7
Change Your Mind
How Your Thoughts Shape Your Health
Dr. Bruce Lipton’s pivotal book, The Biology of Belief, proved to me beyond a shadow of a doubt, that our thoughts and emotions can affect the health of our cells. As a former biochemist and molecular biology student working in the lab, I can attest to the indoctrination that I received in school. We were taught that our genes are responsible for everything; that our DNA could predict our future health, and that “outside” factors didn’t matter. Throughout my early years in biochemistry and medical school, the belief that our genes predicted our health was ingrained into my consciousness.
Have you ever been told that you are at high risk for a disease because it’s in your genes? I certainly have. According to my family genetic history, I am apparently at risk for diabetes, heart disease, stroke, depression, colon cancer, high cholesterol, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, and dementia to name a few. With those genetics, most people would feel depressed, as if they’ve been handed a death sentence. Not me though. I know that I can change my genes and so can you. One of those ways is by changing your mind.
Epigenetics is an emerging science that teaches us that our environment is more important than our genetic code (DNA) when it comes to health and wellness. The DNA is like a blueprint, just waiting for signals from outside the cell to tell it what to do. Our genetics may predispose us to various diseases, but it doesn’t mean that we have to succumb to these diseases. In fact, you can turn on the “good” genes and shut off the “bad” genes in your cells by living a healthier lifestyle.
In the book, The Genie in Your Genes, author Dawson Church, writes about a 92 year old woman, Josephine, who is vibrantly healthy, living independently and working part-time in a hospital gift shop. She participates in four bridge groups and has outlived many of her friends and three of her six brothers. Josephine has one sister who has had a hip replacement, is incontinent and is essentially blind. In addition she has dementia. So what’s so special about Josephine and her sister?
They have identical genes. They are identical twins.
How could two people with the same genes, growing up in the same family and living all their lives in the same place, as these two did, age so differently? Many epigenetic experts would answer: lifestyle. Lifestyle would include preventive health strategies like good nutrition, regular exercise, good sleep habits, healthy living environment etc. Thanks to Dr. Bruce Lipton’s work and the work of other incredible scientists interviewed in Lynne McTaggart’s book, The Intention Experiment, we now know that even our beliefs and attitudes can shape our health by turning on and off genes within our cells.
Dr. Robert O. Young, author of The pH Miracle, has done research that has found that negative thoughts can create acidity in the body two to three times worse than eating acid-forming foods, such as dairy. A body that is too acidic can create all sorts of health problems according to Dr. Young. Isn’t it amazing how powerful our thoughts can be?
What Have You Been Telling Yourself?
I’m going to share something really personal with you right now. Like every other person on the planet, I can’t stop having negative thoughts. I’d prefer not to have them, but they just happen. Isn’t that true for you too? The only difference between how I experience negative thoughts now versus five years ago is that I don’t take them all that seriously anymore. But that wasn’t always the case. Like many people, I used to believe my negative thoughts. I used to believe that every single one of them was true. And if I happened to have a positive thought once in a while, I wouldn’t believe it! How silly! Now I know that a thought is a thought. They are just photons of energy with different frequencies. None are better than another, but they can affect you positively or infect you negatively depending on which you choose to focus on.
When I was crying in the middle of the night during the worst of my fibromyalgia symptoms, hurting from every pore of my body and exhausted beyond belief, I had a lot of negative thoughts. They kind of sounded like these:
What did I do to deserve this?
God must hate me.
I’m a bad person; otherwise this wouldn’t happen to me.
I’m weak.
I hate myself.
Just kill me already!
Why do I have to suffer?
What’s the point in living?
This is what it must feel like to be ninety years old.
I can’t be sick. My patients need me.
I’m not trying hard enough. I need to be better than this.
I am not good enough.
I wonder how I could kill myself without it looking like suicide.
I don’t deserve to be happy. I’m a bad person.
I have to stay in this marriage. That is what God wants.
I can’t divorce or my parents will have a heart attack.
My family will hate me for leaving my marriage.
My husband will hate me for leaving the marriage.
I will ruin my husband’s life if I end the marriage.
