Lesson 3. Searching for the Cause of Health
Can you overcome your conditioned beliefs?
These lessons will be based on the book You Are the Placebo by Dr. Joe Dispenza. I am listening to the audio book. You can buy it using the link.
Conditioning - happens when you associate a past memory with a change in your body. Dr. Dispenza uses the example of using an aspirin to get relief from a headache. When you link something outside of yourself is changing the inside of you, you have associative memory. With repetition, the association becomes stronger. A sugar pill that looked like an aspirin might have the same effect of relieving the headache, due to the association.
Expectation - in regard to placebo, “is when you have a reason to expect a different outcome.” (Dispenza) If you are told that a new medication will give you a better outcome, and you believe it with enough emotion, the brain will create the chemicals necessary to produce the change.
Meaning - if you are educated to believe something will work, it is more likely to work. For example, when maids were told that while working, they were actually getting exercise, they had better health results than a control group.
Much of your thinking is repetitive. You get up in the same way and all of your actions, from breakfast, to work, throughout the day, to home again are the same. You continue to think the same way. You make the same choices. Your brain doesn’t change. You have the same thoughts and emotions. Your brain signals genes to make the same proteins, and you continue to have the same outcomes.
Many years ago, a friend recommended consciously changing my routine. Take a different route to work. Brush your teeth differently, etc. Think about making little changes to change your thinking.
Dispenza says that “your personality is made up of how you think, act, and feel.” Would you like to feel differently? If you change what you think, you will make different choices. Different choices will create different actions. You will have different experiences. Ultimately you will feel differently. That success will inspire you to have new thoughts. The cycle continues.
Rather than looking at the brain as a computer, Dispenza says that we should look at each neuron as a computer. Each cell of your brain (neuron) is computing and making connections to other neurons. The connections are actually little gaps called synapses. Synapses persist if they are reinforced through use. If not, they are gone within about three weeks.
Think of a group of neurons that connect to each other as a neural network. You can use the neural networks without having to think about them. Think about learning to brush your teeth or drive a car. It was difficult to create the neural network but once created you don’t think about it.
Think of your mind as a firing pattern in your brain. If your mind has a previous thought, the brain is firing the same pattern. If there were emotions attached to that thought, you are experiencing the same emotions. Your body will respond in the same way. You may begin laughing or crying. Your stomach may tighten. How do you get out of that?
Dr Dispenza compares your neural connections to a box. Think of having a box inside your skull. The box represents your mind. To change your mind, you must think outside the box. Once you change your mind, you change your brain and body.
What if I’m wrong? What if someone else is right? Where is truth? Those are questions that help me think outside of my own box.
If you think about it, you may notice that I have difficulty putting myself in a box. Many of my colleagues will say that they are Doctors of Chiropractic. Other colleagues will say they are real estate brokers.
One of my mentors said, “I am a citizen of the universe.” That leaves things pretty open. Although I maintain licenses in chiropractic and real estate, I don’t allow those fields to define me.
I might have more success with this newsletter if it were more focused. In light of this article, I look at expanding my thoughts on politics, spirituality, business, health, and personal growth as keeping me from creating the box in my brain.
Perhaps reading these posts will help you get out of your own box and have a different experience.