Mind Over Matter: Ravinder Taylor's Journey to Self-Healing

What if the key to healing chronic illness lies not just in medicine, but in your mind? Ravinder Taylor's journey from debilitating rheumatoid arthritis to complete recovery challenges everything we think we know about healing and recovery.

After being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis shortly after her second son's birth, Ravinder found herself unable to perform basic tasks of motherhood—changing nappies, collapsing a pushchair, caring for her infant. The diagnosis threatened her independence and identity. While conventional medications helped, they weren't enough.

Drawing on her decades of research into how the mind works, Ravinder developed a revolutionary three-part approach to healing. First, she explored the radical concept of self-responsibility, asking "What if I'm doing this to myself?" Through deep introspection, she uncovered subconscious conflicts potentially triggering her physical symptoms. Second, she systematically reprogrammed her mind using subliminal affirmations developed by her husband Eldon Taylor, playing them nightly for 15 months. Finally, she incorporated a targeted supplement that, combined with her mental work, allowed her to gradually stop medications completely.

Twenty-five years later, Ravinder remains symptom-free—living proof of the mind's extraordinary healing capabilities. During our conversation, she shares profound insights about how our subconscious programming influences everything from health to relationships, and why true mindfulness isn't just about awareness but questioning our own thoughts and assumptions.

This episode explores how the stories we tell ourselves reflect our deepest beliefs, why negative experiences outweigh positive ones, and most importantly, how we can take control of our mental programming to transform any aspect of our lives. As Ravinder so powerfully states, "Life doesn't happen to you—at any point, you can choose to do it differently."

Discover these transformative principles in Ravinder's book "Mind Training: The Science of Self-Empowerment," available at all major bookstores.

Ravinder Taylor

https://ravindertaylor.com

Mind Training: The Science of Self-Empowerment by Ravinder Taylor and Eldon Taylor

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My new novel The Red Magus has recently been published in conjunction with the Unbound Press.  An entralling mystical adventure set across time and space, where past and current lives converge.  Find it on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome and Introduction
• 5:56 Ravinda's RA Diagnosis Story
• 11:09 Three Elements of Healing
• 19:01 InnerTalk Subliminal Programs
• 24:17 Mental Storylines and Negativity Bias
• 32:13 Subconscious Mind and Public Speaking
• 38:54 Mindfulness and Choosing Your Path

Transcript

Speaker 1: 2:30

so welcome everybody to another episode of balm to the soul, and we have a new guest um today and her name is ravinda taylor. So welcome, ravinda. Thank you so much for coming on to the podcast thank you so much for having me on, natasha.

Speaker 2: 2:44

It's a pleasure to be here I'm looking forward to our conversation.

Speaker 1: 2:49

So ravinda is an author and a mind training coach and you have a book out called Mind Training the Science of Self-Empowerment so interesting. But I think we're going to start. You're going to talk to us about how your own journey with healing, your own story of healing, because I always find these stories so fascinating you're talking about my rheumatoid arthritis yes yeah, that came, you know, quite a way into into my, my whole journey, learning about the power of the mind and the practical aspects.

Speaker 2: 3:28

So it didn't start with that. It was more a case of I have spent the last 30 plus years researching how the mind works, what makes us tick, how it gets programmed, but my perspective is always really practical. No, I'm not fascinated just because of the theoretical. I want to know how we can use the information. So I have learned lots of tools and techniques and practices. And then when my second son was born, I was diagnosed with RA not long after that and it was not pretty.

