simon V. We know that emotions and feelings can be contagious and when we start to pay attention to how our body feels when under the influence of various emotions and feelings we know how these affect our body. As you say, it is not a big step to then see how emotions can affect our health.

109. At some point during our lives we come to realise that we are repeating the patterns and “behaviours that we learn at an early age” and that we do have a choice to follow suit or get off the merry-go-round. This is the point of truly growing up.

110. “What if the way we are with each other and the way we live can be passed on just as easily as the bugs we sneeze onto other people when we are sick?” Yes we see this a lot with family members behaving the same in certain areas, we think it’s a learned ‘normal’ behaviour but as this blog shares some of the behaviours are really harming us – thank you for writing this blog Anne and Paul.

111. Brilliant duo of articles here. They ask us to stop and question; am I going to infect with dis-ease or with harmony? The symptoms I display will tell me the answer.

112. Thank you Anne and Paul, loved reading this and a timely reminder of the power of our reflection when we choose to live the love that we are.

113. We approach contagious diseases with universal precautions, such as hand washing, gloves and gowns to protect from the bug transferring on to our body. Recognising that lifestyle diseases are equally contagious, could there somehow be precautions to lifestyle diseases we can take?…

     1. Love that johannebrown, a dose of conscious presence, listening to my body and knowing my own breath would quite possibly be the basic precautions.

114. ‘According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), non-communicable diseases (NCDs) now account for 68% of all deaths, worldwide, every year. (1)’. This statistic is alarming. If we can for a minute just really consider what this says about the human race. 68 out of 100 people become sick and die because of our lifestyle. So 68% of our current lifestyle behaviours are killing us. Therefore we need to change something because it is just not working. That is a 68% failure rate, not a good return on lifestyle.

115. The dis-ease that is contagious in the whole world is disconnection. When we are not in connection with ourselves, we choose a path of lovelessness and this is the world we construct for ourselves.

116. You led me to your conclusion holding my hand every step of the way, so that when I got to the question ” is it possible that these diseases are contagious too?” I was right with you. Of course they are, by being learnt behaviours! Yet what struck me also is something you said previously “The largest causes of death are largely preventable, by modifying our lifestyles.” Therefore we have the power through our choices to give ourselves the antidote to this contagion. It is so simple yet so important to understand with every cell in our body.

117. This is a game changer article and you offer such a different perspective on dis-ease. “If we saw that chronic diseases may also be contagious, through passing on the way we live, we would see that how we live can make a difference to our own health, and to that of everyone around us.” This is a must read blog for every patient in a GP surgery and for everyone in their home!

118. How lovely to acknowledge that Stillness is contagious – we can enter a stressful situation connected to our inner stillness knowing that others will feel it – I have certainly found myself calming down when faced with a still person – they may say very little, but I can FEEL their stillness and it helps me to feel mine.

     1. Carmel, this is a significant awareness on Stillness and the enormous effects of it – thank you.

119. Anne and Paul this is simply beautiful to read and so inspiring that through our choices we can change our lives. Instead of seeing all the contagious things that are bad for us, I love your sharing that Laughter is also contagious as is Joy, Harmony, stillness, truth and love. And the power of these feelings is far stronger than the force of the emotions that can lead to dis-ease.

120. Anne and Paul, I love the way you explained the reasons behind our unhealthy habits, for with that understanding of ourselves we can learn and make loving choices.

121. “It is our choice….” This last sentence is delivered with authority and no holding back and puts responsibility squarely in our lap. It is also our choice whether we take it or not. Love or not love? That is the question.

122. Anne and Paul, I love the simple logic of this blog which combines pure common sense with medical experience. By asking the questions you encourage the reader to discover for themselves what they already know (but may not have wanted to face), rather than just telling them the information. And because it is done with such love of humanity the reader cannot help but feel that you are with them, not getting at them.

123. “We have a responsibility for the choices we make, that affect the energy we are in, that then affects everyone, just as if we passed on an infectious disease”. Imagine if that was above the entrance of every hospital and medical clinic? We would have a very different health care system, one that was far more viable and sustainable.

     1. What a great message this would be Elizabeth for us to all know and understand.

124. Sometimes it seems that sadness, hurt and misery are overwhelming and it is impossible to see any light on the horizon, but when we understand that all the light is blazing within and we have the possibility through our daily choices to reconnect to that blaze, that burns away all the fog and restores our true vision once more.

     1. So true Annie C. There is an infinite and innate light within us that feels inaccessible when we are caught up in the apparent reality of sadness, hurt and misery – it is thus challenging to see there is another way to live by making different choices. Serge Benhayon’s presentations reflect what is possible and joy can be felt within again with awareness and work on past hurts.

     2. So true Annie, we can often think that there is no way out as if we have lost this internal brightness forever, yet only a step away is the possibility to re-connect to who we truly are.

125. This really does open our eyes to the responsibility we have for our own health and wellbeing. Again it puts the responsibility right back in our court to do what it takes to heal ourselves, and in doing that, the health of our families and friends around us as well. As you say Anne and Paul the other end of the scale, joy and laughter are contagious so why not spread those instead through our own loved ones?

126. Absolutely – this would be a great support to health and social care systems the world over and not only that but we would respond so much more beneficially to their support when we need it.

127. It can be hard to step away from these hereditary behaviours when by doing so it can mean that you are no longer part of that family. The reaction to choosing loving behaviours as opposed to the behaviours that lead to illness and disease can be huge, as it offers a big reflection to those who choose an unloving way. Ultimately because we are love and come from love, choosing laughter, joy, harmony, stillness, truth and love comes more naturally to us. It feels sad that, in this society, there can be such a division between people because of these choices.

128. This article is gorgeous, powerful and oh so true! What a revelation, yes our conditioned ways of being create a foundation that we take into life which can then lead to illness and disease. By identifying and addressing these potentially unhelpful patterns we can change our lives.

129. I love this blog Anne and Paul – this is huge – how we are in our everyday living way could be highly contagious to others – be it living ‘less than we are’, the forerunner to illness and disease, or contagious with laughter and joy which is uplifting with no agenda or trying to make someone feel better – it is all there deep within ready to burst forth like a blossom in bloom once we re-connect to our inner essence!
     “It is our choice – whether to live in a way that leads us to illness and disease, or to live in a way that offers harmony, love, stillness, truth and joy, for ourselves and for everyone we meet”.

130. Thank you for sharing Anne and Paul.

131. It makes sense that we could think of NCD as communicable since there is a strong communication of how to live and be in life passed through families. Unhealthy choices that lead to lifestyle diseases are also very strongly communicated as “the norm” by societies, as it becomes a social pressure to drink alcohol etc or we see people overeating and then accept behaviour that for ourselves. This brings further importance to the responsibility we have in how we live and in what we choose to reflect to those around us – value, love and care of the self, or low self worth/self loathing, disregard and devastation of the body. What are we each communicating?

132. I’m reading the list of what is divinely contagious and as I read ‘laughter and joy’ the kookaburras are agreeing very loudly and clearly. It is contagious to hear and feel the sounds of joy that can be around us constantly. Sometimes being a little more still helps to pick up and be receptive to all the lovely support is with us all the time. It can just be a choice of turning the volume down on the things that cause distraction.

133. As a community nurse I accompany people to Out Patients appointments at public hospitals and the most common clinic I attend is the Respiratory Clinic. Smoking, a non-communicable disease, is the main cause of client’s who are homeless or have mental illnesses developing chronic lung disease. The loneliness and the restlessness of people who have mental illness in this sector is huge. The chronic disease that I see is a consequence of the resignation that this is how life is – it is writ large and clients openly say that they are not interested in giving up their smokes, mainly because they are unwilling and by this stage unable to address the depth of their sadness and have accepted that this is all life has to offer them. This exploration of chronic disease is such an important topic. Thank you Anne and Paul for your commitment to writing this blog.

     1. So true Bernadette, that has been my experience as well working as a clinician. I note that nearly all people that suffer schizophrenia are chronic smokers and feel very lost without it. But smoking is not the issue, it is the emptiness and sadness they are struggling with. If we started to look at mental health differently we may be able to provide more effective support to these people who in most instances suffer a NCD at some point in their lives.

134. Knowing that non-communicable diseases can be largely prevented places the responsibility back on ourselves. For a species who considers itself so intelligent, this is very exposing.

     1. Absolutely Nikki, that the rates of non-communicable diseases are so high when they are largely preventable really does bring into question the “intelligence” that is so readily championed.

135. Beautiful Anne and Paul. The way we live is contagious, especially in the family home. I cleaned homes for many years and the way a child kept their bedroom was a reflection of the parents’ bedroom (this gets a bit skewed by teenage years) and how the house was kept. The family home is a reference point of what is normal. It can take a long time to realise there is another way and the un-doing of what has been lived can take a while.

136. This blog ends on a very important note – that the way we live is not just for us but for All. When we embrace that, then things will change.

     1. Absolutely Shevon, when we are concentrating on making life only about ourselves the world just doesn’t make sense.

     2. Agreed Shevon, it presents a clear understanding of brotherhood and the ways we can support each other.

137. It is a powerful exercise to sit and consider the questions you have asked here Anne and Paul. Most of us do know some choices we make are in no way supporting our bodies and we still may choose them. Looking deeper into our behaviours, and following the trail of our choices can lead to the original point of separation from what we do not want to feel. If we are willing to go there we can truly begin to address and heal the root of so many off our illnesses and diseases. This can be a joyful discovery.

138. It is very empowering to realise we are not the victims of our illness or disease, that we do indeed play an integral role in our health and overall wellbeing. It is our loving responsibility to do so.

139. What a great conclusion and follow up on our livingness, illness and disease “It is our choice – whether to live in a way that leads us to illness and disease, or to live in a way that offers harmony, love, stillness, truth and joy, for ourselves and for everyone we meet.” so true and so beautifully explained with real simplicity and a real understanding. This is amazing to ponder on from a great perspective of truth and honesty.

140. Gosh what a blog – contagious behaviour patterns – passed through the family actually makes complete sense and its considered completely normal to eat ourselves to death!

     1. What people refer to as “genetics” has more to do with the behaviours we learn from our parents, not what we inherit without a choice.

        1. It’s an uncomfortable truth but makes so much more sense than the traditional definition of genetics.

        2. Yes, our choices determine our genetics.

           EM for AM

        3. Hear, hear Nikki, and it is time this is widely known so that people have the chance to change this ill way of being.

141. NCD’s are such silent killers, they grow quietly on the inside until one day something breaks, by which stage its too late to backpedal and undo all that has been done.

     1. And the sad part is that they (NCDs) have become something that happens to someone else until we find ourselves in that boat and then become shocked and disillusioned that it could possibly happen to us, without looking at our choices and ways of being through life.

        1. I think that is part of the self loathing that comes in with the reality check that what we now have could have been prevented by different choices. Understanding is one of the most valuable medicines to have in our cabinet as it stops the self loathing and denial. With understanding there is the potential to go to honesty and change, with self loathing and berating there is just defence and helplessness from my experience.

142. I have definitely observed that some of my children’s behaviour has come from them observing my own behaviours and mirroring it. This has often led me to feel the enormous responsibility I have as a parent, in how I live and what I am reflecting to them every day. This can be expanded of course to what I am reflecting to everyone I meet in my day every day.

     1. Parents are not far from the status of God when children are little (generally speaking). What we do and how we are as parents has a huge impact on the child. Our words mean nothing, it is how we move, how we are and the choice we make that they observe and feel and then mirror. The responsibility is enormous indeed, but incredibly beautiful.

     2. I really like what you have said Andrew. I feel that responsibility to be as best as I can, but I’ve found that even if I am imperfect, as long as I am connecting with them, meeting them in the eyes and knowing that they have me 100% when my eyes are on them, this is the responsibility that matters, and they feel it all.

        1. That’s so true Matthew. Connection not perfection is what matters most.

     3. Very true Andrew, it is how our children learn so many behaviours, which as you say brings it back to the responsibility we have knowing how we influence other people, not just those around us all the time, but also, ‘I am reflecting to everyone I meet in my day every day.’

143. The under-estimated power of influence. It seems we are constantly influencing each other by reflection and that reflection can be to be more love or or to be less love.

     1. Beautifully said Andrew. We are constant reflections and what are we choosing to offer to the world?

     2. Absolutely Andrew, we are constantly influencing each other by reflection, so let’s reflect as Anne and Paul suggest,

        ‘Laughter is also contagious.

        Joy is contagious.

        So is harmony.

        So is stillness.

        And truth.

        And love.

        And the power of these feelings is far stronger than the force of the emotions that can lead to dis-ease.’

144. “And the power of these feelings joy, harmony, truth, stillness, laughter and love is far stronger than the force of the emotions that can lead to dis-ease.” Absolutely agree, they are, it’s just that we have allowed ourselves to be caught in the emotions of dis-ease that we have forgotten that there are other choices we can make in life to change our lives. There are so many people who have. Started changing their lives and have notice amazing results in their health including myself.

145. Preventative medicine has not been paid the attention it needs to, and this is evidenced by the number of preventable health conditions that cost our health systems so much money, and are the cause of suffering for the great many that live on this earth. There needs to be greater support for people in the choices they make for their health. True empowerment, based on the facts of how to support ourselves with food, movement and the quality we live every day is what is needed.

     1. I agree Amelia that there has been far more money, time and energy put into symptom treatment or mending/maintaining bodies that have been affected by illness and disease, then there has been into preventing these illnesses in the first place.

        1. I wonder if this is because there is such overwhelm on the front line that it is a case of triaging the most pressing issues, which all too often is the end result, being pain and crisis management. It is only as overwhelm abates or more forward thinking people come along that there is any interest in supporting people to look at the root cause. I see great willingness but also great overwhelm.

     2. Greater support for people in the choices they make for their health would be an excellent investment indeed.

     3. Yes Amelia, and it is this type of education that is so necessary to support us, so we have the awareness of how all our choices do have a direct affect on our health and also our health systems.
        Everyone has a responsibility here so we can begin to address this overload.

     4. So true Amelia – even when the route to preventing ill health is shown and offered people will still knowingly turn the other way – and that’s in the instances where it is more obvious. Just how much are we turning our backs on, when deep within we know the effects of our choices.

     5. Very well said Amelia. Governments are throwing a LOT of money into their health systems as there are so many more patients walking through the door with preventable health conditions. I wonder what it would look like if they spent a fraction of that money into supporting everyone to better know their body and how to look after it, rather than trying to manage the after-effect of the population’s disregard.

        1. Indeed Susie and Amelia – everyone needs to be supported to get a true understanding on the difference between taking responsibility for our daily choices or not – and the enormous effects it has on our health and wellbeing.

        2. This would be money well spent, people need to really know that they are responsible for their health by how they live, and honouring and listening to their bodies is a key part of this.
           ‘I wonder what it would look like if they spent a fraction of that money into supporting everyone to better know their body and how to look after it, rather than trying to manage the after-effect of the population’s disregard.’

     6. This is so true, so little government money is put into preventative medicine, for true health and wellbeing. There is not an importance it appears, on how to build lives that are not reliant on science and medicine, but how to live in a way that each day is medicine, we have a lot to take responsibility for yet.

