Transform so you can heal 3

I desperately sought help from a close family friend, Swami Ambikananda, a yogi who is the head of the Traditional Yoga association in the U.K.

She had suffered from chronic illness in the past, before she became a swami (a Hindu, initiated at the highest level). Her friend and partner in the Traditional Yoga Association, Manisha, had also suffered from diabetes and bowel cancer, but they both had recovered naturally.

They gave me a list of nutritional guidelines and supplements that would help colitis. They also gave me a book called Ayurvedic Healing by Dr. Frawley, which had some incredible insights into what really causes disease, based on the ancient Indian system of medicine. 

Ayurveda provides dietary guidelines that are tailored to each individual, as they recognize that we are all different and one size does not fit all. 

From this book, I discovered exactly why my attempts at following the famously touted “cure all” raw food diet was causing more, way more discomfort than the illness itself.

I discovered that colitis sufferers should eat warm, nourishing food, high in protein, in order to get enough calories, protein and nutrition to aid the healing process. 

If you have lost a considerable amount of weight and are bleeding heavily, then even a small amount of grass-fed free range red meat or beef broth is useful to prevent anaemia. 

I also discovered a diet that is very popular among colitis and Crohn’s sufferers: the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, which shares some of the principles of the Ayurvedic diet for colitis.

The SCD diet, based on a wealth of research, shows that certain carbohydrates, mainly forms of starches, grains and gluten can remain undigested in the gut of colitis and Crohn’s sufferers.

Their presence in the gut feeds bad bacteria that create acidic by-products, which can damage the lining of the gut and lead to disease.

According to Ayurveda and many other ancient healing systems, disease often begins in the gut, due to undigested food and toxic build up affecting the immune system of the whole body.

If you suffer from a lot of indigestion, heart burn, constipation, IBS and any other gut disorder, it is a good idea to start paying attention to these symptoms and doing something about it.

Another diet, known as the Paleo Diet or Caveman Diet, is very similar in its approach to the SCD diet. Respected physicians and diet experts back it as the healthiest diet we can eat. The Paleo diet states that we should eat a diet based on what our Palaeolithic ancestors ate before mass agriculture and farming took place. 

The reason for this is that our genetics have hardly changed in over 20,000 years, and Palaeolithic humans, according to researchers, did not suffer from the diseases of affluence we now have in abundance in the West.

Gastroenterologist Walter L. Voegtlin was one of the first to suggest that a diet similar to that of the Palaeolithic era would improve a person's health. In 1975, he self-published The Stone Age Diet: Based on In-Depth Studies of Human Ecology and the Diet of Man, in which he argued that humans are carnivorous animals and that the ancestral Palaeolithic diet was that of a carnivore, chiefly fats and protein with only small amounts of carbohydrates. His dietary prescriptions were based on his own medical treatments of various digestive problems, namely colitis, Crohn's disease, irritable bowel syndrome and indigestion.

However the Paleo Diet and the SCD Diet are not easy to follow, especially if you are a vegetarian. From the principles you learn in Ayurveda you realize that it is better to know yourself first too before prescribing any one diet. 

The amazing system found in Ayurveda help you to really understand who you truly are and what’s right just for you.

So, I came up with my own that is based on all three: Ayurveda, Paleo and SCD. I call this the Alpha Omega Diet. 

My Alpha Omega diet plan takes into account the latest research on the enormous benefits of having a high consumption of Omega essential acid.

From the principles of Ayurveda I discovered why eating a raw food diet if you have colitis, can cause more gas, more mucous, and simply just pass through the gut too fast, not allowing enough time for the essential nutrition to be absorbed.

This does not mean the raw food diet is not a good idea for other energy types according to Ayurveda, which you will soon discover.

The ancient medics of India also understood the importance of having friendly bacteria in the gut, as they are responsible for a large part of our gut’s immune system and digestion.

Probiotics are now a regular part of my routine and will be for the rest of my life. They are incredibly helpful for those who suffer from ulcerative colitis – and many other digestive disorders. 

In-fact it has been shown in recent research that diseases often originate in the gut from the toxic by-products and the deprived nutrition as a result of poor digestion. This is something known by Ayurvedic physicians for 1000s of years previously.

I was also given another book by my uncle called The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Dr. Joseph Murphy, who many believe is the “father of personal development” that many self-help gurus like Anthony Robbins and Deepak Chopra get their best ideas from. 

In this book, Dr Joseph Murphy explains how you can use a style of meditation that he calls “scientific praying” that you can do at night or when you are in an ‘alpha brainwave state’; it only takes about 10-15 minutes. 

During these prayers, which consist of easy-to-follow mantras, you talk directly to your subconscious mind to correct any faults in your autonomic nervous system. His book is filled with stories of self-healing miracles.

Another uncle, a Reiki master based in the USA, offered a lot of similar advice to me and later on gave me some Reiki healing that I believe was also factor in my full recovery.

Swami Ambikananda gave me one bit of advice that I will never, ever forget:

“First make peace with your present situation.” 

She believes that the root cause of my illness the suffering I felt from my work-related stress, combined with a karmic debt, and that I was not following my true heart's desires.

I spoke to her about my Wal-Mart project, and she thought it was not the best idea to get a major corporation to promote my ideas, and that I would be better off doing it myself through my own medium where I would be in control of the information I would share.

Quite prophetic of her really; I have to admit she was right on!

C'mon, it was pretty crazy of me to believe a major corporation like Wal-Mart would allow little ol’ me to tell their customers that drinking Coca-Cola and other carbonated drinks (some of their biggest earners) would be bad for their health!

She said, “Your illness is serving a purpose: to get you focused on what you truly want to do. And when you find out what that is, you will start to heal.”

She said meditation would help me find the answers I need and also calm my body down from all the stress it had endured. She also explained that through meditation, we can control our autonomic nervous system and rewire the negative thinking patterns that cause it to go wrong.

In addition to meditation, I learned simple yoga postures that would help me readjust my body and bring it into harmony that only took a few minutes a day.

I was also not a big fan of the gym and definitely not into doing long boring cardio workouts. I just could not understand why people would spend hours running on a treadmill and not actually going anywhere! 

I knew that exercise is paramount to optimum health and recovery and thankfully by complete surprise, I discovered a workout routine that takes just 7 minutes and is endorsed by leading scientists as the best method of doing exercise.

I was pretty sceptical at first about all these mind power techniques and ancient Indian practices, having a scientific background and a bit of a dislike for things that are a bit fluffy and New Agey. But after a bit of time, my situation really had become “do or die,” and so I was left with little choice but to change my beliefs.

This is when some great changes started to happen in my life, changes that are truly beyond belief.