The Placebo Effect and The Power of Expectation When Chasing Your Dreams
Session 4: Plan Your Dream Career or Business
In the Chase Your Dreams Financial Literacy Workshop, we discussed the power of expectation and belief in chasing your dream career or business.
The idea that your brain can convince your body that a fake treatment is the real thing, the so-called placebo effect, has been around for thousands of years. It is considered direct evidence of the power of positive thinking.
The efficacy of a placebo effect treatment began after World War II, when it was noticed that patients improved—sometimes dramatically—in placebo control groups. Henry Beecher popularized this approach by claiming that about 35% of patients respond positively to placebo treatment. Though he is not without controversy, Henry Beecher is said to have discovered the placebo effect as a medic in World War II. After running out of pain-killing morphine, he replaced it with a simple saline solution but continued telling the wounded soldiers it was morphine to calm them.
How placebos work is still not quite understood, but it involves a complex neurobiological reaction that includes everything from increases in feel-good neurotransmitters, like endorphins and dopamine, to greater activity in certain brain regions linked to moods, emotional reactions, and self-awareness. All of it can have therapeutic benefit, says Professor Ted Kaptchuk of Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, whose research focuses on the placebo effect.
Placebos and their effects have various definitions, but the most common link is the patient’s expectation and perception of the benefit.
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However, If the person doesn’t have faith in the ability for it to work, it won’t. The placebo effect emphasizes the importance of belief in overall health and wellness, and in this case, the pursuit of your dreams.
Be positive in what you say and be discerning about what you believe. Your body-mind is listening.
Science now tells us you get what you wish for and in a spiritual sense so does the bible:
Mark 9:23
‘If you can believe? All things are possible for one who believes.”
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Additional reading and further resources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC539455/
https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/3/70/70ps5.full
https://www.health.harvard.edu/mental-health/the-power-of-the-placebo-effect
https://www.lviglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/PlaceboEffect.pdf
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/the-placebo-effects-role-in-healing-explained
