Our beings have a tremendous capacity to self-regulate. When something is off, our body sends us signals. If we don't pay attention to these signals, the body turns up the volume. I came to learn this all too well. In my case, the volume got cranked to 11.

Throughout my childhood, the person who meant the most to me was my grandpa. Our connection wasn't something you could put into words, but the image of us together spoke volumes. Everyone could see and feel it when we were together. When I was ten, he passed away.

I was devastated. I cried almost non-stop for days, weeks on end. Then one day I stopped. It wasn't that my sadness was gone. I just couldn't cope anymore, and I shut down emotionally.

Jumping ahead ten years to my time as a student at university, I went one day for a doctor's appointment. After just a few minutes and without explanation, he told me to immediately go to the hospital.

When I got to Emergency, I found out that he had called ahead and had me fast-tracked for admission and testing. After a frantic 24 hours that wore my nerves raw, I finally was told what was going on. I had a brain tumor.

This happened in late November. I was told later that if it hadn’t been found when it was, I wouldn't have made it to the new year.

The medical establishment had no explanation for what caused my condition and chalked it up to a mutant gene. It was that lack of an explanation that set me onto a path to find a better answer.

As I came to realize, the real cause of my tumor was the trauma and emotion that had been pent up inside of me for all those years. And it wasn't just from my grandpa's passing.

My pain fueled a fear of being hurt, of losing someone so dear to me again. I vowed that I wouldn't let anyone get close enough to hurt me. My solution was to put up walls around my heart. And while this shielded me from harm from the outside, it also served to trap me inside where my feelings could ruminate, fester and feed my fear so it would build and grow.

In a strange way I am grateful for this experience, because it led me down this path of exploration where I discovered the power of our thoughts and emotions have over us and the effects of their resulting beliefs and behavior patterns.

Today I'm committed to helping others avoid the pitfalls that I endured, to 'wake up' and take control of their lives. Since 2000 I have worked with more than 7,500 people to help them release their blocks, establish healthier beliefs and behaviors, and consciously transform their lives.