David McRae started his career over three decades ago commencing a university degree with a focus on medicine before realising what he was learning didn’t relate to the way he thought about health.

“So I left it for a couple years and pursued other areas related to health such as yoga and meditation and when I came back to formal study I just didn’t think medicine was for me,” Mr McRae said.

“I went into a lot of other areas, natural medicine and counselling.”

David became involved in medicine because for most of his life he had always wondered about how the body worked.

“Most of my life I have thought about what makes us [humans] tick,” Mr McRae said.

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The focus of his work now is to emphasise the non-medical methods and approaches to anxiety and stress disorders.

“There’s never a situation where it is reasonable to say there is nothing you can do, nothing to help,” he said.

“When you’re caught up in anxiety it feels like there’s no break between the anxious feelings and thoughts.

“However, there’s an enormous variety of things that can be done to improve their health to overcome stress and anxiety.

Some of the methods include yoga, meditation, mindfulness and also focusing on nutrition.

“Some people can find it quite hard to meditate, but with enough practice you can slow your brain down and rid yourself of anxious thoughts,” he said.

“There is a gradual process to slow your thoughts down, when you’re caught up in anxiety it seems like there’s no break in the anxious cycle of thinking.

“Meditation will give you space to help relax and step back from your thoughts, giving you a new insight.”