Staying Fit and Healthy as we Age by Maintaining a Healthy Mind [Interview][Transcript]
Guest: Dr. John Demartini
Presenter: Henry Acosta
Guest Bio: Dr Demartini is considered one of the world’s leading authorities on human behavior and personal development. He is the founder of the Demartini Institute, a private research and education organization with a curriculum of over 72 different courses covering multiple aspects of human development. Dr. Demartini’s knowledge is the culmination of over 41 years of cross-disciplinary research. He is the author of over 40 books and manuscripts such as the acclaimed ‘The Breakthrough Experience®’ which has been translated into over 29 languages.
Segment overview: In today’s Health Supplier Segment, we welcome Human Behavioral Specialist Dr. John Demartini here to talk about the demanding pressures of an ageist society and share some insightful steps to improve health while combat ageing.
Transcription
Health Professional Radio – Staying Fit and Healthy
Henry Acosta: I’m Henry Acosta and welcome to Health Professional Radio. We have Dr. John Demartini with us here in studio today, John is considers as one of the world’s leading authorities on human behavior and personal development. He created methodologies such as the Demartini Method and the Demartini Value. His work has been incorporated into human development industries all over the world. He is a human behavior expert and understand the demanding pressures of an aging society and shares some insightful step to improve health while combating aging. Today we’re here to talk about mind over body, how a healthy mind is the first step to building a healthy body. Hi John and welcome to the show, it’s great to have you with us today.
Dr. John Demartini: Well thank you for having me, yes.
H: And to get started can you tell us what inspired you to getting into this kind of work?
D: Well when I was a teenager I was living in Hawaii, I was a surfing buff and I ended up nearly dying and in recovery of that I ended up being led to a health food store. From there I was led to meeting Paul Bragg, Paul Bragg is an amazing gentleman who in his late 80s inspired me to do what I’m doing today. Hearing him speak about health and wellbeing and about living an inspired life definitely shifted my life when I was 17 – 18 years old and I just about 18 and that was the turning point so I’ve been focused on that topic on maximizing human awareness potential and physical and wellbeing for 44 years and have been teaching ever since.
H: And what are the steps that people need to take or the small steps to achieve a healthy mind?
H: Well I like to think of this of a healthy or well mind is one that’s balanced so mastering the art of perceiving your environment in a way that brings your mind into balance is one of the keys because each of us live by a set of priorities, a set of values in our life. Whenever we’re living within our highest values and we’re living authentically and congruently and we’re being inspired by our highest values we have more objective reason and less subjective bias in our perceptions which lead us to having more resilience and adaptability and more balance in our awareness and our actions this brings about wellness in a eustress which leads to wellness. When we’re living by lower values we’re because of the unfulfillment we tend to want to avoid pain and seek pleasure, avoid predator, seek prey kind of thinking, we’re going to distress and create illness. So anytime we can live by what is most meaningful, most productive, most inspiring, most priority in our life and we have more balance in our orientation we increase the probability of physiological homeostasis or wellness.
H: And why do you think having a healthy mind really helps you achieve a healthier body?
H: Well they’re inseparable. You cannot have a perception of your environment internally or externally without it affective physiology. Every perception is registered relative to a value system and is perceived as either supportive or challenging and if it’s supportive it activates the parasympathetic nervous system, if it’s challenging it represents or activates the sympathetic nervous system, these create epigenetic changes in the gene expression, physiological changes in vasculature to digestive system, immune responses etc. and so anytime we have a balanced mind we get a balanced physiology and that’s why it’s so important to learn how to see that no matter what happens in our life it’s helping us fulfill what’s most meaningful cause it increases the probability of having resilience, adaptability and more balance in our awareness.
H: And how powerful do you think is perception as a tool and what does it takes to achieve as the perception for someone who’s struggling with his health?
H: Well the quality of our life is based on the quality of questions we asked and no matter what the perception is if we asked a different set questions we can change the perception into opportunity. If somebody says ‘Why this terrible thing happened to me?’ that’s one outcome. If they go on and ask ‘How specifically is this event that I once thought was terrible and how it specifically served me and how is it helping me fulfill what’s meaningful to me?’ by asking that question you can actually neutralize, find the blessings in it, see the other side to it that your unconscious mind had deleted or overlooked and awaken inside you a more poised present which is more about wellness. So the quality of your life based on the quality of questions you ask, if you ask ‘How does whatever’s happened in my life? How is it helping me fulfill what’s most meaningful in my life?’ You have resilience and you no longer a victim of your history you become more of a master of your destiny.
