When you visualize on better health you start to see improvements & it brings you a belief in yourself and the process of what you’re doing. The effect of this is that it shifts the power away from the outside world, where you feel powerless, to the inside where you feel more in control. This in turn makes all the difference as it breeds motivation, creativity and positive emotion.

With life goals, you realise that there is a lot you can do yourself to move yourself in the direction you wish to go. Do you know where you need and want to get to?

When I set SMART goals in my sessions, I ask my clients to visualize the picture that they believe represents their goal and then make it as realistic and powerful as possible. Once the conscious mind has set the goals, these strong powerful visualizations are dropped into their future time line at the specified date of achievement, where it sets the unconscious mind to make the goal real in that timeframe. Remember that the Conscious Mind is the Goal Setter &

The Unconscious Mind is the Goal Getter!

Research shows that if one person does something, and another person visualizes doing the same thing, the same brain areas are activated in both of them in the same way. If they keep doing the same thing or imagining doing the thing, their brain regions undergo actual physical change to the same degree. Hence when you imagine doing something well, it results in you doing it well when you do it for real!

A growing body of research shows that when you visualize about improving health, the body moves towards health, and if you imagine living your dream, the brain processes it as happening now. In fact, afterwards it’s just a memory.

Hence the more positive memories you can set through visualizations, will lengthen those positive feelings and Positive Gestalts (long chains of emotional memories). So start day dreaming and imagining all that great stuff you can achieve.

In contrast, this is an important point, as we often go over and over negative memories, so that your poor mind believes it is experiencing that same situation over and over, heightening the negative feelings within us, and lengthening our Negative Gestalts. Hence it’s important that we release negative emotions (& associated Gestalts) to allow us to move forward more positively.

Therefore I find it vital to use Time Line Therapy ™ as part of my sessions to release the “emotional rubbish” and then we can install all the positive resources to move the client forward in the most effective way.

Regular visualization helps you focus your mind on what you want especially if you set aside time each day. As you stay focused, you find opportunities to move towards your goal.

We use visulaisation for NLP when we anchor good feelings within someone by getting them to visualize specific events associated with feelings, mainly positive emotions and anchoring them for the client to feel them again, when necessary, aiding in even more willpower.

People all round the world use visualization to help facilitate their recovery from illness and disease. There is now a growing body of research that shows this is working. Whether it is through willpower, a sense of empowerment, or that the brain processes what you are imagining as real, or a combination of all three, there is no question that visualization for better health has positive benefits. The power of the mind-body connection never ceased to amaze me.

In fact there is evidence showing that those that take time to focus fully on their health using visualizations have even been found to cure amazing health problems, even cancer e.g. visualizing shooting the bad cells or washing them away with a hose or whatever seems to fit for them, i.e. visualizing what they perceive their disease/condition/problem to be like and then finding something they believe would get rid of this problem, using visualizations. A very powerful tool! 

The placebo effect shows us that belief can heal. When one person takes a painkiller and the other a placebo, the brain scans are similar. This is because your beliefs causes the brain to produce its own chemistry that brings about what it wants to happen- e.g. – a reduction in pain.

When you do anything and believe you can do it, your ability is enhanced… any elite athlete will tell you this.

This applies to any therapy session, surgery or goal set. The more you believe in it the more effective and achievable it will become. If someone is adamant something won’t work it won’t be a success. Like everything, it’s all down to the power of the mind and what beliefs and thoughts we have, which means we can achieve anything we want to as we control our thoughts and can change our beliefs to achieve more positive behaviours, even if you need some professional help.

From my practice I can vouch for this as my amazing clients have achieved incredible things after I have helped them modify their beliefs, change the way they think to be more positive and channelling their visualizations to aid in more positive neurological connections being made. I am humbled daily at what changes my clients can make with simple techniques and powerful interventions that can help them achieve what they previously felt were unachievable, including weight loss, getting pregnant despite medical problems, releasing anxiety and stress, growing stronger, happier relationships and much more.

What a fantastic job I have!!!

Amazingly, there were less deaths in the high stress group who did not believe stress was bad for them compared to those in the low stress group who believed stress was bad for them. Total opposite to what we would expect, showing what we believe really does impact on our health!!

To summarise, it’s not so much the stress we deal with but more how we perceive what stress will do to us. Incredible don’t you think?

In fact, the scientists researching these findings concluded that during the 8 years of the study, 182K people had died simply from the belief that stress is bad for them. According to Dr Kelly McGonigal, that equated to the 15th leading cause of death in the US that the study was conducted, was actually due to the Belief that stress was bad for you. Yes, that’s right... a BELIEF featured in the Top 20 leading causes of death!!!

Imagine what would have happened if they had been helped to think differently about stress and change the way that they thought and believed about things!!!!

As covered in my previous blog on Placebo Effect, the belief that stress is bad for you almost acts as a nocebo effect (opposite of the positive placebo effect) making the negative effects of stress more enhanced and damaging.

So what should we do knowing this?

Do we ignore thinking about how stressed we are and just carry on thinking “We’ll be fine”? Do we avoid personally evaluating whether the stress we are under is likely to negatively effect us in case we turn it into a belief? Do we invest in stress management techniques? Or what?

It’s important to remember that what we would like to tell ourselves that we think, doesn’t actually mean we believe it, so never ignore stress if you feel you are stressed, as prolonged, continual stress can be harmful to health especially as most people I suggest do believe that.

This is a very powerful study as shows the power of the mind body connection, and the importance of addressing our belief in factors associated to health,  to aid in the optimum health of individuals, which is a big area of my work.

So what does this mean practically?

