The character Abileen, in the movie, The Help, told her young charge, “you is good, you is kind, you is important.” I saw that well-recognized slogan on some wooden planks in an off-the beaten-track vintage store in North Carolina. It gave me pause as it brought to mind that poignant moment in the movie and book. I recently watched a video on Youtube that went viral. In it, there was a tiny boy no more than 3 who had been taught at the age of two to repeat positive affirmations. Then one day on his way to school after he had digested and learned the affirmations, he started repeating them and his mom happened to film the episode. In went like this: I am smart, I can do anything, I am blessed.
I was totally entranced watching him and apparently, I was joined by thousands of other watchers. It made me think about how important it is to keep reminding ourselves daily of our own value because many of us never had this validated by family members or friends. It starts with us. Our mind can be our staunchest supporter or chief villain. It depends on how much control you have over it and how willing you are to be disciplined and be ‘the gate-keeper.’
Someone told me about a technique he used to reprogram his subconscious mind because as he explained, “if anyone was feeling unloved and taken for granted, it was me.” He told me he looked in the bathroom mirror every day and repeated some personal affirmations beginning with the high frequency words, I am. He did this for forty days because he’d been told that’s how long it takes the subconscious to start believing the new program. What came out of it for him was an avenue of abundance in his work life which he said, “blew my mind as I I never believed in this stuff.”
The well- known therapist, human potential speaker, Marisa Peer, talks about neuro-plasticity and the mind’s ability to change. “It’s not static but very plastic. Our thoughts shape the outcome of our lives and your mind talks to our body all the time. “This bodes well for our health if we can train the mind to think positively using such techniques as self-hypnosis, affirmations, vision boards, as examples. Or, our mind can kill us. It’s extremely adept at speaking to our body and if we are very stressed our on a continual basis, and have negative subconscious programs running, we are most likely in for a bad time of it. Dr. Joe Dispenza, another proponent of the mind/body connection wrote a New York Times best seller entitled, Heal Your Body With Your Mind. He tells us there’s an intelligence that lives within us that’s an invisible life force and that spontaneous remissions from devastating illnesses can be realized when we know how to manage our minds. He also tells us genes don’t create disease. It’s the environment that creates disease. This relatively new science called Epigenetics is the study of cellular and physiological traits or the external and environmental factors that turn our genes off and on and define how our cells actually read those genes. This is a science that even eminent scientists are beginning to see the potential in. Check out Dr. Bruce Lipton’s book (another best seller) entitled, The Biology of Belief. It’s all about epigenetics and how the mind can control the body functions as well as an immortal spirit. More on that later. Have a great Thanksgiving holiday.
Tags: Epigenetics, Dr. Joe Dispenza, Marisa Peer, Dr. Bruce Lipton, Self-Hypnosis, The Biology of Belief, Affirmations, Neuro-Plasticity, mind body connection