I’ve always been intrigued by the power of a placebo. What the placebo suggests is that the mind is a powerful influence on the body. But the question is how to harness the power of the mind and maybe even the power of imagination, for the benefit of the body? I don’t have the answer. Clearly there are many factors involved – issues that go beyond the mind’s influence – because not everyone in every situation is helped by a placebo. Nevertheless, is there a way to increase my chances of positively affecting my health with my mind?
Here’s what’s got me thinking about this. I have a friend who was in the midst of falling in love. She was hardly sleeping, and hardly eating but she nevertheless had amazing energy and an infectious glow about her. It seemed that the strong emotions of falling in love had a positive effect on her body. Another person I know got diagnosed with MS. Shortly thereafter she fell in love and her MS went into remission. Twenty plus years later she’s never had any more symptoms. These are just two anecdotal stories that prove nothing. But it makes me wonder. It makes me curious. Is there something about falling in love that can have a positive effect on the body’s ability to function?
What if you could hold onto and recreate those emotions of falling in love? Wouldn’t that be powerful? And if you could do that, how would it affect your energy and your physical health?
It’s hard to recreate those intense emotions of falling in love – although I’m willing to keep trying! But in the meantime I have another idea that’s a little easier. What if I could really tap into the feeling of gratitude? Gratitude is an emotion that’s fairly easy for me to recreate. What if I combined the emotion of gratitude with imagining a happy and healthy body? What if I saw it all happening, and I felt gratitude for the experience, before it even happened? What if the combination of strong positive emotions and strong positive imagery helps create the desired outcome?
Just as I was mulling this over I noticed I was developing a sore throat. My first thought – “Oh no – I’m getting a cold.” My second thought – “Perfect opportunity to try an experiment! What if I try to summon up the feelings of gratitude as I imagine my body easily defeating a cold and being healthy?”
This was a fascinating experiment. Every day for 4 days I practiced gratitude for my body’s ability to heal itself and saw myself as happy and healthy.The gratitude came easily as each day built on the previous and I was able to marvel at and truly feel grateful for my body’s swift recovery. During those 4 days I observed my body race through all the stages of a cold in record time for me, with very minimal discomfort. Quite intriguing!
I’m continuing to feel intrigued. I’m going to keep experimenting with gratitude and imagination and see what happens. What have I got to lose? I’ll keep you posted, as I am already feeling grateful for the success I can imagine!
~Sue Hardman-Conklin
Questions to Ponder:
- Is it easy or difficult for you to conjure up the feelings of gratitude? If it’s difficult, what gets in the way?
- How does your body feel when you’re feeling grateful? Can you recreate that feeling in your body, as opposed to just thinking about gratitude?
- What experiences have you had where your mind affected your body?
Thanks for sharing this Sue! This topic connects beautifully with a wonderful find, ‘The Book of Joy” that I picked up recently at the airport. Written by Douglas Abrams, it is a record of a meeting between the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu in April 2015. These two old friends came together to spend several days sharing their perspective and experience of joy. One of the most interesting things that the Dalai Lama talks about (he loves science) was the brain changes that occur when you practice love and joyfulness.
When we focus is on cultivating compassion, joy and happiness, this brings about physical changes that help us to be more radiant, healthy and whole. As a nurse, I can’t help but think about the actual physiology of this! What happens to our bodies when we set an intention for joy, happiness, or even contentment. This has actually been well studied!
The neuro-chemistry of the brain actually changes. The same part of the brain that is activated in cocaine addiction starts working and releases chemicals that induce a state of euphoria. We are flooded with endorphines which can bring about euphoria and elevated mood. Another neuro-chemical is increase, oxytocin, which is sometimes referred to as the “love hormone”. It brings about warm, fuzzy feelings that are wonderful and create a feeling of connection. For those of us who have had children, oxytocin is released in large amounts at the time of childbirth and during breast feeding. This helps us to ‘fall in love’ and bond with our newborns.
Conversely, when we are self-centered (I would say anti-loving), we are distanced from others.This reduces our serotonin levels levels the brain – bringing about obtrusive thoughts and anxiety. Increases in Vasopressin opens us to distrust, insecurity, fear, anxiety, anger, and perhaps even violence.
Can you imagine what kind of world we would create for ourselves if we set the intention to be more loving and joyful? Our systems would respond by bathing our brains with the same chemicals your friend is experiencing! Wouldn’t that be a wonderful way to live!
Let’s all practice falling in love!
I love the physiology and the science of this! Thanks for your comments, Therese. Tapping into the inner pharmacy of our brains is an exciting idea.