The MEN1 Mosaic

#58 - Your Mind Is Running Your Disease – Here's How To Rewire It (Master Neuroplastician & Author)

• Lizzie Dunn • Season 2 • Episode 8

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If I subconsciously created my dis-ease, does that mean I could consciously un-create it? – Season 2, Episode 8

Matt Rowe, Master Neuroplastician & Author, went from paralysis and doctors warning a wheelchair for life to walking, thriving and completing an Ironman. Today he shares how rewiring your brain and reclaiming your power can change not just your mindset, but your biology.

In this episode:
• The “no-cebo effect” hiding in every diagnosis
• Why your subconscious is running the show (and how to reprogram it)
• How to feed possibility into your cells, not limitation
• A practical 1% path to rewiring your nervous system & your dis-ease
• The reason some patients follow their prognosis but others manage to defy it

About Out Guest:

Matt Rowe is a Master Neuro-Plastician, author of Belief to Heal, and dedicated guide in the field of mind-body transformation. After overcoming paralysis to complete an Ironman, Matt now teaches others how to harness the brain’s power to heal and thrive. Blending science and spirituality, he empowers individuals to rewire limiting beliefs and step into their highest potential. As a meditation and Reiki practitioner, Matt helps people reconnect with inner peace and natural healing energy. His mission is to inspire hope, resilience, and the belief that healing is not only possible—it’s a daily practice and choice. 

Receive a free 30-minute healing session with Matt here


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Disclaimer
I share my personal experience as a MEN1 patient. Nothing in this episode, including the opinions of my guests, is intended as medical or holistic advice. Please consult a qualified professional before making changes to your care.

What is disease? Dis-ease within the body. The mind is at a space of not ease. And what happens when you are diagnosed? Do you tell yourself, this is gonna be super easy. This isn't gonna affect me at all. No. Typically what happens is you go through a moment of fear. You go to worry, you go to a very lower vibrating emotion, and so you start to play that scenario out. We go to Dr. Google and then we look at everything we can about the disease. What is that really doing? It's reinforcing what the doctors had told you. Then, you begin to tell people about it and you use the word I have, and it becomes almost like a badge you wear. I have MEN1. I have multiple sclerosis. I have [X]. But in that moment, are you feeding the dis-ease with those words or are you feeding your possibility with those words? Going back to the beginning, the mind is everything. It directs the body, it directs our nerves, it directs our cells. What you think you become. What if only thoughts of possibility portrayed throughout your body? This actually changes your physical reality. I've proved it. 

My guest today is Matt Rowe, coach, speaker, and writer of Belief to Heal, in which Matt shares his phenomenal journey healing primary progressive MS or multiple sclerosis, a condition with an incredibly bleak outcome, but one that Matt has managed to turn completely on its head. Matt shares today why healing is only possible when you actually believe that it will happen, not wait for evidence or proof. He also shares a number of tangible tips to help you rewire your neural circuits and create 1% change in your life every single day. Let's dive back in.

I don't ask every guest their journey, but Matt, yours is so valuable. Where is it that your healing journey started? Where did the diagnosis come? Where are you now and how has that story unfolded?