My job is to make my husband happy.
I’m a bad wife.
I’m a bad daughter.
I’m a bad sister.
I’m a bad niece.
I’m a bad granddaughter
I suck as a human being.
I’m a phony. What if my patients find out?
I can’t live with myself anymore.
I don’t want to live if I can’t do what I love.
Why couldn’t I be a strong mountain woman like my husband wanted?
I’m going to be all alone. No one really cares.
My friends will judge me and I deserve it.
I have to stay strong for my patients. I’m their rock.
I could go on, but I think you get the picture. I was miserable. I was depressed. The pain and fatigue were unbearable and I just wanted them gone. Do you resonate with any of this? Have you thought negative things about yourself and believed them? Many people know that the more negative thoughts they have, the worse they feel but most people can’t help it. When you feel bad, isn’t it natural to have negative thoughts?
Since we can’t shut down our negative-thought factory, we have to develop practical strategies to deal with this negativity. Otherwise, we’ll just dive into a deep black hole that is hard to crawl out from. I hope you are not feeling suicidal because of your pain, but if you are, please reach out to a professional for some immediate support. You might not need it for long after you learn the emotional freedom techniques discussed in an upcoming chapter, but having an empathetic relationship in your life is important.
Don’t just rely solely on your spouse, parents or children for emotional support. They aren’t trained professionals and because they have a vested interest in your feeling happy, they may say or do inappropriate things that can have the opposite effect. At least a trained professional counselor can be objective as well as empathetic.
The Power of Belief
Beliefs can be considered thoughts that you hold to be true. Unlike random negative thoughts that come and go, beliefs are rather steadfast in their nature. Therein lies the problem. If we believe something to be true, we will actually subconsciously manifest our reality to prove that we are right! For example, if a woman believed that all men are untrustworthy, then the only men she’d attract into her reality would all be untrustworthy. I’ve seen it happen time and time again. So let’s pause so you can take a quick quiz on what you believe right now about yourself and your ability to heal. Read the following set of non-supportive beliefs and see if any ring true for you. Be as honest as you can. There is no one to judge you.
My diagnosis is incurable, so there is a limit to what extent I can get better.
I’ve got severe “bone-on-bone” arthritis so of course I’m in pain.
The doctor said I can’t do anything about my herniated discs.
I’m getting old and I’m falling apart.
It’s just part of getting old. Having aches and pains is normal at my age.
I’ve got too much scar tissue to heal.
I’ve had three surgeries already, so there is no way I can get out of pain easily.
It’s going to take a lot of work to get out of pain.
I’ve tried everything for my pain and it hasn’t worked yet, so why try more?
You just don’t understand the kind of pain I’m in. It’s worse than most.
I’ve been to twenty doctors and they couldn’t help me. How can you?
If strong drugs can’t touch this pain, how is anything you are offering going to help?
I’m too far gone to heal.
I’m too old to heal.
The doctor said I’ll stay in pain until I lose some weight.
I’ve just been rough on my body over the years so I’ve got a lot of wear and tear.
I’ve tried acupuncture and it hasn’t worked. I don’t think you can really help me.
I’ve tried chiropractic care and it hasn’t worked. It doesn’t work.
I’ve taken a bunch of herbs and supplements and it didn’t really help, so why try more?
It just wasn’t meant to be.
I think I’m supposed to suffer.
No one can help me.
Somehow I brought this on myself.
My case is too complex.
You just don’t understand what I’m going through, do you?
Just notice your internal reaction as you read those statements. Did a few of them resonate with you? Can you think up some more for yourself in your situation? If so, you’re not alone. Many of us have been conditioned to believe certain things because other people close to us have believed in them as well. I know a ton of people who believe that they’ll eventually get old and decrepit and that there is nothing they can do about it. They’ve seen their parents go through it, so they believe they will too.
I recently saw What If? The Movie in which Dan Brule, breath coach, went to visit a prison inmate in order to interview him. Apparently the inmate had been in several fights where his teeth had been knocked out, but to everyone else’s astonishment, his teeth always grew back! He told Brule that as a child, no one had ever told him that he was only supposed to get two sets of teeth in his lifetime! Such is the power of belief.
