Just about a week ago, I wrote about how our attitude determines our reality in “Attitude Is Everything – Part 1.” As I was researching the effect of positive thinking, I came upon an article about a study conducted by the Harvard Medical School that shows the power of the mind as an effective “medicine.” Read what the article says:
Eighty patients suffering from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) were divided into two groups: one group, the controls, received no treatment, while the other group received a regimen of placebos-honestly described as “like sugar pills”-which they were instructed to take twice daily.
“Not only did we make it absolutely clear that these pills had no active ingredient and were made from inert substances, but we actually had ‘placebo’ printed on the bottle,” says Kaptchuk. “We told the patients that they didn’t have to even believe in the placebo effect. Just take the pills.”
For a three-week period, the patients were monitored. By the end of the trial, nearly twice as many patients treated with the placebo reported adequate symptom relief compared to the control group (59 percent vs. 35 percent). Also, on other outcome measures, patients taking the placebo doubled their improvement rates to a degree roughly equivalent to the effects of the most powerful IBS medications.
Obviously, the mind is a powerful thing. What state is yours in? If you need an attitude adjustment, here are a few quotations to help you look at things differently. Think of them as “medicine” for your mind.
If you don’t like something, change it; if you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.
~Mary Engelbreit
My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions but in the fewness of my wants.
~J. Brotherton
It’s not having what you want; it’s wanting what you’ve got.
~ Sheryl Crow’s song, “Soak Up The Sun.”
If you don’t get everything you want, think of the things you don’t get that you don’t want.
~Oscar Wilde
It’s so hard when I have to and so easy when I want to.
~Annie Gottlier
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