From Wounded in Darkness to Healing and Taking Back Your Power!

Dr. Jason Mallia IMD is an inspirational keynote speaker whose life purpose was revealed through his journey. In his book The Wounded Healer he tells the story of how a horrific injury and broken sporting dreams led to a deep depression and how he transformed, leading to ultimate success in all areas of his life. He is one of Australia`s leading Doctors of Integrative Medicine having found this path through his transformation and development. His vast knowledge is now directed at educating and inspiring people to move through their limitations and achieve health and everlasting success. For well over 20 years he has facilitated the transformation of thousands of people with chronic health conditions into living happier, healthier more successful lives. He is an expert in personalised and integrative medicine; he was the first Australian Master Institute of Human Individuality having trained alongside New York best-seller Dr Peter D’Adamo and has presented worldwide in the field of genetics and blood type medicine. His other roles include Integrative Sports Practitioner for the MRL (Malta Rugby League). Connect with Jason at https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/dr-jason-mallia-imd-do-nd-lic-acu-b79a0216/

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Here’s why you’re being sold a big fat lie―many of us when we decide to embark on a particular goal in life, whether it be to have more money, success or to find happiness in our lives, often lack the clarity to know where to start. For some, the lack of clarity is compounded with a health concern that consumes their energy, time and thinking. Does this sound familiar? Procrastination and this lack of clarity often lead people to poor choices, further compounding their issues and creating more uncertainty, confusion, and ultimately ill health. This often directly and profoundly affects their happiness. When faced with various options and possible solutions, most often they are at a risk of being taken advantage of and as a result, having no clarity to make the right calls. One confounding factor that contributes can be the promises made by smart marketing, which is designed to embed commands in your subconscious to trigger an impulsive product purchase―perhaps a product that promises the happiness and success that the person may be looking for. Not all marketing is bad; in fact, it’s not and it can serve the purpose of helping people find authentic tools to help them create their happiness. What I am talking about is the type of marketing designed to take advantage of vulnerable people who primarily lack clarity and don’t know what they truly need. This often causes them to make hedonistic decisions for their lives, taking them away from their truth of which resides in their heart.

Have you ever been unwell or tired and made the wrong choice only to find that it causes you further problems down the track? If we were to flip the lid, have you ever experienced a time when you knew something was going to be good for you, then you followed that path, and it turned out to be something heaven sent? Most of us have experienced one or the other. So, my point here is we must have the clarity to make the right calls, and our health provides the foundation for this. People are often told that clarity and happiness are all in their mind and that to find success and happiness you have to just focus on what you want, create a vision board and presto―your success appears. Rubbish! To truly live happy we must be very clear and healthy and be in a positive state to make the right choices for our lives. It’s therefore impossible to create the life you want and follow your true path from a negative mode of being. We live in a capital-driven world where the chase of the dollar seems more important than how we feel to enjoy the fruits of our labour. Chronic diseases are all on the rise with the rate of cancer diagnosis increasing yearly. If the rates of disease are increasing, does this mean we are becoming less happy? Or perhaps we just have to work harder to achieve it.

“Man surprised me most about humanity. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.” ― James J Lachard, also attributed to the Dali Lama

If I were to make an example of how health is your most valuable asset in finding happiness, I would use the example of Steve Jobs who conquered the world as an entrepreneur; only to find out he had cancer at the height of his career and died at the tender age of 56. Yes, he left a billion-dollar company behind as his legacy. However, he also left a young family way too soon. A man from the Tibetan mountains has no money, smiles every day, lives to the age of 100, and his legacy is the twelve children and grandchildren he leaves to carry his name. You see, all the money in the world could not buy the health of a seriously sick man. Many people have health problems affecting their true state of happiness. One person known to my family recently received his million-dollar payout after years of hard work only to be told a week later he has cancer. One minute he was over the moon with his new fortune, the next staring death right in the face. In his words, “I would gladly give my money back to have my health back.” Another man came to my clinic, a very high-powered businessman and told me, “I have chronic pain, Doc. I’m always under stress, and I can’t bear it anymore―I don’t know what to do.” I gave him a treatment of acupuncture for his pain and asked him one simple question. “What is blocking your happiness and what action would make all the difference?” I asked him not to answer but told him, “When you are feeling better, see what comes up from your new mode of clarity.” Exactly one week later he called me and said, “Thank you so much for helping me find my clarity, I realised that I am not being authentic with my life, so I resigned from my position as CEO of the company, proposed to my partner and we are moving to Thailand. My health and body were so blocked I could not see the trees through all the haze. You opened my eyes, and now I see.”

In today’s society when a person is feeling unwell they visit their doctor for a check-up and have some medical tests. In some situations, the doctor cannot find a diagnosis for their symptoms, so the doctor comes to a conclusion that there is nothing wrong and tells the patient, “It’s all in your head, and there is nothing wrong with you.” Subsequently, the patient is either shooed away or prescribed medication for a supposed mental problem. No wonder psychotropic drugs are some of the most widely prescribed medications in the world― I’ve seen thousands of people in my clinic over the years with undiagnosed health issues or an incorrect diagnosis for their pain and symptoms, only to be put on medication for a diagnosis that was haphazardly plucked out of a book. It’s not all in your head. The reality is these people do usually have some kind of health challenge or block in their body, which is affecting their level of cognition, clarity and their mindset. However, it is going undetected through conventional medical testing. In my book The Wounded Healer, I look at what can affect your clarity through the lens of a scientist correcting imbalances in your health, which often underpin your mental state and happiness. So, what is in your road? Take the time to reflect on that. Ask yourself what it is that needs to be removed for you to find the success you desire. The ancient Greeks believed that we all have a “telos” or a purpose in life and that to find true happiness we need to honour it. This diagram shows how health underpins your telos leading to a greater sense of clarity connecting you to your soul purpose.