146. When you look at the NCDs and then the main risk factors, you are made startlingly aware of the huge amount of control we have over our health.

147. Yes the responsibility of our health is in each and everyone’s hands.

     1. It is very simple when you express it like that Lee – it just makes sense.

        1. Yes, I agree, it makes good health achievable and simple and would put an end to the complications of a health system overburdened by the cost of NCDs.

148. Thank you Anne and Paul for addressing these ill-behaviours with the depth of clarity that you have. If we bring this kind of understanding and honesty to why we choose to knowingly harm ourselves then we will have clearer choices to make in how we want to live our life.

149. “If we saw that chronic diseases may also be contagious, through passing on the way we live, we would see that how we live can make a difference to our own health, and to that of everyone around us.” What a paradigm shift for humanity it would be if this were adopted by humanity and Universal Medicine is leading the way to bring about this shift.

     1. Yes this is huge. With greater awareness, families could be introduced to a deeper, truer level of nurturing and caring – abating the fear of powerlessness in the face of the apparent randomness of illnesses.

        1. True responsibility in how we live…..who wouldn’t want to choose this if they realised the consequences of their choices on their extended family, intimate partners and children, and even their children’s children?

150. Why do we choose to eat too much and to eat junk food, to smoke and drink, and lounge on the lounge watching TV? To be kept from feeling anything! With a simple choice we can feel everything.

     1. We not only chose this, but as a humanity, we also find it more than normal and we accept it. Now where is the logic in this?

     2. ‘With a simple choice we can feel everything’ – Absolutely Steve, although sometimes feeling everything that’s happening around us isn’t particularly pleasant, which is why understanding is so important and the ability to observe but not absorb. I have spent many years sponging up other people’s issues, and consistently find that my lack of understanding (that sometimes comes into play) can make the world feel like a dark, heavy cloud. Observing things is very different to taking them on.

        1. Great point Susie as taking them on can often lead to coping mechanisms to deal with what we have felt and then taken on…what a vicious cycle.

        2. Hi Susie, ‘I have spent many years sponging up other people’s issues,’ I relate to this too, not a good idea as it makes us ill if we do it long enough! I am deepening my understanding and ability to observe and not absorb, observing and not getting involved in ‘things’ is key.

151. It is important to explore why we on mass are not making choices we know will improve our health and decrease the massive expenditure on illness and disease for the benefit of all. The possible reasons listed in this blog are really well presented, about being driven in to unhealthy behaviours by ill feelings. There appears to be an ignorance about how we can turn feeling around to explore a natural innate joy inside us. Much presented by Universal Medicine is at the forefront of this exploration. The wisdom and understanding is there to rekindle our deep knowing and how to honour it and this is a great shift for mankind.

     1. It is important to explore this question en mass. Perhaps it is because it is en mass that behaviours are compounded. When the smoking ban in public places was introduced I remember there being uproar but now it is accepted and upheld.

        I know certain behaviours of mine mask hurts I carry and haven’t addressed. As a society, from people’s behaviours in general, people don’t want to take responsibility for dealing with their hurts. We know stopping the behaviours that hide these hurts leave us, alone it seems, with them. So there is a collective arrangement to put up with all the side effects because it’s believed easier than addressing them.

        I’m so glad those with Universal Medicine show me dealing with ones hurts is very possible – not the impossible big deal I once built it up to be so I could make excuses for staying in harmful behaviours. The more people see this for themselves the more the group becomes responsible and accepts the power we each have to be ones own medicine in the quality we live.

        1. Yes Karin, research shows that behaviours are contagious. For example if your friends put on a lot of weight then there is a greater chance that you will too than if they did not. As we globally get fatter the guidelines for ‘normal weight’ change to accommodate people’s increasing mass. Children whose body size was considered normal in 1950 are now seen to be underweight. And the list can go on … Rather than choose a healthy lifestyle we often just make it ok to be within the norm of those around us until someone reflects that there is another way, and show us how to deal with our hurts … and then another very joyful ‘contagion’ can ‘infect’ us.

     2. There does seem to be a global scale ignorance of what the consequences of our choices are when it comes to our health, and how we can make choices to turn our lives around. Universal Medicine is the only way that I have come across which presents a way to address the issues that I had in my life in a way that was truly empowering and life changing.

152. Without connection to our true nature – which is one of fire – making lifestyle choices that are truly good for us will always be a struggle. Over the years I have witnessed hundreds of students of Universal Medicine make lifestyle changes in their lives that have benefited them, and have been sustained over a long period of time. The changes they make are not fads, or done out of some ideal of what is good for them. They were able to do so because they connected to something that felt true, and then in the honouring of that connection, they were able to make choices that helped to sustain that connection. One can live a healthy life free of disease and still live a life of disconnection to God.

     1. Yes agree Adam, and equally one can be living with disease and enjoy a deep inner connection to self and God. Lasting change comes from the honouring of that connection by way of our everyday choices.

     2. Very true, Adam. We can have all the outward appearances of health and vitality, but still develop serious illnesses. What does this say about our measures of health?

153. This is amazing Anne and Paul. The startling statistics about “non-communicable” diseases and the possibility that non-communicable diseases may actually be communicable and that transmission occurs through the reflection offered by each of us. This brings a huge amount of responsibility to the way we live for our own health and the health of those around us. The question that comes to mind is, what are we communicating, heart disease or love?

     1. Just as one angry outburst leads to another, our unhealthy lifestyle choices are seen by others as being acceptable behavior, and we have settled for low standards of basic health, and the way we treat each other. In this way our lifestyle and the illness that follows is indeed contagious, but so is the joy of living responsibly and honestly.

154. I appreciate the fact that you have put care in listing the basic identified risk factors, i.e. our unhealthy relationship with smoking, drinking, eating and exercise PLUS the reason the habits tend to be adopted in the first place. I have noticed that it is surface behaviours but also those underlying factors – the way we approach life – that we learn from others, particularly from family and we encourage in one another. It is those underlying factors that get in the way of us giving the habits up, even when we think we have decided to do so. It is great to realise that there is a story underneath those behaviours worth looking at.

155. It is often difficult to accept the power we each have in how our life is, and how we feel, yet it is undeniable that it was I who made each choice in my life and therefore, it is the life I have chosen which I experience. “It is our choice – whether to live in a way that leads us to illness and disease, or to live in a way that offers harmony, love, stillness, truth and joy, for ourselves and for everyone we meet”

     1. Rosanna most would do anything other than to feel the truth of what you have shared ‘yet it is undeniable that it was I who made each choice in my life’.

     2. Rosannabianchini I love what you have shared: “It is often difficult to accept the power we each have in how our life is, and how we feel . . . ” Yes to accept the power we have is really something some people are not use to – they are more used to see what they are not good at.

        1. Agreed Ester we are less likely to claim that power than we are to see how it is others who are responsible for their own circumstance.

     3. Through facing the truth and accepting that our very own choices, minute by minute, day by day have created our lives, we are able to make changes to the thoughts, behaviours, and beliefs that create everything we experience, turning one’s life around completely.

        1. Wow there’s 10 years in therapy dealt with in one sentence rosemarydunstan!

        2. Wow Rosemary that is profoundly empowering! Love what you’ve shared here.

        3. Yes Rosemary, that’s true, so long as we are not just substituting one thought or belief for another but are weeding out the ill energy at the root. That way we don’t just get a better life – we get re-newed life.

        4. Yes Sandra it is only through weeding out the ill energy at the root that we can truly go forward.

     4. Yes Rosanna, which in turn means that we can’t blame or celebrate anything or anyone for everything that happens to ourselves. It’s all due to the choices we have made ourselves. And by feeling those choices and the intention (energy) behind it, we are able to truly change those choices. Which is not a goal, nor a drive, nor something to achieve. It’s simply a choice. A choice to feel or not to feel. A choice to live from connectedness or not. Simple. Allthough not always easy in a world that doesn’t celebrate us if we change for the better, the Truth that is.

     5. So many people claim they want, and even fight wars in the name of having self-autonomy over their lives yet they do not ‘accept the power we each have in how our life is, and how we feel’. If only people realised and accepted this truth how different the world would be.

156. This is gorgeous! So clear and easy to read and very strong in its message. Absolutely made my day reading this and feeling that yes our ills are contagious through our patterns but so is our love, truth, joy, stillness and harmony. Now that is well worth bringing to others!

     1. It is Joshua, I am with you on that. There is nothing more contagious than laughter.

        1. That’s so true Rowena. I only have to hear joyful laughter and my whole body laughs.

        2. And I would add that a gorgeous genuine smile from someone’s heart is also very infectious!

        3. Yes Rowena, even reading your comment has put a smile on my face 🙂

        4. Your words already brought me to a laugh.,Rowena. I agree joyful laughter is very contagious.

     2. So true Joshua, I was recently supporting someone and holding them in love as they spoke. I expressed my care and supported that person on the issue they faced. By the end of the short conversation, this person’s heart had completely opened and they also began expressing love. They literally lit up. It was beautiful to witness and to also now understand how communicable “ease” is, just as “dis-ease” is.

        1. That is beautiful Melinda. No need to do anything but to be just true ourselves

        2. Just by listening and expressing your care. I have seen that care of self and care for another is not a ‘normal’ but an extra when we are not overwhelmed, so it ends up often not happening. How important is it to get it top of the list..as you shared your ‘person’s heart had completely opened’. I love that ease is as communicable as dis-ease. Quite a game changer.

157. Beautiful wrap up of your article that says it all: “It is our choice – whether to live in a way that leads us to illness and disease, or to live in a way that offers harmony, love, stillness, truth and joy, for ourselves and for everyone we meet.” And it is our choice and responsibility to not delay making these choices until we have time or finished something ect.

     1. Yes and how we live our life leaves a mark for others, it leaves an imprint that can inspire either way, what do we want to be contagious, love, truth, harmony, stillness and joy or heart disease and type 2 diabetes?

158. “Non-communicable diseases are largely preventable, through interventions that address the main risk factors”, what you write here is of major importance! When many of the death’s could have been prevented this is major news. Why isn’t that in the newspapers on the front page and why aren’t we talking about that amongst each other. The substances the substances and choices you mention are ‘normal’ in our society and even championed amongst certain groups (for example students). So much more health by simply changing our lifestyle choices and yet so little people place ‘taking good care of their body’ on the top of their priority list.

159. Yes Gill, I agree and we need to be honest about the foods that are not supportive to us. Children are still being encouraged to drink milk and eat cheese as a healthy option to manage illness and prevent weight gain but it is a well reported fact that diary cannot be easily digested by the body and is harmful to our health so why do so many organisations still print leaflets advising parents to give their children cows milk which has been specifically designed for baby cows and not baby humans. Until we start being honest about why we are so wedded to eating certain foods nothing will change.

160. There is no doubt in me whatsoever that laughter is contagious. I remember well as a child getting the giggles and before we knew it the whole family was doubled up laughing. It happened at school too. Someone would set us off and then we would be doubled up in stitches laughing so much so that sometimes we would be crying with laughter. I can remember one particular incident that I had decided to dye my hair black and most my friends were being polite about how it looked and then my closest and most honest friend walked in and said the truth about how it didn’t suit me at all and we were all falling on the floor with laughter. If this is the case and laughter is very clearly contagious then why wouldn’t love, truth, joy, harmony and stillness be the same?

     1. Gorgeous what you have shared here fionacochrane01. I had a cousin who had the most bubbly and infectious laugh, he always melted everyone into the same joyous feeling. Always enjoyed catching that.

161. This really highlighted responsibility for me, what we are walking around in and dumping on others, what we are teaching our children…All comes down to not dealing with our emotions which in turn means we create our illnesses. Because of this, we say its okay and so continue the cycle. Having awareness that this is the cause and case brings the chance for so much to change.

162. It’s a great point you make about not continuing the cycle. Taking responsibility for your emotions and being super honest is at the crux of it all, as this calls others to responsibility also.

163. Yes Heather. When we realise our behaviours are not us but are something we have taken on, it opens us up to the possibility that we are not what we do. In understanding that underneath all of that there is something rather special to be appreciated, supports us in wanting to make changes. If we start to know we are worth it the self loving choices become much easier to make.

164. I see my children repeating some of my behaviours. What I don’t like to see is them repeating things I no longer do because I have discovered how harming they are. Its uncomfortable to watch and I find myself wanting to preach, but I have discovered its not about telling them what to do, but allowing them to come to there own learning through their own experiences.

165. Love the ‘But hang on’ paragraph. Yes – lets go contagious with laughter, Joy, harmony, stillness, truth, and love. That feels very familiar.

166. I loved reading this today so thank you Anne and Paul for this amazing contribution and sharing it with us all. I was so caught up in learned behaviours (within the family environment) and this only came to a halt (actually a knee jerk reaction from myself as the realisation really opened my eyes) when I was introduced to Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon. What was presented as I came to the realisation that I was the one responsible for my everyday choices, how I was living. Those ingrained patterns (learned behaviours within family life) get so ingrained/influential during those early years that it becomes so ‘normal’ and to live outside of that feels quite alien. We know and can clearly feel what behaviours are healing or harming and it is so our choice on which route to take.

167. Wow, this is a different way of looking at disease. It makes sense that certain diseases might run in families because of learnt behaviours that just get passed on without question. This is empowering to know, since we do all have choices, and we can choose to behave differently at any time.

168. Thats a very high percentage of preventable deaths, society measures its improvement on technological or material advancement however based on those statistics we are going backwards.

169. Insightful article and your summary nailed it, our choices determine the quality of our health and wellbeing

170. Great questions to ask, Anne and Paul. It would be amazing to take these points to every health authority and see what the response is.

171. Being diagnosed with chronic Asthma as a child I have to say that it seams to me not like a non-communicable disease. Even I may not just ‘learned it’ by my family, which has Asthma as well, I definitely not suffer under genetics because I did get rid of it by changing my lifestyle-choices. But what I see is my body which is giving me a reflection of my way of living. That there are illnesses rising, like diabetes in this time, reflects to us that we are as a society more connected than we may see. WE have a way of living that is similar, what is like a group-consciousness we are aligning to. To bring a change here, to bring healing, we have to step out of this general, ‘normal’ way of existing and find another way.
     Universal Medicine gives a great support here, by debunking our self-delusions and offering another way of thinking, living and being with each other.

172. To accept that our behaviours are learned rather than natural changes everything. If it is not natural to be exhausted, then that begs the question what needs to change so I am not exhausted at the end of the day?

     1. True Heather, we grow up thinking we are this or that because of our behaviors. Yet we learn everything, and choose that which we want to go into as we observe everything everyday.

173. I love what you have shared at the end here – very true and a great reminder that yes, life can be full of whatever we choose.

174. Choices, choices, choices, there is no escaping them and there is no such thing as a neutral choice. It will either contribute to illness or vitality.

     1. Yes Joel, your comment reminds me of a new snack that has just come out here in the UK. The tag line says ‘be a bit good,’ because they have been baked rather than fried. The idea that we can choose to make partly loving choices, is just another way of fooling ourselves.

