The Power of Mind (Part II)
For Success in Health & Wealth
Alia Crum: The Power of Expectation
Our mindsets are not just in our heads. They are embodied expectations that shape health and behavior.
Dr. William James
At Stanford Mind & Body Lab, Alia studies what happens physically in the body when we change our mindset, particularly our expectations. Her work reveals that the body obeys the story it anticipates.
In her Milkshake study, Crum gave volunteers the same 380-calorie drink two times:
One time with a label "Indulgent - 620 calories."
The second drink, labelled "Sensible - 140 calories."
Blood tests revealed a 3x drop in ghrelin, the hunger hormone, only after drinking the 'indulgent' shake, even though it was the exact same drink as the second "sensible" shake.
She followed up this insight to medicine and stress, where her studies showed that those who viewed stress as helping or enhancing them, as a tool for growth rather than as a negative or threat, showed better focus, lower cortisol and improved performance even when stressed and under pressure.
A belief, an expectation or a positive benefit communicated well by the parent or physician amplified itself in the person's biology and outcome.
What this means to you is that every food, pill, fast, or exercise has two essential ingredients;
The benefit of the food, pill, fast or exercise
The story, belief and expectation you ascribe to it.
The mind is not a mere bystander in health, but rather the mind is the architect and shaper of health. I am discovering this more and more in my own health, in how I conduct myself in business, and in the outcomes I achieve.
I ask myself: "Do I have a health mindset or a disease mindset?"
Sometimes I find myself believing that I will go blind because I have wet macular degeneration. I realize that while I believe that I can slow its progression, I do not fully believe that I can reverse my eye condition. Would I believe it if I knew someone else who had reversed it?
And what of someone with heart disease, diabetes, or high blood pressure?
Will they make the effort to change their lifestyle if they don't believe their disease is reversible or curable?
And what of someone with cancer? Can cancer be cured?
I believe it can, but its stage, state and type are all very important factors.
Expectation has a multiplier effect on my Reversal Protocol. Expect it will work, and the reversal will be more powerful.
If a complete reversal of my disease is the destination, my Reversal Protocol is the vehicle, but expectation is the driver.
Martin Seligman: Positive Psychology
When it comes to our health, there are essentially four things under our control: the decision not to smoke, a commitment to exercise, the quality of our diet, and our level of optimism. And optimism is at least as beneficial as the others.
Dr. Martin Seligman
When fleas are capped in a bottle by a lid, they jump only to the height of the cap over and over again. Eventually, even after the cap is removed, they will not jump higher to escape the bottle, even though they can jump 150 times their height. They "limit themselves" by setting a self-imposed boundary.
This is called learned helplessness.
In the same way, negative experiences can lead people to self-impose their own limitations, even when many opportunities to jump or grow surround them.
Human trauma, failure and disease can condition people over time to surrender and limit themselves to this learned hopelessness, unable to see possibilities and opportunities.
But Seligman asked himself, "If helplessness can be learned, can hope be learned too?"
This question birthed positive psychology.
His many studies and books show that when people cultivate gratitude, well-being, meaning and optimism, recovery is faster from depression and healing from post-surgery.
Optimists live 10 years longer, have better immune function and experience less inflammation.
He developed the PERMA model used in schools, hospitals and Fortune 500 companies.
Positive emotion
Engagement
Relationships
Meaning
Accomplishment
In his model, you build psychological capital — something more valuable than any currency.
How can I turn inward disease into outward purpose and health?
How can 'despair' be transformed into 'hope'?
To make disease reversal possible, I realized that a Reversal Mindset must precede the Reversal Protocol.
Hope is not just wishful thinking; it is a neurochemical fuel that raises serotonin, strengthens immunity, and leads to healing.
"How you think about your problems, including depression itself, will either relieve depression or aggravate it".
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi : Flow
The best moments in life are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times. They occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Now try to spell or pronounce his surname.
Mihaly grew up in Europe during WWII. He noticed that some people under bombardment weren't just suffering; some were surprisingly serene.
"Why do some thrive even amidst chaos?" He wondered.
