Dr. Mitch Abrams: Open Heart Surgery, Coherence & Heart-Centered Medicine

Dr. Mitch (00:00) I required open heart surgery for this congenital heart condition. became patient. was a real turning point. Annie Wenmiao Yu (00:07) Dr. Mitch Abrams, of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Dr. Mitch (00:12) our healthcare model is literally like a production factory. It's a very industrialized model. It's time that we take the best of the it with the ancient wisdom of the inner experience. the science of transformation, we're really beginning to understand this new in medical science. We can call proactive or preventative the science of well-being, there truly is a science of change. how to tap into our peak potential if there is one word that I believe that could people's lives and to really the global trajectory it's WM Y (00:47) Quick note before we start, if you have enjoyed this podcast and want to support our incredible guests, please follow @lowtogrowpodcast on Instagram and TikTok. Annie Wenmiao Yu (01:40) Today's episode brings together wisdom, lived experience, and a powerful vision for what healthier lives and communities can look like. I am delighted to welcome Dr. Mitch Abrams, a a radiologist, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and the founder of NextGen Health. Now, Mitch's path took a profound turn early in his career when he was diagnosed with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, and underwent open heart surgery. That experience connected his work as a physician and patient, giving him a front row view of the disconnects that many of us can feel in the healthcare system and ultimately motivated his mission to bring more heart into how we care for ourselves and as each other. Through research, personal healing and innovative initiatives like the RADD Art and also Global Heart Sync projects, he is shaping a holistic approach to wellness that a lot of young professionals can actually apply in their daily lives today. So Mitch, it's a pleasure to have you on the Later Grow podcast. Dr. Mitch (02:43) A pleasure to be with you, Annie. Annie Wenmiao Yu (02:45) who do you want to be listening to our conversation today? Dr. Mitch (02:50) I think this content, this perspective, I think really speaks to people who are looking for change or experiencing change, experiencing questions about who they are and what they want out of life. And certainly to appreciate that in any given moment, we can change. And there is a science of transformation. So those who are looking for ways to shift perhaps their lives and looking for meaning in their life. Annie Wenmiao Yu (03:20) Hmm. Mitch, for you, where did your journey begin? Dr. Mitch (03:24) Well, you know, in one sense I could say it started before I was born, but I would say for today, we could say 2010 was a pivotal year in my life. had just started in fact practicing independent medicine as a radiologist, spent 15 years studying, and at that point I thought, you know, I was going to, I was on easy street. and finished my exams and started to work. was making a good wage and thought I, from the outside looking in, it was the epitome of success. And yet, very quickly after the excitement of finishing my exams, there was a sense of void within. And I found myself a bit like on a hamster wheel. And I didn't truly appreciate just how burned out. I was at that time until further along in the journey. journey. When I look back, I was kind of in a downward spiral. spiral. To top that off, I then found out I required open heart surgery for this for this congenital heart condition. And doctor became patient. And that was a real turning point. It was at that moment of experiencing myself in a way of such vulnerability. Certainly the doctors prepared me for the physical perspective of what I was about to go through as a surgical patient. But nobody warned me of the emotional tool. degree of change that I would experience in my mind, the stories that I was telling myself in that moment, it radically changed. it really caused me to, I mean, not only step off the hamster wheel, but I was really thrown off that wheel. And it forced me to look within and question my own sense of self, who I was, my purpose. And that sense of being so connected to that death, that mortality, being so close to it, that it changed the way that I approached life. And in that moment, I also began to appreciate that our healthcare system was very limited in scope. It was missing something fundamental. And so, This was all starting to happen as I came back to work. I was appointed the chief of our department. And so very quickly from the bottom up and top down, experiencing our entire healthcare model. And it was at that point where I had a real difficult time just. being with the status quo and being in a system that just didn't fit the values and knowing that there was something missing. It just so happened, you know, a few days before I found out I was going to need heart surgery, I had bought my very first guitar. I decided I was gonna pick up a new hobby and music really opened up something within me. Annie Wenmiao Yu (06:20) Hmm. Dr. Mitch (06:26) It was almost, to say that music and my healing journey were really, they go hand in hand. with the music, it really helped me find my heart if we wanna say the doctor is physically correcting my heart, it was the music that helped me connect with my energetic heart. And it opened something within myself and it was through that process that I really began to venture outside the box of conventional medicine and it opened a path towards a deeper sense of healing, a deeper healing from within. And that led me down a path of going to India and starting to explore how other cultures approached health and wellness. 