        1. Great example Debra… let’s all be a bit pregnant or a bit love…just doesn’t work.

     2. Absolutely Joel I agree. We are constantly making choices, even when we think we are not making a choice – it is a choice. Does it not make sense then to be aware of what it is we are choosing?

     3. Love it Joel. Brings responsibility into the game. Why did i get that illness/ disease ? look at the choices and emotions you run with.

175. As long as we’re in these abusive behaviours, it seems so normal as so many people around us are reflecting to us that our behaviours are actually normal. But the more you’re letting go of these destructive behaviours and come back to your own love and senses, it is hard to believe that you were once in it. Well, at least this is my personal experience. I would never drink a drop of alcohol any more for example, where I used to drink quite a lot at nights that I went out with my friends. I’m so grateful to myself that I’ve chosen to stop the unloving choices and more and more come back to the inside, knowing how beautiful, precious, important, delicate and powerful I am. This is such a gift from life! As I am a gift to life if I choose to live me… Life’s offering me constantly more love, it is every moment up to me to accept that greater level, amount of love or deny it for a while – in fact knowing that I can’t escape the fact that there’s more love to accept, live and thus reflect. As it is for everyone:-). How beautiful is life and how abusive are we with life, if you read this article including its statistics.

176. Thank you for connecting the dots here. It feels like an amazing opportunity to turn ourselves around from the ‘inevitability’ of NCD’s. It occurs to me that the self-defeating attitude or belief that “we have to die of something” is at cause here. It’s almost as if people don’t realise there is choice in how we die as well as how we live.

     1. To me the fact that we say that NCD’s are inevitable is because we know that the lives we live are not supportive in keeping a healthy body and in one or another way will result in one of these ‘unavoidable’ NCD’s. We all know this from deep within, because we all have the wish to better our lives in one way or another, as we know some parts of them are not beneficial to live a long and healthy life. But the point is that we are missing the examples of people living it who can show to us how to give a response to that inner knowing we all have.

177. This is brilliant Anne and Paul, I love what you have presented here. In being open to understanding and realising that our behaviours and lifestyle choices can lead us to illness and dis-ease or to living with vitality, joy and harmony, we can see how either way, the way we choose to live is contagious. So what it that we are passing on? More often than not we learn how to live with chronic illness, we learn to manage it and not address it through how we live, as the impact on our health may not seem as intense and often not as restricting. However, with this we may seem to be doing OK, but are we really? Are we truly living with the vitality they we rightly deserve to and can live and sharing this? Are we all living with the chronic illness of our lifestyle choices that is shared with all, as we are all part of the world we live in? ‘It is our choice – whether to live in a way that leads us to illness and disease, or to live in a way that offers harmony, love, stillness, truth and joy, for ourselves and for everyone we meet.’ – beautifully said.

178. It’s mad to think we choose illness and disease over wise loving choices and yet we still do.

179. ‘Many of us are exhausted and have given up on ourselves, and on life. And in time, this way of being can lead to depression’, I have been in this state of exhaustion and depression, and after living this and coming out the other side, I can freely see it in other. Without the reflection of people living another way I may not have come out of that viscous cycle. What I just got from this is how we are all walking medicine when we walk in a responsible loving way.

180. I love this Paul and Anne, a huge wake up call to all, that we hold the key to true health within the way that we live. A call to bring responsibility into one’s life and a great gift for one to feel the truth of what power they hold by every choice they make.

181. For many years I ate food substances that I knew were not supporting my health yet never believed I would give up.. Cheese was one such substance, and yet now I would not ever fathom eating it again. It is one of many examples of food choices that dropped away when I started to more strongly clock the connection between a food item and how my body felt. What I notice now is that same choice is there in regard to more subtle measures of healthy eating, not having too much, and keeping the sweetness to a minimum. For me it all relates to honesty, how deeply honest in why I eat a food type am I willing to get, what is the food providing a blanket for emotionally, am I willing to feel raw and let feelings and emotions arise up and out of my body? These are all factors that play a large role in our health, and perhaps in this day and age the emotional damage at play in our food choices is much more influential than is currently accepted.

182. “Non-communicable diseases are largely preventable, through interventions that address the main risk factors, which are: Tobacco use, Harmful use of alcohol, Unhealthy diet, Physical inactivity (3)”
     All of the above are things that I certainly used to ‘enjoy’, each one of them was so ordinarily and commonly accepted as part of life – I would even consider myself fit and healthy despite doing these things. Just because I was getting away with it and not falling ill, I could see no harm was being done. However since starting to appreciate the impact we actually have on one another, purely from the way we behave and the choices we make, I can see the responsibility we each have to care and look after ourselves in a way that, if caught, will afford another to be just as caring for themselves.

     1. What I find incredible is that there are many things I thought I could not possibly live without – coffee, chocolate, alcohol, but now I live (extremely well) without them! I’m healthier, and without question more joyful, and not a chocolate bar in sight.

        1. Agree Heather, especially coffee and chocolate. People now ask me what I do for fun? I find that question funny, but certainly know I would have asked the same thing 10 years ago. They were crutches to help me through my days. Things are very different now and I too feel so much more vibrant, healthy and energetic.

183. Awesome article Anne and Paul – what you share is worth gold. If the 4 major causes of death are indeed preventable by our lifestyle choices, then why aren’t we willing to take more responsibility instead of blaming genetics?

184. Thank you Anne and Paul for a great article, on how much of our ill health can change by taking responsibility for our life style habits and understanding why we choose habits that are unhealthy.

185. Another powerful piece of writing Anne and Paul – I love how you question the way most people currently live and how you also make it very clear that this is a choice and that we can all choose differently. You say ‘Many of us are exhausted and have given up on ourselves, and on life. And in time, this way of being can lead to depression, obesity, and further inactivity. But these are not natural behaviours – they are learned behaviours.’ This significant fact, is what needs to be told to parents, individuals, schools, health institutions and governments everywhere.

186. What you present here, Anne and Paul, is profound and should be disseminated as widely as possible.

     1. Hear hear Jonathan, plain and simple truth presented to all here.

187. Thank you Anne and Paul, I love this super clear and simple presentation of an undeniable fact – that illness and disease is entirely preventable if we take responsibility for our lifestyle choices. Hard to argue with that!

188. Learning IS contagious! I just caught something from you Anne and Paul and I’m glad I did.

     1. Precisely Suzanne I caught something too! We all have such a powerful effect on one another, it’s so amazing to catch something positive, supporting and nurturing for a change! A true hall mark of the Ageless Wisdom.

        1. It encourages each of us to be all we are, for in our commitment to being loving and caring with ourselves, we are a mirror for everyone.

        2. Great, I am going out now and let people catch some of this loving, nurturing energy I carry in my body!

189. This is a beautiful piece of writing, Anne and Paul, expressing a truth I know deeply in my body. Our genetic predisposition to a particular disease is greatly influenced by our learned behaviours and in fact we have a choice, as to whether we will repeat these behavioural patterns. When we understand this and the responsibility we each have, the choice is clear. We have to learn how to deeply support ourselves with our own love.

190. The great thing about Universal Medicine is that we learn how to modify our behaviour. Many of us then choose behaviour that reduces our chance to get these major non-communicable diseases as it is obvious and clear to do so. That is very nice and valuable.

     1. I agree Christoph what Universal Medicine offers is of great value. Learning to be aware of our behaviours and where they stem from is empowering when it comes to choosing how we truly want to live.

     2. Serge Benhayon was the first to tell me that in truth I am worth true care and love. Just hearing a man say this was so supporting and the first step to rediscovering my true worth again.

191. It seems what is being called for here is responsibility. If our behaviours, thoughts and feelings affect each other, we can understand how truly powerful we are. Not only in being responsible for all our expression, but also for how we choose to view and sit with other people’s expression. If we understand and accept that we all live in the one big ocean of energy, perhaps it becomes appreciating and celebrating and even enjoying our own power and others, rather than living tip-toeing around it or trying to harness it or suppress it, which only makes things complicated.

     1. I love the analogy that we live in an ocean of energy, it really gives rise to the responsibility we can take to calm the waters rather than add to the tidal wave. I would look upon the emotions we can get in and the overly stimulating food we can eat as a current that makes for some stormy weather ahead, add in war, famine, terrorism, abuse and corruption and we have some big storms brewing. To not contribute to this must become the goal of humanity to make our ocean one we can all harmoniously live in.

192. How often do people come to work with a ‘virus’ (anger or frustration, resentment etc), when they probably should have stayed at home, or seen someone about it?

     1. Well said Jeanette. We walk around full of emotions that are harming to our selves and others when it is obvious that we actually need support to deal with whatever is going on for us. If we had a broken bone we would most likely get it attended to, so why not our highly volatile emotional way of being?

        1. So true Elizabeth, we have yet to fully realize the damaging effects of undealt with emotional issues and the impact of others when we vent these. Whilst it seems that we understand that our lifestyle choices impact our health we have not yet made this link to our emotional issues.

        2. I agree Elizabeth, there is no difference really.

        3. So true Jeanette and Elizabeth – our negative emotions are not often seen as something contagious like a virus, but indeed they can act like this.
           They affect everyone around you and are harming. So why do we put up with this? Time to call it out and suggest that people become more responsible for their behaviours, and undealt with emotions.

     2. Having awareness that our emotions have a huge ill-effect on ourselves and others, is what will bring the change needed, in how we are with each other when this contagion is at play. The more we are aware of this the more we can support each other by not reacting and taking on this type of contagion and then not pass it on again to others.

193. Brilliant article, thanks Anne and Paul.

194. We are bombarded with so much from the world and people around us. This blog really brings home responsibility in its fullness, responsibility of myself and also to everyone else. This is an awesome blog.

     1. It also lets us know there is more going on than meets the eye, and we don’t have to live in the often stuck world where each day is the same, but can choose another way, and that there are many before us including the Benhayon family who have already done so.

195. A common cause can also look just like contagion. The major food manufacturers have figured out how to put the right balance of sugar and salt into food so that the food becomes very addictive. This allowed them to make the other ingredients cheaper and cheaper but people still enjoyed the food. For example cornflakes without salt taste like cardboard.
     The end result is a massive worsening in our diet as we eat more and more cheaper and cheaper ingredients and having genuinely more difficulty than in the past to stop.

     1. Thank you Christoph for highlighting how many foods are no longer that nutritious for us yet with salt, sugar or fat added then become very addictive.

     2. I wonder how people who work in the food industry on a director level are able to live with themselves. Their decisions cause harm to millions of people, shouldn’t they be held responsible by law for bringing severe damage to people’s bodies?

        1. It is similar with those who work in the tobacco industry. I don’t know if they can live with themselves very well. Would they have higher rates of stress and mental illness?

196. Thank you Anne and Paul. This is certainly a very real possibility (that we learn these behaviours from Parents and also pass it on too). I agree that finding the joy in our lives everyday has to be healing!

197. Such great questions posed and ones that if we are open to exploring them, without criticism or judgment, can be totally life changing.

     1. I totally agree Matilda, if there was no resistance to this being a possibility it would change the way we live, walk, talk, eat and love.

198. It is incredible how much damage we can be willing to do to our own body to avoid feeling what we’re feeling! Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine give enormous support in helping people to reconnect with their feelings and deal with their emotions and hurts. Taking responsibility for ourselves in this way is key for all our true good health.

     1. Avoidance and numbing of our feelings is indeed at epidemic levels and leads to all sorts of destructive and non loving behaviours. Thank you Universal Medicine for raising our awareness and bringing us out of the fog.

     2. The teachings by Serge Benhayon have made all the difference in my life. I was doing okay but I was numbed big time. Till today I am stil learning how to deal with my hurts. It takes honesty first and now I know that I have a great responsibility to show others there is a way out of the misery and numbness. What awaits us is harmony, stillness and joy.

199. Epigenetics is an absolutely massive topic and from a personal perspective I could see a massive influence from my environment and closest family and friends on my behaviours growing up. It is a wonder to me why we dismiss this as much as we do when we consider just how much our health outcomes have change in recent years, way beyond what could be argued as coming from a genetic factor.

     1. As a living, walking, breathing group of people we have certainly put the proof into the pudding! The main standout is that we have altered our health for the better, and in some cases dramatically – simply from the life style choices we have made. This really ought to be headline news and/or communicated to the government, health service, scientists and so on.

200. I miss laughter. It is contagious. I read a facebook post that said the average 4 year old laughs 400 times per day and the average 40 year old laughs 4 times per way. When we get caught up in our stuff, there is less room for laughter. Bring on more laughter I say.

     1. I so agree. We have had a temporary manager for the last month and he has brought a childlike playfullness. He plays tricks on us and comes out with unexpected comments that have us and customers laughing and loosening up. He leaves next Monday so it will be interesting to see how much of that playfullness stays around after he has gone. I feel most of us will carry on being more lighthearted and this will support our relationship with the next manager.

        1. This is a great example of the contagiousness of behaviour elainearthey. It has made me reflect on the impact colleagues can have on the atmosphere at work, and also my responsibility and how I too affect the people around me.

        2. Wonderful example Elaine, there are always people we meet who bring that lightness to others and light up our lives, I guess it is all our responsibility to be that person, to be playful and caring of others, each in our own unique way.

     2. Laughter. Yes Sarah. The best contagion, a magnificent healer, and we can self prescribe.

        1. Laughter contagion…..definitely an outbreak you want to be caught up in!

     3. Ahahah yes Sarah I miss laughter too! Laughter is so contagious that the WHO would immediately put everything under quarantine.

     4. Yes a big dose of playfulness is sorely needed and all it takes is for us to connect to our inner hearts.

     5. Wow Sarah, what a statistic – I can believe that. We often become so serious as adults and lose all our gorgeous playful qualities. I know I did and I’m loving re-discovering my playful side, life feels so much easier when you can laugh at it.

     6. Give me this type of contagion any day – there is nothing like a good ole belly laugh to clear the way.

     7. and i have to say Sarah – your laughter is a great contagion!

     8. Great medicine indeed Sarah!

201. “The largest causes of death are largely preventable, by modifying our lifestyles.” These words need to be on the biggest billboard in every town in the world! And then the next step is to remind humanity that by changing the choices that they have made in the past to disregard and abuse their bodies, and to replace them with choices that respect and care for their bodies, the quality of their lives cannot but change, and then life will be for truly living, not just surviving.

     1. So true Ingrid, this should be our greatest advert ever, stuck to all the billboards all over the world so that we are all given the chance to make different choices about our health and how we live. The most simple shifts in the way we live, like going to bed early, can bring such awesome changes to how we feel, changes that are not necessarily dependent on material wealth or social circumstance. Life is for living, joyfully and harmoniously and we are the living proof that this is achievable, maintainable and forever evolving, a journey that once we embark upon we will never want to stop. It’s a journey that is available to all.

