Health and the Power of Belief

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Have you ever experienced the power of belief? Our mindset is a powerful force in your life! This article is very different from most of the articles that you will read from real food and natural health bloggers. Today I want to talk to you about something that is affecting your health. Probably even more than any food that you are eating. Definitely more than any lack of exercise that you are getting. And by far more powerful than the toxic chemicals that you are being exposed to. I know that most of you deal with some type of health concern. For some, they may be minor, such as headaches, excess weight, or general aches and pains. For others, it may be more serious, chronic illnesses, such as cancer, heart disease, autoimmune diseases, anxiety, depression, or diabetes. But I would guess that the majority of people who read this are struggling with some health concern that they would like to have healed. So if you fall into that category, I have a question for you. Do you believe that you can achieve complete healing of the issue that you struggle with? Maybe you are the type of person who thinks “Sure, I believe that”. But in the back of your mind, you often think “I’m never going to lose that weight”. Or “I don’t think I’m ever going to feel better again”. Maybe you think “The doctors can’t help me so I’m just going to have to live with it”.

The power of belief is incredibly powerful

The power of belief is strong enough to affect your health for the better, or for the worse. And those little beliefs may actually be preventing you from experiencing relief and healing. Not long after I had graduated from college, I ran across a book in the local bookstore called “The Power of the Subconscious Mind” by Joseph Murphy. Reading this book began my fascination with how the mind works. And it increased my desire to learn more. In the book, Murphy tells the story of one man who went to visit a fortune teller. While there, the fortune teller looked at him gravely. She told him that he would be dead in one year’s time. At the time of his visit, the man was in excellent health. He had never experienced any serious illness or even minor health complaints. He was also in the prime of his life. But the man became consumed by thinking of what the fortune teller told him. He believed it! Over the next year, his health began to decline. The closer he got to the one-year mark, the more his health deteriorated. On the day that the fortune teller foretold, that man did indeed die. His belief in what that teller told him was so strong that he actually made his health decline due to stress. That led to his death. He stopped taking care of himself! This illustrates how easily the mind can create illness when our beliefs are aligned negatively.

Amazing healing from the power of belief

During his life, the famous author Napoleon Hill who wrote the work “Think and Grow Rich” often told the story of his second son Blair who was born without ears. The doctors told Napoleon that his son would never hear or speak in his life. But Napoleon wouldn’t accept that and told the doctors that his son would indeed hear and speak. He believed that he would be able to do both normally. As his son grew, Napoleon taught his son to accept that he would indeed hear and speak and instilled that belief into him from a very young age.  This would seem virtually impossible, especially given the fact that Blair biologically did not have any of the equipment necessary for hearing, and without being able to hear, regular speech would be much more difficult. And even though the doctors urged Napoleon and his wife to have Blair learn sign language, they would not allow it. Hill, worked with his young son for several hours a day, and at the age of three, when he snapped his fingers behind Blair’s head, the young child turned around!  He could hear the snap! His hearing improved as he got older and had reached 65% hearing capacity when a University contacted the family about a new hearing aid that they were developing and wanted to use with Blair. The device gave Blair the other 35% of his hearing. He could both hear and speak! Blair went on to become a successful businessman. His father’s belief, instilled in him at such a young age, helped him to overcome adversity and achieve what no doctor thought possible. All because of the power of belief.

Placebo effect

I’m sure you have heard of the placebo effect. Studies have been done and several Harvard-affiliated medical institutions created a Program in Placebo Studies (PiPS) to do more in-depth research on the placebo effect. This was due in part to previous controlled drug studies that showed a significant healing response to the placebos given to a control group during a drug study as well as the negative side effects experienced by those who believed that side effects were a possible complication of the “drug”.

Your belief and the physical body

Your belief can have a direct effect on how you feel and how your body responds to the health issue that you are struggling with. Naturopathic practitioners regularly see significant results in their patients, but most will tell you that the patient’s mental state and belief going into treatment do weigh on the success of treatment. Those who believe that it will work typically see greater improvement than those who do not. This is true with traditional medical treatments as well. I helped my mother to heal far more quickly after her cancer surgery several years ago by having her focus on quick and complete healing. I had the whole family respond to her and validate that she would come through the surgery easily and that she would experience quick healing and be completely cancer-free. Her surgeon was very surprised at how quickly she recovered and healed!

How can you change your mindset to facilitate healing?

Stop focusing on the negative! When you continue to tell yourself that “I don’t want to feel pain anymore” or “I’m never going to feel normal again” (or whatever negative health effect you are experiencing), then you are dwelling on what you don’t want…which is negative. The unconscious mind doesn’t hear the negatives in those statements and instead interprets those statements as something that you do want. Think of it this way. If chocolate cake is something that you really love, and you say to yourself “I don’t want chocolate cake”, what do you start focusing on? The chocolate cake! And before you know it, you really do want the chocolate cake, because your unconscious mind doesn’t hear the “don’t”. It only hears “I want chocolate cake”! What you do need to focus on is positive and state it clearly as if that is exactly what is going to happen. For instance, my mother stated “I am completely cancer-free and healed from surgery quickly!” And became aware of the times when fear or frustration began creeping in and stopping them. You have the power to not give into those emotions and limiting beliefs! Dwelling on the negative can increase stress which in turn can exacerbate your problem.  Reducing and ultimately eliminating these negative beliefs can go a long way toward helping you improve your health.

Visualization

Focus on changing your belief to the positive by using visualization. People truly don’t realize how powerful visualization is. You see, the unconscious part of your mind cannot distinguish the difference between something real or imagined. So if you begin to visualize yourself being completely healed and restored, allowing yourself to feel how good it feels to be free of that health struggle, the unconscious mind will begin to accept that as real and will begin to move the body into healing mode to help that happen. The power of visualization is in attaching emotion or feeling. So allow yourself to feel how free it is to be without that issue, or how grateful you feel to feel normal again! The unconscious mind cannot tell the difference and will begin to work to make that happen for you! Practice that visualization every day!!

Hypnosis

If you are new to visualization or unsure of how to effectively visualize to facilitate healing, hypnosis is another option. Many amazing clinical hypnotherapists are working with clients to successfully eliminate pain and begin healing. Many people who cannot use anesthesia are opting to use hypnosis to eliminate pain during labor or other medical procedures with tremendous success. There are also plenty of high-quality self-hypnosis recordings out there that can help you begin reprogramming your mind to believe that healing is possible. And for those that are leery of hypnosis, let me say this. Most of us walk around in a state of hypnosis all of the time! Have you ever been driving in your car and thinking about something, only to realize that you had reached your destination and didn’t remember the drive there? You were in a state of hypnosis. Have you ever been watching a movie, TV show, or reading a book and got so caught up in the story that everything else faded away? You were in a state of hypnosis! Children walk around in a perpetual state of hypnosis until about the age of 8. I will be talking more about hypnosis and its benefits in future articles.

A word of caution about the power of belief

Now, please be clear that I am not saying that you should not go to a doctor for help. What I am saying is that your mindset and beliefs can help in your healing when seeing a traditional or naturopathic practitioner for help, so do go and seek medical help if necessary! And you can indeed help to overcome minor health issues that aren’t being treated by a medical practitioner as well. But your mindset and beliefs can completely alter your outcome when working with a medical practitioner! Although many may have false beliefs that they have no control over their health and that they must rely fully on doctors only, that simply isn’t so. You have far more power to help in your healing process than you may believe! So there is hope that you can heal and experience relief from what ails you! The power of belief is real and now it’s time for you to believe it as well!