2010 was a real pivotal year for me that kind of cracked, I guess, the shell that led to, you know, I guess here we are today. Annie Wenmiao Yu (07:18) That is indeed a pivotal year. Mitch, how would you describe yourself before 2010? And how do you feel that your experiences with open heart surgery and the whole shift in experience and mindset changed you afterwards? Dr. Mitch (07:34) Well, I guess in one word, I could say I was very unconscious. I was chasing ideas. What I defined as success was something very external. I was very, I guess, more of an individual ballistic frame of mind. When I look back now, I recognize that a lot of things that I was filling in my life were attempts to fill a void. void. And this radically changed after the heart surgery and certainly music helped me identify that void. I was catapulted on a journey of research and exploration to fill that void. So, yeah, that I would say, you know, kind of that unconscious person that really didn't appreciate who they truly were. And that, you know, it's a process. It took time for me to recognize, you know, perhaps a deeper truth that not only shifted, I guess, my own identity, but my understanding of my relationships with others. My relationship with something much greater than myself. Annie Wenmiao Yu (08:36) think that the awakening that you described moving from living life unconsciously, almost blindfolded to then having an event that really stimulates that awakening in you. that's something that quite a few of the people that I've interviewed on this podcast have mentioned. what you were mentioning earlier about being on that hamster wheel. So going through your medical exams, going through the motions of building your career in medicine and becoming a radiologist, which has a really well defined career path. I feel like a lot of the young professionals, know, my friends included kind of always almost all have to go through that process in their life. So from leaving university to then starting out from that first career. I wanted to ask you because, for you having open heart surgery, that obviously had profound impact on you physically but also on your spiritual path as well. what was it about having open heart surgery that actually stimulated you into becoming awake and into wanting to explore more? Dr. Mitch (09:34) Hmm. That's a great question. It felt like a reset, like a reboot to my system. when I think about it intellectually, put under anesthesia and having your heart literally stop, you're essentially experiencing death. And you are dependent upon a machine, external devices to keep the tissues, in a sense alive. Annie Wenmiao Yu (09:52) Mm-hmm. Dr. Mitch (09:59) and nourished, but yet there's no consciousness. You are essentially dead. That experience for me as I came out of it and as I began to appreciate what just happened and at the end of the time, and immediately afterwards, feeling the body in a way that I never experienced before. Being so vulnerable experiencing compassion from others such a deep level where I could really feel it. There wasn't any exterior Barriers because there just was none there was no capacity for my mind or my body to create any sort of barrier So to feel people in a much deeper way it just made me feel myself in a much deeper way way. The sense of going back to work and starting to realize that our system like how our healthcare model is is literally like literally like a production know, factory. It's a very industrialized model. And when I thought about how patients and the way that we were analyzing the efficiency of our own department, looking at numbers and not really appreciating the patients and, you know, why would some numbers be, from one month to the next? Like if we were not efficient not taking into account, well, maybe there's some really difficult patients that were coming through that required more care. None of that was integrated into the system to appreciate the quality. It was all quantity. Just as an interesting story that when I was the chief of our department, I was sent to a conference in Boston around quality management and healthcare. And we were talking a lot about Toyota, the automobile. industry, how you can extrapolate lean quality management into healthcare. you know, it really kind of hit hard to say that we're not, you know, people are not cars. We're not inanimate objects. are the vibe, know, driving organisms. And certainly the science is telling us just how important compassion is for, the process of healing. there was just such a disconnect. That internally really spoke to me. in that experience, certainly the healing process, in a way I still feel I'm healing. I mean, it's a continuous growth. And once you begin to experience your heart at such a level, you start to appreciate that the heart is constantly receiving, it's constantly growing. And for us to be able to take that time to tune it in, tune it into our conscious awareness, learn to respect the heart, the intelligence of the heart, and how it can help you self-regulate, how it can help you connect to something much greater than yourself so that you can receive the messages you can receive information and certainly, the quantum physics of today is telling us that we are all deeply connected to something much greater than ourself at an informational level. And then I believe that it's the heart that allows us to tap in to this divine experience. And for me, I felt like that was the missing one of the large missing pieces within our healthcare paradigm and I couldn't just sit idle by and not share this with colleagues, not share this with health practitioners to say, look we can do better. And in fact, here's the science that's starting to catch up with this ancient wisdom. It's time that we take the best of the West and weave it with the the ancient wisdom of the inner experience. the science of transformation, we're really beginning to understand this new in medical science. We We can call it proactive or preventative medicine or the science of well-being, but there there truly is a science of change. how to navigate change, how to tap into our peak potential and you know if there is one word that I believe that could change people's lives and to really the global trajectory it's it's coherence and help people truly and what coherence means to themselves to their own health and wellness to their relationships and ultimately to the world. Annie Wenmiao Yu (14:09) For someone who might not be aware, what does coherence mean and how does it apply to them and their experience of the world? Dr. Mitch (14:17) there are many definitions that you can look at, different lenses, but from a very scientific perspective, coherence is when you have two systems that get in sync with each other and they can begin to feed into each other and it a very strong, efficient system. Now, when