        1. Ingrid and Rowena, I love what you’ve offered here, that life is for living joyfully and harmoniously and many of us have forgotten that, and that we have choices to make, no matter what our circumstances, that can change our lives so we are more joyful and more harmonious. It’s simple, so simple it almost blows our minds and it doesn’t cost the earth either, it’s accessible to us all, so that billboard you talk of Ingrid is a great idea and I would add a line to it saying ‘we all can do this, we all have access to this, we can choose’. And this also highlights something very clearly for me, the responsibility we carry for everyone in ensuring that we live and show those choices we make which result in a more loving and joyful life, the easiest way for others to get they have a choice is to be shown, and the more people who begin to live this way, the more that can then live this way, if they choose.

     2. Ingrid, I love this line ‘then life will be for truly living, not just surviving’. Looking back at how I used to live my life and the way I live my life now I would have to say that before Universal Medicine ‘I was surviving’. I had lovely holidays, a beautiful house, my own business and a great social life but life felt hard, it felt like a continuous fight to get by. Now, I feel like I am only living a fraction of what I am capable of yet by many people’s standards my life would be considered ‘full’ and with that I feel far more energised, joyful and committed to life.

     3. Absolutely Ingrid. This should be plastered on every billboard in every town. The choice lies with each and every one of us in each and every moment. Regardless of our previous choices we can make a different choice in the next moment which can change our lives. Once we have made one loving choice it is then easier to make another loving and choice and then another.

202. Beautiful blog. It makes me realize how big of an impact we all have on each other.

     1. Yes, true, Eleonora, It emphases the awareness of us all being connected and influencing each other.

203. Most people know what affects their health in a negative way, yet they still choose it. How come we aren’t real about the absurdity of this fact? Why aren’t we talking about it everyday? It is time to change for we are all worth it.

     1. Great question Katinka, it is indeed absurd that we choose things that negatively impact our health and then we arrogantly expect the medical profession to fix us up. It’s odder when you think that if we treated our cars in the same way constantly going to the mechanics with bangs, dents and scrapes that we would stop and question (or have others ask us even), how exactly we are driving and that maybe we need to change it. Yet this is what we do with our bodies and we and those around us in most cases do not stop and ask us to truly consider how we live and that it might need to change.

        We very clearly understand cause and effect out in the world, but want to clearly ignore it when it comes to our bodies and worse we blame or berate our bodies when they do not ‘perform’ in the way we want them to. There is an arrogance in us that does not respect our bodies and is wilful to the point where we will abuse them until we can no longer get away with it because we are stopped by an illness or disease – right now I have to say thank God we do get ill, otherwise we would not stop our abuse at all, and that is absurd that we have to go that far before we will stop and truly see what we are doing to ourselves and our bodies.

        1. True Monica, we read about our health system cracking because of the enormous numbers of patients and we are all so very worried about it, we don’t read about the lack of responsibility many have towards their wellbeing and health.

     2. Yes, Katinka I agree it is absurd the way we avoid being honest about something that is so obviously the truth. We tip toe around the truth as we do not want to be exposed for having abused our health for so long, and yet once we let go of this deceit we can then ‘live in a way that offers harmony, love, stillness, truth and joy, for ourselves and for everyone we meet’. There’s no real contest unless we make it so!

        1. We have far forgotten how we can actually feel when we start to make real loving choices for ourselves. We need a new marker how our bodies can feel, to make a change. I was supported by receiving esoteric healing sessions as it gave me a beautiful marker of a body that was deeply relaxing and of a stillness that felt divine.

     3. This is a great question Katinka – “Why aren’t we talking about it everyday? ” It like the pink elephant in the room that no one is willing to fess up to and take responsibility for their part in their own health.

     4. Absolutely Katinka. We do know what is and is not supportive for ourselves yet often we choose differently. The more I choose what is true for me and my health the easier it becomes to continue to make these healthy and loving choices.

204. Thanks Anne and Paul for highlighting the true cause of disease and that it’s the way we choose to live and interact with one another as well as the type of relationship we have with ourselves.

     1. So true deborahmckay it is a choice. We choose in each and every moment how it is that we live and consequently what the reflection is that we offer to others.

205. Wow. You have said it exactly as it is. Thank you Anne Malatt and Paul Moses. Great work.

206. Thank you both so much for writing not one but two brilliant blogs that really bring home that fact that ‘nothing is nothing and everything is everything’ – that we are all inter-connected – that we are all a part of the whole – thereby everything that one part does affects every other part in the whole. It is only when we forget this that the false concept of separation slips in and causes all manner of ills and woes.

207. It is so true that our behaviours are contagious. When we are in our household and choose to sit on the couch for hours on end, it is very easy for those we live with to adopt the same behaviour as they see it as ok and ‘normal’. We can then avoid the reflection of those who choose not to do this if we do not wish to change. The truth is, we affect everyone by the choices we make. This responsibility is one that can be taken as a burden or one where we feel and know that we have the ability to spread love, joy, harmony and stillness like wildfire. We just need to choose these as the qualities we live by, and it allows others to do the same. One by one as we reflect this more to one another – the world can and will change.

     1. No wonder we tend to choose partners and friends that have ‘the same interest’, that way we get confirmed in what we like, be it good for us or not, and nobody rocks your boat. So very fortunately we can’t choose every person we meet in life and thus still have a lot of reflections that call us into responsibility and off the couch.

208. Perhaps the name of the disease ‘non-communicable’ is alerting us to the root cause. Perhaps we need to start communicating to each other how we truly feel and begin to support one another. Do we not learn from a young age just to say ‘good’ when someone asks us how we are, or how was school. Perhaps we have learnt to say ‘good’ because we can feel the person asking is just saying it out of politeness and not wanting the truth.

209. Is it possible that these NCDs are proof that everything is energy and everything is because of energy? Are these NCDs also proof that as a society we are aligning to the wrong energy?

210. Our lifestyle is infectious which ever way we choose to live it. This puts a whole new spin on responsibility.

211. I like your revelation of the fact that basically all diseases are contagious in a way. Because to become sick – as you say, we often repeat behaviours, which we have learned from our parents or other people, which are harming to our body. Just by repeating all the time the ill-behavioiurs, we spread out the wrong reflections to other people, we contribute to the illnesses and diseases in this world. And only when we expose these behaviours and take responsibiilty for our daily choices, we start to heal and become stronger and stronger.

212. This is great breakdown exposing what it means when we say that our lifestyle is killing us, not just food and exercise but all the choices we are making.

213. The force that comes with the lived patterns of our direct surrounding is very strong and we believe that we are choosing our own ways of being, but mostly we are not. We are just walking the path that has been walked in front of us throughout our childhood and teenage years and entering adulthood we make choices that are imprinted by it. To learn to truly choose from love and not from the learned social and family patterns has been a groundbreaking experience that Universal Medicine is offering to every single person in this world. How awesome is that!!

214. Beautifully shared Anne and Paul: “It is our choice – whether to live in a way that leads us to illness and disease, or to live in a way that offers harmony, love, stillness, truth and joy, for ourselves and for everyone we meet.”, absolutely agree it is our choice whether we live in a way that leads us to illness and disease. I have not only see my life change, but so many others who have decided to make more loving choices, the miracles that have been seen are amazing.

215. ‘communicable diseases’ – something that comes from the outside into the body that makes us ill ‘non-communicable diseases’ something that comes from within the body. But if we can bring to us the energy that then results in the body experiencing love and joy as well as misery and poor lifestyle behaviours then really, are any diseases communicable? If everything is energy then energy creates our situations where we find ourselves exposed to something that can infect our bodies. And if we are constantly making energetic choices that would mean we bring to us our illnesses and our healing. When communicable diseases crop up there is such a focus on fighting the enemy that is outside of us and how to remove it from our societies. But if we bring in everything through the energy we choose then removing the bacteria or means of travel (pests, bugs, hygiene) then we are only removing a part and not healing the whole.

216. I love it Anne and Paul, ‘It is our choice – whether to live in a way that leads us to illness and disease, or to live in a way that offers harmony, love, stillness, truth and joy, for ourselves and for everyone we meet’. So true, in each and every moment we have a choice and from that the rest takes care of itself. Do we choose love and all it entails, or do we choose misery and all that that brings?!

217. It makes sense to me more now than ever that we create our own environments of cultivating illness and disease, not only in our bodies but in our homes and our places of work. Let’s face it, if we are swimming around all day and every day in a pool of emotions ,we cannot help but affect each other – how can that be healthy.

     1. It’s not just our home environment, it’s also our work environment, this is a great point Julie, and how often do we bring our diseases from work into our home.

218. We are responsible for how we live and what we put out there for others to live in. We are also responsible for which ‘contagions’ we take on, or are open to. We can be reduced by emotions and feed that infection. Or accept that everyone carries the spark of stillness, joy, harmony, truth and love – and know it is always available to be confirmed and given more space.

219. Your blog can change the world Anne and Paul . . . I love what you have revealed as it gave me the possibility that I can change my illness and disease through changing my life style choices. I am not a victim anymore. For me this is the best prevention ever and it costs not a lot of money. I can confirm it as I have changed my life style choices and through that my beginning asthma went away – that is huge and powerful. We are therefore not victims because of our bad genes!

     1. Yes Ester we are indeed not victims of our bad genes and that is so powerful, that our choices can impact what we experience and indeed even if we do get any illness or disease those choices continue there and can support us to more gracefully be with and get all the support (medical and otherwise) we need for us in that time. It opens up a whole other world and shows how much we influence what we experience.

     2. ‘For me this is the best prevention ever and it costs not a lot of money.’ Very true Ester, if we all understood this and acted accordingly we would save billions.

220. I remember the feeling I had when I did things that were not good for my body – the reward was there right away, the payment far in the future. Since I didn’t feel good, what did the far future matter?

221. It’s pretty interesting that we invest so heavily in so many behaviours that are so bad for us. We mustn’t like ourselves much at all. We like drugs/alcohol/food/sex/TV/sports/hobbies/disease etc more than we like us and each other. It’s actually pretty sad when you put it that way.

     1. Is it possible that these things you mention Victoria are more of a need than a like? For the majority they are lost and confused and think the path of return is too hard and this saddens them so they turn to alcohol, drugs, TV, sports, food which can lead to disliking yourself and others.

222. We are only at the frontier of truly understanding human health – or rather, perhaps we are returning to a place where we are beginning to combine ancient understandings with modem medical knowledge. Articles such as this are truly at the cutting edge of where medicine will one day be.

     1. It is inspiring to see the potential laid before us when we marry ancient wisdom with modern medical knowledge. There is much to be learnt and lived.

223. Certainly our moods are infectious, yet through choosing joy over a mood state, as a more consistent quality of being connected and honouring a loving rhythm in our lives, then we offer ourselves the greatest form of immunity – certainly from others’ moods and imposing behaviours as our joy is much more powerful – but perhaps also from the illness and diseases that are indeed so avoidable. Let’s go further… perhaps in choosing this quality in our bodies we become walking, breathing ‘vaccinations’ for others. I offer connective tissue exercise and sometimes Esoteric Yoga in a school classroom, in which tables need to be repositioned after the session. Everyone in the class appreciates the energy in which we reset the classroom, for how the children will benefit later and another teacher has commented how ‘clear’ the room feels.

     1. Good call Simon. We can be living vaccinations or perhaps living remedies or medicine – good, universal medicine, a tonic for all!

     2. Hi Simon, I love what you’ve offered here, how we affect everything around us and if we choose joy over our moods how we can show others a ‘vaccination’ as such. I feel the whole ripple effect of this, and how simple it is and the deep responsibility we all share, that we can add to the prevailing moods and spread that contagion, or instead connect to us and choose the quality we want in our own bodies and be that in the world, thus offering another view and another way.

224. Anne and Paul, two things I didn’t know how truly preventable many of our current illnesses are – I’d heard it vaguely but seeing the stats here suggesting that up to 75% of heart disease for example and 40% of cancers are preventable is huge. And the idea that lifestyles are just as contagious and effectively the breeding ground for these diseases is massive – it’s a great way of looking at it and shows us all the power we truly have and that choices can make a big difference. If we focussed say on love instead as a way of living that would spread a whole different contagion!

225. “The largest causes of death are largely preventable, by modifying our lifestyles.” This is huge Anne and Paul, but I feel that most of humanity is not yet willing to see this as being true because it would mean taking responsibility for their own health and well being and this would mean changing a lot of things they are not ready to make. Many of the risk factors you mention are known to be harmful yet this is not enough to change our way of thinking.

     1. It seems we prefer the comfort of our indulgences over the responsibility of true heath and wellbeing. We are addicted to pleasure, thinking it is this that will make life as marvellous as we know it could be. Not so.

226. Thank you Anne & Paul – what you’ve written here makes such sense. Why do otherwise highly intelligent people choose to harm themselves, knowingly so.. ?! – These are the kind of questions we need to be willing to ask and honestly look deeper into in order to truly address ill-health and destructive lifestyle behaviours.

     1. A brilliant point of discussion. Why do so many intelligent people live so unintelligently? What is this thing we call intelligence?

227. I love this, another call to greater responsibility in our choices and expression.

228. I have to come up again with a Serbian saying: “With whom you are, so you are.” Does this not explain a lot how behavior and patterns and emotional conditions influence and infiltrate other persons?

229. I love the way you finish the blog Anne and Paul, actually I am very happy and eased! 🙂 Laughter, joy, stillness, harmony, truth and love – how can we forget about these? Best medicine ever. And speaking from experience.. even in the most sad and ill moments these can heal a lot.

     1. Beautifully said, Sonja. In moments when I have decided things are tough, simply feeling that fact that stillness is always my foundation is transformative.

230. Very real and beautiful writing, not just a one off article, but real matter, real stuff. I am fully agreeing with what you have shared Anne and Paul. What is so relevant is that not only is something contagious when it is seen or palpable from the outside (as seen by our eyes), but actually what is being lived (for short or long) and so our behavior in our life that causes disturbance to our balance of love and truth in life. Like you shared it is simply the way: either to life by discomfort(which is just with as little comfort as possible, not a wrong feeling in any way) and being honest about oneself and our living, or deny everything we are and choose that to comfort over us. To me this is well direct and clear that I can only choose to live from honesty and realness, simply because I have stopped and looked back at my life – it simply had not worked. Now it is over to me to choose love, harmony, stillness, joy and truth and have that a better say in my life; I choose it to be my leading way. Thank you Anne Malatt and Paul Moses.

231. Thanks for sharing the facts and figures and the different ways in which we can change a course that we may be heading to depending on how we are living.
     It gives us the choice to be a victim, blame it all on genetics or whatever ….. or we can take responsibility and look at our lifestyle and our choices…. where are they leading us too.

     1. As you say Rosie, it all comes back to choice. This brings to mind a quote from Shakespeare “To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
        The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
        Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
        And by opposing end them?….”

232. The largest causes of death are largely preventable, by modifying our lifestyles. We all know this, but many continue to live with blinkers on and hope that they won’t be affected.
     Thanks for your awesome blog.

     1. Yes, Rosie, that blinkered way that keeps responsibility at arms length until something knocks down the door.

233. Is it possible in a lot of cases we use genetics as an excuse to not take responsibility for our own health and the choices we have made, for how is it in some families that some are affected by the genetics of their parents and others aren’t? is it really just ‘bad luck’? Perhaps by choosing in following our parents or relatives ways of living and then using genetics to explain away these choices we are not really willing to take responsibility for our own way of living. Love the way this blog has concluded by showing there is a far more powerful way of living. A way that is full of joy, harmony, stillness, truth and love. Now these are choices worth making and they can also have a wonderful contagious effect on everyone and everything else too. Imagine if these choices were considered normal, instead of what we have today.

