I am sure you have heard of the placebo effect. This is mostly mentioned or brought up when there a medical trial to see if a certain type of medication/treatment really works or not. They tell the people in the experiment with a certain illness that this pill particular pill will help with x, y, z. They typically give half the group the pill and the other half a water pill, sugar pill or something along those lines. Neither group knows who has what. This is what they call a blind study. If the people giving the the pills as well as the people taking the pills don’t know which is which, then it is called a double blind study.  If there is any healing or improvement of the illness in the group that took the water pill. The study chalks that up to what they call the placebo effect. In general, it is referred to as your mind playing tricks on you, Web MD states “A placebo is anything that seems to be a “real” medical treatment — but isn’t. It could be a pill, a shot, or some other type of “fake” treatment. What all placebos have in common is that they do not contain an active substance meant to affect health” but the real definition out of dictionary states A beneficial effect, produced by a placebo drug or treatment, that cannot be attributed to the properties of the placebo itself, and must therefore be due to the patient’s belief in that treatment.”  A Harvard health article put it in the most simple way The idea that the brain can convince the body a fake treatment is the real thing and thus stimulates healing.

Here’s something that has been looked at as a negative thing up until recently now that science is catching up. The reason why I am talking about this effect is because in reality, placebos are not only with illnesses and pain as science currently states. A pair of psychologist asked two groups of people to answer questions. They said to one group that it would flash the answer on a screen so quickly that only the subconscious would pick it up and then told the other group that it merely signaled the next question was coming up. In reality, it was just a string of random letters and….. you guessed it, the people who thought they were getting the answers did better on the test since the expected to know the answers. Showing that thinking we are limited is what is limiting us (Atasoy, 2013). This is not only with how much we think we know but also with our physical abilities as well.  Another test was done on 2 groups of people to see if it could work with vision. As you know, pilots are supposed to have good vision. They dressed both groups up in the proper pilot gear, tested their vision and then they placed in a flight simulator. One similar had movement as well as visualization, the other only had visual.  The test was given again at the end showing that the group that had the additional movement improved their vision.

While we all know our bodies respond to physical exercise. If you believe your form of exercise/physical activity is not good, beneficial, regular enough or just plain don’t count as exercise. Your body with register it accordingly. This was proven with hotel room attendants. Most of the attendants did not believe they had regular exercise, but in reality, they did more than what is recommended for daily physical activity. Two groups were taken again and one group were told that they do the recommended daily exercise for a healthy lifestyle, the other group was told nothing. They were both monitored for 4 weeks on their weight, body fat, waist-to-hip ratio and blood pressure and guess what?  The group told dropped in all of these areas where as the other group did not. Even though they are doing the same work, having the same diet and the same activities outside of work.

Are you seeing the pattern?

This idea of placebos and expectations is much more concrete than we know. How you view and create your life and reality moulds your health, your physical strength, your abilities…..truly your world and how you view it. These limitations that we put on ourselves as well as each other can only be done if you believe and incorporate it.

Change your paradigm, a paradigm is an important change that happens when the usual way of thinking about or doing something is replaced by a new and different way.  Since we don’t have a specialist that we trust every word that comes out of their mouths to be true like these experiments did. Be your own specialist and be disciplined enough to change your paradigm and constantly remind yourself that your old way of thinking is just that “old”

You are wonderful, you are beautiful, you can do anything, there are no limits to what you can do (as long as you are following the laws). Choose what it is that you want, set your goals and go! Do not listen to negativity, or limitations, but be open to anything that positively helps you to get to where you want or need to go. acknowledge that you have been given an amazing gift of the mind that has been held back for long enough……You……are about to do some amazing things!

Web MD (2017) Placebo Effect from http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/what-is-the-placebo-effect#1

Harvard Health Publications (2017) The Power of the Placebo Effect: Harvard Mens Health from https://www.health.harvard.edu/mental-health/the-power-of-the-placebo-effect

Atasoy, O. (2013) Your thought can Release Abilities beyond Normal limits: Scientific American from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/your-thoughts-can-release-abilities-beyond-normal-limits/

(2017) Paradigm Shift: Marriam-Webster from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/paradigm%20shift