it applies to our own health and wellness, we can think of coherence in the nervous system. So if you look at the two arms of the autonomic nervous system, your sympathetic arm, and your parasympathetic arm, these are the two arms that will balance your fight or flight or your stress response and your rest and digest and relaxation response. And when you're in a nice state of coherence, these two arms are in perfect balance. So the tones of each arm are activated in nice sequence as opposed to being incoherent where your nervous system is completely irregular and erratic. So if you look at the tone of both sympathetic and parasympathetic, it becomes very irregular and erratic. And what's fascinating is that the heart is really Annie Wenmiao Yu (15:22) Hmm. Dr. Mitch (15:26) can be measured in a way that reflects the internal balance of the autonomic nervous system. system. When you cultivate that state of coherence, we can measure it in the heart rhythms. Like a muscle, the mind really does function similar to the muscles in our body, so that the more that we practice certain techniques that cultivate this physiologic energetic state, the more that we practice, the easier it is to cultivate, the more effective the results. There's a famous Harvard cardiologist, Dr. Herbert Benson, he called it the relaxation effect. And he was studying, he was one of the first physicians to study Buddhist monks with a variety of different technology to recognize the fact that we each have this conscious ability. to tap into a higher level of awareness, which then puts us into a state of optimal physiology. If you were to think about the fight or flight response and the stress and what that does to the body and how chronic stress literally is, it destroys the body and manifests in disease, the relaxation effect is not just putting you back at a zero point, it's putting you into a positive, energetic state that literally up levels your biology or physiology, but also it expands your mental awareness, your consciousness. Coherence is something that is a radical game changer. And, you know, many ways again that you can look at it. But when we are in coherence individually, we can also support the coherence for other people. And again, we can measure that collective coherence. We can measure that co-regulation as they call it in the literature. And there is a degree of synchronization of our nervous systems and our hearts when we experience deep connection and compassion with others. The implication in medicine is profound. The implication in social wellbeing is profound. And when We are together in a state of coherence. We are literally unlocking potential on a both individual and on a collective level. Annie Wenmiao Yu (17:40) Can I ask then, how do you measure coherence, either for an individual or for a group? Dr. Mitch (17:46) So on an individual level, we're measuring it through heart rate variability. So heart monitors can measure the interbeat intervals. So it's not heart rate per se, but if you were to zoom in to an electrocardiograph and you start measuring every individual beat interval and you plotted that out, you'd see a curve that emerges and that is information that reflects your emotional state, your thoughts and your emotions. And so the heart rate variability is a fantastic metric that not only explains or at least encodes information of your emotions and how you're experiencing life, but overall it also speaks to your physiologic health, your cellular health and how much flexibility does your biology and physiology have. So as we get older, heart rate variability decreases, and so it's harder to respond to external stimuli, hence we're more vulnerable, if you don't have flexibility in your heart, then you're much more susceptible to a heart attack, because you don't have that ability to be fluid at the moment. So heart rate variability is a key factor for an individual, and we can also measure that heart rate synchronization between people. So you can measure collective coherence. There's another level of coherence that's also being measured. it's called the Global Conscious Project. It was started by Dr. Roger Nelson in Princeton back in the late 80s. Dr. Nelson has recently retired and he's handed the baton to Dr. Roland McCready. at the HeartMath Institute. they are using random number generators that basically can measure the quantum field. years and years ago, was understood, scientists realized that when people are focused with intention on these little computers, these little random number generators, like little electronic coin flippers, that individual thoughts, people focusing on them, could actually shift and create a statistically significant shift in the output of the information from these random number generators. So they started to plant random number generators all around this planet and collecting the information into a central database. So now you're looking at a global network of information from random number generators and the research has shown that when large groups of people together at the same time with an emotional charge or connected at the same time, that there's a statistically significant non-random event that emerges from that global network. There's a sense of coherence in the data. So now imagine all the coins just now become heads. And this again is occurring as a result of Annie Wenmiao Yu (20:40) Hmm. Dr. Mitch (20:44) many people focused with emotion at the same time. So it's starting to show that when we are coherent and when we are connected, that that emotional energy on a collective level can add more coherence into the global field network. And so it's showing that, our thoughts actually does affect the physical world. it's powerful. Annie Wenmiao Yu (21:11) think you shared the link with me before and I've looked a bit into it and I've read around some of the debates surrounding it as well. What are some of the misconceptions that you think people have of that particular project? Dr. Mitch (21:23) I think people have a hard time appreciating that there is a sense of connection. So they see this as woo-woo. And the easiest way, mean look, as a radiologist, mean think about what I do. I literally will read an MRI scan of someone's brain and we are extracting information from the light of your atoms. Annie