So my journey began, I was an All American triathlete in 2007, and then I paralyzed my right leg from the waist down. It wasn't even a dis-ease at that point, but it was like a limitation. My identity of being an athlete was just taken away. So at that moment, I started to walk this journey. I had not taken a look at neuroplasticity and actually being able to rewire my brain to get the message to send from my brain to my leg again. Over four months, I kept being pulled towards a neurologist who did a surgery, gave me a 50 50 shot that he'd paralyze me from the waist down, or he'd get the leg working again. But this whole time I was in a space of possibility. I'm like, you know what? I am going to. But it was not just the words I said, it was the knowing deep within me. So this journey kept going on, and in 2013, I started to experience 25 to 30 strokes a day. That one scared me, and then I started to learn that food is medicine and I started to take care of my body better, but still, it was very much in a doing perspective. Then in 2017, I was diagnosed with primary progressive multiple sclerosis. All of these, even from the paralyzed leg to the strokes, to the to MS, they were all due to stress. I had a high amount of stress at that time. I was really worried and all of that type of thing. And so what happened was the doctor in 2017 told me I was six months from a wheelchair because I had a severe case of MS. And I said, no, if I can get over a paralyzed leg and get through the strokes, I can overcome this. So you notice how the mind was already being preprogrammed to actually be able to rise above this. Now today, I'm still walking. I'm still working out. I'm still like doing so many things that in my life. I recently became a grandpa. Like all of these things within my life, I just kept letting them unfold and happen. But that's when I started to learn back well, three years before that, I started to learn about neuroplasticity and the rewiring of the brain. So then I started to rewire my brain and I said whether I think I could or think I couldn't. I was right. And then I started to study Buddha, like Buddha came in, and I love what Buddha said 2,500 years ago. The mind is everything. What you think you become. And I said, well, holy cow, if I want to overcome this dis-ease that the doctors are telling me there's no cure for, then it's gonna have to begin in here. And I've gotta rewire new neural pathways inside my mind. But I realized at that moment, to rewire the neural pathways in my mind to run again, because in 2011, I did finish Ironman after I paralyzed my leg. But to rewire those nerves to go to my leg, that took time. Your nerves grow one millimeter a day. So if I have a 32 inch in-seam, that means I was three and a half years to get that to to wire again. But I didn't quit. I kept moving, kept going. So with MS. I had to keep moving. I had to keep going. But this is not just with the body, the foods I ate, the exercises I did, but it was also what I told myself in my mind, I wrote a new neural pathway to actually get to that space. Now today, I do notice issues if I am stressed out. So if I have a high degree of stress that comes into my body, I notice my walking doesn't go very well. But why? And I started to take a look at this. I'm not using the new neural pathways of possibility. I'm using the old ones of fear. And so I made a choice. And every day I've gotta sit there the moment my eyes open in the morning tell myself where I'm going, tell myself that I am gonna be okay, and then release the stress within me. If I hold onto it, it hurts me. But I wanna let everybody know that's listening to this, this is possible. Anything you wish within your life first remember, begins with in here. It begins in your mind. It doesn't begin by doing. It begins by being. In that space.

I am chuckling to myself because conversations like these you and I have every day. So this is normal for us now. Knowing that fear, stress creates disease, that in order for us to change our life, we have to change our decisions and we have to change our thoughts. And I'm thinking about people who are listening to this podcast who maybe have no idea that what's happening up here, I'm pointing to my head for anyone who's listening and not watching, could have anything to do with what's going on in the rest of their body. How did you come to reconcile that? Because it's not taught to us, it doesn't come through mainstream medicine that the way we feel, the way we think, the way we act, could have any bearing upon our health. 

