What you believe, you become!
Your beliefs become you!
How does that make you feel?
If you look back to your past and consider your mindset, can you see any confirmation how your mindset, thoughts and beliefs might have affected your health, your symptoms or your actions?
Because they indeed do!
I’m completely fascinated by the power of the mind!
And can’t emphasise enough how you too can harness it to your advantage, in order to turn the trajectory of your health or the whole life, when you just want it enough and believe that it’s possible.
I hear too often from my clients how their doctors tell them that there’s nothing they can do to improve or reverse their conditions, or how they will live with their health issue and be on certain medications for the rest of their life.
And the worst – that diet has nothing to do with their symptoms! These messages go in and stay in your mind.
Your body listens to what’s in your mind, all the time!
And it believes everything you tell it (unlike your kids or your partner 😉).
When you change the story you tell, you can change your health.
When you truly believe that you have the power to feel well and trust that your body is capable of this, you can start healing.
Small mindset shifts can make a big difference not just in how you feel and how you behave, but also what actually happens inside your body, biochemically.
Sounds unbelievable?
Don’t take it just from me, there’s research to back this up.
Research has showed that deeply held beliefs can trigger the brain to change its neural pathways.
This is called neuroplasticity.
With repetition, whether it is about your actions or your thoughts, you strengthen old or new neural pathways.
With repetition, you build habits that stick.
This applies to your habitual mental and emotional response to things, as well as to your habitual daily routines.
When neural pathways change, it leads to physiological changes in your body.
Below are some studies that have shown that our thoughts can change our physiology.
1 – Knowing your genetic risk
In a study, when the participants were told that they had a gene that increased their risk of obesity or lowered their exercise capacity, their physiology responded to a meal/exercise as though the information were true.
Receiving genetic information and the resulting mindset can have as much of an impact as the genes themselves, according to the authors.
This is one reason why I advise against running a genetic test without working with a practitioner who has knowledge and understanding on the tests and genetic risks (I’d be happy to help you with this).
2 – The effect of social influence
Another study looked at how social influence affects the response from a placebo product.
Participants were given plain spring water, falsely labelled as a new energy drink.
Their blood pressure increased (as would be likely from an energy drink), but dropped again when an actor in the study told them they didn’t feel energised.
This experiment showed that social influence could override the placebo effect.
3 – Mindset and exercise
Research has shown that a person’s mindset about physical activity can affect their health.
A study with hotel cleaners found that the group who were educated about, and now believed, that their work activities of cleaning rooms counted as exercise and was good for their health, showed a decrease in weight, blood pressure, body fat, waist-to-hip ratio, and body mass index, while the group who had not been educated didn’t, even when they were doing the same work and hence the same exercise.
4 – Calorie mindset – Milkshake Study
The participants in the milkshake study were divided into two groups; both groups were given the same milkshake to drink – with exactly the same calories and fat content.
However, one group was told that the milkshake was high-calorie, high-fat “indulgent” shake and the other group was told that they were drinking a low-calorie, low-fat “sensible” shake.
Participants’ hunger hormone ghrelin was measured before and after drinking the milkshake.
Ghrelin, being a hunger hormone, goes up more, the more hungry you are, and goes down more, the more full you are.
The group that believed that they had a high-fat and high-calorie drink, had a steeper decline in ghrelin after consuming the shake, than the other group, ie. their hunger decreased.
The group that believed it was a low-fat, low-calorie drink, had a flat ghrelin response, meaning their hunger hormone didn’t go down after drinking the milkshake.
So those in the indulgent drink group felt less hungry than those in the sensible drink group.
And they all drank exactly the same drink!!
As you can see from these studies, you really can think yourself healthy!
All the changes you are making – the healthy foods you are eating and healthy activities you are engaging in to support your health – will be more effective when you trust they have a positive effect and believe that you can feel better.
Doing any health activities grudgingly, will most probably have a lesser effect.
As I’ve said before…
Health is a journey, not a destination.
So start enjoying your journey!
And with support, the journey is always more enjoyable. Therefore, enlist your partner or a friend to be your health buddy.
But if your partner or friends are not interested, do get in touch and I’d love to be your health buddy.
Read more about my role as your health coach, accountability buddy, cheerleader and team member!
(Main image: Desert Resilience, Karim Manjra, Unsplash)