I am finding in my own life that as each week passes, an old belief is dissolved and another one has taken its place. The reason for this is that I am continually expanding my knowledge through books, documentaries, courses and workshops. I was shocked, for example, when I learned that there are people out there who have chosen not to eat food, but instead diligently train to get all their sustenance from solar energy. They are called sun gazers. After seeing interviews with these interesting people, and proof of their existence, a hard-held believe that we need food to survive was wiped away from my belief system. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love food and I’m not willing to give it up, at least not yet, but it is interesting to know that it isn’t absolutely necessary for our survival.
Just so you know, there aren’t “good” beliefs and “bad” beliefs, just supportive beliefs and non-supportive beliefs. Supportive beliefs are ones that help you and non-supportive beliefs are ones that hinder you. The belief that “life is awesome!” is probably going to serve you better than a belief that “life sucks!” It is a great idea to question your own beliefs on a regular basis and decide whether they are helping or potentially harming your health and happiness. Optimistic beliefs, like positive thoughts, can support your healing. Even just being open to new possibilities is better than not being open.
Positive thoughts hold a higher vibrational frequency than do negative thoughts. The same goes for emotions. The higher your vibration, the healthier your biochemistry will be. But how do we shift from negative to positive? How do we shift from lower vibration to higher vibration without forcing ourselves? Since waving a magic wand isn’t an option, I’m going to share with you some fantastic strategies that you can implement today.
We’ve already covered one method in this section that can already produce profound changes in your attitude: patching your head with LifeWave Y-Age Aeon patches. In my clinical observation, brain balancing with this acupuncture patch tends to elevate one’s vibration to a higher, more positive state. I’ve seen extremely negative people shift dramatically in just a day or two from this single intervention. The next holistic healing method I’m going to introduce to you is the concept of changing your thoughts and beliefs through subliminal programming.
Subliminal Programming
Subliminal programming is a way of changing how you talk to yourself from within. The subconscious mind is the part of your mind that actually manifests your reality, according to John Kehoe, author of Mind Power into the 21st Century. If we could effectively program the subconscious mind with what we want versus what we don’t want, we would be able to manifest anything we wanted. Unfortunately, our subconscious mind is constantly listening to all of our thoughts, both positive and negative. From birth onwards, our subconscious mind also absorbs the negative and positive programming from others such as our parents and teachers.
Subliminal programming involves inserting specific messages in visual or audio material so subtle that only the subconscious mind picks it up. The conscious mind doesn’t notice the messages at all and thus there is no resistance to the messages. An example of a subliminal message would be a brief flash of the words, “buy me”, during a commercial on television. Your conscious mind doesn’t see these words but your subconscious mind does.
Dr. Eldon Taylor, bestselling author of Choices and Illusions, and Mind Programming, has created a unique subliminal technology that may help support you in healing your chronic pain. Dr. Taylor used to be a criminalist, specializing in lie detector testing. Twenty to twenty-five percent of lie detector tests showed inconclusive results and Dr. Taylor heard a rumor about a subliminal program used by the Los Angeles police department that was so successful that they had to terminate the program for safety reasons. He was intrigued to find out whether using subliminal technology could reduce the rate of inconclusive lie detector test results.
While researching subliminal audio programs on the market, he was dismayed to find that none had any decent scientific backing despite their claims. Shockingly, after buying every single subliminal audio program on the market, he had them tested by an audio professional and was told that “there was nothing on them”. Undaunted, he delved more deeply into researching how the brain works and created his own patented subliminal audio technology to help people reprogram their subconscious mind for good purposes.
What I love about Dr. Taylor’s technology is that it is the only subliminal technology that has been validated through independent research. Given the power of subliminal technology to either help or harm a person, it was important to me that I only recommend safe and effective technology. That is why I recommend Dr. Taylor’s InnerTalk technology. His technology has worked with lowering aggression in incarcerated inmates as well with increasing performance in Olympic athletes. How it works is that the left hemisphere of your brain is receiving passive positive messages like, “It’s okay to be healthy. It’s okay to be happy.” whereas the right hemisphere of your brain is receiving more assertive affirmations like, “I am healthy. I am accepted. I enjoy my life”. The major difference is that the right brain gets an audio message that is played backwards and is undecipherable by the conscious mind, yet is still understood by the subconscious mind!