Speaker 2: 4:11

I'm a very independent kind of person. I just had a baby that my son was three months old and I was having problems changing his diaper because I couldn't hold his legs up with my left arm, my left hand, because my shoulder wouldn't work properly so I couldn't put the diaper in, and there were things like that that are just traumatic for a new mom. There was once I was at the mall and it was a windy, blustery day, so I had a friend take care of the kids while I went to get the car and I took the stroller out to the car and I couldn't collapse it down to put it in the trunk of the car because I mean I could do either side with both hands. I could not do both handles at one go because it was, it was difficult, it was traumatic. I was determined to do something about it. I go the traditional way, first of all. Yeah, I like to know what the what the problem is, and the doctors have all the experience. I want to know exactly and I want the quick solution. So they put me on meds and that was okay. But I've always believed in the mind's ability to heal. Or rather, I've had so many experiences, so many stories I've heard about the mind's ability to heal, or rather, I've had so many experiences, so many stories I've heard about the mind's ability to heal, so I tried to come off the meds. Just cold turkey, that didn't work. Willpower didn't work. I tried it, tried it totally. But then I brought in everything that I have been taught, everything I have learned about what creates sickness. There is this idea. So there were kind of three elements to my healing journey. One has to do with self-responsibility.

Speaker 2: 6:09

I'm a big teacher of self-responsibility and I don't want anyone to take that the wrong way. It's not that you're responsible if you're a victim of an attack. That's not. That's not what I'm saying, whatsoever. I don't want it misconstrued that way. But when you have things happen to you, you can put the blame on something else. It was circumstances, they did it, this person did it, somebody else's fault. When the fault is out there somewhere, there's nothing you can do about it. You can't change somebody else. No, but if you take responsibility, if you explore the idea of what if? I'm doing this to myself, just what if? And there is lots of evidence out there that shows lots of illnesses are caused by yourself, by your beliefs. So I went down that approach. Why would I do this to myself? What benefit do I get out of it? I did a great deal of soul searching and the beautiful part of this, natasha, is you don't have to share the information with anyone else.

Speaker 1: 7:21

No.

Speaker 2: 7:22

No. When you start exploring your subconscious mind, when you question it, you will get the answers, but you'll get lots of garbage that comes up as well and lots of crazy possible solutions. So you have to stop and think about them. You have you. You get the feeling. There is a feeling that comes along when you say I've hit the hit on the right one here yeah I've got feeling, yeah, hit on the right answer.

Speaker 2: 7:52

It can be profound, in this instance. It was part of my journey, but a great deal of what I teach is about eliminating self-destructive behaviours, and in those kinds of instances, when you hit on what the cause of the problem is, what the root cause is, it can disappear right away. Your subconscious mind doesn't want to hurt you. It wants to protect you yeah, very so. It wants to protect you from future hurts. It doesn't want you to go through those things again, or it wants you to learn from something. So what was it that I had to learn? I don't know the answer for sure, but one of the things that I came up with that felt the most real to me was I had an older son, was pregnant with my second child. I wanted a daughter. The pregnancy was totally different. You know how they talk about if you carry the child high, it means it's a boy or it's a girl. You know they have all of these things that they say. Well, the pregnancy was totally different to my first pregnancy. I mean, it was night and day different. So I was convinced it was a girl. This girl was alive in my head. I would talk to my unborn child and it was a girl. And then, you know, I give birth and it's a boy.

Speaker 2: 9:20

There was that split second of surprise. But then the oxytocin kicks in. We'd already chosen a possible name for our second if it was a boy. So I said welcome William. You know I was mama bear. I would have killed anybody who tried to take my child away. You know that maternal instinct was incredibly strong. But this baby girl was alive in my head. So was I betraying her by loving my son? Was I betraying my son by even thinking about her Conflict? As I said, I don't know if that really was the trigger for everything, but that was one of the things I came across. So that was one part of the equation.

Speaker 1: 10:17

Right.

Speaker 2: 10:18

The other thing that I did is you know, I do know that the mind has the ability to heal. There's so much evidence. You look at the placebo response. The mind has the ability to heal you. It has the ability to hurt you. It has the ability to heal you. It has the ability to hurt you. It has the ability to bring you success. It has the ability to crush all of your dreams. Everything is right there in the subconscious mind. So I wanted to program my mind to allow healing. I wanted to instill that belief that I could heal myself just so deeply that it became undeniable. One of the things that we do. My husband is Eldon Taylor. He is the creator of the Inner Talk, subliminal programs. Right, yeah, and with positive affirmations to yourself. You don't get rid of that. That century that blocks this information, that argues back.

Speaker 1: 11:40

No.

