If you felt loved and nurtured from the moment you entered this world, then you most likely grew up feeling fairly self-confident and secure within yourself. However, if you missed out on the nurturing you needed as a newborn baby or young child, I believe you can still heal and grow strong—through conscientiousness—and it’s actually easier than you might think.

For more than 40 years as a neurosurgeon and holistic medical doctor, I have worked with 30,000 patients who came to me suffering with chronic pain and its insidious constant companion—depression. Through drive, determination, and an openness to try new things, I developed the most complete treatment plan I know of in the world. My patients—many of whom hobbled into the clinic doubled over in pain, wracked with anxiety, and often addicted to the drugs they were on—walked out with a new lease on life.

Within the Shealy pain clinic, we had an 85 percent success rate in treating patients who had been written off by the rest of the medical community! Six months later, we would follow up, and these people would still be functioning well—with little or no medications—able to do for themselves and for others. I still hear from past patients who have stayed in touch and who write to thank me for giving them their lives back. The unique and comprehensive approach that helped them return to health and well-being has been continuously streamlined and documented through research papers, books, and newsletters I have written over the years. What once took months of inpatient care and therapy to accomplish is now available for individuals to read and learn—and it’s geared toward those of you who agree that you don’t want to live half a life anymore.

The people who have followed my radio call-in show for the past two decades every week in Missouri already know many of the techniques, therapies, and products that I have developed for optimal health and well-being. But now that wisdom and my own unique journey through the pain landscape are all in one place within my new book, Living Bliss, just in time to help you free yourself from illness, pain, depression, or despair. It can be done—if you will but follow along and take action.

Developing a Conscientious Life

So if the steps themselves are easy enough to follow, you might wonder why so few people chose to lead a purposeful and conscientious life. Believe me, I’ve wondered that myself for over 40 years! And I’ve asked my patients, “What would it take for you to choose healthy habits?” I have received a few good answers, but the majority of individuals just do not respond. They don’t know what to say. And in my experience and through the extensive research I have done, the statistics also agree: about 97 percent of people do not even follow the four most basic health habits.

First, for too many people, they are carrying too much weight for their frame and their body mass index (BMI) is too high. Your BMI should be between 18 and 24, but only about one-third of people achieve this. The second critical bad habit is smoking, which about 26 percent of Americans still do, even in this day and age. Third, only one-quarter of us eat at least five servings of fruit or vegetables daily, and the fourth problem is that only about ten percent of us actually exercise a minimum of 30 minutes a day, five days a week.

So my suggested lifestyle adjustments incorporate these elements and a few other crucial steps that are geared to keep your body, mind, and spirit in top shape. You will see as we move along through this discussion that health and longevity are also served well by these tips - Getting enough sleep, keeping a positive attitude, having a good social network, and spending at least 20 minutes a day developing your spirituality.

Oh, and sex is good for you, too—how could I forget that? Just about everyone seems to enjoy that one! These are all ways to live longer and healthier lives. I like to call them “bliss enhancers”—ways to raise the level of bliss you experience in this life.

Why Should You Strive to Be Conscientious?

The study of conscientiousness by psychologists goes back decades. Conscientiousness is one of the big five personality traits, according to psychologists. Specifically, the five sets of traits that psychologists like to measure are: extraversion vs. introversion, agreeableness vs. antagonism, conscientiousness vs. unfocused, neuroticism vs. emotional stability, and openness to experience vs. not open to experience. For our purposes, we are going to concentrate primarily on conscientiousness.

What is it that conscientious people care about, and why should you care? Well, these individuals are pretty easy to recognize. They are prepared, neat, and orderly. They like things scheduled, and they approach tasks in a focused, organized, and disciplined manner. Conscientious individuals are careful, thorough, reliable, persistent, and prudent; it may sound a bit boring to some of you, but all these traits are good to have if you want to live a long and healthy life. Conscientious people are particularly resilient when life gives them big challenges that must be faced. But the most critical aspect of conscientiousness is responsibility; they do not blame others for their own problems. It is responsibility for self that is the cornerstone, and it leads a person to become stronger in all other aspects of conscientiousness.

The Next Logical Step—Doing Good for Self and Others

There is another extremely important aspect of conscientiousness that I don’t want to leave out. It is related to the age-old debate about our purpose on Earth, the meaning of life. I was almost 40 years old when I figured this out. Simply put, I believe that our only purpose in life is to learn how to fulfill our greatest basic human instinct, and that is to help other people.

My premise is that if we felt adequately nurtured as children, then we will naturally feel this need as adults, clearly hearing and heeding the call to do good for ourselves and others. This awareness naturally grows within us as we mature. However, if we weren’t adequately nurtured as children, we need to do that for ourselves now: nurture ourselves so we can then help ourselves and others. My book gives you the understanding and the tools to boost your good feelings about yourself, regardless of where you are now. Once you know how good you are and how much better life can be, then you will be ready to fulfill your primary purpose of helping other people.