It was not in peace or ease, but in challenge and purpose that meaningful work that stretches, grows and transforms is necessary to engage us in FLOW.
This FLOW is the biological signature of meaning.
Flow is that timeless state where challenge breeds with capability, leading to optimal performance. You lose yourself in some meaningful work. That work could be cycling, writing, painting, teaching, or parenting. Time seems to cease or pass much faster.
When athletes are in flow, things seem to move in slow motion. They are "in the zone," also known as Flow state.
When entrepreneurs are in flow, they might produce a big idea or discover something groundbreaking.
Mihaly found that in flow, the brain releases dopamine, endorphins and norepinephrine in perfect harmony, and the prefrontal cortex, that inner critic, remains mute, self-consciousness melts away, and you are "fully in the present".
People in sustained flow have lower cortisol levels, enhanced immune modulation and better heart rate variability, giving you more physical capacity.
Napoleon Hill: Blueprint for Success
Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.
Napoleon Hill
Napoleon Hill was not a scientist or psychologist, but he understood how the best entrepreneurs of his time became successful. Andrew Carnegie, one of the wealthiest people in history, gave Napoleon an audacious goal in 1908: to leave everything he was doing, interview the most successful people of his time, and discover their secrets.
For 20 years, Hill studied Edison, Ford, Rockefeller, Graham Bell and distilled the 13 principles of success. He published his bestselling book, "Think and Grow Rich," in 1937, a blueprint for wealth. I've studied and read this book many, many times.
Its first six principles form the basis for success not only in wealth but also in health and in virtually any endeavour of life.
Desire: Clearly define what you want.
Faith: Believe you can achieve your desire.
Autosuggestion: Consciously shape your belief through the repetition of that belief.
Specialized Knowledge: Acquire and organize the specialized knowledge needed to achieve what you want.
Imagination: Picture your success in great detail.
Organized Planning: Create a concrete plan and do it.
In the Bible, Jesus simply says:
Ask, and you shall receive.
Seek, and you shall find.
Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
You notice that all of these people pondered and asked essential, pertinent questions. Then they sought answers to find insights. And, finally, they conducted 'experiments' until they unlocked a discovery.
Clarity comes when we know what we ask for or desire. Sometimes it is a clear purpose.
When we visualize goals in detail, the same brain neurons fire as if we were already achieving them, activating the motor cortex, limbic system and dopaminergic reward pathways. This is the power of dreaming.
Dreams can be wonderful and positive, but some turn into nightmares because of the negative beliefs we hold that sabotage them.
Autosuggestion is the purposeful repetition of positive thoughts, beliefs and our desires to sculpt our nervous system, a process called neuroplastic affirmation.
Many experiments show that visualizing oneself taking basketball shots from the foul line is almost as effective as practicing foul shots, but visualizing and practicing foul shots is better than doing either alone. But physical practice skills are retained longer over time.
So doing is more important than just thinking and believing.
Faith without works or show your faith by your works.
Autosuggestion reinforces faith.
But faith in the truest sense must be all-in—100%. Even a 1% doubt can lead to uncertainty and fear, but when faith reaches 100%, you 'know' the outcome and uncertainty and fear can't touch you.
So I often wonder how much of my amazing heart disease reversal so far is due to faith vs lifestyle changes. Placebos have shown that even with 'no medicine', people can heal. Believing in a medicine that actually heals is obvious. My strategy is to develop both a Reversal Mindset and a Reversal Protocol to reverse disease fully.
Reflection
Reversal Mindset is as important as the Reversal Protocol.
Dr. Kevin Ham
Replace the word "Reversal" with "Healing", "Success", "Wealth", or "Health".
Without the mindset and belief, no further steps may be taken.
Knowledge and facts are not enough.
Smoking packages explicitly state that smoking causes cancer.
Smokers still smoke.
The mindset must change. We call this a Paradigm Shift.
Belief shapes biology.
Meaning regulates molecules.
Mindset builds empires.
Faith is medicine.
Fear is poison.
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Life-Changing Question
What is your Health Mindset?
Write it down and let me know. I’m very curious. And I will reply … even though busy.
Next week—
Power of Mind (Part III).
Why Belief is Essential to Success
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