Speaker 2: 11:41

With the InnerTalk subliminal programs. They are the only such programs on the market that have been researched by independent universities and institutions and been demonstrated effective at priming your self-talk. You know, we chat away to ourselves constantly. That chatter is a reflection of our deeper inner beliefs. So that's how inner talk works. They're subliminal programs. You don't hear them consciously, but just like if you're in a party and there's lots of conversations going on, but then someone across the room mentions your name and your ears prick up. You were oblivious to the conversation, but then you know a part of your mind is attending to it. Well, that's kind of how subliminal works. So it bypasses the conscious century because you're not hearing it consciously. Instead, it's like um, have you ever been somewhere? Um, like in a store or something, and you start humming a song to yourself, only to realize that song is what's playing in the music system in the background. Yeah, yes, you just start repeating it to yourself. So with the inner talk subliminal affirmations, you have all of these positive affirmations that say my body's perfect, my body can heal itself, all of these kinds of things, and they're going in and there is no century to protect against it. There isn't any century that says no, I'm not, I'm, I'm really weak. I catch every cold that comes along. You know it's, it's not there, it goes all the way in. So I worked with the accelerated healing and well-being program. I played, played it every night, all night for 15 months. So that was the second part of the equation. The third part was you know, I was, I'm open to alternative medicine, alternative treatments. Doctors don't have all the answers. They can be too clinical. So I paid attention to what was out there. There can be lots of hocus, pocus things out there. So I was very discerning. I did my research, but then I came across a supplement, cmo. You can buy CMO from Amazon today, but at the time it wasn't freely available. The person who had discovered CMO, dr Sands out of San Diego in California. He was alive still and I heard some great testimonials. There were people there were, I think it was something like 90% of the people get 80% better. I mean they had really high numbers of and there were lots of people that were reporting being cured by it. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 14:36

So then I contacted Dr Sam's office, made sure there was no contraindications with nursing my son at the time, got all that figured out, went on this supplement course. So I stopped, stopped my meds which I had tried to stop before only to have really ugly flare-ups. It's horrible when your fingers get stuck in the wrong direction. You know you can't pick something up or you get these lumps and bumps that appear. It's very disgusting. So I had tried to go cold turkey, as I said, but I came off my supplements. I mean, I came off my meds and started the supplements. It was two pills twice a day for two weeks. Didn't have any problems. Everything looked good. A week after the pain in one shoulder came back. I took my meds morning, night and morning. Everything was fine. Following week the pain came back. I took my meds twice. Following week the pain med came back. I took the meds once I've not taken any meds. I've not had any RA symptoms for 25 years now.

Speaker 1: 15:46

Wow.

Speaker 2: 15:49

And I think it's a combination of all of it yeah oh, I did the the subconscious work that dealt with the cause of the issue. I programmed my mind to say that it could heal itself, but I needed a placebo to push me over. Push me over into the real healing. You know, as I said, you can buy CMO. People aren't reporting being cured of RA today. You know, I know people who are on CMO long term and it helps them, but they're not cured of it. No, but it was enough of a trigger for me to fully engage my own healing abilities and to recover from this. Um, yeah, this, this conflict yeah, that's so interesting.

Speaker 1: 16:43

I think that that's really sensible approach because I really feel like any healing, you know it's very layered, so you sort of have to address sort of 360 to get that real holistic approach or that real overview of it.

Speaker 1: 17:02

So I think that that is the real key. But one thing you said you said when you were telling us about that, which I found so fascinating is you know, your self-talk reflects your innermost feelings and that's really I find that really interesting because you know that's something that anybody can just stop and think hold on a second, why do I constantly have that real or that story going into my head and what's that saying about a belief that I hold on to? It's actually a really easy way, if you like, to sort of start digging and think hold on, what's that scenario about? Because you can find I don't know about you, I I'm sure everybody does it but I go off on a storyline and then I think what am I talking about? This is all rubbish, I'm just making this up. So actually, if you have some that information, that actually that's reflecting your innermost feeling it's desires.

