After a restful month in June celebrating Silence in all its form, we are now geared towards enjoying a flourishing second half of the year. As such, in July, we focus on Energy as our theme.

No matter how the world is right now or how your world may be right now, knowing how to harness energy and mitigating the draining of your energy remains a crucial strategy for us to live a good life.

In this week’s Sunshine Inbox, I like to share some stories about the power of your thoughts and beliefs.

Story 1: Mind Morphine

Near the end of World War II, American surgeon Henry Beecher ran out of morphine. This is a norm as morphine was in short supply in military hospitals near the end of the war. He needed to operate on a badly wounded soldier. Without a painkiller, the soldier might go into fatal cardiovascular shock. One of the nurses filled a syringe with saline and gave the soldier a shot, just as if she was injecting him with morphine. Straight away, the soldier calmed down and reacted as though he had actually been given morphine.

Beecher went ahead with the operation including cutting into the soldier’s flesh, making repairs and sewing him back up, all without anaesthesia. The soldier felt little pain and did not go into shock. Beecher continued to do the same for subsequent operations, injecting saline whenever the hospital ran out of morphine. All the patients reacted as if they had received morphine. The effect of placebo at work.

Story 2: Work As Exercise

In a 2007 Harvard study, researchers divided a group of 84 hotel maids into two groups. They explained to the first group that their activity levels related to the number of calories burned during normal working hours, produced more than enough exercise. They were also educated on the health benefits of exercise. They didn’t give any of the information to the second group of hotel maids (the second group worked in different hotels from the first group and so wouldn’t benefit from exchange of information).

A month later, researchers found that the first group lost an average of 2 pounds, had lowered percentage of body fat and lowered their systolic blood pressure by average of 10 points. They did not perform additional exercise outside of work nor change their eating habits. Group 2, doing the same work as Group 1, remained virtually unchanged. Awareness alone can have an important physical effect on our body and health.

Story 3: Perceptions on Mental Performance

In a 2006 study in Canada, 220 female students read fake research reports claiming that men had a 5% advantage over women in math performance. They were divided into two groups: the first group were told that the advantage was due to recently discovered genetic factors while the second group read that the advantage resulted from the way teachers stereotype girls and boys in elementary school.

Guess what?

The first group who were primed to think that their disadvantage was inevitable due to genetics scored lower than Group 2 who had read that men had an advantage due to stereotyping. Our beliefs and perceptions can affect our mental performance.

Story 4: Know Truth Yet Suggestion Still Works

In a fascinating study in 2010, researchers gave 40 patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) a placebo. The patients received bottles clearly labelled “placebo pills” and was told the pills were made from an inert substance like sugar pills that have been shown in clinical studies to produce significant improvement in IBS symptoms through mind-body, self-healing processes.

A second group of 40 IBS patients were given no pills. After three weeks, the first group that were given placebo pills reported twice as much symptom relief than the no treatment second group. Even though the first group knew they weren’t getting any medication yet hearing the suggestion that the placebo could relieve their symptoms, their bodies were influenced to make it happen.

The above stories are taken from Dr Joe Dispenza’s book “You Are The Placebo”. They and other documented research shows how powerful our thoughts are.

He shared “as soon as you think a new thought, you become changed – neurologically, chemically and genetically. In fact, you can gain thousands of new connections in a matter of seconds from novel learning, new ways of thinking and fresh experiences. This means that by though alone, you can personally activate new genes right away. It happens just by changing your mind; it’s mind over matter.”

What we need to take note though is that unless the original learning is repeated over and over again, we will lose the new connections. That’s why it is important for us to continually update, review and remember our new thoughts, choices, behaviours, habits, beliefs, and experiences if we want them to solidify in our brains.

Reading the stories made me pause and become extra mindful of what “suggestions” am I taking in each day either through media, others and even my self-talk.  Not surprising why some positivity/ personal development speakers recommend detoxing from reading or listening to the news to keep a positive frame of mind!

I started asking more frequently: Are my thoughts energising and supporting my well-being or are they depleting my energy and harming my well-being?

As soon as a thought is defeatist, energy depleting or harmful, I do my best to replace it immediately with one that is energising.

Another area that I am now more mindful about is protecting my energy and learning to say no to engagements that are too draining or toxic.  

Your energy is a precious resource to a flourishing life and also one that is within your locus of control.

How well have you been protecting and nurturing your energy?