I had to put it into practice because I'll tell you at the beginning, Lizzie, I didn't believe it either. I'm like, well, yeah, but at that point when you have no other option, when everything's taken away, at that point, the only thing you can do try something. And this was safe, had no side effects. This had no, um, bad things. And so then I started to read and I started to read many books regarding this and many doctors that had talked about this as well, from Dr. Deepak Chopra to Dr. Jeffrey Redinger, to I could go, the list goes on. So when I sat there and I started studying, I'm like, wow, these people have studied this, so they might be onto something. Then I started to take small steps of 1% every day towards who I wanted to be. So now let's take a look at this is when you study this at this deeper level, we are energy. Why do I say that? We can look at our hands, we can look at our bodies, and you say, no, Matt, that's not right. I'm a body. Well, I'm gonna challenge you on that. You're not  just a body. What is body made of? body is made of atoms. All of everything around you is made of atoms. Science knows this and it's been proven, but what is made of the atom? The atom is 99.9999999% energy. Well, that was like baffling to me. I was like, okay, so if the atom is energy and everything is atoms, then I'm just energy. So then I said, where does energy come from? Well energy comes from every thought, feeling, experience, and emotion that you have. So, for example, let's say you wake up in the morning and you're frustrated at the diagnosis like, oh, this is gonna be terrible. But that's what you're telling yourself. Well, that A is energy that energy transmutes within the body. And so we have 50 trillion cells, all atoms that are always listening to everything that you are saying in your mind, your words, everything. But remember. Your thoughts are not conscious a hundred percent of the day. 95% of your thoughts are subconscious. You're not aware of them. That's why your heartbeats without you thinking about it, that's why you breathe with no thought. It's in moment, I said, okay, what thoughts am I putting in, even at the subconscious level? Well, you'll be attuned to what's happening subconsciously by how you feel. So let's say you're working a job you absolutely hate. Now, I'm not saying you quit that job, but maybe there's some conversations you begin having with yourself regarding it instead saying, oh, go to work today. Well, that's a powerful energy. So then everything you see around you is going to match that. So what if you woke up every morning and say, you know what? Today is going to be better. I'm going to be taking some small steps. Let's say you were diagnosed with a dis-ease. If you tell yourself, oh my God, this is the way it's gonna be, and this is what is talked about in the medical community, is the placebo and no-cebo effect. I think one of the most damaging things that happens in our day and age is that doctors tell us. We believe the doctor. I've been going to them since we were born. And so when we go to doctors, we believe them as we should. And so in that moment, if the doctor says, man, you're gonna be fine. Don't worry about it. You've got about 10 years. Well then that starts to play out a script subconsciously in your mind the no-cebo effect. Then 10 years down the road say, oh, that doctor was right. Well, I've seen it played the other way. I've seen, I have a client that absolutely amazing. She was diagnosed with MS at a young age and the doctor said, oh, have kids, don't worry about this. When you turn to be about 48 years old, you're gonna start to notice effects of MS. She let it go. She never had an effect. She had kids. Everything was going great. She goes, it was almost to the day when I turned 48, I noticed my first relapse and I said, was that doctor a fortune teller? I mean, doctors are good, but I don't know if they're that good. And so at that moment, the doctor had put the no-cebo, so it was playing out in her mind subconsciously. Oh, 48. So she was almost like looking at the clock, like counting it down up until she was 48 when she realized that and said, wait a second. Well, that's not true. She started to do different things. She started to work out, she started some powerful mindset work, and she started to rewrite that script today. She's 62 years old and we always laugh because she's always going somewhere. She's always walking somewhere. She's swimming, she's exercising, she's working out, um, you know, with exercise bands and doing all of these things. She's becoming stronger every day because she began telling herself, I know I will rise from this diagnosis. And so it just becomes just a powerful, powerful space.

Was it hard at the very beginning to have all this knowledge that you'd grown up with all of this, let's call it medical dogma. I don't mean that in a derogatory sense, but it is what it is. Was it just a case of like one day you woke up and you thought, okay, I'm healed. I don't have MS anymore, none of this, was it like a switch or was it a process?

