"What’s the best way today’s busy modern woman can stay healthy and happy?" I ask my reluctant interviewee. “Joie de vivre”, she tells me simply. Joy of living.

I was hoping for something slightly more practical from the Valais masseuse with the most open, direct stare in Switzerland. But Nicole won’t budge. Surely there are daily, weekly, monthly habits we can do to maintain balance and wellbeing while we take care of all the demands of everyday life, I insist?

 Yogic stretches every morning? A cup of green tea every night? Fifteen minutes of meditation during lunch-break?

“The heart and the head must always be in harmony,” Nicole replies. For example, she says, as Confucius said: If you choose a job you love you will never have to work a day in your life.

Nicole says that in her 48 years’ experience she has learned that if your head is fighting your heart and you do not become aware of this, and make a positive change yourself, life will eventually “stop you” from doing things the way you’re doing them.

“You will have an accident, or get sick,” she says with certainty.

Nicole herself made major life changes after suffering health problems. “Your body is your best friend, but it will let you know very quickly if you are doing something wrong.

 “Confucius said we spend the first half of our lives trying to get money, and the second half paying money to try to get health,” says Nicole with a wry smile. “We need to prioritise our health from the start, before it’s too late.”

“If you’re feeling bad it’s because you’re on the wrong track. It could be your way of thinking,” she says. “Maybe you blame others for the problems in your life. A boss, or someone else causing you grief. But if you look inside yourself for the problem, and change your way of thinking you won’t attract these people to you.”

Again trying to deflect me from picking her brain to pieces Nicole refers to another source of wisdom, The Secret. A current hype in Switzerland, The Secret is a book/film based on the idea that changing your way of thinking will change your life - basically, what you think, you attract. It is claimed to be a universal law believed and practiced by many great thinkers throughout history, and the secret to happiness, love, health, and prosperity.

 Of course Nicole says there is nothing wrong with green tea and yoga, but after our discussion it does seem to pale somewhat in comparison to joie de vivre. And she assures me it can be accomplished by listening to your heart, prioritising your health, and controlling your thought patterns so that you focus your energy on what you want from life, rather than on what you don’t want. "What you’re thinking is coming to you," she says.

It doesn’t sound too complicated.

I promise Nicole I’ll give it a go. I’ll get back to you.

To view a clip from The Secret see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b1GKGWJbE8

For more information on Confuciunism see http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/confucius/

Anna Tuson – expatica 2008