A stroke is a terrifying and life-changing event, and it’s natural for a patient to feel confused, sad, or angry following such a medical emergency. But in 1996, when researcher Jill Bolte Taylor experienced a burst blood vessel on the left side of her brain, she viewed the experience as a valuable opportunity to learn what exactly happens during a stroke. After she first realized she was having a stroke, Taylor continued to observe her own body, even as its functions shut down in rapid succession. Before long, the neuroanatomist had lost the ability to write, talk or walk. Still, she realized that even after the logical left side of her brain had shut down, her formerly underappreciated right brain continued to function, bolstered by its fluid and intuitive nature.

I write a lot about authenticity, being unapologetically YOU, and letting your freak flag fly. In my TEDx talk, I spoke about the importance of tapping into your Inner Pilot Light and living in alignment with what’s true for you as a means of both preventative medicine and medical treatment. And in my upcoming book Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof You Can Heal Yourself (Hay House, 2013), I make the assertion that caring for your body is the least important part of your health and that expressing your true self in all aspects of your life is the most important part.

Imagine if you and your doctor signed a contract like this: 

As patient and doctor, you and I are entering into a partnership. As such - and with all due respect - I’d like to clarify a few things about the terms of this partnership and how I hope we can work together with the mutual goal of my whole health and healing.

Spend any time on the internet, especially if you're working to build a business like I am, and you'll come across the phrase of the day: “up level.”  I haven’t paid much attention to it, thinking it was just some new marketing lingo.  But a newsletter from Christine Kane, of Uplevel Your Life, landed in my inbox the other day and it got me thinking about how we all can up level our health.