I am laughing. God do I wished I could just wake up and somebody like, oh yeah, I don't have MS anymore. Like, you know, as you're walking through, yeah, MEN1 is not gonna affect me at all. Oh my God. That would be beautiful. Wouldn't that be so amazing? No, it does have that power. But it takes belief to start it. So let's take, let's say belief begins 1% of it at a time. We've gotta rewrite the old neural pathways because at all that, that current neural pathways still running about the doctors. They're not bad. They just, you just, it's the script we build since a young age subconsciously. So that script is always playing out. So whether you tell yourself, oh yeah, you know what, MS is not gonna bother me at all. The subconscious mind goes, yeah, that's BS. You know that, right? And so I'm not aware of it. And so what it does is our conscious mind is required to be begin rewriting that script. So let's talk about those two minds. There's the conscious mind and there's the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is the past. And the subconscious mind can be filled with fear, worry, shame, guilt, doubt, and frustration. What I'm gonna call that is a very low vibrating emotion. You feel this within yourself when you are frustrated, for example, you're not full of energy, you're not bouncing around. You're not saying, oh my God, I'm so frustrated today. This is so good. No, I've never heard anybody ever say that. It's a very low energy within the body. And so what happens is, is if we wake up and our mind's frustrated, what we're doing is we are adopting the subconscious pattern. But to rewrite that, and this is why I say 1%, what if you changed your thought? What if you changed your feeling 1%. So let's say, let's take a look at what 1% could be. So let's say 1% is I wake up in the morning and I become aware that I'm worried. That's okay. What I would then invite is to take a breath at that point right there. It seems so simple, so like minuscule. But that can be the most powerful thing we do as human beings is just become aware. Become aware of the frustration or the doubt or the worries or the shames and all of it. And then when we take that breath, what you're actually doing is something in the neuroplasticity world, which is pattern interrupt. That breath interrupts the pattern of the similar thought. That's 1%. Then allow that 1% to follow you throughout the day, and you may notice different things coming. You may notice different people showing in your life. You may notice different experiences showing up in your life. So that 1% actually builds upon itself. So with that moment, then the next day you are like, okay, I'm gonna take 1% more. So let's say in that 1% more, you tell yourself, my legs are going to work great today. My walking is gonna be good, no matter if it is or not. I accept what is. You're basically changing to a powerful energy. What I was talking about earlier, subconscious is fear, anger, shame, guilt, frustration. Let's just call them incongruent emotions. Now, the conscious mind love, is joy, is acceptance, is awareness, is being within that present moment. But the conscious mind only runs 5% of our thought. But those 5% can rewrite the 95%. Like I said earlier, your nerves grow one millimeter a day. So if you've ever done any of this work, you'll hear something written about patients. And the only reason for patients is we've gotta let the body catch up to the mind because the mind directs everything. It directs the body, it directs our nerves, it directs our cells So with everything with that, if we wanna rewrite the mind and step into a new space, it begins consciously, the prefrontal cortex as we take a look at things. And what if we just told ourselves in that moment, you know what? I'm gonna be safe today. I am okay. I've seen this heal people. I've seen similar thought patterns over time. And I've seen some people do it very quickly, but their belief became a knowing. So belief is very strong, but belief is the start. The car has started, engine is running, but doesn't mean you went anywhere. But when you step into a space of knowing, that means you're driving the car. And that knowing crafts a destination. So when you set an intention, not an expectation, but an intention that allows you to move in that in a specific direction, my intention is to walk with balance in ease this year. that's great. That's the mountaintop. But to climb the mountain, we've gotta get on the trail. Can't climb it in one step. So we put ourselves on the trail and we take one step after another. That's the 1%. So as you're moving through that, remember the eye is on the prize. I'm going to be walking with balance and ease the end of this year. Remember that no-cebo effect I told you about earlier? What if we began writing our own no-cebo effect and started to look at little successes throughout the day in those little moments? This is where it seems kind of blasé or wooey and all that kind of stuff. But until I put this into practice and proved it, then it became truth. Then it became my truth. So anytime I feel, for example, I don't feel good or I have something going on, I first approach it with the mind. I take care of my body, of course. But I approach it with the mind. Putting things in your thoughts are as important as putting things inside your body. For example, if you want to heal, you're not going to McDonald's every day and eating McDonald's, it's highly processed foods, and you're like, oh, that never makes me feel good. You can see that on the physical side, but your mind is the same way. So what if only positive, good thoughts went in? What if only thoughts of possibility portrayed throughout your body? And I've proved it. This actually changes your physical reality.

I love how you pronounce the word dis-ease. I do it personally to differentiate between my disease as in my emotional unease, and the thoughts and the experiences that have so far happened in my life, to which I've attached some sort of meaning to then create a diagnosis. And I stress that to people that I work with because I think it's very easy to attach to the diagnosis without necessarily understanding what the unease is underneath it. Can you talk us through a little bit of that? Why is it so important to understand that whatever label we might have, whether it's MEN1, whether it's MS, whatever it might be, what is the common denominator underneath all of those medical conditions, which, we walk around and we have as a kind of statement to say, I have this. What is actually going on underneath all that?