Wenmiao Yu (21:29) Hmm. Dr. Mitch (21:50) You are an energetic being. We are all beings of light. We're all spiritual beings having a human experience. And the Nobel Prize of 2022 in physics was awarded to three gentlemen that experimentally, not theoretically, but experimentally proved that yes, we are all in a quantum entangled non-local universe. And so... the implications involved in understanding what this science is telling us. With you're still looking at the world through a lens of an Isaac Newtonian perspective of separation where your atoms and your little bits are separate from my bits, that's only part of the story. When you continue down the science, you begin to appreciate, wow, we are so deeply connected and each and every one of us is connected to something much greater than ourselves. And so when you look at that, when you look at the science, even if you just think about, well, just think about how an MRI machine can non-invasively dissect the human body like a loaf of bread without a scalpel. It's because there is an energy field where all vibrational beings, and from that lens, it makes very inherent sense, like why that global consciousness can be measured. I encourage people to look into the science. look at Dr. Roger Nelson's work because when you start to see over the decades of data, and that's a lot, there's so much data, it shows that there's no doubt that we have created, like an electroencephalograph that can measure the brain waves from someone's head, which is the result of the billions of action potentials, the little neurons in our brain collectively communicating in somewhat of a coherent fashion. creating waves of energy from the brain, we are individually functioning like the little brain cells on a global ecosystem level. And we are now measuring that. I urge people to pay attention, tune in, because the implications for their own wellbeing, because everybody is in their own right, so inherently powerful. we can claim our inner agency by understanding connection, how to connect to our own hearts, and through that we connect with others. And again, this is measurable on an individual and as a global collective level. Annie Wenmiao Yu (24:15) And how does this link to your Global Dr. Mitch (24:20) So the Global Heart Sync is a not-for-profit platform and it's a way that we can gamify the science of heart. when individuals sign up, they receive a toolkit, they learn how to tune into their heart and cultivate the state of coherence through this, what we call the laser protocol. you also receive a free phone app that you can download that turns your phone into a real-time biofeedback tool. you can now measure. It uses your camera to read the pulsations and the capillaries in your fingertip. So you literally just hold your camera, the phone on your finger, and it will begin to trace the pulsations, which in turn allows the app to measure your heart rate variability. And what's unique about this is that, Annie Wenmiao Yu (24:48) how does that work? Dr. Mitch (25:09) There are many products on the market like the Oura Ring or the Apple Watch that reads heart rate variability, but what's unique about this app is that it shows you in real time. It's not a snapshot of the past. It's what's happening in your heart in the moment. So now you can watch how your thoughts and emotions will affect your heart rhythms. And so when you learn the laser protocol, you get laser focused, you can begin to see how your heart rhythms respond and you can cultivate coherence, you can measure it, and now you can begin to track your progress over time. get the tools to maximize your own practices for well-being, but at the same time, depending upon how long you use the app and your coherence levels, you will earn points. At this early iteration of the app, what happens is that your points is being collected into a global pool. And when we collectively reach milestones, it will unlock corporate sponsorships that will support mental health and resilience programs for communities in need and in schools and for research. So this again is a way that we can gamify the science of heart. It helps people appreciate that self-care can now create real world social impact. And through this platform, people will begin to recognize this emerging global heart stream through our understanding of our own hearts and how we are part of a collective identity. Annie Wenmiao Yu (26:42) Hmm, I think it's so interesting that you can see your individual data for kind of like HRV heart rate variability and also the collective. I'm curious what kind of sponsorships would the collective points unlock? Dr. Mitch (26:55) points really represent your dedication to self-care and for this recognition, this love of common humanity. So we're beginning to approach corporations to say, look, you have a corporate social responsibility program. You've got lots of dollars. You can exchange dollars for these points. And you can help us celebrate our wins. Annie Wenmiao Yu (27:12) Mm-hmm. Dr. Mitch (27:19) individually and collectively. And what's interesting about this is that if you could imagine a big corporation that will support this growing community, the programs that would be then delivered, let's say to a certain community, a not-for-profit community that the corporation is already supporting, or let's say some of their local schools, they will learn about the science of heart. They'll get tapped into the global coherent community. And same organizations also have the opportunity to have organizational health programs to teach their employees how to tune into their hearts. Now it creates a bridge where the organization and employees, as they practice their own health and wellbeing, and the organization will benefit because that taps them into greater innovation and creativity, but they can also do it in community with the community that they are just supported in this initiative. So now imagine having opportunities to synchronize hearts with the schools, with the communities that they've just supported. What brand, what corporation would not want an opportunity to connect with the communities that they serve at such a deep energetic level? And just to say that the research shows us that When you have this deep physiologic synchronization of rhythms, you cultivate a deep