234. It’s very beautiful Anne and Paul how you show that this idea of ‘non-communicable’ diseases isn’t really true. What if more than any other factor the quality and way of life we choose is felt and impacts on everyone else too? If we consider this we may agree the biggest disease we suffer from is seeing ourselves as separate and independent of the rest of humanity.

     1. I really love considering the point you share Joseph, the fact that by considering ourselves as separate we are ignoring the truth of the fact we are all connected and by virtue ignoring the fact that all dis-ease and illness is actually communicable. The whole blog and comments confirm that life is to be lived with far more responsibility and love than is currently the case.

235. The more people have a certain disease at some point in their lives it becomes a so-called normal, so much so that we don´t even consider the possibility anymore that it is unnecessary and self-created; we simply live with it like we do with the weather – unless we meet someone who lives in a different way and with a different quality and state of being that inspires us to the possibility of self-responsibility.

     1. This is so true Alex a friend of mine was diagnosed with prostate cancer and when asked if he was worried about this he said “not really as everyone seems to have it”. Prostrate cancer in his eyes had become the ‘norm’.

        1. That’s actually quite scary to contemplate Kathleen – that we’re heading down the path of disease become normal because of the commonality of it.

        2. I remember writing an essay about ageing and the fact that we accept all sort of things as we get older that are not natural, simply statistically normal. Now we are putting cancer on the list of what happens when we age – surely this is way off track.

        3. Hi Matilda, The interesting thing is that aging has nothing to do with age and everything to do with how you live your life.

        4. In an interview, I just heard someone say these days (with a sense of irony) that if we lessen our hopes (expectations on life) we might be able to not be unhappy. I feel it is in the same line with managing life, illness and disease, i.e. the overwhelm we actually feel to cope with life as we are not aware of a true way of living, hence the importance to be shown another way that is the way.

     2. I agree, there are so many illnesses that we do not seem to bother about anymore as we see them as normal. It is almost as if we have pushed them off the illness chart and see them as normal human situations instead.

        1. We manage the overwhelm and fear in reaction to the increase of illness and disease that actually would make us shake, the same way clothing sizes have changed over the years to ignore the increasing rates of weight gain and obesity.

236. To me one of the most important messages you’re sharing with us here Anne and Paul is the fact that our bodies do actually communicate with us, constantly. Not in any way, shape or form in an imposing way. But rather waiting for us to connect. And what do so many of us do, fight our bodies as hard as we can by firstly closing down our hearts and secondly by using a million different vices, all with the one goal – to not feel our bodies… The vehicle that otherwise could be a loving vehicle that works together with us, is used as a trash bin. And even if what the body’s showing us is difficult to feel, that’s fine. There’s a lot of support. We don’t have to do it alone.

     1. Beautifully expressed Floris and as you so rightly say, “There’s a lot of support. We don’t have to do it alone.”

        1. The support is enormous, if we only but choose to feel the support that is around us. Unimposing, holding us, waiting for us to connect. My experience is that the support is very understanding and allowing. Not judgemental in any way.

        2. The fact that we think that we do it alone is quite arrogant and ignorant and yet it so easy to remain separate from all the support that is there for us all.

     2. It is indeed beautiful Floris how the body like the Soul is communicating to us, never imposing and allowing free will. And when we choose to listen and connect, the messages and support is endless.

        1. It’s beautiful Jenny how you confirm both the body and the Soul. By reading your comment I am more clear that it is about connecting to both body and Soul.

           What I can feel is how they’re actually constantly working together in union and if I pay just a little (or a lot) more attention to one of them, I’m actually creating gaps in the union. The whole is no longer whole anymore. By being aware of what union means – body and Soul working together – it is asking me to be with both. Which in fact also feels very natural. Thank you Jenny.

237. Thank you Anne and Paul for presenting that responsibility in how we are living is the root cause of not only our own dis-ease, tension and misery but it affects the well-being of those around us as well. We may be able to override and justify abusive behaviours towards ourselves, but we’ve got to wake up to the effects these behaviours are having on the world around us.

238. It takes two to tango and two for contagion. We are consistently in interaction with each other, reflecting our state of being and thus are either harming or healing. And in every moment we have the choice to take on the energy, emotion, way of thinking… that is presented to us, or not. Contagion is responsibility.

     1. The Contagion Tango – the dance of Responsibility – I love it Alex!

        1. I laughed so much at this metaphor, whilst feeling how it is a choice to absorb or observe without judgement.

239. Thank you Anne and Paul. I love what you’ve presented here – “Is it possible that we use these behaviours in a specific way to not feel particular emotions we don’t want to feel?” – it’s the only explanation for why we do what we do when we smoke, drink, overeat or eat foods that don’t support us in any way. Trying to stop these behaviours will never work, but stopping to feel the emotions, being honest and willing to feel what is behind them is the only way I know to change behaviours.

     1. This is gold Sandra “Trying to stop these behaviours will never work, but stopping to feel the emotions, being honest and willing to feel what is behind them is the only way I know to change behaviours.”

     2. Agreed Sandra, I substituted one behaviour for another, not realising that they all had exactly the same effect, which was to stop me from feeling my agitation (temporarily).

        1. Quitting smoking is a classic example. People attempt to give up but don’t address the underlying reason why they started in the first place, and then when the smoking stops, take up another behaviour or habit.

240. Thank you Anne and Paul for unravelling even further how much we have our life in our own hands even when it comes to illness and disease.

241. Thanks Anne and Paul for sharing with us the possibility that we are in charge of our own destiny and not left to the whims of illness and disease simply being ‘our lot in life’. What you pose here is the ultimate call for responsibility, to take our health into our own hands and not sit back and wait for it to happen.

     1. Exactly right Donna – we need to constantly remind ourselves to keep hold of the reins with both hands and an open heart.

     2. That is so true Donna and for me there is also an other point – if we would do it – being responsible for our health – we would lessen the costs for our health industry and that would be an extra benefit.

     3. What you say is massive Donna, that we have the power through our choices to determine our wellbeing, rather than being at the mercy of genes and “bad luck”.

242. ‘What if the way we are with each other and the way we live can be passed on just as easily as the bugs we sneeze onto other people when we are sick?’ This shows us the responsibility we have in the way we live our life. It is never just about one self, it is always about everybody.

     1. So true Esther, every thing we do, regardless of how small or private we regard these things to be, affects everyone. If we are still too arrogant to acknowledge this, just ponder on the impact a day off sick has on a family or team of people. Taking full responsibility for our lives includes ensuring we are fit for life, fit for work, fit to raise a family and fit to engage in the world. This does not just pertain to physical fitness, but to how fitting our lifestyle choices are that we make each day. Do they support our health, well being and social harmony or do they disrupt it? Every choice matters, right down to the little ones, it’s an enormous responsibility to own, but awesomely amazing when one does.

243. ‘But these are not natural behaviours – they are learned behaviours.’ Very true, we learn these behaviours and just because they feel so familiar it doesn’t mean that they are natural.

     1. And if the behaviours are learned it shows that each of us has a great responsibility, as the way each of us lives has an impact on not just the young, but also on one another. Are we ingraining behaviours that are neither loving nor harmonious, or are inspiring loving and harmonious choices in those around us?

     2. So true Esther and just because a lot of people binge drink, overeat, gamble etc., does not mean it is natural. Rather the opposite, perhaps it means that many are using the same ways to numb and avoid what they can’t cope with in life.

244. “If the major risk factors for non-communicable disease were eliminated, around 75% of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes would be prevented, and 40% of cancer cases would be prevented.” – this is staggering. It’s been said that Diabetes alone has the potential to cripple the UK NHS. And so if around 75% of cases are preventable, then that’s 75% of patients who don’t need to be in the medical system, therefore making space for the patients who do need medical care.

245. Thank you Anne and Paul. I love that you have taken it back to the fact that it is our choice to live in a way that causes a lot of disease and illness. This stops the blame game that is so prevalent in society today and asks us to take responsibility for our choices. If we have had a hand in creating it then we can have a hand in healing it.

     1. Lovingly said Elizabeth and “If we have had a hand in creating it then we can have a hand in healing it.” puts the power right back in our hands.

     2. Responsibility: powerfully and decisively ‘right back in our hands’. I find this really inspiring.

246. I love the new insight you both offer in terms of how we can view illnesses. Of course it makes complete sense that we largely adopt the lifestyle of our parents as adults, so if that lifestyle is one where self care is very low in the agenda then of course the likelihood of developing any illness and disease increases. To talk of cancer, diabetes etc as contagious really drives home the responsibility we have in taking care of ourselves and the impact it has on the next generation. What is really shocking though is the vast numbers who die every year unnecessarily because of lifestyle choices.

     1. Yes very true Michelle. But not only are irresponsible and non-loving choices ‘contagious’, but responsible choices can be passed on through generations too. The effect of having parents that are true role models would be huge.

247. What you write exposes language and how it can be used to hide truth. The term ‘non-communicable diseases’ suggests ill-ness and disease some how just happens, and has nothing to do with us, families or communities. Are we not all in some way responsible for the patterns and examples we reflect in the home, community, media, workplace that are then picked up and copied by others? We should take care in how we live and be aware of the contagion we are choosing to carry.

     1. I LOVE this comment Kehinde as it’s so true. Recently I was part of a group where two of the group members had to think of areas of their life where they don’t care whilst the others members were talking. This had a profound impact on the group as it felt fragmented. This stayed with me for ages after, leaving me with a headache and feelings of anxiety. Since then I notice that I am much more willing to not dwell in emotions as I’m aware of the impact on others.

        1. Beautiful Shevon, we are responsible not just for ourselves but for others too.

     2. Yes kehinde2012 I agree, and to take this even further it is a scientific fact that we are exchanging particles with everyone and everything around us all of time, so it is even more important that we are responsible holding steady the love in our body as Love is the dominant force that will prevent us from being contaminated by other ill energies and also is the energy I would want to be the contagion I am responsible for sharing with others!

        1. I agree Kathleen. All stems from how we are within our own body. ‘holding steady the love in our body’ is preventative medicine and a worthy contagion to share with others.

     3. It sure does Kehinde – there are countless examples of how our language has been bastardised precisely to do this very thing – to hide the truth.

248. There is a huge amount of precision needed to prefer taking on anger and sadness instead of being inspired by love and laughter. Have you ever experienced how hard it is not to laugh, when people around you are giggling and laughing? It’s impossible!! Yet we seem to have trained this for aeons, contaminating each other with dense emotions over and over again to prevent us from being joyful.

     1. Yikes that sounds pretty scary, ‘contaminating each other with dense emotions over and over again to prevent us from being joyful’ – I see your point Felix… it really has been like that.
        If we are able to influence each other in that way, then it means that we can also influence each other in the healthy way and this is one of main points this blog raises, that the way we each choose to be and live makes a huge difference to everyone else around us.

        1. That was my initial reaction as well Dean. I love how you bring to light “If we are able to influence each other in that way, then it means that we can also influence each other in the healthy way and this is one of the main points this blog raises, that the way we each choose to be and live makes a huge difference to everyone else around us”.

        2. Dean – we have a responsibility to be a reflection to everyone around us. But this extends to what we do and how we are behind closed doors. It is easy to look at someone and where they are at and know if they are truly healthy or not, and this reflection is based on their choices all the time. There is huge opportunity in bringing more love, joy and truth to how we are living, and as is shared here, I believe these qualities are what can heal us. That is medicine on a whole new level.

        3. Yes I love this Dean, the fact that we can choose to influence others in a positive way through our own positive choices is so powerful!

        4. That is a great point you make Hannah. The way we look in the world (not just physically but the vibe we put out) reveals everything about the way we live including what goes on behind closed doors, it’s always there for everyone to see because everyone is born with the innate ability to read each other.

     2. Yes felixschumacher8 the lengths we go to sabotage love and laughter is quite ridiculous when you come to think of it!

249. Anne and Paul an insightful perspective on contagion and health, that the way we live communicates harm or health and is infectious.

     1. Yes kehinde2012 it seems without a doubt we are either harming or healing.

        1. It just shows every choice is a moment were we can choose to harm or heal, evolve or delay.

        2. Yes Kathleen, there is no middle ground, no “almosts” or “just a little bit” – “without a doubt we are either harming or healing”.

250. This blog is brilliant! A great expose of how our lifestyle is a big factor in non-communicable diseases, and that we have a responsibility in the example we provide for others in our life. And great reminder that this does not just apply to harmful lifestyle choices, but we also have a supportive impact when we choose to live with love, truth, harmony, stillness and joy.

     1. Well said Golnaz, Anne and Paul bring a whole new awareness to what is ‘communicable’. The way we live perpetually communicates something to another person, we copy one another all the time. We can either inspire an open loving interaction or close each other down. Either way we communicate a lifestyle that heals or harms, a simple choice that has immense implications. We can if we choose to follow the example of a truly healthy loving lifestyle, radically reduce the numbers of ‘non-communicable’ diseases that affect so many.

     2. Spot on Golnaz – I totally agree with every word.

     3. That’s a great point Golnaz, we often focus more on the negative behaviours and the effects of the ill behaviour on us and others, but we rarely choose to acknowledge the impact loving, supportive choices can have on those around us.

     4. Absolutely Golnaz, every single one of our choices matters, for every part affects the whole.

        1. This is such a huge statement Hannah. Huge in that it reminds us of our responsibility and power all at the same time.

        2. Indeed Hannah, we don’t realise how everything we do affects the whole including our choices. It is crazy to think when everything is energy and therefore because of energy, that we can do things which do not affect others.

        3. Very true Jenny – it’s crazy indeed.

     5. Love this Golnaz, knowing that we all can, through our loving choices, impact positively on those around us is a gorgeous flip side to what is presented here. It shows the true responsibility we all equally share and what effect our choices can have, not only on ourselves but on those with whom we live.

251. Anne and Paul what you have shared about most of our behaviours being set up in the family home is so very true. It’s as if we imbibe behaviours from our families. How difficult would it be for a child not to get injected with emotions when they live with them? How difficult is it for a child not to learn negative behaviours from those around them? So, this said how difficult would it be for a child not to know love when they are surrounded by it?

     1. I’m with you on this Alexis. All children are automatically “programmed” by what they experience in their home, what goes on all around them, so if they can easily learn “negative behaviours”, it follows that it is just as easy for them to learn self loving and self nurturing behaviours, and it is the love that will resonate with them more strongly than anything else, as that is what they innately know.

252. Anne and Paul thank you for leaving us with such hope…………
     ‘But hang on! Laughter is also contagious. Joy is contagious. So is harmony. So is stillness. And truth. And love. And the power of these feelings is far stronger than the force of the emotions that can lead to dis-ease.’

253. “In Australia, chronic diseases are the leading cause of illness, disability and death, accounting for 90% of all deaths in 2011. Non-communicable diseases are largely preventable” What ! No seriously what ! Dear Lord what on earth are we doing to ourselves? How can anyone say that we’re having a good time! Seriously we have to start waking up because this now is a long, long way past ok.