Okay, so let's go back to what Buddha said, and I'll start it with what Buddha said at the beginning that I talked about a little bit. The mind is everything, what you think you become. So then just kind of blasé over on that side saying, okay, what do you tell yourself when you're diagnosed with the disease? Do you tell yourself, oh my gosh, this is nothing. This is gonna be super easy. This isn't gonna affect me at all. No. Typically what happens when you're diagnosed is you go through a moment of fear. There's a big worry with disease. We're like, ah, and then we do something terrible, Lizzie. We go to Dr. Google and we type it in a Google search, and then we look at everything we can about the disease. Well then what it, what is that really doing? It's reinforcing what the doctors had told you, and then you are starting to become the dis-ease. So we have an opportunity to rewrite that. It is always our choice. We are that powerful. I've seen this work for individuals, so somebody that I was following, and in a book that I've read, Louise Hay, she's no longer with us. She'd be like 120 years old, but Louise was diagnosed with cancer twice and she regularly told herself every day, all is well. Everything is happening for my highest and best. In this moment, only good will come, that became her almost minute by minute moniker. She would just say those words, but she didn't just believe it, she knew it. Then what happened as a result, the when she went back in for a cancer scan, the cancer was gone. The body healed itself. Your body is this amazing. Your body can heal all dis-ease within your body. And yes, those words broken apart was taught to me by Dr. Deepak Chopra. And so if you think about it, what is disease? Dis-ease within the body. The mind is at a space of not ease. And what happens when you are diagnosed? You go to worry, to fear, you go to a very lower vibrating emotion, and so you start to play that scenario out. Then, like you said earlier you begin to tell people about it and you use the word I have, and it becomes almost like a badge you wear or a sign you wear. I have MEN1. I have multiple sclerosis. I have, X but in that moment, are you feeding the dis-ease with those words or are you feeding your possibility with those words? Going back to the beginning, the mind is everything. What you think you become. So if I think I have, I'm going to be looking at more instances of having MS. And then I'll tell people about it then I'll be like, oh yeah, it's a bad MS day, or this is going on, and the body goes, okay, it's a bad MS day. To go back to what we were talking about at the beginning, we are energy. So now I'm dovetailing these pieces together. So if that thought is energy, what if I slowly started to rewrite that thought every day and said, you know what? Today's gonna be better. When people ask us how we are, they, they know, they've probably heard they've been with you for a while. So at that moment, somebody will come to you because they don't know what else to ask in that moment. Oh, how are you feeling today? I'm just using an example. So they'll ask you the question, how are you feeling today? And then what we do is we go into the story of MS. And we're like, well, it's kind of a rough day. My walking's not. And then we start to tell them that story to reconfirm it. So what if we switched that script so the person comes to you and says, oh, how are you feeling today? You know, every day in every way, I am getting better and better. How are you? How are you doing? Most people don't want to talk about us. They want to talk about themselves, and that's okay. So what if you just slowly started rewriting that story? What if your energy was wanting to being really curious about the other person, asking them how they are and walking down that road? So these are the beautiful possibilities that happen within our bodies. Now, if in this moment, if thoughts become things, then we can say, anybody around us, I only want to share with them what makes me feel good inside my mind, which then directly represents inside the body. If you don't believe me, try it for one week. Just on the first one, become aware of every thought. It's gonna be a pain in the butt at first. Am I talking about MS? Or am I living that story? Do I tell people, oh, it's a bad day? Do I...? Whatever it is that's happening, become aware of it with no judgment. Just as the observer, as if you are watching a movie and say, oh, not what I want. I really would like to feel this way today. Then begin rewriting the story. That neural pathway that I was talking about earlier. This is the power of neuroplasticity, is that when you begin rewriting the new pathway, it begins growing. But at first, it's like walking through the woods with no trail cut. It's a pain in the butt. If you've ever done it. It may take you an all day to walk a mile, but as you do it more often and more often with patience and compassion then all of a sudden a trail forms within the mind, the neural pathway. And as that trail forms, could get it to a point that I could go that mile in an hour. Pretty soon, that trail will be so ingrained that it'll become a super highway, and I could travel that mile in a minute. So you notice that with this time, that comes into our minds and possibilities, it happens with one small step and that step is awareness. Be aware of your thoughts.

Do you think that the fake it to make it in inverted commas, style of life has any validity in this sense, or do you think that's something completely different and perhaps misinformed.

