Welcome to these pages of health and healing wisdom!

I look forward to sharing my everyday, both ordinary and extraordinary thoughts and experiences around healing and creating your life of vibrant aliveness, well-being and joy.

Thank you for joining me on this joyous healing  journey called Life. 

BIG NEWS!
October is breast cancer awareness month and I have been excited and busy for weeks!  I have been preparing an initiative for breast cancer.  

I am really passionate to do whatever I can to help reduce the fear and suffering for women and their families by providing knowledge of  what cancer is and what women can do to move out of fear and bring healing into their lives.   

The project will start off  with an TV interview for the 7 AM morning show, the Balancing Act, which will be shown on Lifetime Network in the States this coming Wednesday, October 13th!  If you can’t watch the program live, don’t worry.   The full interview will be automatically posted on my website at www.awarenessheals.ca .

On the same day, I am launching a designated website for the project - www.healingbreastcancernow.com  - where you will be able to get a free report - 'The Truth about Breast Cancer' -  giving the 8 essential truths that women need to know to shift from fear to healing perspective.  

The first priority when faced with a diagnosis of breast cancer, or any serious disease, is to manage fear and panic.  The best antidote to fear is knowledge.   

Please help me get this information to people you know who need it.   Pass along this link.   They will find out about more support I am providing through a video that is in production and will be available within a week of the October 13th launch.  

Here’s to making a start to healing breast cancer now!


Nelie Johnson MD

Finally I have produced a 40-minute video that will be available very soon - a virtual consultation for only $29!

October 9th, 2010

Recap of the May Forum, 2010
On this Thanksgiving weekend, I am reflecting on the year and what I am thankful for.  This year has been a year of exciting innovations and fulfilling on new projects.   

May Forum, May 1st, 2010 -    On that day I fulfilled on my vision to bring together experts - Dr. Bruce Lipton, Adam McLeod (known as Dreamhealer), Dr. Teresa Clarke from Inspired Health, Michael Fisher, and myself - to give the science that supports a new expanded model of disease that includes the impact of unconscious thoughts, beliefs and emotions -  what I called the 'quantum factor'.  

The Forum was called 'It's Time to Heal' and provided an invitation for all health care practitioners to collaborate with one another in  the utilization of alternative and energetic therapies together with medical treatments and encourage greater participation of patients in their healing.   There was an enthusiastic response to the Forum from some 200 hundred participants.  The magnificent venue of the First Nations Longhouse on the UBC campus in Vancouver made for a very special energy on the day.

Emotions as a Healing Tool
I have been asked recently - how to use emotions to help heal.  Emotions are like a live spark of our being.  They arise directly from the subconscious, bypassing our conscious mind and its jabber of thoughts.   They arise in the present moment and carry the energy of the subconscious thought or belief  from which they originate.

Our tendency is to suppress the painful or unpleasant emotions or feelings, avoid or deny them by overriding them with rational thoughts such as -  'It's shameful to cry in front of others.' 'I just have to be strong.' 'My life's not that bad.'

However, if we stay with them, allow ourselves to feel them fully, a number of outcomes are possible:

1) the pain or distress subsides and we feel refreshed, relieved somehow of a burden.   Recall the saying - 'tears are healing'.

2) the emotion shifts into another emotion, and when we allow that full expression, it may transmute into another and another like a cascade.   This process has been described as  peeling off the layers of the emotional onion.  It is more of a dropping down through layers.

3) there is an opening to clarity about the feeling or emotion and to the subconscious thought from which it originates - what is described as a 'aha' moment.   This 'aha' moment may be linked to a memory or flashback to an early emotional event.  Now that we have access to the subconscious thought or belief -  'the old story' - we can get the impact of that.  With that awareness comes the power to choose what we want for ourselves rather than be held in reaction mode by the subconscious story.   With this comes the moment of transformation, of healing.

What you don’t know controls you.

What you do know changes you.

Emotions are the doorway and the path to healing.  With some guidance and support, you can learn from them and move through them to another level of awareness and well-being.

Overcoming Distress in Everyday Life
As a family physician I continually meet patients that come to me with physical complaints.  Almost 100% of the time, they only think of some pill or physical therapy that can help them feel better physically, not considering that if they felt better emotionally, they might feel better physically.  I am constantly amazed how little people consider  or are aware of  the emotional factors going on in their lives.

Here is an example of what I mean that happened one morning earlier this month with woman patient I met at a walk-in clinic where I was working.  When I first stepped into the examining room I noticed the patient (let me call her 'Nancy') was holding her head very stiffly and she appeared to be in pain.  Sure enough her story was that she woke a few days previously with a lot of muscle spasm and pain in her neck.  There was no physical reason for this - no strain or injury from the previous day.  She had taken over-the-counter muscle relaxant and anti-inflammatory medications, and even had had massage therapy, to no avail.  Her condition was worsening.  She was not sleeping, and her whole head was feeling tight and painful.  It was even painful to breath as it brought on more tension into her neck.