Speaker 2: 18:08

So you talk about storyline and I've been thinking about these storylines. You know there's different kinds. We chatter to ourselves all the time. Sometimes that chatter is just about the immediate. So if you're having a bad day at work, that chatter is I'm fed up, I can't wait to go home, everyone hates me, I suck at this, I, you know that kind of stuff. So the inner talk programs I was talking to you about, we have a program that is up from depression and I call that my being cheerful program. So if I'm feeling blue, if I'm feeling down and that chatter is going off, that life sucks and then I die. I wish I could die sooner. Then I can put on the Up From Depression program because it replaces that chatter that says I hate my life with, I love life, I love living, things are good. And when that is your chatter, you can't be depressed at the same time.

Speaker 2: 19:04

No, but the storylines you were talking about, that's something else that we do. We create these stories and I think that's often a way for us to practice what we would do in certain situations. It can be a way to make ourselves feel better, feel more important, if your storyline has you being the hero has you rescuing somebody? You know that up your your sense of self-worth because you think maybe if that really happened, that that is how you would behave in an emergency. We have lots of these storylines and I think they are. They are practicing what we would do. They're exploring how our mind reacts to these different scenarios. So those stories there's nothing wrong with that. That's a very healthy way. You know, lots of people can have storylines that can be pretty dark, yeah, and then there can be a sense of guilt. How could I possibly think such thing?

Speaker 1: 20:12

just rest assured, everybody does but just to flip that though, to see that that's a reflection of something it's actually very useful, I think that's really it's a reflection, not that.

Speaker 2: 20:25

So if you're having a dark storyline, it's not a reflection that says, um, this is what I would do. I would really kill somebody. No, it's a reflection of your, your desire and how you feel about it. You're testing it out to see how you you feel about it and oftentimes, when we have those, those dark storylines, we can feel ashamed. Yeah, yeah, and that shame is the reflection of your inner belief, because you know it to be wrong. You know that's not who you want to be. So that deep inner belief says I'm not choosing that. Yeah, I refuse to choose that. So that that isn't isn't, you know, isn't so bad. You know that's okay.

Speaker 2: 21:15

But your subconscious mind is a repository of all of your experiences and we have a negativity bias as well, which makes perfect sense from an evolutionary perspective. If you weren't suspicious of that rustle in the grass, then that snake can come bite you and kill you. So you have to be more alert to the negative, and that's one of the ideas behind our negativity bias. But it means those things get stored more strongly. Yes, so if your partner tells you 10 good things about yourself and then one bad thing, you're going to fixate on that bad thing.

Speaker 1: 22:00

Yes, that's true, isn't it?

Speaker 2: 22:02

And it's because it's critical. You know in that instance that if your partner thinks something is significant enough that they're going to bring it to your attention, then, oh my God, this could be a whole lot bigger. This could damage my relationship. You want to pay attention to that when looking at the negativity bias. There's some research that has been done. Like John Gottman out of UW Lassada, and Heafy did research with business business teams. Gotman did it with relationships. Gotman said that he could predict the health of a relationship just by watching the two partners interacting in how they speak to themselves. And what he also discovered and they discovered with the business teams as well is that it takes five positive things to counter out a negative. Now, that's not going to be a hard and fast number. You know they were looking at relationships. So if your partner upsets you, they can't just apologize to you and everything is fine. You know they have to show that they're sorry. They have to do something. There has to be five acts of love to counteract the one negative Right. And so all of these things get buried in our subconscious mind that negative things have a great deal more power. And so we've also discovered there's research done Benjamin Libet in the 80s, john Dylan Hayes continued it. It's actually, but they all showed that there is activity in the subconscious mind before you make a choice. So a technician looking at the equipment, you know in these kinds of experiments they were very simple experiments Like do you press something with your right hand or your left hand and you have to tell them at what point you make the choice. But a technician can look at that and they can predict what you're going to choose up to seven seconds earlier. Wow, because they're looking at the activity in the subconscious mind, that readiness, potential fire. So if the choices are being made by your subconscious mind, then that is where we can have power, because if we learn how the information gets into the subconscious mind, if we learn how to program the subconscious mind for ourselves, then that's how we can change that programming. Otherwise, you're being governed by past experiences.

