Heart, Broken

"It's just your age, Jackie. You'll be on beta-blockers and warfarin for the rest of your life." The doctor's words terrified Jackie Mannell, then in her late 40s. She'd never taken drugs and had no intention of starting. But how could she heal her heart's abnormal rhythm naturally? Within three months of embarking on her self-healing journey, she was declared fit and healthy and has written this life story to inspire and help others to take charge of their own well-being.

The beliefs Jackie learnt in her childhood shaped her thoughts and actions in later life and, ultimately, they caused her illness. Dis-ease in the mind causes disease in the body - it's as simple as that. Jackie's story will resonate with everyone at some point and that's its beauty: everyone suffers difficult times in their lives, whether it's being bullied at school, enduring crippling bereavement, becoming a victim in an emotionally abusive relationship or getting sucked into others' distorted realities. But not everyone realises they can control their destiny and turn their life around - Jackie succeeded. And she now wants to share the most important message she's learnt: you can heal yourself, naturally.

Her story begins with a very happy childhood. Her parents were poor, but that never bothered her. She was an only child; the sole survivor of five children. Her parents were 'alternative', in terms of their spiritual and lifestyle choices, which by the standards of the 1970s made her family 'unusual'. None of this bothered her. But her mother was diabetic and that did bother her - especially, the anxiety of the twice daily injections.

It also bothered her when, aged five, her father broke down in tears when she told him she hated him, while they were playing a game. The childish remark was to have lasting repercussions.

When she went to secondary school she was bullied for over two years, by her 'friend', and suffered from a poor self-image. As a naive teenager, she fought against the world when she went out with a boyfriend no one approved of, causing her father to stop speaking to her for three years. Then her father left the family home when she was eighteen and her mother was distraught. Jackie became her sole carer as the diabetes suddenly became progressively worse. Her mother's life had been hard and this disease just wore her down, ending in a grand mal epileptic fit which Jackie witnessed. She passed away in Jackie's arms. As a result of this, Jackie swore she would never get hurt again, and she closed her heart.

Alone now, Jackie embarked on a disastrous marriage that lasted only months and then went on to have two more emotionally abusive relationships. She was attracting the wrong men, mainly because of her self-belief that she was responsible for men's happiness; she tried to fix them. In one case she was nearly strangled to death by her addict boyfriend. It was not chance that caused her illness, or genetics, but the negative emotions trapped in her body.

But this book isn't all gloom; there is light and shade, as in every life. And today Jackie is in a happier and healthier place - unrecognisable from the lady who went into the doctor's surgery, was handed a prescription and told, "It's only your age, Jackie."