On my medical examination, I noted a lot of muscle spasm and tenderness in the neck area and upper back, and a marked reduction in her neck movement.  Nancy had very restricted movement of her neck equally to both right and left as well as upward and downward.  My medical diagnosis was straight forward - wry neck syndrome - spasm in the neck muscles limiting movement.

I could have stopped there, prescribed stronger medication and referred her back for more massage - the standard physical treatment plan.  However, I wanted to help Nancy uncover the reason for why she was experiencing wry neck at this time in her life.  Our conversation went something like this:

Dr. Johnson -  Tell me, have you been distressed lately by something?
Nancy -  Not more than usual.  ( but I don’t take this first response seriously. I ask again because I know how unaware people are.)
Doctor - Are you sure?  Was there possibly something that upset you the evening before the morning you woke with pain?  A phone conversation you had, for example?

Now Nancy is showing some emotion.  Her face has become flushed.  She is close to tears.   So I ask her what is happening for her.

Nancy -  My son called telling me that he didn’t think he could carry on with his marriage.  I fear they are going to separate.  They only just got settled in their community and they have a young child.  I asked my son to find a way to stay together.

(after a pause Nancy tells me more)

The thing is his wife is like a daughter and a friend.  I just don’t know what to do!

Doctor -  I see that if you move to help one, you pull support from the other.

Nancy - I feel caught in the middle.  I don’t know what to do.  I feel helpless.  I want my grandchild to have a full family.


Doctor - Do you not see that your neck condition is mirroring what is happening for you emotionally - being stuck in the middle, not being able to turn either left or right, or any which way?  (more tears from Nancy and nodding her head in agreement)

By this time Nancy is visibly moving her neck more fully and she confirmed that her level of pain and tension had lessened.  I went on to remind her that she could not fix the situation for her son and his family.  It wasn’t her job.  Nancy agreed that she had tended to try to sort out problems for others.  She had to let go and let 'God' (whatever her view of some higher power or grace).  The best she could do was send loving thoughts or prayers for the very best outcome for everyone concerned.

In addition to prescribing medication, I encouraged her to do some simple visualization and relaxation and to practice breathing deep and slow into her belly - using her diaphragm.  I could see she was breathing high up in her chest, using her neck and upper chest muscles to breath - a stress pattern of breathing that increases the tension in the neck muscles and is not effective in getting oxygen into the  bulk of the blood that flows in the bottom half of the lung.  More tension, less oxygen into the body means less energy, less ability to think, and more emotional stress - a natural vicious circle.   I told Nancy that I probably have helped more people with stress and anxiety by teaching them to use their diaphragm to breath than most every other 'treatment'.

The above true story demonstrates the intimate link between how we feel emotionally and how we are physically.  When we learn to heed the messages from both our emotions and our physical body, we open pathways to healing ourselves, not just for minor physical distress but for disease as well.

For more tips on overcoming adversity and support to face challenge in your life, I invite you to get a copy of a free ebook  called  Overcoming Adversity with Grace that I have contributed to, along with 35 other authors as part of our marketing for our  anthology of inspiring true stories coming out at the end of October.

My Wonderful Summer Holiday
I have just returned home from a fabulous, 'wonder full' 5-week holiday. For the first 21 days, I drove with a friend from Vancouver to Quebec City.  Truly an adventure of a lifetime for any Canadian.  I have been telling people that I feel like a  true blue, certified Canadian for the experience.  It was fun!

There were so many surprises on the trip.  The splendor of my home province of B.C. and the Rockies I was familiar with.  I was taken by surprise by the great variety of terrain of the prairies - the Badlands of central and southern Alberta, the huge expanse of sky in Saskatchewan, the changing fields and rolling hills - and the attractiveness of the several towns and cities we visited.  I would love to have lingered longer to explore the north shore of Lake Superior - its many fine beaches and wilderness parks and interesting towns -  and the region around Ottawa and the Gatineau.

Every where we went, my Quebec friend and I, we were touched by the friendliness and helpfulness of people.  Every where we were amazed by  the natural expansive beauty of our great country of Canada.

The remaining two weeks of my holiday, I spent in Quebec city and trips out from there.  I love the city and the province for all the history, culture and beauty and the 'joie de vivre' of  the people.  I feel at home there among my friend’s family and friends.  It’s a good feeling.

On the flight home I experienced a curious contrast - 21 days to drive out from Vancouver to Quebec and a mere 6-hour flight to return home!   My greatest thrill was to look down and see the land below and say - " I was there.  I drove through that land. "

As I settle into my everyday work life again, I asked myself - 'what is it about holidays that we love and find so relaxing and restorative?'  The answer that came to me was that holidays give us an extended experience of living life in the moment and with no other purpose than to be delighted, to have fun, to experience something new.  What a wonderful way to live life everyday!