sense of empathy and connection. You cultivate communities, really the science of connection. So from a corporate mindset, this is a great opportunity where you combine your organizational health, you combine corporate social responsibility, and then there's a whole other level of marketing around it because now they're being associated. and associate themselves with an initiative that's all about the science of Insurance companies will love this because the data shows that if you get people practicing this technique, cultivating coherence, they have better health outcomes. That's a huge in the mind of healthcare executive. So you can begin to see why corporations are gonna want support this community that recognizes that it's not just you versus me, this is an us. This is the new era, new level of consciousness, and we are in a moment of great transformation. this is an opportunity for corporations to be seen as a higher level of awareness for individuals and our communities. Annie Wenmiao Yu (29:55) How would someone know if they have activated their heart? Dr. Mitch (30:00) Well, it's a good question. I think everybody is on a journey. Everyone is on a path. Some people describe moments where they have an experience where their heart feels like it's exploding. It feels like it's exploding with light and love. Some people feel like there's just a moment where there is time of recognition that created a sense of intention, of real change, an intention to pivot at their own trajectory and realize that there's something more to life, there's something more to their story than what they can just see and feel in this moment. And, you know, it's a great question, Annie. I think everybody is on a journey. Everybody has their own story. And I think when people begin to appreciate that there's a new story emerging, a story of the heart, which not only helps make better sense of each individual story and the narratives that we tell ourselves, There's gonna be a radical shift that empowers the individual. It will empower people. When people tune in and be like, my, like really? That's what the body can do when you learn how to align the mind and the body and emotion, that energy. I believe that it inspires people to say, I wanna learn more. I wanna walk down this path. And if we can say, if you just, Pay attention over here, there's a new door. There's a new chapter emerging. Here's our hand. Here's opportunities like the Global Heart Syncs for you to walk through that door, but ultimately, we can only access this information through the experience. There's no pill. There's no external device. This is our inner, this is our birthright. It's within us to experience from the inside out. people, when they begin to have that curiosity and that intention, they find themselves on this path and then eventually they really feel something inside that shifts. there's millions of people now experiencing that, they're talking about it and to say, look, and just to share that the physics is showing us that we're part of a very holographic perspective of reality, of information that we're an expression of. And the fact that we're having this conversation, the fact that there are millions of people describing these moments of transformation and change, you know, it means that there are many, many more people experiencing this. It's rising to a level of consciousness because we're inherently connected. And certainly now the internet and some of the movies that we're watching is opening our minds to broader perspectives of reality that we just didn't appreciate, decades ago. Annie Wenmiao Yu (32:56) Hmm. Earlier, you mentioned how your journey to India and also how music and especially playing the guitar was tools that helped you to start activating your own heart and reaching that higher level of consciousness. How did you develop the methodology behind the Global Heart-SyncProject? Dr. Mitch (33:15) a journey. Annie Wenmiao Yu (33:16) What was it like at the beginning? Because I guess in the early 2010s, this was still a really new concept. And for you as someone who's trained in Western a particular, scientific framework, how do people react to it when you first started talking about it? Dr. Mitch (33:17) I think, Yai. Well, I think first came the inner awareness, the inner development phase. And that really came about, like I said, music started the process, opened something up within, and then there was a moment of experience. And the best way to really describe this is I experienced something that transcended space and time, and it's something that has just never left. Annie Wenmiao Yu (33:38) Mm-hmm. Dr. Mitch (33:58) my body, something that's never left my mind. This happened before I went to India. as I started to dive deeper into that experience, I started to witness changing, you know, the change in my mind, the change in my experience. And eventually had opportunity to go to India. And it was in India where I realized that there was a discipline of science that was describing what I was experiencing. And it wasn't until later that I found out that, particularly in India, they say, look, music and spirituality are not two separate things. They're really one thing. And when you listen to music, when you create music, it can create a expansion of inner spaciousness, of inner space. And that spaciousness, if you could think of it like consciousness, a level of experience and awareness. And as I continue to spend time in India and learn from a variety of different practitioners and spending time with communities, diving into a variety of different experimental practices , and looking to see what are these What does this ancient scripture say? That learning process from an intellectual but also from the experiential really cultivated this new understanding of myself, my relationships to the world, and keep in mind my quantum physics perspective, my radiology brain really helped me understand that the energy that was being discussed in ancient times is the same energy that we're using in modern science and constitutes all of us and the world that we're living in. in. It created such a, I guess, a change. eventually there is a moment where, I'm a visual thinker, so from the very first day, I started to put together slideshows and images that helped me describe. I