I'm gonna say it's possibly misinformed. The reason why fake it till you make it doesn't really work is because you cannot fool the subconscious mind. You're too smart for that. But let's take the word fake and let's change it to be. So what I encourage everybody to do is be it till you make it. So that's, for example, when you wake up in the morning, be happy and you don't need to go from zero to a hundred on happy. Go from zero to one in that moment and just begin being it. Think to yourself right now, who is the person has healed from this dis-ease? Well, would that person be happy? Would that person only say positive things? Would that person, um, eat good foods? Would that person encourage themselves? Would that person show themselves compassion? Those are being it. You're not faking it 'cause you can't fake it. Fake is misnomer because you're too smart, Lizzie. We are all too smart. Whoever's listening to this, you're too smart. You can't fool yourself. 'Cause remember that subconscious mind is running 95% of your thoughts. So to go to fake it doesn't make sense. But to go be it, that's an emotion. Then the subconscious mind starts going. Oh, you are this. And then what you'll notice is small little steps towards your possibility over and over again. And this is the beautiful side about it. Your mind is this powerful. And if you don't believe me, ask any billionaire, anybody that's healed from a dis-ease, do they sit there and say, oh, I don't have any money. This can be terrible. Or I'm so sick all the time. No, you, those people don't do that. They're very aware of all of their thoughts. They live in a world of possibility.

So something that I really struggled with when I first began my kind of like active healing journey was again, this belief that because MEN1 was not just a standard condition that you might develop because you've got bad eating habits. It wasn't an an autoimmune condition that you can hear of quite frequently. It was a genetic disorder and it was hereditary, and there was supposedly nothing I could have done about it, and I've been told there's nothing I can do about it. That then no matter how much work I did on myself, that doubt, that belief, I guess I kept clutching onto it. I didn't even know I was doing it, but there was a voice at the back of my head that said it's no one else has done it. It's not proven. You can't do it. This is one of the 1-3% of diseases that none of the lifestyle experts will talk about because they just don't know. It's all unproven. I wanna ask you now in retrospect for me, what was that doubt? Even if it was only minuscule, what was that doubt doing? Why was it there? How was it there, and what was it doing to prevent my healing?

Well, that's a powerful space to be. That's a really powerful question. It's what you just asked. Why is that doubt there? Where did it come from? How did this get put within me? Why do I doubt my body's own ability to overcome MEN1? And so by becoming curious in that moment, then you'll begin asking yourself different questions and say, you know what? I remember when I was a, I'm making it up now, Lizzie. I remember when I was a little girl and we came upon, there was a family that lived next to us that they had always were sick and always had issues. And I remember my family saying that, oh, this just happens to certain people, and it pulls that possibility away. So then that thought came into your mind based on what somebody told you when you were young, when you were re, when you were writing your subconscious mind. We were write our subconscious mind from birth to 10 years old. So anything told to us at that time, it's just ingrained. It's just basically being put within us. So then it, you know, dwindles a little bit and that that's a whole nother um, process with that. But within that, when you become curious of where did that thought come from? Where did this moment happen? Maybe it was a moment you saw a grandparent that always went to the doctor and the doctor was always telling him the grandparent came back and they said, oh, that doctor's really good. I've gotta go to them more often. But then as that kid that's growing up with this, we start to believe it. So we potentially get sick on our own, right? And then we follow down that road and then you notice the trajectory goes down that space. So with this moment, become aware, where did that thought come from? Do I believe that thought? Do I think there's a possibility? This is why I'm a big fan of go to read books. Uh, great one is Healed by Dr. Jeffrey Redinger, so they're talking about miraculous healings of people curing late stage lupus and stage four cancer and all of these things. But then what does that book, when you read it, do for you? It brings possibility within your mind. And say, oh, can do this. I can get through this. And then you begin taking one small step, 1%. It's not a big leap. You take that 1% in that possibility. Only put good things in your mind. Only listen or talk to people that have healed. They may not have healed MEN1, but talk about the body's ability to heal. Read Quantum Body by Dr. Deepak Chopra. So that's just a really good, powerful book that we can all read. Read other books like Anatomy of the Spirit by Caroline Myss. Like other things that encourage you on your path. So for example, if we're climbing this mountain, we don't drink Coca-Cola. The entire way going up this mountain, at some point you're gonna become dehydrated and it's not gonna go very well, and you may stop walking that path. But what you would do is you would put good foods in your body. You would have granola bars, or you would have drink a lot of water as you're walking, all of those things, those that that moment will promote you to getting to the top. So it's all these small steps that you're taking. So as you think about it and all these things, you know what? I'm gonna start eating more. I'm making it up now I'm gonna eat more spinach because I know I've got a feeling I really like it and that it's always made me feel good when I eat that. So then do that, eat more of that. I like these moments that I like this person that I'm with because they have me living in a space of possibility instead of one of fear, worry, and shame. Well, I like that so do more of that. So in all of these moments, we have a choice. You always have a choice to begin being it, to begin doing the things that promote you.