Understanding why health is the foundation of a happy and fulfilling life has been the result of nearly two decades of personal experiences backed up by academic study and dealing with the illness and disease of patients in my clinical practice. It all started when I was a young twenty-one-year-old footballer. I dreamed of making it to the big league, however one incident ensured that rugby league would play no significant part in my life. I was playing the best football of my career and then my worst nightmare occurred―something I never imagined would ever happen to me. My right leg snapped from under me playing the game I love! I’d never been injured in my life, but now it seemed that time stood still. I screamed in excruciating pain. My lower leg was facing the other way around. I had broken the fibula and dislocated my ankle. Within minutes an ambulance was on the field and I was rushed to hospital. They performed emergency surgery on me that night. It felt like my footballing dreams were over. In an instant, my life’s path had changed forever.

This trauma caused everything in my life to change. A couple of weeks after the operation, I began to feel pain in my leg. I knew something wasn’t right. The wound wasn’t healing. I went back to the hospital and found out an infection had developed. The doctor took one look at my leg, touched it with his hand, and knew it had developed into a bone infection. I needed heavy antibiotics for one whole year to try and rid my body of the infection. After six months, there was no improvement, and I feared the worst. If they couldn’t cure the disease, they would need to amputate my leg―I was terrified. Making it worse, I felt that no one understood what I was going through. I was alone and being dragged through fear and uncertainty. For one painfully long year, this torment continued. I tried to ignore my concerns, but it wasn’t until 12 agonising months later, that I finally received the all clear. I’d never felt more relieved in my whole life. It was more than dodging a bullet. I felt like my life had been restored and I had been given another chance. During this year I struggled with depression and the heavy medication had taken its toll. Knowing that my dream was over, I turned to drinking and drugs to numb my pain. I was spiralling down fast. Somewhere in the darkness of my despair, I hit a breaking point, and something shifted. I started questioning what I should do with my life because I knew this wasn’t the answer and decided to focus on rising out of my depression. I made a decision to start training again and eating well, and I began to do restorative things for my body instead of destructive ones. Eventually, the infection healed, and it felt like a big weight had been lifted so I could finally get on with my life.

A healthy diet was helping me with my physique and my rehabilitation, and I became stronger and fitter than I had ever been. The depression began to lift. It was then that I realised how important my health was to become happy again. Knowing my rugby league career was over, this newfound clarity gave me the insight to change. I decided to follow a new path of healing and living my telos, which is to inspire millions of people around the world to live happy, healthy, fulfilling lives in alignment with their “telos” from a foundation of optimum health.

According to science, ancient healing philosophy and my own clinical research, mental and emotional health is paramount to health and overall wellbeing. Recent scientific studies can now explain how it is all linked; using this understanding can help us to be balanced and gain the clarity we desire. A study of the interconnections links our brain, our digestive system and our immune system together known as the gut/brain/immune axis. The diagram below shows how when one is out of balance, the other is affected and the downstream effects that can have an adverse impact on our clarity and happiness. According to the work of Professor Michael Myers, a practising psychiatrist, many depressive disorders also have underlying roots in the gut. In fact, up to 80 percent of our feel-good neurotransmitter serotonin is produced in the stomach. Therefore, if we have decreased amounts of serotonin, then the gut may be partly responsible. Our emotional and mental health depends on it. Furthermore, our gut immune system and gut microbiome play a central role in the balance of our serotonin and brain health. Early naturopaths and eastern medicine practitioners have long known of the link, and now the research supports this. As mentioned earlier, finding clarity and happiness is primarily based on our state of health. Spiritual connection and connecting to our purpose are also dependent on clarity and health via the gut/brain/immune connection. Therefore, to simplify, they are all reliant on each other and can influence our clarity and purpose.

There are six keys to unblocking your clarity and creating the success you desire. We have talked about the power of clarity and the importance of optimum health to make the right choices to lead us to happiness and success. Now I want to give you some start-up tools to get you underway. In my recent publication, The Wounded Healer, I developed a seven-step program that addresses all six pillars of health and wellness to help you break through to clarity and success. They include: 

• Diet and detoxification
• Stress management
• Mindset
• Loving relationships
• Exercise
• Spiritual development

For the seven-step program visit www.the-woundedhealer.com

Let’s see where are you at. This is the Six Pillars of Health and Wellness Wheel. What I want you to do is to complete the self-assessment of the six pillars of health and well-being. This will help you to determine the baseline of your health and make you aware of areas that are needing attention. In addition, it will help you track your progress. Firstly, for each pillar, score yourself out of ten on how well you believe you are doing in each of the areas that you will be addressing in the seven-step program. Do this honestly to get the most out of this exercise. This will build awareness of which areas you need to focus on and help you identify your strengths and weaknesses. For example, for diet and nutrition, if you believe you’re doing reasonably well in this area but have room for improvement, you could score yourself a six. We can then see that this is a field that needs improvement. However, if you scored yourself ten out of ten for exercise, then obviously less attention is required in this area. I want you to master each area, but most importantly we want progress over perfection!

In summary, the life you truly desire is there for the taking, and the key is to do whatever it takes the gain clarity to make it happen. Your health is the vehicle that helps you gain the clarity to create success doing what you’re truly passionate about and destined to be doing. Find your health; discover your clarity, live with passion and purpose. Remember, your wounds are opportunities for understanding yourself, your growth, success and ultimately being of service to humanity. Transform your wounds and watch the magic begin!