didn't even have the words for it, but I was able to find images to put together the stories that I was experiencing. And through years, I was able to refine and refine what I was learning in the Far East and what I understood from the West, like how to bring these two worlds together to say, no. Science and spirituality, they're not two ends of the spectrum. It's one circle. We just have to take a moment to step back far enough and you'll begin to experience it. You can recognize it as a whole. Before I even started giving talks, I designed this image, this, I guess, artistic expression of modern science and ancient wisdom. I call it the medicinal mandala and it incorporates the vector equilibrium, what Buckminster Fuller described as a system of perfect balanced energy. that vector equilibrium is superimposed on the lotus flower, which is an ancient symbol for thousands of years, always representing the science of mind and interconnectedness. And you can see in the image that the vector equilibrium representing modern science and wisdom overlaid with the lotus flower, how they flow into each other. Through that piece of art, I was able to begin describing this perspective. I remember, I think it was in 2016, did a staff wellness program at the hospital because I recognized that burnout was, rampant and our department was really struggling with stress. I did a simple 45-minute little lunch and learn. I shared with them this geometry and then I gave them colouring tools. So I had different mandalas. Now that they understood the science behind it, I provided and I left all these colouring tools in their lunchroom. And within two weeks, people were coloring these because coloring it also puts the brainwaves into a nice therapeutic frequency, but also there is now meaning and context behind what they were doing. And the next thing I know, they started to decorate the halls of our department with their mandalas. And it just changed the vibe of our entire department. Annie Wenmiao Yu (38:08) Hmm. Dr. Mitch (38:11) not just amongst the staff, you can imagine now patients are coming in, they started asking questions, started the curiosity, and it shifted the way that our department felt. And within weeks, I was asked to start giving talks to different departments in the hospital, then occupational therapists and physiotherapists started using the coloring again for themselves, but also for their patients, patients who have had closed head injuries or strokes. that hand-eye coordination and that concentration, like there was multiple levels that was therapeutic that this little simple exercise created. I recognized just how infectious this conversation was and how we could use art to describe this fascinating intersection and this moment of transformation. Now, Annie Wenmiao Yu (38:50) Hmm. Dr. Mitch (39:01) Keep in mind, as I continued this path and I was starting to be offered to go to conferences and speak on this in a variety of different venues, when I spoke to the physicians, I found it fascinating that early on, I'd say there was a 50-50 split. Some of the people in the room were all in. They were totally engaged and they really resonated. Whereas the other half, thought, they couldn't grasp it. They couldn't connect with it. And obviously over the years the message has been continually refined. There's new research to layer on top of this conversation. But fast forward to today, where there is a hunger for it. Now we have physicians that will come up and ask, how can we be involved? What research can I get involved in? How can we incorporate it for our patients? I think this appetite comes from the fact that doctors recognize that they're dealing with a mental health epidemic. And the research has shown some pretty significant statistics to say, look, if suicide is the only cause of death higher amongst doctors compared to the communities they serve, it's time to tune in to our own, collective wellbeing and our own individual wellbeing as practitioners to be able to serve our patients. that has really shifted the conversation, but also the Nobel Prize in 2022. mean, and just to say, look, you know, a surgeon, you know, they don't know how an MRI machine works. They send all their patients to us. Everybody's urgent. But the moment you start asking them, oh, think about it. Just stop and think. What are we doing in that department? You use a scalpel blade, but what are we using in diagnostic imaging? It now helps them realize, oh, maybe there's something that we. don't see an energy that we don't appreciate and it is there and it has significant impact to healing, significant impact to their own health and well-being. And so just to say it's been a really interesting journey to see how there's been a shift of the mindset of the healthcare community looking at how quantum physics is going to change the paradigm in medicine. Annie Wenmiao Yu (41:13) Do you think that there's a difference in how receptive physicians are, whether they're a more Western country or whether they're coming from a more Eastern country? Dr. Mitch (41:25) my time in India, I spent time, physicians, visiting hospitals, you know, and it's a very Western focused medical model as well. I mean, India certainly has an Ayurvedic stream, that, you know, millions of people are invested in, but there's still a Westernized model of medicine that exists. Annie Wenmiao Yu (41:41) Mm-hmm. Dr. Mitch (41:46) But what's interesting is that kind of sprinkled into the Western model, there are aspects of this understanding of connection and how to weave it into their medical model. Now that being said, I've also spent time, for example, for those of you who know Vipassana, you know, the 10-day silent retreats. I went to my first 10 day retreat in India. I was, I think, one of two white people, in this entire, 10 day retreat. And the conversations I was having is that, you know, were, one, they were surprised to see somebody, you know, a foreigner there, because they themselves, said, you know, this is very new to them. Even though that they, grew up with the stories and the mysticism and mythology of the stories, the science, the true science of understanding the power of the mind and the power of consciousness has almost as if been kind of left behind in a way as Western science took over for a