You've worked with so many different people, all sorts of different diagnoses, all different backgrounds, different stories, different troubles and challenges. If there were to be a common denominator in each of their journeys, that got them from one side of the fence to the other, what would it be?

Oh, this is a big question because everybody's different. So, but anybody I do work with, we first begin with their story. And anytime I talk I, or anytime I meet somebody new, I ask them, tell me your story. What, what, what's in going on in your mind right now? What do you believe? And so their story starts to point to the root, the root cause of the dis-ease within the body. So if we think about this, the dis-ease came into our bodies as a teacher. So the, the dis-ease is trying to teach us something. It's trying to teach us a different way. For me, MS was a teacher for me, and it became the greatest gift I ever received because in that moment I started to take a look at and saying, okay, what story am I telling myself? And so the story that I was telling myself was that I was not enough. I was highly stressed. I gotta do more. I gotta be this, I've gotta go down this road. That was the story, that was the pre script that I kept telling myself, and I was living that out. MS came in to rattle me off my cage, rattle me off this the pinnacle, and say, okay. You want to go to here, you want to feel better, you want to feel peaceful, whatever it is. So then it comes in, in that moment after we talk about the story. so the story is the start. Then the next question I'll ask is, what do you want? And as the individual talks about what they want, they'll see emotions starting to come up within their body. They may be a tightness. You see their shoulders crunch up or you see, um, tears start to flow or all of those things because there's so many times we don't ask ourselves, what do I want? Where am I going? We allow society to basically pull us down a road in a specific way. And we think about it linearly, like when we think about this and I'm holding my hand up in a straight line, going upwards, we go, oh, I start here and then I'll get to here. But that never goes that way. But that's what society tells us. Ever since we were young, we go to preschool, primary school, high school. Um, then we go to college, then we get a job, then we get married, then we have a house. Then we, it's all linear, but think of it life more as a squiggly line all over the page. Sometimes it goes down and sometimes it goes up. so when we're watching this squiggly line and we're walking it, you're on that journey, what do you tell yourself when you're on the journey? When the squiggly line goes down? When it doesn't go the way that you wish, are you in possibility or are you not? So that's why I said earlier, let's rewrite this, the mind step into that possibility, and it all starts with your story.

For anyone who's listening back, and this might be the beginning of that health journey or their healing journey, and they're not really sure where to start. Are there any modalities that you recommend or that you particularly like for yourself that would help get that person from naught to one, whether it's meditation or journaling or getting some exercise, changing their diet? What would that first thing be that maybe you did yourself or that you would recommend now with the experience that you have and the expertise you have?

