- Your mind has the most incredible potential
to powerfully heal your body,
and I know you've probably heard of the placebo effect,
and I want to explain the theory behind the placebo effect,
what it is, because this could be the key to you enjoying
incredible health and incredible healing.
So what is the placebo effect?
I like to call the placebo, "The physician that lives in you,"
the doctor that lives in you
that can administer pain control
and relaxing medications, completely free,
at any time that you need them.
The placebo is actually a study of how our expectations
are realized in our body.
Here's some rules of your mind,
every thought you think creates a physical reaction
and, indeed, an emotional response.
So when you think, "Oh, it's the winter.
"I always get my sinusitis, I always get flu in flu season,
"I always break out in hives in the summer,
"I get my allergies during hay fever season,
"I get my nervous stomach when I'm under stress,
"I break out in a rash whenever I'm under pressure,"
you see, what you're doing is telling your mind
what is going to happen. And the strongest force in you,
in me, in everyone in the world is that we must,
we absolutely, actually have no choice but to act in a way
that is consistent with the way we define ourselves.
Now I learned about the placebo effect very early on.
I had a mother who was a massive,
with a capital "M," hypochondriac.
She was wonderful, but she was always sick.
And I had a father who was never sick,
didn't believe in illness, loved his job,
never took a day off, and they were both my teachers.
My mother would say, "I knew I'd get sick.
"Oh, when they painted the house,
"I knew that paint would give me a migraine.
"I knew, because I hadn't had enough sleep yesterday,
"that I would be ill today.
"I knew that food would upset my stomach
"because I realized halfway through eating that chicken
"it was a bit pink in the middle."
My dad would go, "My body never rejects anything
"I choose to give it."
And so I saw firsthand, almost every day of my life,
how my mother expected to be ill and was sadly always ill,
and my father never expected to be ill and was never ill.
In fact, my father got both prostrate and kidney cancer,
"Oh, I didn't really get cancer, didn't really happen."
And he was absolutely back to normal,
and he was in his 80s by then.
So the placebo really means
that what you think is going to happen will happen.
I'm sure you know that whenever a drug is tested,
a new medicine is tested, the panel must give a dummy pill
to a third of the people taking that pill.
If that pill's for hair growth,
the people taking the dummy pill, the sugar pill,
often have exactly the same results
as the people who are taking the real pill,
sometimes even better.
And many, many drugs have to be discarded
because the people who think they're taking the drug
have the same effect as the people
who are not taking the drug at all, but believe they are.
You've heard of people getting high on fake drugs,
getting drunk on no alcohol alcohol,
believing they're taking a sedative and sleeping,
believing they're taking something deeply relaxing,
like a beta-blocker, and saying, "I feel so calm now."
After all, mothers know how to say to a child,
"Let Mommy kiss the pain better,
"let Mommy rub that pain away, let Mommy remove the pain."
And a lot of faith healing is a wonderful thing
because you have faith,
but if you believe that that faith will heal you,
that belief in itself
can be incredibly and powerfully healing.
When you have a strong placebo response,
it actually increases dopamine.
So let me give you some handy hints.
Remember, the placebo is a doctor that lives in you,
and that doctor can administer something equivalent
to medication to meet your needs.
So imagine you're stressed, very stressed,
you go, "I need a drink,
"I need some Tranquil, I need beta-blockers, I need Valium,
"I need Xanax, I need something to make me calm."
But if you choose to say, "I'm becoming so calm,
"I'm super calm, I'm super chilled, I'm so relaxed,"
you will actually release the equivalent
of a beta blocker anyway.
Imagine you're tired, and you think, "Oh, I'm so tired.
"I need an amphetamine, I need caffeine,
"I need something to keep me awake for the next three hours
"as I finish my shift."
But if you said, "I'm wide awake, I'm super excited,
"I'm alert, I'm focused,"
it can actually have the very same effect.
So take a look, right now, with me
at how you describe yourself.
Were you raised with parents who were always ill?
My mother had almost a pharmacy in her bathroom cabinet.
You could turn up at her house with any illness,
she would have medication for it.
When she made lunch, she would put antacids on the table
because she expected to have indigestion,
and antacids don't even work.
When she went on a car journey,
she'd take travel sickness pills in advance.
When she stayed in someone else's home,
she'd take sleeping pills because she'd say,
"I can't sleep in light,
"I can't sleep in noise, I can't sleep in a strange bed."
So, without knowing it, she conditioned and wired
and programmed herself to need the medication
and to believe it truly worked.
Whereas I believe that I can travel in a car and say,
"This is great, I'm comfortable."
I can go to bed at night and get enough sleep,
I can go through seasons and decide I am super well.
I had two run-ins with a very serious illness,
and I decided to say, "My body is a wellness making machine,
"my body is doing wellness, only wellness, always wellness."
And I talked to my body and said, "Hey, body,
"your job is to do wellness. I command you, I instruct you,
"I direct you to do wellness, only wellness,
"always wellness," because I had a choice.
We all have a choice, here's the choice,
"Oh, I'm so ill, I've just had surgery,
"I'm very poorly, I'm very weak, I need bed rest,
"I'm in so much pain.
"I've just had an incision and stitches and I feel terrible."
That's a choice that, of course, you are free to make.
But here's another choice,
"Well, I'm so fit and healthy, that surgery was a blip.
"I'm going to bounce-back.
"My body is so super efficient at repairing itself.
"My body knows how to repair itself."
Wounds actually know how to heal.