Well I would suggest that we should all prevent and address continual high stress levels, but it’s useful to understand that stress now and then is also fine for us, and can be motivating at times particularly if we are “Away from” personalities. However if you feel you find yourself in a situation or thought process that is stuck in a high stress mode then it may be useful to address this. You can get help to release whatever is holding you in this stressful place and  in addition to the corresponding beliefs that need to be removed and replace them with  new positive beliefs congruent to health.

If you would like a chat about how I can help you then please give me a call on 01252 706995, or nicky@mind-bodywellness.co.uk , as love to help you in whatever area of your life you would like to address.

Did you watch that great BBC Horizon programme looking at the Placebo Effect and the power of the mind body connection a couple of weeks ago?

My interest and work is centred round the Mind Body connection, where I see great results in my clients when I help them develop the right mindset and emotional & mental wellbeing, as well as giving them the right advice, support and physical help. Hence loved this programme showing what the midn is capable of.

The Placebo Effect can actually change the chemicals that are produced in our bodies by tapping into our internal, natural, pharmacy (chemical systems) in our brain. In some cases it uses the opium pathways in the brain acting like natural, “homemade” morphine, helping us control our pain. This highlights the Power of the Mind!

Parkinsons Study
For example one study replaced dopamine drugs in a Parkinsons patient with sugar pills, who was told by a doctor that these pills contained an active drug that would be very effective for their Parkinsons. Baring in mind that the patient who normally could not walk, without his normal drugs that provided dopamine, was up and walking around whilst taking the sugar (placebo) pills, just like he was with his dopamine drugs.

What was amazing was that they found his brain produced & released dopamine to a similar level as found in the dopamine drug! Basically due to the patient’s belief that it would work, the brain compensated for the lack of dopamine and made its own instead. How amazing is that?

Electric Shock Study
Another study used electric shocks on a person’s arm, but they used an anaesthetic cream on one point, a moisturising cream on another (control) and the same moisturising cream on another site but this time the subject was told this one was also a powerful anaesthetic.

The subject had to rate the pain for each point. The person found the Lidocaine anaesthetic cream helped reduce the pain, as expected, and the control cream hurt more but what was bizarre was that the patient perceived the pain of the pretend anaethetic cream to be the same as the Lidocaine cream! Just through their belief that it would help.

Need for Belief
So what we have seen is that the Placebo effect requires belief in the intervention for it to work successfully.  Our expectations determine what happens in our bodies and controls what chemicals are produced in our brain. This emphasises the care we need to take with what and how we think. If we think stressful thoughts and beliefs our minds will release those chemicals related to those emotions, not only giving a psychological effect but also a physiological effect on our bodies too.

What’s interesting is that the placebo effect works better when someone is perceived to be an expert, especially if they look medical by dressing in a white coat. Additionally the type of medication effects the Placebo effectiveness. Capsules work better than tablets, and in the UK capsules work better than peccaries, whereas in France peccaries are more accepted than capsules so peccaries work better there. Furthermore, Big capsules tend to work better than small and the more expensive something is, the better the intervention works compared to the value option. For example Nurofen is perceived to work better than basic Ibuprofen, which is the same drug just with different, more expensive packaging! Colour also influences the placebo effect. With red pills working best for pain and blue best for anxiety.

Perception
So what we perceive can affect us hugely, firstly by changing our internal representation, which in turn effects our emotional state and subsequently our behaviour.

If we consider that ‘Perception is Projection’ that means what we perceive is what we project, then it’s important to ensure that what we project is what we want to perceive!! Making sense? So, for example, if you are an optimistic person, you are also likely to be projecting and perceiving the best of a situation, which will change your emotional state for the better and produce the associated good chemicals accordingly, having a better effect on your overall behaviour and health of your body and mind. Sound more preferable than the alternative?

Placebo Problems
Interestingly a study found that the placebo effect was able to alleviate a range of issues and problems including insomnia, nausea, pain & ADHD plus many more. However, a Harvard study showed although subjects had relief from placebo pills for 3 weeks but once pills were stopped symptoms returned.

Unfortunately the placebo effect generally relies on deception as we need to believe the intervention is really going to work. So the big question is how do we harness this effect ethically?

What’s interesting is that there is a strong overlap between hypnosis and placebo effect with the hypnotherapist being able to help guide the clients mind to tap into the latent power of their mind and the resultant mind body connection; a very powerful process, providing great results.

In fact many dentists are now using hypnotherapy to extract teeth effectively... even wisdom teeth, as a replacement for anaesthetic.

Relationship between doctor & patient is vital for health and recovery of patient tapping into the placebo effect.

Poor doctor-patient relationship can result in a “nocebo effect” i.e. the doctor actually undoes any good done by the drugs or surgery. A very worrying fact, what with stories from patients and my own personal experiences, of bad bed side manners, for instance on one occasion my surgeon stated “this procedure is unlikely to help” just before I went under for my procedure! Now, I understand their need to manage patients’ expectations, but stopping someone believing in the intervention is unhelpful , potentially derailing the effectiveness of the operation and therefore unacceptable.

One study into acupuncture found that 42% relief was found when a patient experienced no interaction from their doctor/therapist but 62% with good doctor-patient interaction. Giving a 20% Placebo effect of good contact with the patient/client!

So in summary, the Placebo effect is REAL and widely accepted by those who were sceptical 20 years earlier. Harvard continues to study and understand the placebo effect and how we can tap into it ethically in the future. But stop worrying, panic over, as hypnosis helps us tap into this fantastic power of the mind very effectively.  If you would like help to enhance this effect in yourself please give me a call and I will help you to do so in whatever area of your life that you need help with.