Speaker 2: 24:50

So for me, I used to have this huge phobia about public speaking. I was dreadful. There was a time there was no way I would do this interview, even though it's just you and I chatting. I would have been absolutely petrified. I refused for decades, absolutely refused. But as I was doing some of these work and, as I said, the more you question your subconscious mind, the more you trust it will give you the answer, the more answers will come up.

Speaker 2: 25:19

And I had this recollection of an event in school. It was a production that our class was putting on. I would have been around eight or nine, something like that, and one of the people wasn't there. So I had to do a double roll. So one of my rolls was I had to hit these two coconut shells together to have the sound of horse hooves, and then I had to do this narration. So where the production's going on, I do the horse hooves and then I have to quickly put the coconut shells down to pick up the paper so that I can narrate the next part. And I must have looked a bit clumsy because the audience laughed at it Right Now. This was something I had totally forgotten about until I started talking about it, and then it was like oh, the audience wasn't being mean, no, but they found it amusing and I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed on a subconscious level, deep down inside. You know. Sometimes you can tell yourself everything is fine, but it doesn't change the pain that's inside.

Speaker 1: 27:26

No.

Speaker 2: 27:29

The pain, the confusion, the shame, that all of those things, they can still be there. You can tell yourself, everyone does bad things at some point, but it doesn't take that away. So in my instance, I felt that embarrassment and my subconscious mind says you know, ching, ching, that's it.

Speaker 2: 27:47

Don't do that one again, don't do any public speaking, because you'll be embarrassed yeah so there's why you know, and every time I would tell myself I can't, when you tell yourself you can't do something, you're gonna put a cap on your ability. When you tell yourself I always choose the wrong partner, you're going to block yourself from seeing the right potential partner. So when you say that you can't, you will never try your best to achieve it. You have to get rid of those beliefs. You have to believe in yourself.

Speaker 1: 28:30

So do you need to get rid of the beliefs by putting in good beliefs, or do you actually need to sort of do some digging and look around those and have a good understanding of where they come from before you can start reprogramming?

Speaker 2: 28:47

it depends. It depends on the kind of situation there are. I often talk about. You know, you can either look backwards to find your solution or you can look forwards and just create new solutions. So I use the inner talk, subliminal programs, a lot. There are lots of beliefs, there's lots of garbage in our subconscious mind, and that doesn't take digging around. They're just old habits, they're things that don't matter. You know this event with for me, in this production, it was old, it was past, it didn't mean, and I can look back on it now and say they weren't laughing at me, they were laughing with me, that they weren't being mean, and I can see that now. Yeah, and so for me, when it comes to public speaking, my approach was looking forward.

Speaker 2: 29:40

I will play programs do to do with. I'm a communicator, I like communicating, I enjoy sharing, I love I like communicating, I enjoy sharing, I love sharing information. These days, natasha, I do, and that is a result of all of these programs I have played that have supported that kind of idea. But there are times you have to look backwards. One of the things I cover in mind training. I talk about Erickson's eight stages of development, and I found this really helpful for me because he actually outlines the different ages and the things that you are supposed to learn at those ages. Now he assigned virtues to them and I don't like virtues. That's a bit sanctimonious to me. But when you look at the different ages and you see the kinds of things that you're supposed to learn and the effect that that could have as you're going forward, it can be a good way to think about it. So an example is they looked at the bonding between an infant and the primary caregiver and so they were looking at the child from birth to one and a half and they were assessing the bonding and looking at that bonding they could tell you how many friends that child would have in high school and what kinds of relationships that they would have in high school and what kinds of relationships that they would have. Wow For me.

Speaker 2: 31:13

I knew that growing up I was a mass of insecurities and inadequacies and I looked at Erickson's outline and I could see the exact point and what caused it for me. Right, you know? And once you see it it disappears. So to answer your question, it can be both ways. Most of the time I don't go digging in the past. So even with my insecurities and inadequacies. I didn't go searching for that one. That answer came up to me as I have been talking to people. That answer came up to me as I have been talking to people. Yeah, instead for me, for my insecurities and and inadequacies. First of all, I'm aware that it comes from the past, so it doesn't matter, it's not real. I can tell myself it's not real and that can be really a powerful tool for me yeah yeah, I, you, I will use the inner talk programs, but I also pay attention to my circle.

