Medical science is discovering what many holistic therapists have always known to be true what you think has a real impact on your body.

Last week I was in New York City and went to a lecture by the renowned holistic doctor Deepak Chopra.

He was on tour with his latest book, 'Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul How to Create a New You'.

He explained that scientists have now proven that by simply thinking divine thoughts, such as peace, equanimity, harmony and love, you can actually change the physical structure of your brain.

What happens first, he said, is that your body changes the physical structure of your genes.

Our bodies have about 30,000 genes and recent research has shown physical change in 500 human genes simply through thought.

According to Dr. Chopra, the ability to change 500 of them is significant and has real implications in our ability to heal ourselves.

The thrust of his lecture was that such findings open us to infinite possibilities in not only healing ourselves but understanding ourselves and consciousness.

Bermudian doctor Marion Watlington offers her patients a similar view.

Dr. Watlington was one of the presenters at a recent mini-symposium on breast cancer hosted by pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, PALS and Live Well Bermuda.

She encouraged the audience to examine their thought processes and relationships, and work at making them positive and harmonious.

Her advice was to engage in positive activities and to live, not to give up and feel beaten by disease.

"When you help people to live their lives and empower them, you start to make a mockery of the statistics that are being handed to you," she said. "View the diagnosis as a wake-up call."

She said living a meaningful life was what is really important. "It takes time to admit that we are all mortal beings.

Most of us live life like we have forever, but in actual fact I could go out on the road today and this could be my last day," she said. "We have to live. Life is precious and meaningful and not to be taken for granted. It's about life being profoundly changed," she added.

And she offered the audience practical means by which to change their thought patterns to ones that keep the body healthy and boost the immune system. She suggested the following test from the book 'Faith Hope and Healing' by Bernie Siegel to discover if you have an immune competent personality.

According to Dr. Watlington, if you answer the following nine questions correctly, you have a chance of boosting your immune system so that it can protect your body from chronic disease including Aids and breast cancer.

1. Do I have a sense of meaning in my life, family activity, work and relationships?

2. Am I able to express anger appropriately in defence of myself?

3. Am I able to ask friends and family for support when I am feeling lonely and troubled?

4. Am I able to ask friends and family for favours when I need them?

5. Am I able to say no to someone who asks for a favour if I can't or don't feel like doing it?

6. Do I engage in health-related behaviours based on my own needs that I have defined instead of someone else's ideas or prescription?

7. Do I have enough play in my life?

8. Do I find myself depressed for long periods during which I feel hopeless about changing conditions that cause me to feel this way?

9. Am I dutifully fulfilling a prescribed role in my life to the detriment of my own needs?

The correct answer to the first seven questions is yes and the last two, no.

"If you answered some wrong then you know where to work. It's empowering," said Dr. Watlington. "Your immune system is so responsive to your attitude. Your attitude is responsive to your mind. But you have to take charge. This is the wake-up call. It's all about taking charge."

She also offered the following:

1. Pay attention to the many ways in your life people show their caring. Sometimes it isn't how you want them to care, but maybe they are [doing what] they can. We know people who are accompanied by loved ones to [hospital] procedures feel less physical pain and have a lot less psychological pain, so bring your loved ones along to the scary things in your life.

2. Choose to stay in the moment.

3. Realise everything is ripe with possibility. Give up the worry. Foster an attitude of gratitude.

4. Hold onto your dreams. Recognise what it is you wanted to do with your life and make it happen.

5. It is our purpose to wake up to the perfection that is in each of us. Everything in life has a purpose and it's all part of our path and experience.

6. Treat yourself kindly. Be gentle and less worried about things in others and be less judgemental of others. Say 'no' more often, to things that do not nourish your soul.

7. Connect with your intuition. All the choices and decision making and the conflicting advice can be overwhelming. Listen to your own wisdom that's real. Meditate on it and sleep on it.

8. Pay it forward. Consider how you will make the world a better place for having lived here.