254. What you both point out is so very valuable – the way we spread our irresponsible lifestyle choices far and wide is a kind of contagion, aided and abetted by that ubiquitous label ‘normal’ – but is normal actually natural?

     1. And looking at the results so far and the figures….. does normal actually work or do us any good?

255. I really enjoyed the possibilities you have raised Anne and Paul, especially that our mood or emotions we are in, have the ability to affect others. This invites a greater responsibility on our part to not numb our feelings and create emotions through our reactions to life.

     1. I agree Jenny. It also reminds us to stay aware of all that we are feeling going on around us in others, as emotions and moods can change in an instant.

256. “We have a responsibility for the choices we make, that affect the energy we are in, that then affects everyone, just as if we passed on an infectious disease.” Lifestyle choices we make on a day-to-day basis do affect those around us. Taking this on board really asks us to question the origins and development of many illnesses – and there would be a lot less inclination to label them as primarily ‘genetic’.

257. Stress can be contagious too – if one person in a workplace is stressing out, the others can follow suit, and that can lead to industrial accidents. Conversely, if one person is truly still, active, but with a stillness inside, the others can feel it and be calm too.

258. “We all know that these behaviours are harming us, so why do we do them, and then continue to repeat them, even when we can see and feel the consequences of these choices?” Good question. Is it possible that we just don’t care?

259. Love what you have expanded on here, we ought to be very shocked reading the statistics you have presented, remembering that those are not just random numbers but actual people, some of whom we know. Surely that must call us to a halt and make a choice to look at our own lives.

260. As this blog describes, everything we do has an affect on everyone around us. Both our disregarding and loving choices can be learnt or picked up from each other, as the energy of these choices goes way beyond the physical. This especially highlights the responsibility we have as parents to be loving examples for the next generation to be inspired by.

261. Anne the word that grabs me here is ‘responsibility’ – you make an amazing point about how our lifestyle can influence another’s. I read an article the other day that if a pregnant mother eats a lot of sugar for example during her pregnancy, then her child has a very high chance of having a sweet tooth, because that sugar would have been passed onto the baby during pregnancy.
     It makes sense to me that everyone is a reflection – and in that we have a responsibility to live lovingly and honouring our bodies. In that honouring we set an example and inspire those around us. I believe that habits are quickly picked up from family members, they are our closest reflection after all. But as you say, we also get the reflection of joy, laughter and love. So what do we want to be responsible for?

262. Anne and Paul you bring a whole new perspective upon the causes of illness that is so valid and needs to be disseminated as widely as possible.

263. I really enjoy the way you write, Anne and Paul. By bringing statistics and science together in a way that is so accessible for anyone to understand, and at the same time teaching us invaluable lessons for life.

264. I love this expose of how it is clearly our life style choices that are killing us more so than anything else. Isn’t crazy how we continue doing things which we know are harmful to our bodies? And the other great point that has been made in this blog is that we are not only harming ourselves by how we live, but others around us, which highlights the responsibility we carry to be true to ourselves so that other can learn to do the same.

265. If you search for “how your friends affect your health” “the conversation” you will come across research that if one of your best friends becomes obese, your own chance to be obese goes up by 60%. If they feel they are also your best friend, your chance of being obese almost triples, so, yes, many non-communicable ailments are clearly contagious.

266. The extent to which we have gone in harming ourselves and creating ways to kill ourselves simply through how we are choosing to live is shocking. It seems like a simple equation to present to someone: ‘if you do not want to die earlier than intended and in a painful and unpleasant way, then stop smoking, go for a walk and love yourself’. But clearly we resist such simplicity, and we have the rates of disease we do.
     To understand this state of affairs as a contagious state makes this much clearer to understand, and helps us to realise that in order to bring about the changes in our lives that we know we want to make, the contagion needs to be removed and replaced with one that supports us to be what we are and know we want to be.

267. Anne and Paul, this is great. Really great. Whilst I know most illness can be prevented when I read “Eliminating major risk factors could prevent most NCDs” it hits me again. We all know what we are doing, we know what makes us sick – yet we continue to do this. As you have shared however these lifestyle behaviours are learnt from others through observation first and foremost, therefore they actually are contagious.

268. Thank you Paul and Anne for this article, reading this is incredible, ‘If the major risk factors for non-communicable disease were eliminated, around 75% of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes would be prevented, and 40% of cancer cases would be prevented.’ Wow, and so we all have a choice, we are choosing to not care for ourselves, to allow ourselves to become ill because we do not want to deal with our hurts and so we continue with the drinking, the smoking, the overeating and inactivity, knowing that these can make us ill and kill us.

269. I love how you have the big turn around at the end and present all the great things that are also contagious like laughter and joy, things we don’t have to avoid like the plague.

270. “We have a responsibility for the choices we make, that affect the energy we are in, that then affects everyone, just as if we passed on an infectious disease.” Truly powerful words that leave us nowhere to go except to be honest in knowing that everything is a choice. Whether we are truly aware of it or not (or should I say choosing to not be aware of it) does not change the fact that we are ultimately responsible on every level for how we are right now in our life.

271. We are love but when we do not allow ourselves to express that which we already are, an aching grief is felt deep in our bodies. Seemingly bereft of love we gasp for air, filling our emptied lungs with nicotine, our stomachs with excess food, our bodies with poison. Bludgeoned in this way we cannot move…dulled and dense we reach for stimulants, entertainment, anything and everything that will distract us from this lesser way of living we have created for ourselves. But still love lives, a flame burning deep within, unable to be extinguished by the pollutants we have introduced into our bodies. At any given moment we can choose to reconnect to this love – OUR LOVE – and allow it to ignite true health and joy back into our bodies as our divine breath is restored and we can breathe once more. No radical moves need to be made, just a simple choice to express the love that we are in all that we do, bit by bit, choice by choice. Being love is easy, it is the surrender to it we find hard.

     1. “Being love is easy, it is the surrender to it we find hard”. Very wise words Liane, the surrendering to our own love and with this to true universal love.

     2. Yes Liane it is this simple and being love is easy because this is who we are. Why surrender is so difficult for most of us is because we have become so involved in the pursuit of filling up from the outside we have forgotten that the Love that we are is to be found within.

272. Thankyou Anne and Paul, I love what you are both presenting here. The crux of it being: ‘We have a responsibility for the choices we make, that affect the energy we are in, that then affects everyone, just as if we passed on an infectious disease.’ Therefore, do we pass on the germs of our misery or the alchemy of our joy? We are each responsible for our every expression, be it love or not. With this awareness comes great freedom, as we are able to choose more clearly and thus more wisely the quality of energy in which we, and others, stand.

     1. ‘Do we pass on the germs of our misery or the alchemy of our joy?’ Perfectly and aptly said, Liane. The right question to ask, bringing us straight into responsibility.

     2. Liane, you remind me on the fact, that nothing happens by accident, we are the creators of our own life and it is our choice, if our life is then joyful or full of misery, nobody to blame.

     3. Agree, very beautifully said, “the alchemy of our joy”…. why do we care so little to live it instead of all the misery we are creating on a daily basis? The Alchemy of joy is our natural expression, everything else just brings exhaustion from the forces we have to call in to create it.

273. It’s mind boggling reading how so many illnesses and diseases are preventable through life style choices… yet many of us use a diagnosis as an excuse or way out of caring for ourselves. Thank you Anne and Paul you have clearly shared how we affect each other in profound ways that is often not talked about.

     1. Indeed Aimee, perhaps when we get our diagnosis we have the choice to look at our lifestyle choices or unresolved emotional issues or continue to not care for ourselves in a wholistic way.

274. Thank you Anne and Paul, you make clear that there is a responsibility to take in human life in accepting our own responsibility in illness and disease and that in a way you can call it contagious when you copy life styles from other people, for instance your parents or the people you grow up with in your childhood.

275. “The largest causes of death are largely preventable, by modifying our lifestyles.” How true, Anne and Paul, it is therefore looking at the surface, seemingly unbelievable that people don’t just modify their lifestyle. But as you have shared, when a person has been brought up from young to live a certain way, as his/her parents lived their lives, it appears for many to be very hard to change their lifestyle. Yes, it does look as if it is a contagion taking place, we catch so many of our habits etc. from our parents. The parents are role models for many patterns that are picked up by their children. How important it is that parents are acting and living really responsibly themselves in their bringing up of their children, so they do not pass on unhealthy ways of living to their offspring. Responsibility is a very big word, but so very important in all ways in living our lives.

276. I am in love with this blog for what it means for people. What a treasure to have within one short article an understanding of why we smoke, drink, eat poorly and lead sedentary lives.

277. Oh wow, thank you Anne Malatt and Paul Moses for another revolutionising blog. This is looking at the high occurrence of lifestyle disease and not merely stating the lifestyle choices we know make a difference to disease rates but why we are not making these choices. Here we have a real and workable answer for anyone writing public health policies for disease prevention yet we are still looking for the drug that will cure obesity and diabetes.

278. Love the clarity in this piece, contagious lifestyles that duly affect all of life as we know it. Simple and obvious.

279. This is great Anne and Paul I have really enjoyed your two part series, thank you for sharing with us. What struck me reading your blog is that irresponsibility is contagious. There are many behaviours that I did not repeat that my family did as I did not agree with them, but I did repeat the one’s that suited me, the ones that allowed me to be irresponsible. Thank you again, I look forward to more.

     1. Great point Laura. Sometimes we observe another’s irresponsible behaviour, and instead of copying their actions word for word, we change them slightly to suit us; maybe indulge in a different distraction, or take a different drug. It is the irresponsibility that has been contagious and has spread.

280. Thank you Anne and Paul for sharing the Truth of how we do affect each other. More responsible living is definitely needed.

281. It is remarkable that although these non-communicable diseases are considered to be largely preventable through our lifestyle choices, many lack the commitment or are too set in their ways to make the necessary adjustments for the sake of their health… like they think they may get away with it, or possibly don’t even care… but yes what we are shown from young has a profound affect on what we later choose, taking the responsibility of how we live and what we reflect to others to a whole new level.

     1. Indeed Samantha, we have to become aware of our lifestyle and where we have developed it from. Does our lifestyle match our body and being or did we copy a lifestyle that actually does not fully support us but will lead us to illness and disease instead! We can make big changes by choosing a lifestyle that truly supports our health, and with that we also are a reflection for other people to support them in making the same choices for themselves too.

282. I am so grateful I have the awareness I have now thanks to Universal Medicine, for now I understand that although other behaviours can be contagious, it is still my choice to adopt them as my own.

283. This is brilliant Anne and Paul. It places so-called ‘hereditary’ diseases in a whole new light. Learned behaviours from our early role models that are hard to shake without dedication and commitment, plus the belief that there is an inevitability about having the same conditions as other family members, and you have the recipe for a self-fulfilling prophecy. This is then confirmed when the disease manifests so we are proved right and at this stage it is very hard to then accept that we are responsible for our own suffering by the way in which we have chosen to live. It’s easy to understand why this cycle has such a strong hold on our collective consciousness, and awesome when we can see it for the illusion it really is. The state of our health is in the choices we make.

     1. Exactly Lucy, breaking the illusion that diseases come through hereditary or are a matter of bad luck, but instead are a result of how we live our lives and from the choices that we make give us in return back the power of taking our own responsibility for our lives. The power that we have given away by choosing to not be responsible but and for a so called comfortable life.

     2. Well said Lucy, I agree, it’s like our irresponsibility aligns us to the consciousness that allows us to keep making irresponsible choices under the guise that we have no control or choice in it.

        1. Exactly Aimee!

284. The life style choices we make are definitively contagious. When my husband and I finally gave up having diary we continued to buy dairy products for our son, believing that he had to make his own choices so there was no pressure for him to stop having dairy. At that time he was having 6 litres of milk per week! We noticed that he was gradually having less milk over the following weeks and he was starting to notice the changes in his body. Three months later he was not having any milk. There was no coercion here but our choices gave him an opportunity to reflect and feel into his choices.
     Modelling healthy behaviours is so powerful and has the potential to instigate huge changes.

     1. That’s a fascinating example of choices being contagious and it strikes me that it is far more than just a lifestyle choice that supported your son and also the willingness of you and your husband to stop seeking milk for emotional comfort.

285. Very well said Marika, I certainly agree with you here. We are responsible for all our choices and the power is in our own hands.

286. I have come back to this blog again today as the impact of the contagious behaviours and choices has just become really clear, and I have joined a lot of the ‘ dots ‘ so to speak. I have a deeper understanding of the impact of ‘a choice’ in every moment and the responsibility I have to my body and the rest of humanity and the flow on effect to everything and everyone. To understand the Contagion and it’s insidious grip on us is a true freedom to then choose to listen to our body and not override our feelings.

287. Brilliant Anne and Paul, you have exposed so clearly the truth of the way we live and the fact that the choices we make impact all aspects of our lives. To consider the fact that so many diseases we now have are preventable is not surprising and the link between disease and lifestyle choices is huge. But the thing that absolutely got me was the responsibility we have not only to ourselves but to our families, that the choices we make daily have wide ranging impacts on the future generations and it is up to us each to consider the part we play.

288. Thank you Anne and Paul, another brilliant blog, I loved reading it. I feel so inspired to share this with everyone I know. This is so educational, inspiring, and deeply evolving. What you’ve shared is what most of us already feel and innately know but how you have expressed it inspires us to look deeper and really question some of our lifestyle choices and it reminds us that our health is up to us to look after and take responsibility for.

289. I have become more aware of my feelings in relation to my lifestyle choice and can definitely see that I drank alcohol as a way to numb my body and not feel the issues that were surfacing, and I used certain foods in the same way as a both a comfort and a way to alleviate emptiness. Exercise was something I went hard at and so it was also an escape but latterly if I don’t exercise gently as I can it is due to how much I know it will support me and enhance my well state, so in that there is also an element of self destruct. It really is fascinating to take our experiences and feelings and look deeply and honestly at what is going on, it amazes me how little we have been willing to do this as a human race and how this is the key to addressing the state of sickness that is building across the globe.

290. We talk about choices and the level of responsibility has been grounded for our deeper consideration, a new understanding for us to be aware of Anne and Paul and the purpose of Joy, Harmony, Stillness, Truth and Love in our lives.

291. I think the world is slowly waking up to the fact that our lifestyle choices are the main factors in whether we get a disease or not but these articles definitely take the whole subject a lot further, this really is ground breaking stuff.

     1. So true Kevin, this blog links our illness and disease to our lifestyle choices and how we can make such self-destructive behaviours as a way of coping with difficult feelings in life. Even better it offers us a way to live that is actually our natural way where we do not have live in reaction to life.

     2. So true Kevin, our lifestyle choices make us sick or we can use them to build a life full of harmony, love and joy. It is always our choice.