H: And do you think that we can take charge of our own changes in perception and when do you think it’ll be required to get professional help already?
H: Well if we choose not to ask the questions and answer the questions and have our unconscious motive to hold onto the perceptions that we’re feeling that we’re hurt by or challenged by then you may need assistance to one assist you through that or to like ask you why would you want to take on to that. You must be getting hidden agendas and benefits out of it or secondary gains out of holding on to the illusion as I call it but if you don’t need that, if you just ask the question and answer the question, I’ve certainly think thousands of my students learn the questions to ask and do it on their own and re-empower their lives because it never what happens to us it’s what we decide to do with it – how we perceive it, what we do with it. William James said that the greatest discovery of this generation said people could alter their lives by altering perceptions and attitudes and mind. We can take anything and I get to see anything that our mortal body can experience that our so called mortal soul can’t love, we can take anything that happened to us and use it to our advantage and… is doing so and not letting the world on the outside dictate our destiny but our perceptions, our decisions and our actions on the inside which is what we consciously have control over.
H: And can you tell us a little about your audio presentation, the Mind Over Body one?
H: Well the Mind Over Body program or audio programs is a live presentation I did, it’s about 2 hours long in Johannesburg, South Africa to I don’t know maybe 4 – 5 hundred people and it is a live presentation on how psychology affects our physiology and the mechanism all the way down to the epigenetics of it. It’s very inspiring program and also it talks about how we can get addicted to delusions and how to break through addictions. So the program is also about how my various steps that I’ve developed to help people break through the illusions that lead to addictive behaviors so they’re not compulsive and impulsive and immediate gratifying… to basically long term visionaries that do something that contributes… into the planet, we’re here to do something amazing and we’re gonna do that by living congruently with what’s most valuable to us and to what’s serves the most people.
H: And what is your message for everyone out there listening right now that wants to make a change in their lives and have a positive turn?
H: Well the first thing I do is I tell people to go on my website, drdemartini.com there’s a complimentary free value determination process that people can benefit by going through it. It’s about a 30 minute exercise of asking 13 questions to help discern what truly is valuable to you, once you just go through that and discern that it’s then wise to prioritize your life and start filling your day with high priority actions that inspire you or otherwise your life will fill up with low priority distractions that don’t – one leads to wellness, one leads to illness. If you don’t take command of your life, nobody’s dedicated their life to your fulfillment but you and if you are not taking the time to fill your day, your week, your month, your year and your life with what is truly meaningful and inspiring and what’s priority and what produces and what serves you and others then you’re going to live a quiet life of desperation, not a life of inspiration. So it’s important to prioritize your life and live by highest priorities, if you don’t fill your day with challenges that inspire you it will keep filling you with challenges then don’t, if you don’t fill it with a higher priority actions and inspite you fill it up with distractions then don’t. So say ‘No’ to distractions, say ‘Yes’ to high priority actions and empower your life and have yourself go up and your wellness go up.
H: And for everyone out there interested in reaching out to you, what’s the best way to get in touch with you?
H: Well if they like to reach me the fastest way is simply go to my website, drdemartini.com, you can find me I’m pretty all over the website or all over the internet and just take advantage of the website and just…of radio, television, newspaper, magazines, educational materials, inspired writings, products and educational programs and there’s everything imaginable to educate people. So I would take advantage of that, a lot of it is complementary and it can serve people in almost any walk of life and so I would say that’s the best way to get a hold of what I’m doing but I just know that you want to give yourself permission to do some extraordinary in planet earth, you want to give yourself permission to be the most magnificent and authentic ‘you.’ So many people are comparing their lives to other people, living in the shadows of others instead of standing on the shoulders of giants and honoring their own magnificence by being congruent with who they truly are which is the magnificent ‘them’ and that increases the wellness factor, it increases the productivity factor, it increases the genius awakening factors. It just serves people and selves and others so prioritize your life and give yourself permission to be the magnificent ‘you.’
H: Well thank you for being on the show Dr. John, it was a pleasure having you here.
H: Well thank you for having me and I appreciate the opportunity to share.
H: Again you’re listening to Health Professional Radio. With us in studio today is Dr. John Demartini, founder of the Demartini Institute which has over 72 different courses on self-development, life mastery and leadership training. His knowledge and research has spread all over the world and has his books translated in over 29 languages not only that he has helped countless people develop into better version of themselves. If you’re listening to this or you want to listen to it again you can go on hpr.fm and you can find us on SoundCloud and iTunes.