The reason that the assertive affirmations are not played for your conscious mind to hear is that many people will rebel against positive affirmations with an automatic negative response. When they are played backwards, your “guard” is down and you won’t reject the affirmations. Amazingly, the right brain can understand these backward messages. The audio programs record a man’s voice, a woman’s voice and a child’s voice, knowing that your subconscious mind will respond to at least one of them. You don’t have to play the music loudly nor are you supposed to pay attention to the positive statements. So, just go about your day normally with the subliminal music playing in the background. That makes this form of therapy very appealing because the only effort on your part is pressing play on your CD or MP3 player.
One of the most important studies I want to share with you is the one involving terminally ill cancer patients. Seventeen terminal cancer patients were given Dr. Taylor’s subliminal Cancer Remission CD audio program to listen to over forty-two months. Questionnaires were given to both participants and their doctors and they were asked to rate to what degree the mind had an impact on physical health. Of the fourteen remaining subjects terminally ill with cancer, 43% went into remission. That is an astounding percentage even if you take into account the small number of subjects in this study. Remember, these people were sent home to die. They weren’t supposed to survive. I’m telling you this story, though, not because I want you to be impressed about the survival rate but because of this next piece of vital information.
When both the patient and the physician agreed strongly to the statement, "I believe that the mind or attitude of the patient is relevant to his/her health and/or health care", one hundred percent of these patients survived! If the physician believed, but the patient didn’t, some survived but some died. However, if the physician responded neutrally or negatively to the statement, one hundred percent of the patients died, even if the patients believed that their mind or attitude was important.
This suggests that a negative physician attitude could harm a patient regardless of the patient’s attitude. Scary. Since reading about this study in Dr. Taylor’s book, “Choices and Illusions”, I’ve made a conscious effort to believe in my patients’ ability to heal, even if they don’t. I now realize that as a physician, an authority figure, my attitude has a lot of clout. If your doctor has clearly demonstrated that she does not believe that you can get better, then you might want to fire her! You need to be around people who believe in you and who support you. Surrounding yourself with positive life-affirming people can be part of your healing. Likewise, severing your ties with negative people as much as you can is equally important.
How You Use InnerTalk
InnerTalk technology comes in audio CD format and some MP3 and you can choose from a large selection of titles. Each InnerTalk title comes in two styles, one with music and one with ocean waves in the background. If you are planning on sleeping with it on, then I’d suggest you purchase the latter. Please note that the Cancer Remission audio CD is free to any patient with cancer who produces a note from his doctor. There are several free downloadable MP3 programs available as well. Just scroll down the left hand navigation on the InnerTalk website and you’ll find them.
In addition to purchasing the Natural Pain Relief InnerTalk CD, I highly recommend that you also purchase some of his other CDs that deal with emotions, relationships and self-esteem. A holistic approach to using the subliminal technology will not only support you as you become free of your chronic pain, but also help you to effortlessly develop healthier boundaries, relationships and self-esteem. Here are some of my personal recommendations:
Soaring Self-Esteem
Freedom from Back Pain
Pain Management and Relief
Accelerated Healing and Well Being (one of my favorites!)
Ending Self-destructive Patterns
End Co-dependency
Healing Emotional Pain
Sleep Soundly
Freedom from Arthritis
Be Well, Stay Happy
Serenity
Listen to an InnerTalk CD for an hour or more per day seven days a week. The more you listen to it, the more effective it becomes. In one study on depression, participants who successfully went from depressed to non-depressed had logged at least seventeen hours of InnerTalk listening time. Sometimes I will play the CDs on my home stereo on the repeat setting, so that as I putter about my house or work at my computer, I’m passively letting the technology act on my subconscious mind. Often I sleep with one playing all night long because I know that night time is when my subconscious mind is wide open and receptive. That’s the reason why you shouldn’t fall asleep while watching television and worst yet, watching the news. Why would you want negative or marketing messages programming your subconscious mind as you sleep? Remember, it is your subconscious mind that manifests your reality. Read Dr. Taylor’s Mind Programming book and you’ll understand why I don’t watch television and I almost never watch the news.
