We can manifest our future with our thoughts.
We’re all familiar with the placebo effect: the positive result that’s incorrectly attributed to a treatment or action. We hear about this most often as it relates to medical research, with some patients mistakenly thinking their symptom improvement is due to the “medication” they received in the study, when in fact, they’ve only received a sugar pill. The brain is convincing the body to believe something will work and real results come from it, whether or not there is a logical physiological reason for it. It seems that if the mind believes, the body responds.
If our perceptions can affect reality, what else can we trick ourselves into doing or accomplishing?
At J2, we often hold lunch and learn sessions. During a recent session, the speaker talked about how we can alter our mood simply by how we stand and the inflection in our voice. Every morning when we wake up, he suggested we say, “Oh yeah! What a great day!” He went on to explain that while we may not notice a difference initially, after a few days of consistently repeating these affirmations, we’ll begin to see a change. Even standing in front of the mirror in a superman position (tall, feet shoulder width apart, hand on your hips), you can feel your demeanor change. Written or spoken affirmations utilize the same psychology behind the placebo effect. Similarly, consistent negative actions, and thought patterns become reality.
What are you tricking your brain into believing? Who are you training yourself to become?
“If a placebo has an effect, is it any less real than the real thing?” —Nathaniel LeTonnerre
Have a positive weekend.
—Vijay
About Friday Food for Thought (FFfT)
I frequently attend conferences and retreats on entrepreneurship and leadership and while I am away, the J2 team picks up the slack, allowing me to learn to be better at what I do. I wanted to share what I was learning with my team, so I created the weekly FFfT emails in November of 2015 and have been writing them ever since.
Before long, the J2 staff began sharing the FFfT emails with their friends and family and now other leaders have asked to be included, which led to the creation of this newsletter. I hope you enjoy!