The power of the Mind is immense: it has the potential to change our lives, if only we used it better. A wonderful book on the explanation of the Placebo effect and how to harness it’s power is in Joe Dispense’s book You Are The Placebo.
Mum recently had new dentures made because her old ones were a bad fit and were causing her jaw pain. She is a pensioner, but she needed a decent pair, so she paid privately for the new dentures when she came to stay with me in Reading. Sadly, despite the dentist’s best efforts, they did not fit well (mum’s in her 90th year and her bone mass has reduced significantly, so there is little for the dentures to sit on). The small but constant movement caused several ulcers, one of which remained stubbornly in place for over 4 months. Mum struggled to eat and cope with the pain.
Finally, we took the decision that she needed another set of dentures because these clearly weren’t doing the job. As mum lives in Croydon, she needed to go back to her local dentist – she decided coming to Reading was an expense and inconvenience, she couldn’t afford. There lay the problem: mum had got rid of her old dentures, so now if she were to go back to him, she would have to spin a yarn of some sort to her original dentist to explain these new ones. Of course, she could go to another dentist, but this would be stressful for her as she has a fairly good relationship with her old dentist whose work has benefited her in the past.
This caused mum a lot of stress, anxiety and consternation: she simply couldn’t accept that she would have to ‘spin a small yarn’…this was against her values; neither was she comfortable continuing with the new, but painful dentures, and she also did not want to go to a new dentist to start over again (recall, she is in her 90th year). What was she to do?
Well, her Unconscious Mind weighed up the pros and cons and provided the solution: she woke up a couple of mornings later to find the long-standing, painful, persistent ulcer had disappeared. Gone. She was now pain free.
So no need to throw away an expensive set of dentures, or go through the anxiety of ‘spinning a yarn’ to her old dentist, or go through the trauma of finding a new dentist. Problem solved.
Moral of the story: if we truly believe in our values then our Mind can provide solutions so that we can continue to live by them. To rely on the 10% of our Mind that is Conscious for solutions to problems, is nonsensical because we are ignoring the remaining 90% of untapped brilliant potential we have.
Out Mind is the Placebo, let’s use it.