Speaker 2: 32:11

You know, they say that you are as successful as the your six closest contacts, and and that applies everywhere. So if you surround yourself with people who, if your best friends, all are in bad relationships and they're constantly going on about their partners, then you're going to see faults in your own partner, you see. So I pay attention. If there are people around you that say, oh, we're at that age now, ravinda, you can't do that, you've got to take it slow. No, no, don't, don't tell me that it's the very act of I have to take it slow. So therefore, I don't engage in exercise and so my body stiffens up and becomes old. You create age in that process.

Speaker 2: 33:00

So I do pay a great deal of attention to people I surround myself with, the type of entertainment I choose to consume. You know, I'm not going to watch the he did me wrong kinds of movies, because it's not helpful. I'm not going to watch the movies where the woman says men just don't understand. Now you need to get in touch with your, your feminine side. Now you need to do this, you need to do that. You know men and women. We all have attributes that are strong. We all have the positive sides to us. You don't need to put somebody else down to put yourself up.

Speaker 1: 33:41

No, so it's everything in your life as well that you need to just have a look at. You know, like you say, people around you, what you do, or maybe you know your diet or whatever. All of that adds up to um how you feel in life, doesn't?

Speaker 2: 34:03

it, yeah, and where the beliefs come from. And so mindfulness has become, you know, really popular. Most of the popular beliefs um are actually misguided because lots of people they're really not doing mindfulness, they're doing meditation. Meditation is great, absolutely invaluable. It has loads of benefits can reverse cognitive decline, can make you healthier all of these positive things.

Speaker 2: 34:33

But true mindfulness is questioning your thoughts. It's not just about paying attention to your thoughts and living in the moment. You know, that's just one tiny aspect. True mindfulness is paying attention to your thoughts and then questioning them. Question your own assumptions. Where did they come from? Where do these ideas when you know? What does it matter? It's about questioning everything anew. So it goes all the way back to Kahneman. He's the behavioral economist who won a Nobel Prize, but he talks about system one thinking and system two thinking. Mindfulness is about system two thinking. It's not the automatic coming from the subconscious mind, which is a system one, it's the system, system two where you stop and you question and you choose once again, you choose the person that you want to be, you choose the kind of life, that that you want to create, that that's where it starts. And so my true mindfulness practices are amazing.

Speaker 1: 35:42

And that's so lovely to hear that you know life doesn't happen to you. You have the choice. There are options as to how you move through life.

Speaker 2: 35:55

You have some product of our genes, our life circumstances our families, blah, blah, blah, but no, at any point you can choose to do it differently, but you have to know that. And that is the point of this kind of podcast, natasha. The point of this kind of conversation is when you look up the experiences I've had, when your listeners hear the experiences you've had, when your listeners hear the experiences you've had, then it can inspire them to say, maybe I can do that too yeah, let's, let's just think about that for a minute.

Speaker 1: 36:37

Yeah, excellent. Thank you so much, ravinda. So your book Mind Training the Science of Self-Empowerment. How can people get a hold of a copy of your?

Speaker 2: 36:46

book. Um, all bookstores get access to it. You can buy the amazon barnes and noble here in america. I'm not remembering the. There's the big bookstores in britain, but they have it too anywhere, then anywhere if they don't have it in stock, they can order it in.

Speaker 1: 37:06

So, yeah. Okay, well, I will put the details up underneath the episode. And thank you so much. It's been fascinating. We could have talked for a lot longer. It was so interesting. So thank you ever so much for joining us. That's um been really interesting thanks, natasha.

Speaker 2: 37:28

It's been an honor to be with you. Thank you for having me on. I appreciate it. It's been a pleasure.

Speaker 1: 37:33

So if you've enjoyed listening to Ravinder and I chatting, then please like and um. You can always subscribe to the podcast as well, and I will speak to you all soon.