period of time. And certainly there's a resurgence. There is a definite resurgence that's taking place, there's more interest and modern researchers are studying biology in a context that they can now get direction from, for instance, Chinese medical doctors, Chinese medicine or Aryurvedic medicine. Aryurvedic Medicine. There is now this fascinating time where research and ancient wisdom, they're starting to now connect. You know, as Nikola Tesla said, the moment that scientists begin to study the non-physical, we're going to advance in our knowledge more than we have in all decades and centuries in the past. This is what's happening now. Annie Wenmiao Yu (43:30) Super interesting. Why is it that, practitioners of Western medicine are, only now able to learn from those practicing, more Eastern Dr. Mitch (43:43) one important aspect to appreciate is that in the Western model of medicine, there was a very prominent perspective called the biomedical model, which basically describes you as a physical being, physical, and we can add pills, medication, we can take a scalpel blade and cut things out. Annie Wenmiao Yu (43:52) Mm-hmm. Dr. Mitch (44:03) and we look at you as just in the physical form, but it doesn't truly appreciate the deeper level of emotion and connection. So from the biomedical model, now we have what we call the biopsychosocial model, BPS. And biopsychosocial really is a fancy way to say mind, body, and spirit. with the lens of quantum physics, when you look at the biopsychosocial model, you begin to see that the Annie Wenmiao Yu (44:22) Hmm. Dr. Mitch (44:30) depth involved and you begin to see that why the sense of connection to self and to others so paramount to healing and it's not just the healing of the individual and our ability to thrive but it's the ability of the collective to heal the ability of the collective to thrive because now the biopsychosocial it's well accepted and we have technology that we can begin to measure these inner states. in functional MRI scans, we can see how the brain reacts when we cultivate coherence. We can see like, wow, your HRV curve, your heart rhythms will synchronize with your brain waves. We can see this. And so when we begin to show the science behind coherence, behind spirituality, doctors, think, now are ready and more willing to accept and to listen. Now keep in mind, when I give talks, it's not uncommon. Doctors undoubtedly, they'll come up to me they They'll thank me because it's like I gave them permission, to now have an open conversation of something that they felt for quite some time, that spiritual energy within that they just felt like they could not share with colleagues, they can't share it. you know with patients because it too soft, too woo woo. It wasn't enough to see, you can't see it. So now this new narrative helps and it provides people the tools to discuss it in a more serious way, in a very intellectual way, but more importantly, yes, intellect is great to understand the science, but I tell them, look, you don't have to understand this to experience it. You don't know how your car works, but you can experience. Annie Wenmiao Yu (45:50) Hmm. Dr. Mitch (46:14) the drive, you can experience driving. You don't know how an MRI machine works, but you experience the knowledge in patient care. to say that now there's definitely an openness for people to engage with this conversation. And doctors are really looking for new ways. I think they recognize as well that the pendulum has swung so far towards big pharma and how the system is. is literally hand feeding information and knowledge and education to the medical community in a way that is so one sided. It's created such an, you know, it's so out of balance. And this science helps bring that pendulum back to a point where we can say, okay, yes, in certain scenarios, medication and things are very good, but let's also begin to explore the inner agency that each and every one of us harbors from within. If we can activate our own vagus nerve which is really key in activating that parasympathetic rest and digest, like you're consciously activating your energetic system within the body. Whereas big pharma is literally taking needles, putting it into people's necks and then invasively, activating that vagus nerve. Well, you don't need a needle shoved in your neck. You just need time to tune into your heart. Annie Wenmiao Yu (47:31) Hmm. Dr. Mitch (47:34) And so this is where think modern science is taking us and doctors are, there's a real openness. Like I get emails now all the time, randomly people from around the world say, hey, this really speaks to me. Like, this is really exciting. I've known this. All I'm doing is help put the dots together so now a new narrative emerges so that all of this fascinating science in variety of different fields creates a narrative so that we appreciate it's not necessarily all siloed. There's an interconnectedness to all things. And we are part of the story. We are the information and we are experiencing the whole and the whole is experiencing itself through us. Annie Wenmiao Yu (48:16) sounds like you are weaving many, siloed fields I guess taking on board the current understanding of the human body and also mind as well. Dr. Mitch (48:26) Absolutely. can I just say, Annie, just going back to something that you asked early on, what was I like prior? I said, very unconscious, but just to say, this was none I was not this guy. I I was happy go lucky. I was very science minded, going into medicine and going into radiology. was a science first type of guy, but I was not interested in any of this. This was. Annie Wenmiao Yu (48:31) Mm-hmm. Dr. Mitch (48:51) I mean, if you were to tell me then that we're gonna have a conversation around consciousness, and I'd be like, what are you talking about? What? What is that? Like, what are you, you know, and meditation I thought was a bit of a, you know, was a joke, you know, so just to say that the science of mind and transformation and all of this stuff that we're talking about, yes, it's really cool to understand, but once you experience it internally, everybody's on their own. Everyone's designed for a purpose and have beautiful gifts to share with the world. And so when you tune into your hearts, that's when you can tap in and you can really learn how to