If you cut your hand, you'll notice that around the wound
it gets hot as your body heats up to fight infection.
You make a little scab that is waterproof,
that is completely sterile.
It stays there until the wound underneath is healed, and
then that scab falls off. And that all happens, by the way,
without any intervention from you whatsoever.
And since the body is incredibly efficient
at healing itself, you can choose to help by saying,
"Yeah, I've just had a little surgery, a minor procedure.
"I'm bouncing back.
"Yeah, I've just had a wisdom tooth removed
"and I feel amazing already, my body is healing.
"I feel fantastic, I just didn't have enough sleep last week
"and I'm catching up and I feel amazing.
"All the healthy food I'm eating is making my body,
"my immune system,
my nervous system, my skeletal system fantastic."
Because you have a choice, you always have a choice;
be negative, be positive, be optimistic, be pessimistic.
It is your choice.
But here's what you absolutely cannot choose,
what you do to your body when you go, "I knew I'd get ill.
"I knew that would give me a headache.
"I knew I'd be up all night with worry.
"I knew I'd get that infection."
You see, when you're out buying medication all the time,
you are almost planning to get sick.
And when COVID came around,
I was just returning to my house in America,
and I was very conflicted about going out
and buying all this stuff, Lemsip and cold meds.
I thought, "Oh, do I really want to buy this stuff
"because aren't I planning to get sick?"
And I had to really tell myself, "No, I'm planning to be well.
"I'm going to have some meds as a backup for other people.
"I'm going to have it in the house because that's smart,
"but I am planning to be well."
And I would have my diffuser going on all day,
and I filled it with eucalyptus and peppermint oil
and tea tree oil, which are very good for the lungs.
And every time that was pumping out, I would say,
"My lungs are so healthy."
I took vitamin B and C and zinc
because they are very good for the lungs.
So even though I bought some medication to keep,
I was planning wellness.
I didn't buy too much. I didn't look and think, "I'll need that later.
"I'm going to need that medication later."
Because, you see, your immune system loves
positivity, confidence.
It loves you being powerful and passionate and strong,
and it really doesn't like
anxiety and nervousness and stress.
And we've all done this, going on a trip,
super anxious, running around, packing, planning,
busy, busy, stressed as we get on the plane,
and we straightaway get sick.
And I used to commute to America every two weeks.
And I knew that I couldn't get sick,
I was recording a television show.
And so, I had to always pack two days before I left.
I had to have, the day before I left, a calm, chilled day,
so I'd get on the plane and go, "Now I'm going to sleep for eight hours,
"and I'm going to land in America feeling rested,
"feeling amazing," because that was my choice.
I could have said, "Oh, I'm so stressed,
"and I'm on a different time now and I've got jet lag
"and I feel awful." But I believe in wellness.
And I particularly believe in commanding, compelling,
directing, and instructing my body to do wellness.
And I've had many events in my life,
which has really stood me in good stead.
I was told I could never, ever get pregnant
and, even if I could, I would never carry a baby to full-term
and I couldn't create a perfect baby,
and I got pregnant almost immediately.
And in my pregnancy, my doctor said,
"Well, you know, you're probably going to lose the baby
"and the baby is not going to grow to full-term."
And I thought, "I'm not letting that in."
And I talked to my baby every day, and said, "You're perfect,
"you're so loved, you're so wanted, grow perfectly."
Every day, I would tell her, "Today, your fingers are growing.
"Today, this part of your lungs are developing,
"your heart is developing."
And when I had her, she was perfect.
But while I was pregnant,
I was working with a client one day,
and I actually, literally threw up, straight over his head,
into a rubbish can that I had in my office.
And I thought, "Do you know, I can't ever do that again."
So I told my body, "No, we're not doing that.
"I love being pregnant, the hormones are just right,
"I'm making a perfect baby,
"and I'm free from sickness or nausea."
I commanded, compelled, directed my body.
When I was giving birth,
I commanded the round muscles to relax
and the long to contract,
and my baby would come out of my body so easily
into my arms.
And throughout my life, I have used the power of my mind,
the power of how I think, the power of how I speak.
I used it when I was raising my daughter.
I've used it with many, many clients who are ill,
clients who are having IVF and go, "Oh, I hate the injections.
"They make me so sick and so hormonal."
I'd say, "I want you to love the injections, they're making your body ready
"to create a baby, to grow a baby."
So you can have a phenomenal immune system,
an incredible metabolic system,
an incredible digestive system.
All the systems in your body can work perfectly
if you just make a decision today
to talk to your body better, to choose wellness, not sickness.
Don't go, "If I look at a cake, I get fat.
"I've got such a delicate stomach, you see,
"that if I eat street food, I'm always sick.
"I've got a really weak immune system.
"I'm a terrible sleeper."
No. Ban yourself from every negative word and flip it over,
"I'm a perfect sleeper.
"My immune system is amazing.
"My digestion is phenomenal.
"My metabolic rate? Amazing. Whatever I eat,
"my body uses it to create a perfect body for me."
So make a decision. The way you feel about everything
is down to the pictures you make in your head
and the words that you construct. And the pictures,
and, indeed, the words, are yours to change.
And when you change the words and change the pictures
and make them positive,
the placebo, the physician, the doctor that lives in you
will do a phenomenal job of keeping you well and healthy
and ensuring you live a long, healthy life.
If you would like to know more about
how to do this for other people,
if you want to know about my therapy method called RTT®,
just click the link below and find out
how you can do exactly what I do
and become an amazing therapist.