With all the negative programming out there in the world, it takes conscious effort to continually shift your thoughts from negative to positive. At first, it seems very difficult and that is why I’ve provided you with a few strategies that I’ve found to work well. Balancing the brain and using positive subliminal technology are two of the fastest ways I’ve found that can positively change your mind.
Self-Hypnosis
Self-hypnosis is a skill in which you put yourself in a state of trance in order for your subconscious mind to be open to healing suggestions. By tapping into your subconscious mind and bypassing the conscious mind, self-hypnosis can be a powerful tool to help you heal at many levels. Although there are many self-hypnosis books out on the market, I recommend that if you are interested in learning how to do it, you should get a copy of Eldon Taylor’s book, Self-Hypnosis and Subliminal Technology: A How-to Guide for Personal-Empowerment Tools You Can Use Anywhere! Extensive research backs the power and efficacy of self-hypnosis and Dr. Taylor shares this information in a simple way while teaching you step-by-step how to create your own subliminal CD program as well as how to induce self-hypnosis.
The BeliefCloset Process®
My friend and colleague, Lion Goodman, created a coaching process that eliminates – permanently – deep-seated beliefs once and for all. According to Goodman, our deepest beliefs about ourselves became programmed into our subconscious in the first two years of life, before we had language. These beliefs are associated with feelings and experiences rather than words, which is why saying positive affirmations doesn’t change much for most people. Although there are many good belief-changing processes taught by many wonderful teachers, the BeliefCloset Process works consistently, even when others fail.
The BeliefCloset Process uses a unique guided visualization that invokes physical sensations and images associated with the belief you wish to change. After honoring the belief for the way it has served you in the past, you can then delete the belief from the subconscious mind. Utilizing the power of the Imaginal Realm, the subconscious is invited to participate fully in the process, and since that is where beliefs are stored, they can be cleaned out completely. Using the analogy of clothing to represent our beliefs, the process is not only effective, but entertaining and fun. Your mind literally conjures up an outfit of clothing that represents the belief, the feeling, and how the belief has impacted your life.
In my first BeliefCloset session with Goodman, I experienced the following: my long-standing and interfering belief appeared as a Big Bird costume from Sesame Street. It was gangly, large and uncomfortable, with feathery tentacles reaching out in all directions. Goodman guided me through the process of honoring the belief, choosing to let it go, and incinerating it in my BeliefCloset incinerator. After it was gone, I felt open, free, and light. The shift was palpable. Then, with his guidance, I chose a new, empowering, and more supportive belief. This one felt like an angelic white gown with big wings that carried me gracefully up into the air. I was amazed at how much better my body felt when I planted this new belief in the open space that was created. This feeling has stayed with me since the process, giving credence to Goodman’s claim that his method produces a permanent change in the deep core of the psyche.
I highly recommend that you experience the BeliefCloset Process for yourself. Change the beliefs that are interfering with your healing and that are preventing you from enjoying vibrant health. There are many BeliefCloset Practitioners around the country. You can find them at www.BeliefCloset.com/Practitioners. Lion has offered his beautiful multimedia eBook on beliefs and the BeliefCloset Process to my readers. Register at www.TransformYourBeliefs.com and you’ll get immediate access to the book, which contains a guided journey to give you a sample of the process.
Chapter Summary
Thoughts and beliefs can change your biology and your health
Negative thoughts happen naturally especially when you don’t feel well, but knowing how to handle them makes all the difference in the world
In addition to using LifeWave Y-Age Aeon anti-stress patches, you can use subliminal technology to naturally and painlessly shift your thoughts from negative to positive
Subliminal programming and self-hypnosis are powerful self-healing tools you can take advantage of
The BeliefClosetprocess is a way of permanently ridding yourself of negative or non-supportive beliefs