One Determined Resolution

By Bob Cox

My wife Diana and I watched a riveting program on PBS recently that I believe will change our lives forever. The guest speaker was Lissa Rankin, MD and she was sharing how a perfect storm of personal and professional crisis’s transformed her life. She left her medical practice in 2007 because she was disillusioned by what she believed was a rigid and outdated health care system. Years of research led her to discover that our bodies have natural self-repair mechanisms that can be activated or disabled based on thoughts, beliefs and feelings that originate in the mind. Her new life’s calling is helping all patients take a more active role in healing themselves, while encouraging the health care industry to embrace and facilitate the body's self-healing capacities. She shared several of these powerful insights from her ground breaking book Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof That You Can Heal Yourself.

After just 15 minutes of listening intently, Diana turned to me and emphatically proclaimed that she was going to take charge of her health by observing and eliminating all negative and toxic thoughts, thoughts that have led her to feel angry, frustrated, exhausted and powerless to make positive and lasting change.

I was thrilled to hear the passion and conviction in her words because absolute determination is the catalyst for making positive changes that will withstand the test of time. The next day, Diana shared her thoughts and ideas with several friends and co-workers. She was startled and amazed by the volume and frequency of negative thoughts that streamed through her mind that day. One by one, she took charge of her mind and had a very positive and lighthearted experience as a result.

I had a similar experience 20 years earlier when my doctors told me that I would either have to undergo high risk surgery on the herniated discs in my lower back or manage the debilitating pain with prescription drugs and physical therapy. The pain each day became unbearable as I shuffled around for several months like an over sized cocktail shrimp. One day, I woke up and said to myself, “I am not going to live another day like this any more!” Borrowing a line from Doctor Rankin, I wrote my own prescription for optimal health and vitality. I replaced each and every negative thought, feeling and action with a positive one. Today, I am pain free and feel better than ever.

One Determined Resolution is all it takes to completely transform your life. This year, instead of writing down a whole bunch of things you would like to see improve in your life, try just One Determined Resolution for the entire year and see how that works for you. The recently departed Nelson Mandela had just One Determined Resolution: To end apartheid, dismantle institutionalized racism and unite a divided nation. He counted the cost, traded in 27 years of his life in prison but in the end, his One Determined Resolution created freedom for his people. I believe that if one man has the power to transform an entire nation and have such a positive ripple affect on the entire world, then what can possibly stop each of us from creating a healthier and more joyous life for ourselves and the ones we love? This New Year, let’s all resolve to make One Determined Resolution by taking a deep inward journey and then select just one thing we need to change that will create the most positive and lasting change in our lives.