Absolutely. Um, the very first one, and this is easy, you do it, um, and thousands of times a day. What I would invite anybody to do is take a breath, but take a conscious breath. That means taking a deep breath in through your nose, allowing that to come down into your lungs and your belly, slowly breathing out. By taking that breath, you are resetting the pattern. Then in another step, what I may recommend is go outside. Go put yourself in nature. Now, if it's winter time and you're listening to this, this can be a little bit more of a challenge. But anytime you can go be in nature, nature is very grounding very healing. You're actually doing something for yourself in that moment. Then this may spark a curiosity about meditation. Now, remember, meditation is not something that we need to go go in robes and sit on a mountaintop in cross-legged position. No, meditation is just slowing the mind and taking a breath. And so what I recommend for anybody, 'cause I'm a meditation practitioner, and what I recommend for anybody just starting out in meditation, allow the thoughts to come in. Don't try to block 'em or fight 'em. See them for what they are, just a thought. Now, this took months. And it was frustrating. I would sit in meditation, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna just breathe and think of serene, um, of lake and the calmness of it, and watch the candle flicker in front of me. No. And what started was is, oh, did you turn off the stove? Did you really say that to that person? Oh my gosh. Remember that when you were a kid, did you hurt that person? Or did that person come in? Did that person really mean that? It just rampant thought that's coming in? That's okay. What I invite you to do is don't resist those. What you resist, you will persist. just allow them to be, just allow it to be a thought. What will happen when we don't try to resist it or push away from it, that thought will dissipate and it will go away like a smoke off, a blown out candle. It might be strong at first, but then pretty soon you'll enter into a space of peace, and so that's what meditation does. Meditation calms the nervous system. And puts the body into a parasympathetic state of rest and repair. So of all modalities, I think meditation is very strong, but start with your breath. Go put yourself in nature. Those two very easy, accessible things. We can always go do that if we have our full parka on and the snow is falling and we're warming our parka. And we just stand outside as the snow falls. Come to see the snow as beauty. Like if it's summertime, see the heat as a gift. The leaves on the tree show appreciation you are breathing and that you are outside. So you notice how these little, what I gave was a couple little small 1% steps. In your thought and good thoughts attract more good thoughts. There's actually science behind this, so if you can think a good thought. Now I say good thought. Let's say just a loving thought of being with your spouse or a memory from when you were a kid, when you were laughing. Maybe it was recent, you were laughing at something for 17 seconds. That 17 seconds of conscious thought will bring another 17 seconds and then another 17 seconds. And when you stack four of these together, they know scientifically you are creating energy at that moment. When you create that energy, you are doing something called manifestation.

I couldn't agree more about breath by the way, and I'm glad that you mentioned manifestation now, and maybe it's a good job that we're at the end of our episode, because otherwise I could have gone on with you for at least another half an hour. All the more for another episode when you come back and join us again, hopefully.

 Matt, you very humbly mentioned a number of quite prolific authors. Less mention was given to your own quite spectacular work Belief to Heal, which is on the bookshelf behind you, and I wanted to speak to that as well. Matt, you really are someone who is awe inspiring because you have bucked every trend possible. Your trajectory has taken so many really phenomenal turns and all because of the conscious effort that you put behind it. So you've been one of the guests I've been so excited to have on this podcast because my listeners are, I know deep down, hoping and believing that the same is possible for them. I really hope that anyone who's listening back can take away some nuggets of golden wisdom that you have shared today. Where can people get hold of your book if they would like to read it?

I am on Amazon, so if you do is in an Amazon search, you can get it worldwide. Belief to heal – Mastering the Mindset to Heal, and it'll actually, the book, when I wrote it, it was very powerful. And every chapter is going to give you some practices, some very simple practices to actually begin rewriting your health, your own beliefs within yourself to lead you to that space of knowing.

I am so excited for anyone who's listening back to be putting some of this into action, and I am so grateful, Matt, for your time and generosity of wisdom. And as I say, looking forward to having you back again for an episode number two at some point.

I can't wait. Thank you so much for having me today, and I hope everybody know that your body can heal. It's possible. I've seen it done with individuals that had weeks to live, and they did. They lived for years afterwards, and they tell the story about it,  and it all comes down this belief deeply within you.

Matt is not just another practitioner out here selling a course. He is lived experience of healing a so-called incurable disease. For this reason, he has been an inspiration in my journey so far, and I hope that you, listening back, are able to take some nuggets of gold away. Drop into the description box, wherever you are listening to this podcast and order Matt's book, Belief to Heal and if you want to make sure you don't miss out on the next episode of the MEN1 Mosaic Podcast, click the link to join my email community.