292. When we are young we learn so much from the world around us, and begin to pick up the behaviours and ways of being of our parents, siblings, extended family and friends etc. We’re born, joyful, intelligent, enormously loving and gorgeous and yet we seem to present that to the world only to find it isn’t really glorified or celebrated. The things that are glorified and celebrated are the things like, when we do our shoe laces up, when we go to the toilet. We eventually learn to do things that we get recognition for, and we become human doings not human beings. This change is the biggest disease in our body and causes all of the illness and disease that we have so far, our separation to our divineness, and always having an angst with it.

     When medicine is not separated from home life, family life, social life, philosophy etc then we can start to have a whole encompassing understanding of how our behaviour affects our health and why things are just so out of control!

     1. Great point – making medicine part of our home life by knowing that the way we live IS our medicine and our best medicine by far.

293. What you offer here is a choice to take responsibility – for our emotions, our reactions and our lifestyles. If we had chickenpox (for example), we would be very careful not to pass this on to other members of our family, our friends or our wider community. Do we take the same responsibility for our contagious emotions and lifestyles? Why not? Do we rather choose to ‘contagiously’ spread love, joy and harmony? Again, why not? I love these two blogs, thank you Anne & Paul.

294. With every move we make, with every thought we have we are communicating clearly our choices from our bodies. When we connect to this fact it allows us to be in full connection with the all as everything impacts everything. The commitment to being present in every moment is key, and if the choice is Love, Joy, Truth and Stillness the body would align to the Harmony.

     1. Beautiful Merrilee, this is the antidote and true medicine that would mean that we would not need to use those behaviours to numb ourselves from our negative feelings.

     2. I agree, being present in every moment is the key – very well said. When we are present, we don’t get easily affected by all the different diseases.

295. Thank you Anne and Paul. Clear as a bell when you put it like this! There is absolutely no hiding from the truth that we are naturally made to be harmonious and our amazing anatomy and physiology is a testament to this. When we allow ourselves to disconnect from our true nature, like water through a crack, in comes the emotions and separation from our harmony and absolute beauty – this in itself is disease as you both so beautifully share here.

296. It does change the whole picture if we view these diseases as contagious, as it makes us all responsible for the rise or fall of the number of people suffering with these diseases, whether we are one of them or not – simply because through our behaviour and the life style choices that we make we can be a guiding light, or not.

297. It really is so simple – our choices can be that of love or they are anything but, if we choose not to keep it simple we invite complication. You sum this up so beautifully Anne and Paul when you say ‘We have a responsibility for the choices we make, that affect the energy we are in, that then affects everyone, just as if we passed on an infectious disease.’

298. Another awesome question Anne and Paul, “What if the way we are with each other and the way we live can be passed on just as easily as the bugs we sneeze onto other people when we are sick?” – very true, it just takes longer to incubate and present itself! This means that to care for ourselves and build a living, harmonious, joyful relationship to life is to also contribute the health that other ‘catch from us’.

     1. This really brings in responsibility. If the way we live, lovingly or not, is contagious then living anything less than love is irresponsible! We may not carry symptoms of our unloving ways (ie. it may not be obvious to the outside world), but just like with disease, just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

        1. Agree Sandra, and how amazing when we witness unloving behaviour in ourselves or in others that we know this will lead to disease and so can make changes to prevent it.

     2. “…it just takes longer to incubate and present itself!” A seemingly trivial example is hearing some music while shopping, not even being fully aware of it, but hours or even days later we catch ourselves singing or humming the song especially when it is an ‘earworm’. Point is that it is not just a song but a package of energy that puts us into a mood, rhythm… that might not be in line with who we naturally are.

299. A great post Anne and Paul “It is our choice – whether to live in a way that leads us to illness and disease, or to live in a way that offers harmony, love, stillness, truth and joy, for ourselves and for everyone we meet.” I know which I choose….

300. “The largest causes of death are largely preventable, by modifying our lifestyles.
     Knowing this (and we do) why do we still choose to live in a certain way, especially a way that is known to cause illness and disease?
     Why do we choose to eat too much and to eat junk food, to smoke and drink, and lounge on the lounge watching TV? “ Great questions – and I for one know that I used to bury my feelings big time by indulging in some of these. Having made different choices for myself I am now aware that this is what I am doing – so have a choice. Before I wasn’t even aware that was what I was doing – and there was no (conscious ) choice to numb….

301. Oh yes, another awesome blog by Anne Malatt! And yes, joy is contagious, and so is love. If we make the choice to live from love, people can feel this. It takes one person, and the ripple effect takes care of itself. Everything is energy.

     1. Indeed those living in joy, harmony and stillness are inspiring and contagious. The quality of true love lived is an energy that is can have a ripple effort on many.

        1. We tend to forget our own ripple effect and therefor the impact we have on others. If we chose love, then our ripple effect is love. If we don’t chose love, then that is what we send out. It is like living in an ocean, what waves are we making….?

     2. And this reminds me, how much we are responsible for the quality of our reflections – do we reflect love or something, which we are not ?

302. So our choices could be considered contagious depending on what ideals and beliefs we are owned by. Such an interesting way to look at our current array of diseases that stem from our behaviours.

     1. Well said Jen, “our choices could be considered contagious”. In a world of energy this is the level of responsibility we have to learn that everything affects everything and that my choices have an impact on others.

     2. I like the way you state it: “…our choices could be considered contagious…” We definitely have a say in what we are contaminated with; it is not just happening, we align to it.

303. Anne and Paul, I eagerly await Contagion – Part 3- An expose on how Joy, harmony love, stillness and truth can be contracted and the subsequent health benefits.

304. In my experience I feel this is an awesomely accurate description of why we use alcohol..”it is a poison for our bodies that we use instead of truly dealing with how we feel.” I cannot wait to see this used in advertising campaigns to support people who seek to quit drinking alcohol.

305. I have never considered that non communicable diseases could be contagious but this blog allows me to feel the truth that this is indeed the case. Mind. Blown.

     1. I so agree Leonne this was the clincher in article for me, the level of the responsibility we all have is huge! How we live effects the all and through our choices we set an accepted norm for our children and future generations that then lays the foundation for their future health and well-being. Powerful stuff!

306. Wow, this is a great blog. Breaking it down simply how dis-ease is more than we currently accept and understand it to be.

307. Joy is contagious, as are our other true qualities. This reminded me of when I saw this guy at the market who was full of joy. He was lighting up his whole workplace. In that very moment I got to observe how contagious and how powerful our true qualities are when we let them out. Thank you Anne and Paul, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading these 2 blogs from you both.

     1. I have seen the same thing too Vicky and the opposite as well. What’s interesting with this is what we buy into, whether it’s deemed to be “good” or “bad”. What stands out for me here is how influenced we are by others, rather than just being ourselves.

308. What a grand choice – a no brainer…”It is our choice – whether to live in a way that leads us to illness and disease, or to live in a way that offers harmony, love, stillness, truth and joy, for ourselves and for everyone we meet”.

309. Hang on a minute alright! If love, laughter, joy, stillness, harmony and truth are contagious – then plague me!

     1. haha Marcia! Let’s all share that disease! It’s not disease at all but the way we naturally are! woohooo

     2. I love your playful comment Marcia, brilliant! We could certainly start spreading the love, joy, truth, stillness and harmony for sure.

310. Thank you Anne and Paul. This puts a whole new meaning to the words ‘are you contagious?’ The answer is ‘yes we all are.’

311. Love the contagiousness of family patterns. It is the way we live that affects people around us as we are a constant reflection for each other, specifically for children who walk literally in our footpath and are inspired to choose healthy or harming habits according to the way they are role modeled. Parenting is first and foremost responsibility and we cannot bring up healthy children in a world where unhealthy living has become the norm.

     1. ‘we cannot bring up healthy children in a world where unhealthy living has become the norm.’ I agree Rachel. Every one us of, parent or no, has a responsibility to reflect a health-full way of living to the children of this world (and everyone else for that matter).

312. Its crazy that the way we live, and in particular the top 4 (Tobacco use, alcohol, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity) cause so much death, so much disease… and consider the social costs to the NHS which is fast going bankrupt. Did you know that 8 out of the top 10 prescription drugs relate to these lifestyle illnesses? These top four are just basic building blocks in life, not complicated to explain, and we all know about them. Its just our individual and collective irresponsibility that allows this sorry state of affairs to continue.

313. To know that so much of the illness and disease we see today in the world is preventable, begs the question; why do we continue to live in a way that is harming to us? Where has common sense gone and why are we so scared of the words self responsibility.?
     As you say Marika: “The quality of our lives has always and will continue to be in our own hands”; let’s start to teach this to every child, and then watch the world change.

314. Another brilliant article, thank you. You bring energetic responsibility to a whole new level with this “We have a responsibility for the choices we make, that affect the energy we are in, that then affects everyone”.. The point is that I can choose what I let myself be contaminated by and also what and how I contaminate my surroundings. A great reminder to always discern my own level of awareness in ALL situations.

315. ‘It is our choice – whether to live in a way that leads us to illness and disease, or to live in a way that offers harmony, love, stillness, truth and joy, for ourselves and for everyone we meet.’ Thank you Anne and Paul for so clearly demonstrating that we all have a choice about the way we live and the impact that this has on everyone else. Here’s to choosing Love, Truth, Harmony, Stillness and Joy every day.

316. Beautiful Anne. The way that we live is learnt from those around us. Our lifestyle can kill us – or it can lead us to live in love and joy. How important then is it to choose who to spend time with? I know that when I am around people who choose to live with love, this is contagious.

317. Such a cracker of a blog, and so well written and explained and deeply supporting on so many levels for the important message it delivers; everything counts, every single one of our choices we have made our body feels, and there are consequences of how we ill treat our bodies which we know as illness and disease – which we have created ourselves. Truth delivered is always simple and clear and offers an opportunity to choose differently – ie truth can awaken us from the sleep we put ourselves in.

318. Thank you Anne and Paul, this is awesome. We need to understand that every single one of our choices is felt and/or observed by others in some way, therefore every single choice can influence another to do the same. Take drugs for example – as I’ve witnessed drug taking by a few can turn into drug taking en masse in a group of friends, creating a chain reaction that grows and grows as people are communicated to that the drug taking is normal and helps take the edge off life. All behaviours are communicable, and is time we began to take responsibility for the way we live and stop the chain from growing.

     1. Yes Susie, I got caught in a chain with alcohol, my parents were non drinkers and I got to my late teens without drinking then without considering the impact of my choice just fell in with my friends drinking, I fell into the illusion that it was what you did. I now realise how different life would have been if I had a clear understanding that I was making choices in every moment that would impact the rest of my life. Looking back that particular choice had massive implications, one being that I sold out to the illusions or contagions of life and it took many years before I came back to me.

319. “What if diseases that ‘run in the family’ (which we now call ‘genetic’) are just as contagious as the common cold?” This is such a powerful question to ask Anne and Paul, because it asks us to examine the impact of our everyday habits and the influence we have as roles models on our children as parents, teachers, siblings. Every choice we make in our daily lives ripples out and infects everyone around us, whether it be that contagious laughter, fuming anger or self harming cigarette, drink or sweet indulgence. Every thing sends a message, a message that says “I love myself” or a message that says “I hate myself”. When we truly choose to understand and accept responsibility for this, we empower ourselves to address the real causes of our ill health and dis-ease.

     1. Rowena that’s a pretty powerful statement…”Every choice we make in our daily lives ripples out and infects everyone around us” If we actually did consider this all the time, what a difference place our world would be.

     2. Thank you Rowenakstewart, this highlights how our choices not only affect us but it certainly affects everyone around us too.

320. I love the notion, or rather the FACT, that all the good stuff ie: laughter, joy, harmony, stillness, truth is all contagious. Let’s spread more of that around, I’ll be happy for someone to cough all of that over me.

321. Love it, laughter, joy harmony, stillness, truth and love is contagious.

     1. I love it too Kerstin…. be around small children and try and stay in a bad mood 🙂 it is practically impossible although we can be stubborn in our misery when we want to be.

322. ‘Is it possible that we use these behaviours in a specific way to not feel particular emotions we don’t want to feel?’ Definitely! I for one have absolutely chosen distractions such as food and TV to keep me from feeling whatever it is I needed to feel. I still do it today, but my awareness around why and when I do it is strengthening all the time.

     1. I agree too Elodie and the behaviours that I use can become quite sophisticated that I am unaware that I am in the midst of them. What’s interesting is that when I am making really great choices for myself, the less I use or rely on these behaviours and the less influenced I am by the behaviour of others.

323. Thank you Anne, it all comes down to a simple choice – so instead of cultivating and teaching each other the unhealthy ways to live, we should be living by example how to live a healthy life, and pass this way on through the generations. Quite simple really.

     1. It’s how babies learn everything, and does not change through our adult life… we are observing others all the time and we ‘learn’ acceptable behaviour, how to move, what to share all the time. The power of one’s reflection is immense.

324. This is a very revealing way of looking at contagion as lifestyles that we pass on to others that can be as damaging and life threatening as the plague. When there is an outbreak of disease we are quick to seek vaccination to protect against succumbing to the disease but when it is a disease caused by the way we live we tend to ignore the warning signs until it gives us a real fright or is too late. Choosing to take the medicine of love to take care of ourselves can inspire and infect others with the wisdom of self-care. As Serge Benhayon has presented, the way we live can be the best medicine.

325. This should be widespread, as it shows a completely different understanding of our ills. When honestly observing illness and dissease in families it is clear that the behaviour and lifestyle choices are definitely contagious. Energy is everything, and I feel I am only tipping the surface of understanding what is all happening around me, I can feel it but don’t always want to… The disease that offers is being felt.

326. It’s fascinating to contemplate that our non-communicable diseases might be anything but. I can see in my own family of origin a tendency to comfort with food and the complications that arise from that – and that can’t be explained by genetics as none of us are biologically related!

     1. For me, one of the clear family traits that we have all picked up on is to skirt around the truth. I can see in all of us an unwillingness to deal with what is really going on, and so a way of living or an abuse that we see in others is not pulled up early but allowed to go on for years… and that is where the real damage gets done.

        1. These traits can be energetic as much as physical – though in truth the physical ill-expressions are energetic in origin anyway. A really interesting example Simon and yes, so true that these ways of doing things are allowed to occur unchecked, becoming ingrained as behaviours and embedded in our bodies as dis-ease.

     2. Great point Victoria, as it shows also the comfort we have chosen by blaming it on the genes. Humanity is so captured in the stubbornness of not wanting to assume responsibility. Every single human being is capable of make loving choices every day, there is no gene that prevents us from choosing love. There might be a genetic precondition that makes it a bit more difficult, but the choice is always there.

        1. Super well-said. Yes, we need to stop blaming our genes, the microwaves, our phones… these things can have an impact but I’m willing to bet love can trump all.

327. Considering how much our held ideals and beliefs have an affect on our life choices, and how those ideals and beliefs can have a strong hold on us as a community on various scales, from a family unit to an entire generation – I agree with you that those life-style diseases can be very contagious – if we are not making a choice otherwise.

328. Truth, stillness, harmony, joy and love can be as easily chosen as disregard and misery. The life and state of health we would like to have are attainable through our choices, just as the state of health and the quality of life we often end up with are also a state of being that we have chosen for ourselves.

