Mr. Tarde, You Are Having A Heart Attack!

I wasn't of course.

But these words, actually repeated to me by a licensed medical doctor during a recent visit for a routine physical, is evidence of both the problems of our health care crisis in American and the need of the patient to get it right.

The power to visualize is central to your health.

Return to my doctor's office with me.

I do suffer from hypertension.

A congenital condition in my family, a gift from my mom and her side of my family.

So much for inheritance.

I have been on medication since my early 30's and my current medication to control my blood pressure consists of one pill to speed my heart up and one to slow it down.

Of course, I am speaking in lay terms, but hey, I have several degrees, but Doctor of Medicine is not one of them.

If I don't take my medicine regularly every 24 hours, my heartbeat is affected.

Such was the case that morning.

I had been fasting since the day before in order that my blood work could be diagnosed properly.

When I conveyed this to Doctor C, he was incredulous.

He made me sign an authorization that I, of sound mind, was fully aware that I was going against equally sound medical advice.

But I know my body.

And that is the most important point I can make in the words I write today.

By all means have regular medical visits and stay on top of your personal medical situation and medication.

However, know thy body.

Practice visualization.

It just might save your life.

Don't take my word for it.

Consider sound medical advice....................

Dr. John M. Kennedy is the medical director of preventive cardiology and wellness at Maria Del Rey Hospital in California.

How is that for a lengthy job description.

I can imagine when Dr. Kennedy shares this information with someone on a plane, the plane is landing before he can finish his job title.

But I digress.

In Dr. Kennedy's new book. The 15 Minute Heart Cure, The Natural Way to Release Stress and Heal your Heart in Just Minutes a Day (let's hope the good Doctor has the talent to match his verbosity), visualization takes center stage.

The medical community likes to call visualization, guided imagery and that's fine.

Guided imagery, mental imagery, visualization, seeing through the mind's eye, it's all the same thing.

Dr. Kennedy believes, as I have written and lectured for years, that the practice of visualization, can save lives.

These are not my words, they are the words of a cardiologist:

"Athletes, surgeons and firefighters (and you as well if you study my theories) imagine the goal, rehearse it in their mind, and then execute it perfectly. When faced with a stressful situation, they call on this muscle memory, which occurs almost reflectively and unconsciously. Athletes describe this as being in the zone. Everything around them moves in slow motion, which allows them to perform with precision, calm, exactly as rehearsed.

Guided imagery is a highly successful and powerful technique that can yield positive results after only a few sessions. My patients have reported a sense of calm and focus after only a single trial. I emphasize to my patients that the greatest benefits can be achieved with practice and commitment.

More frequent practice will also increase the likelihood of forming cardiovascular protective emotional memory and ingrained neuron-cardiac nerve networks that will bathe your heart in protective, nurturing and calming hormones. This ability to find calm in the storm of hormonal stress is what I call opening your heart eyes and becoming heart wise."


In Dr. C's office that morning, I knew that I was not experiencing a heart attack.

I knew that Dr. C's pleas to immediately go from his office to the emergency room where he would meet me, came from his heart.

But I knew my heart.

In this case (and I stress in this case only), I knew my heart better than the doctor.

For I had already opened my hearts eyes.

I can see deep inside me.

And you can as well.

Its called the power of visualization.

And if you are receptive, I will teach it to you.

It will bring you extraordinary strength in every aspect of life.

The medical community is now finding this to be the case.

And that's good.

Dr. Kennedy knows what I have known all of my life.

There is a power inside you that can change the life you are living and provide you with a future now experienced by only a rare few.

You are only a heartbeat away from living it.

Are you ready to embrace this power and take it into your life?