flourish, how to blossom from the inside out so that you can find purpose, understand purpose, and find ways to share it with the world. Because it's through your own passion and purpose that we find success and success. is inevitable when you are in service of others through your passion and purpose. Annie Wenmiao Yu (49:51) Mitch, for any of our listeners, after listening to this, might really want connect with their heart and find that purpose. What are some of the actionable things that they can do in order to start that process internally? Dr. Mitch (50:04) I would say coherence. Find a way to bring coherence in your life. And there are many ways. are many ways. I think the first thing to do is take 20 minutes and listen to this TED talk, Medicine of Frequencies, What Did Einstein Mean? Because in that talk, not only will it describe coherence, but you'll also begin to see the geometry Annie Wenmiao Yu (50:08) Mm-hmm. Dr. Mitch (50:25) you'll recognize not only through Mother Nature, but you begin to recognize it within yourself, and you'll begin to appreciate this deep sense of connection. That can then bring you to the door. Then you gotta practice. The magic is in the experience. it can be for some people taking a walk in nature, taking time for self to contemplate on connection. and just to listen, listen to how the body feels. Otherwise, another opportunity, and I say this, I provide free heart coherence meditations Monday to Friday, every day, Monday to Friday, 6 p.m. Eastern time, and people are welcome to join, and you literally come, you stay for as little or as long as you like, and you practice coherence with a growing community who are dedicated to their inner transformation, inner growth, but also because we are recognizing our common humanity. Now when you do these techniques, when you cultivate coherence, it's really important to appreciate that you are creating an interstate of balance so that when you think about things that are happening in your life that may be emotionally triggering or maybe it's trauma that is residing within the body, The coherence allows you to experience it. You can embody those emotions without getting triggered. much of the emotional trauma that many people are harboring within their body, it gets stuck in their nervous system and it creates cycles. It's very unconscious. And it keeps us in this elevated hyper stimulated state of, you know, sympathetic fight or flight drive. Coherence allows us to dampen that system, creates almost like a buffer or stripping perhaps the paint from the canvas so that you recognize that you are the pure potential of canvas and the paint is really just the stories that we've been telling ourselves and the experiences of the past and we can begin to learn from it. We can begin to observe it so that we can witness the experience and the emotions within the body and by witnessing the emotions, you are now allowing it to be released. It transforms, it changes. The narratives that we've held onto those experiences and those sensations, they change. coherence is part of the process of becoming self-compassionate so that we can heal from the inside Annie Wenmiao Yu (52:59) how does this link to, I guess, psychotherapy? Because what you're describing there sounds quite similar to what Gestalt has said about the human standing in a field and all the past trauma, know, unfinished conversations with people, unfinished business, they're of like figures arising out of that field around you that you need to deal with. in order to release the trauma? Dr. Mitch (53:22) 100%. Psychotherapy in my mind is really helping people give the tools and the mindset, the way of understanding and thinking in terms that puts you back into coherence with your true authentic self, your true perspective, and your connection to something greater than self. psychotherapy has many tools. Heart coherence is one tool that's very valuable. Annie Wenmiao Yu (53:34) Hmm. Dr. Mitch (53:47) that can help people reach this authenticity, and deep connection. yeah, psychotherapy, as I like to think, it's all interconnected, it's all one. Annie Wenmiao Yu (53:58) For sure. Mitch, what is one thing that you believe will allow more people to have better mental health? Dr. Mitch (54:06) Practice the research shows even if you practice coherence 20 minutes a day, it can structurally change your body, your mind. If you look at some of the work that's coming out of UC San Diego, it's clear as day that you practice these techniques and you radically change, you become a different person. person. I would have to say, look, take time. Recognize that we are being pulled in so many directions with social media and the chaos of what's going on in the world. There many competing narratives. And just to say that I believe, it's my belief that there are certain organizations that have vested interests in capturing your consciousness. Everyone's vying for your attention. it can lead you down certain paths. And I think that the most important path is your own path. And I think the only way, the only way particularly in this day and age of no accountability and fake news and deep fakes and all this, the craziness is that you have to connect with your heart. There is a deep intelligence. We can see it in the science, but certainly don't take my word for it. You take the time and you will learn a truth. you will experience a truth, an inner wisdom. But without practice, without experience, you know, it's one going in one ear out the other, and it leaves you susceptible to narratives that are not your own, and it's narratives that are very manipulative, and it feeds conflict, it feeds, you know, a you versus me narrative, because to divide is to conquer. So I really hope that people will, first thing is just make that true deep sense, know, sense of intention for change. Annie Wenmiao Yu (56:00) Well, Mitch, thank you so much for sharing that and for leading the work with the Global Heart Sync project. also thank you for sharing your own individual experiences of your journey and also the growth and also the levels that you have unlocked within yourself as you have spent more time to reach coherence. So thank you very much. It has been a pleasure to have you on the Low To Grow podcast. Dr. Mitch (56:23) Thank you, Annie. Pleasure sharing.