In this short Ask Dr. Miller segment, Dr. Emmett Miller outlines a four‑step framework for achieving personal and collective healing through mind‑body practices. Step 1, Presence, is described as fully accepting the present moment, illustrated by hypno‑anesthesia that eliminates pain by keeping the patient in the now. Step 2, Awareness, involves recognizing one’s true self and the reality of the world, using the example of societal awakening to racial injustice. Step 3, Letting Go, teaches that growth requires releasing unchosen options and mental attachments, framing it as a skill rather than a loss. Step 4, Accessing Deeper Power, encourages tapping into inner strength, joy, and wisdom to set and commit to fulfilling goals. The segment ends with a call for listener questions and a pointer to Dr. Miller’s website for further mind‑body health resources.
Welcome to Ask Dr. Miller, where Dr. Miller answers your questions about mind-body health.
Presence. Step 1 is presence. The root of all suffering is wanting things to be different from from how they are. That's where all suffering comes from. The moment I can accept myself and the world as it is, suffering goes away. When I use hypnoanesthesia on a person before doing surgery, all I do is have that person come intensely into the present moment. Then we can open their belly and take out their gallbladder. They don't feel any pain because they're not comparing what they feel now to what they felt at some other time. So coming into presence frees the mind and the nervous system from constraints and distraction, allows us to be here and now and to have clarity of the mind, to get rid of emotional and cognitive distortion, to see the world as it really is from a relaxed, centered perspective. Step 2 is awareness. And awareness may be the most important single step in the transformation of the individual or of the world altogether. Black people suffered for a long time. Everyone felt helpless to do anything about it. And everyone kind of let it happen. Then all of a sudden, 3 kids go down south and get killed. And all of a sudden people wake up and we say, "Hey, look at what's happening to these people. We actually care about all of these people." And within a remarkably short period of time, black people have freedom and they're able to vote and they're actually able to go to the same school and drink out of the same water fountains because we became aware. We aren't bad people. Those weren't bad people in my college where I went. They were just ignorant. They didn't have the awareness. Most of us are ignorant, and so our second step has to do with awareness. Being aware of who you truly are, appreciating the truth of the world around you and within you, including you, including all the defects that are inside, and rather than trying to pretend to be perfect. Step 3 has to do with learning to let go. Making a choice, making a decision always involves giving something up, namely the options that you didn't choose. We don't know how to give up. In our culture, we know how to get. Winning is what it's all about. Being a loser— loser, a loser— it's the worst thing you can ever be. Well, you get, you know, what's the motto? He who dies with the most toys wins. So learning the inner process of how to let go, you know, it's easy enough for me to let go of $100 or something physically. It's not hard, but mentally, oh, I don't want to let that go. How do we choose to let go when we want to let go? Not I'm not saying you have to let anything go, but if it's wise to let things go, you need to learn how to do it. It's a skill. Once we've let go of what we don't need, Step 4, we access the deeper power. With an I made quiet by the power of harmony and nurtured by the deep power of joy, you see into the life of things. Seeing deeply, you choose deeply and commit deeply. You want to be capable of accessing your inner strength and wisdom, awakening the leader within your being, choosing the goals and visions that are capable of bringing you fulfillment, and committing yourself to their realization. This can all be completed through a process of focusing on truth awareness of your personal potential, and creative use of memory and imagery.
Thanks for listening to this segment of Ask Dr. Miller. Send your questions by email to drmiller@drmiller.com. For more information on mind-body health and Dr. Miller's CDs, DVDs, and books, go to drmiller.com. That's drmiller.com.