     1. Well said Kate, the misery we choose on a daily level is a choice. Yes there is a strong force that imposes on us constantly to be abusive with ourselves, but with simple self-care we can change our choices and assume responsibility for how we live. Love is a choice as well as misery.

329. Anne and Paul, I love the point you make here about the effect that our choices have on the people around us. When we choose a pattern for ourselves that is harmful and the genesis of a later experienced illness or disease, we are sending the message to the people around us that it is ok to make the same choices. We have a responsibility, not only to ourselves to make choices that are loving and true, but also to the people around us who are also looking for ways of responding to life. It is up to us whether we show them how to numb and shut down from life or how to deal with life and heal the hurts that get in the way of living our true selves in the world.

330. Dear Anne and Paul, in our families, cities, countries and cultures where our lifestyle is disconnection and non-communication, we are allowing the silent disease of not truly expressing and communicating to kill us. This is the anger of repressing what we really want to say, we bring this emotion into every room we enter and it is felt by everyone we meet, when we not exhausted we express this in niceness, which is even more poisonous. We already protect ourselves before meeting anyone, with the comfort of food, drink, technology, entertainment, work, materialism, niceties etc because it takes a lot of honesty to feel honesty, and we do not want to go there. The more recent “trend” especially with the younger generation is to physically not leave their homes and refuse responsibility and socialisation. This is the energy we have chosen to be bounded by, generations after generations in the every day environment we live in, grow up, raise our children, and indulge in complaining, blaming and criticizing in all the areas we have created from the irresponsibility of disconnection we live. None of this is natural. But, being honest is natural, looking into another’s eyes too, sharing smiles from the joy felt from our hearts, speaking up about what does not feel supportive, learning to be very gentle to ourselves feels like a wise and responsible place to start, and a different lifestyle and state of health in our world is absolutely possible!

331. How we are and what we choose also affects all those around us and this understanding does bring in a loving responsibility we equally hold to live in a way that does not ‘pollute’ our environment.

332. Love the questions you ask here Anne and Paul, it is great to stop and consider the ‘whys’ of our behaviours, and realise how significant our choices are and how they impact our health.

333. We talk about choices, but the level of responsibility has been grounded for our deeper consideration, a new understanding for us to be aware of Anne and Paul and the purpose of Joy, Harmony, Stillness, Truth and Love in our lives.

334. “And the power of these feelings is far stronger than the force of the emotions that can lead to dis-ease.” This is a power-full statement – to simply stop and make the choice to live in a harmonious and more loving way can have profound effects on ourselves and everyone around us. When we hold onto emotions they contain us, go nowhere and are very uncomfortable, and people tend to avoid us. When we make the choice to live in a more loving and harmonious way, there is a love, joy and spaciousness that feels absolutely gorgeous and limitless…and you become like a honeypot for bees – people feel pulled towards you – you are reflecting something they recognise is in them also (consciously or unconsciously).

335. A great blog exposing why we choose to do things that harm our body and life. The comment I hear most in response to people commenting about my healthy lifestyle choices is, ‘ahh you only live once, enjoy the bad things in moderation and you will be fine’. It is difficult at times to defend ones choices to be healthy without revealing that reincarnation comes into why I live the way I do. Many people are not open to this and often dismiss it. When humanity begins to be more open of the immutable fact that we do in fact reincarnate, and in the same energy that we left our last life in, we will begin to take more responsibility with our choices. Living with this knowing has helped support me that my choices in this life matter and they are in effect because of choices in my last life and will affect my next life.

     1. For me its the recycling of each and every day… if I eat or drink a certain way I know I’m going to feel less / worse the next day. On a small scale its as simple as that, and that can be seen over a longer term with reincarnation.

        1. Yep, good example. Each life is just a daily cycle writ large. We come back to do it again and again, history repeating.

     2. I had a comment recently “well you have to die of something”. Dying from a chronic disease is generally something that is long and protracted, which definitely does not have to be this way.

     3. What I am seeing of late is that people do know what is harming, for example, food choices or late nights watching TV etc. Yet we don’t decide to adjust our choices. Good point you are making here Tracey, if the truth of us coming back to do it all again, in the same energy we left in was widely accepted, then lifestyle choices and responsibility would have a greater sway than they do now.

        1. I always knew, deep down (and still do), whenever I was making choices that weren’t good ones. We all know, we just don’t want to hear it.

     4. Once you accept the common sense fact of reincarnation, it’s hard to believe there might have been a time when you thought there was another way… It makes 100% sense of so much and yes, makes responsibility the big ticket we all avoid. Though I’m wondering, in those countries where reincarnation is very much a part of life, does the responsibility aspect feature or is it downplayed and made all about reward? It would be interesting to hear from someone with such a background.

336. “It is our choice – whether to live in a way that leads us to illness and disease, or to live in a way that offers harmony, love, stillness, truth and joy, for ourselves and for everyone we meet.” It becomes a choice between indulging in self and the mess we have created, or choosing to live in a harmonious and loving way that offers so much more for everyone.

     1. Wonderful Paula that you have highlighted that it is a choice to wallow, or to settle, accept our lives as they are and begin to turn our life around with the support of lifestyle choices.

337. Fabulous blog Anne and Paul, calling us all to step up and be responsible for the way we choose to live and for our own health and well-being. “If we saw that chronic diseases may also be contagious, through passing on the way we live, we would see that how we live can make a difference to our own health, and to that of everyone around us.” How we choose to live is constantly there for all to see and feel, for in truth we cannot hide anything, because we feel everything within and around us, all of the time.

338. Anne and Paul, this is stunning! I absolutely love what you have presented here – especially at the end completely empowering us with the choice to live and spread the contagion of love, stillness, harmony and joy. Living in this way does bring with it the acknowledgement of absolute responsibility. Equally we have the opportunity to heal living with the above qualities, or harm living in any way that is not honouring of who we, and therefore all others are. Thank you once again – clearly a powerhouse writing (and living) team!

339. Lots here to consider Anne and Paul but it all makes sense to me. As a society we have become very irresponsible in terms of accountability for the state of our health. The major forms of health care have become very medicalised and/or profit driven and self responsibility has been largely missing. Yet there is so much we can do and even at the most basic levels, it would make a difference. One thing leads to another and as you have pointed out, it’s all quite contagious! Awesome, thank you!

     1. Love is contagious and the effects of love are truly the best form of daily medicine I would say yes to!

340. This blog brings a whole new meaning to the word contagious! I love it and have never thought of it myself. The reason I love it is the realisation of how much we are affected by the people’s behaviours around us. And of course if there’s no role model around that shows (some level of) harmony, stilness, joy and truth, where do you go. It’s like living in a cage being surrounded by all these contagious people. I can certainly tell for myself that the richness of having met myself in joy, harmony, truth and stilness is worth letting go of all the patterns and behaviours that are in the way of feeling this awesomeness. Of course, at first this isn’t easy… But luckily, we don’t have to do it alone… There’s enormous support in life. If only we are opening up and asking life in any way to support us.

     1. So very true Floris, there is enormous support in life and we are never alone, and if we feel alone, this is what we have created, for being alone is an illusion. How do we open up to all the support that is there for us is by self-supporting; thus when we truly start to nurture and nourish ourselves and our bodies, and take responsibility, this opens all heaven’s doors….

        1. Isn’t that amazing Jacqueline, that we’ve created being alone or any other emotion ourselves and that they feel very real, yet no truth at all. The illusion that you’re talking about is this, real but not True. There’s extraordinary support if only we want to listen AND be honest about what’s going on inside of us. Because, yes there’s amazing support, but in the end we’ve got the final choice, say ourselves in understanding, accepting, allowing and letting go of everything that doesn’t belong inside. This is a dear and wonder-ful process to me. It’s like getting to know myself every day a little more and more, while supporting and reflecting to others that there’s indeed a purpose to life and that we’re indeed awesome beings.

341. YES!!! Beautifully put Anne and Paul, love in all its attributes IS contagious, you have highlighted the responsibility and OPPORTUNITY we all have in each moment, thank you.

     1. Beauty fully said Tim, being LOVE in each and every moment, such a great opportunity and responsibility to ourselves and everyone around. Thank you Anne and Paul for this amazing blog.

     2. It definitely is Tim, I can feel your Joy and Love jumping at me from the screen.

     3. Responsibility and Opportunity – I love it Tim. Responsibility can often been seen as a burden, rather than the true joy and opportunity it is.

342. Is it possible that we resist the notion of contagion about non-communicable diseases because our current interpretation of the word ‘contagious’ has an element of speed about it – a ‘one sniff and it’s in’ mentality – whereas the development of heart disease, diabetes, cancer etc. is a contagion that occurs through a continued, steady momentum that builds up over time from our daily choices. If we were to widen the definition of ‘contagious’ then perhaps there’d be a wider acceptance of the self-contagion, the self-responsibility behind these illnesses and diseases.

     1. Yes, Cathy. We often forget about the latent period, and when the disease becomes activated, we act surprised, and the self-responsibility often gets left behind.

     2. Interesting point Cathy. Perhaps we conveniently choose to put the blinkers on so we can continue to live in a way that means we don’t have to change those familiar ingrained behaviours and choices. Strange that we choose to live this way with the resulting illness and disease, but self-responsibility means owning up to how we’ve been living and emerging from the comfort of ignorance. It’s a bit of an ouch!

     3. Absolutely Cathy we have chosen to focus on a narrow definition that appears to let us off the hook but we cannot escape the consequences of our choices and would do well to give it deeper consideration.

343. A very powerful message Anne and Paul and very simple. You expose the power we give to learned behaviours, even though we know them to be unhealthy choices. What if we gave the same amount of power to our inner knowing and followed the very real impulses that it offers and allow ourselves the grace to make adjustments in or living that supports our bodies and the way we live our lives. Maybe our health and wellbeing would improve and maybe we would have the energy to live joyful productive lives.

     1. Yes Leigh. There is something here about living what we feel is true from within and relegating all that has been lived, handed down or imposed on us from generations before us, society etc, as redundant. By doing this we are free to live the truth from within and we free up all those around us to be who they are, breaking the power of ‘contagion’.

        1. ch1956 this is so very true. Allowing ourselves the grace to explore our lives and to honestly look at the way we live does allow those around us to do the same.

344. So beautifully and simply written Anne and Paul in relation to contagious disease. Thank you. Currently I have a contagious playfullness.

     1. Well done Elizabeth…”And the power of these feelings is far stronger than the force of the emotions that can lead to dis-ease.” Keep on playing!

     2. Keep spreading that one Susan – I love it!

     3. I love your comment too Susan – your playfulness is very contagious, by goodness I just caught it.

345. Spot on Anne and Paul: “It is our choice – whether to live in a way that leads us to illness and disease, or to live in a way that offers harmony, love, stillness, truth and joy, for ourselves and for everyone we meet.” – We have a choice and herein lies our responsibility. If we are struggling with holding the right choice there is support we can seek, but in the end it does come down to our own choices – as they say: you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. We choose our life and the quality that we live it with.

     1. Beautifully said Henrietta, and yes, it all comes down to self responsibility and the choices we make; we can make irresponsible choices and make our selves sick, or we can make loving choices which will improve our well being and the quality of our life. It’s quite simple really, but sadly we as human beings seem to enjoy making things complicated and then lose ourselves in the complication.

        1. So true Ingrid – it is worth pondering on why it is that we so struggle to make the choices that we know are going to support us…Then again pondering on the ‘why’ can end up being a great distraction from the action itself….perhaps there is no need to ponder, perhaps it is only the time to act and make the choice that supports us so.

346. Another exposing article Anne and Paul, it just makes sense doesn’t it, so why are people still doing the same things that keep causing the same result? Not knowing any different, not being aware of their own power from within, not having a true purpose, not wanting to be different to the crowd and/or not using their common sense which is innate but rarely very common use of our true sense. Often change only happens when we are forced to change and still then we fight the cancer, illness and disease instead of seeing it as a blessing and healing and opportunity to have a new and different life.

     1. In this world we are not taught to know any different, human life has been taught to us as ‘Monkey see, Monkey do’ so to speak – we look outside of ourselves and then model our lifestyle to fit into our surroundings. We then don’t know any different like you say but what if even that was something brought in from the outside – this belief that we don’t know if we were cut off from everything in the world, our families, friends, job, our name, everything. Thanks to Universal Medicine providing a different picture of how to be in the world there is a place within us that we can model our lives on.

347. ‘So, if the way we live can lead to illness and disease, and these illnesses are largely due to our lifestyle and largely preventable, is it possible that these diseases are contagious too?’ The first of a list of questions presented in this blog that stopped me in my tracks – so powerful, empowering and a trigger for change. Thank you Anne and Paul – Awe inspiring. Love it all.

348. Very gorgeous, wise and simple offering Anne and Paul. I know which contagions I choose to be responsible for passing on and that is joy, harmony, stillness, truth and love. This awareness of our choices would support people to choose for themselves what they are really willing to be responsible for. If this understanding of what is truly contagious could make daily headlines in the media and be presented at schools for littlies from day one, humanity would start to reflect another way to each other.

349. It is true that patterns run in families – patterns of behaviour, eating, speaking and ways of being. I have seen two cousins who never met who had the same physiological make up (expected) and some very similar movements (unexpected), which must have been passed on through their common relatives. We all have different ways of handling situations, but I suspect there will be similarities handed down from mother to daughter, father to son based on levels of confidence and coping mechanisms. These behaviours can be learned because the parents act as role models.

     1. Behaviours can be learned but the human body shows us whether these behaviours are loving or not and soon the body displays illness and disease. I love that the body is the marker of all truth as we would never break free from the choices we felt were acceptable due to our upbringing.

350. Brilliant Anne, there is definitely something we are not communicating to ourselves about the intimate link between our health and the choices that we make. As you so clearly illustrated in Contagion Part 1 – over-riding our feelings is perhaps the greatest and most wide-spread disease humanity is contaminated with. How profound to bring illness back to the simplicity of how we act.

     1. Great way of expressing this Joseph “over-riding our feelings is perhaps the greatest and most wide-spread disease humanity is contaminated with”… On the other hand, if we all stopped over-riding our feelings and began listening to our bodies, it would have the broadest effect of changing the state of our health and well-being as a nation and reduce the impact on our current health care system in a way that no amount of money boosted into this system ever could.

        1. Yes I so agree Angela, the impact of stopping and listening to our bodies and seeing our lifestyle and choices in this way is huge!

        2. Agreed Angela the answer is oh so simple, yet not so easy to do. Many are not yet ready to be honest about the true state of their being and hence why the simple is currently dismissed as ridiculous.

     2. Wow Joseph, over-riding our feelings is the greatest disease there is – why is this not spread across every news stand. Perhaps the saying ignorance is bliss is apt here – to know this is to deal with our hurts and if not ready then ignorance is indeed bliss.

        1. I agree Laura I was once choosing ignorance. Once ignorance is chosen as illustrated in this blog and, I can write this from my experience, it in turns becomes arrogance after it is chosen for so long ..

     3. You cannot get more simple than that Joseph – “over-riding our feelings is perhaps the greatest and most wide-spread disease humanity is contaminated with”.

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