Sometimes I look back on the conversations I have had with people who felt they were so totally stuck, they simply couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. Some gave up looking for solutions while others learned to live with whatever debilitating condition was sucking the life out of them.

Then I tell them about my own personal hell and I can almost see their brain literally lighting up with the possibilities when they look at me today.

Hey, I’m just as surprised as they are. After all, how does one actually become a Brain Reprogramming Doctor?

An Unexpected Journey

When people ask me what I did for a living before I “retired”, I find myself telling them about the many times that someone would come to me during a bathroom break and ask me in hushed tones “… but could this work for my son (daughter, father, brother, annoying sister-in-law, angry co-worker, depressing but lovable neighbour … insert relative/friend’s name here)?”

At the time I was working with large organizations wanting to reprogram the strategic thinking of their executives and employees to transform the way they approached and solved problems, to improve their performance and boost their bottom line. While this work benefited the individuals, the focus was always first and foremost on the bottom line.

Of course, being good at making these organizations bigger, richer and altogether more successful was very gratifying, but it was working with the individuals themselves that gave me the most pleasure and satisfaction.

But I digress. What they are really asking is “How does anyone become a brain reprogramming doctor?” That’s a bit trickier, and as long as their eyes don’t start to glaze over in the middle of my diatribe, I fill them in on the details of my journey in as much of a nutshell as I can. It goes something like this:

The Skinny

[( the skinny-US) confidential information on a particular person or topic (Miriam Webster)]

I was born with a severe case of eczema. Right from day one and through my childhood, teenage years and a good portion of my adulthood, 65% of my body was covered with horrible, itchy, maddening sores. Eczema is a debilitating immune system disorder that causes your body to attack itself … all of the time. There is no cure.

Those of you who have or know someone who has had this terrible condition will know what I am talking about. On the inside, you know you are an amazing person, on the outside the world looks at you as a total mess.

Oh, I was given a plethora of creams and potions and prescriptions and diets and treatments, some of which almost completely blinded me. To make matters worse, the pronouncements of the contemporary skin doctors of the day were always along the lines of “I am so terribly sorry to tell you, Mr. & Mr. Saunders, that there is nothing we can do for Clifford, poor little chap. His condition is genetic. He’ll have it all his life. That will be ten guineas please.” Can you imagine having to live your whole life knowing that you would never get better?

Life at school was no picnic, with all the teasing and bullying and rejection typical of those who are ‘different’ in those formative years. And then there was puberty, this most challenging time of life when a young man becomes aware of the opposite gender. Hard enough for any normal healthy teenager. For someone like me, it meant that Yvonne and Valerie were always too busy ‘washing their hair’ to go on a date with me.

I mean, would you go out with this handsome fellow? OK, I was quite a bit older here but you get the picture

Ah, but I was a pretty smart kid and the idea that ‘nothing can be done’ simply was inconceivable. So, I went looking for ‘out of the box’ solutions.

The ‘Get Out of Hell’ Card

It took me 40 years! Big world back then, before the internet.

My journey took me to a whole new world of unorthodox thinking and faraway places I would never have explored otherwise. And wonder of wonders, I discovered that there were indeed solutions to my dilemma. They were just not where I had been looking. They had to do with the brain.

I discovered that while it was never going to go away, I could send this horrible genetic autoimmune system disorder into remission by facing and resolving my feelings of panic, self-doubt, fear, anxiety and helplessness. And I understood that it all began with reprogramming my brain.

That realization became the guiding principle upon which I based what was to become my “new day job”: helping people understand how their brain works and how to change the way they think, act and feel to enjoy their life the way they were meant to.

I brushed up on the latest scientific breakthroughs in medicine, behavioural psychology, cybernetics, neuroscience and the emerging field of neurotechnologies, and went about testing all this interesting new stuff on my trusting and kindly indulging “lab rats”. And what did I, “the chief lab rat”, discover? In a word (or five) …

None of us are stuck

There is a vast body of knowledge and scientific tools and simple techniques that are readily available to us today to meet any challenge we may be facing. And while we may not have a ‘cure’ for everything, we have the ability to rewire our thinking to live healthier, happier, more fulfilled lives.

• To slow the progress or to reverse a number of physical ailments.
• To combat depression, fear, stress, anxiety, addictions, and so many of these constant little irritants that grind us down and prevent us from being the amazing human beings we can be.
• To improve our relationships.
• To achieve our wildest goals and live our dreams.

Ta Da!

How happy do you think I feel? And they said there was no cure. HAH!

My goal with these newsletters is to pass on the information I have garnered over the years on the precious resources we all have access to, in this new day and age of neuroscience, to tweak our amazing brains into producing the specific results that are so important to us personally, to our precious health, to our success and to our enjoyment of life.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Brain Reprogramming! Are you the least little bit curious about what it can do for you? Join me in exploring the mind boggling possibilities.

Try this: Pick up the phone Press +1 760 333 3348 Say Hello Tell me a joke Fill me in See where it goes No charge

Let me know how it goes for you.

• Have you ever found it tricky to explain what you do for a living?
• Have you ever found yourself pouring your heart out to someone who sounds like he’s been there himself?
• Do you actually know how to use a phone? (HaHa, very funny, Clifford!)

Post your questions or answers below and read what others are saying.

What I’m Watching:

I was so highly motivated to get out of hell that I could never stop looking for solutions.
But what if you feel you’re stuck and can’t get yourself to take the next step?
Here is what’s happening in your brain.

InJoy!