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(…continued from last week)

Building Conscious Dreams

A fourth aspect of applying the mind-body connection is creating dreams. Does that mean you have to spend more time sleeping? Not exactly, but it does mean you have to put your mind to work.

Dr. Bernie Siegel, who has spent much of his career working with psychosomatic medicine in dealing with illnesses like cancer, uses the power of the mind in healing.

During the workshops led by Dr. Siegel, he talked about the role of the physician and the role of the patient in healing during chemotherapy. Traditionally cancer specialists tell their patients to expect to have all kinds of negative side effects including nausea, vomiting and headaches, and to prepare by keeping a pail beside your bed just in case.

Dr. Siegel said that this may be helpful advice but it tends to generate an expectation that you’re going to have these negative side effects. Often patients will have these because they’re expecting to have them, not because they truly have to have them.

Nausea and vomiting are not inevitable side effects. Quite the contrary, many of Dr. Siegel’s patients do not have any ill effects at all.

Since he recognizes that the subconscious mind is a strong force in the process of healing, he doesn’t prepare them by the standard process. He isn’t telling them you’re going to have this bad reaction happen.

In describing treatment, Dr. Siegel often times discloses there may be side effects, which is important, especially when the risks are substantial. Yet the way you go about this makes a difference.

Response to an Expectation

Siegel said, “if I give you an injection of saline solution and I tell you here’s the chemotherapy, George. Your hair’s going to fall out.” George’s hair will fall out. About one out of three people will automatically lose their hair when told this, even given a placebo.

He also tested this with women and found they have the same hair loss response. Give them a shot, say its chemo therapy and about one out of three will loose her hair. They need to be informed. But the question is how do you keep them informed while being positive?

What he said he normally does is he informs the patient within a framework of hope. He will say. “Some people experience nausea after chemotherapy or radiation, but more and more people are avoiding this unpleasant after effect. And I expect you’ll probably be one of those.” He also tells them things they can do to help themselves out. With that approach he’s having a much more positive response. He’s helping them create a mental image of their own success so that they’re having a positive versus a negative reaction. In many cases what they’re thinking is a self fulfilling prophesy.

Creating the Dream

When I mentioned creating dreams, this is one of Dr. Siegel’s primary tools with his patients for psychosomatic work.

First, make the dream as real in your mind as you can. You want to have it be something that you can touch, see, hear, smell, and taste if possible.

You want to envision the outcome you desire. You make it as real as possible, whether that is overcoming a health concern, gaining new physical skill or improving performance at work, you envision it as realistically as you possibly can.

Second is to make this a step by step pathway to get there. You see the first step to the process, then the next step, the next step, and so on until lastly you see the result you desire.

Third, you make it realistic. You make it so that it’s possible to happen. You see it as clearly and sharply and distinctly as you can so that it becomes real to you. It is something that you believe could truly happen. You’re not talking bout pie in the sky things; you’re talking about realistic things that can be done.

In the case of his cancer patients, Siegel will often say, “So what I want you to do is make sure you’re getting just a little bit of exercise, even if you don’t feel like it. Just get a little bit of exercise. Make sure you’re taking in lots of water, and through this little bit of exercise, taking water, getting plenty of sleep, those are step by step things you can do. You’re going to find that you have more resilience and you feel better and the treatment is going to go easier.”

Fourth is you must keep it positive. Instead of thinking to yourself, “I’m not going to feel bad.” you think to yourself, “I’m going to feel good!” So instead of affirming the negative, “I’m not going to _____” or “I won’t have _____”, you affirm “I will have_____!” and “I’m going to have____!” Affirm the positives……

So as you envision your step by step plan, realistically as possible, you see it, you are affirming it in a positive manner through positive self-talk. You build this dream as holistically and as realistically as you can.

Then lastly in the building the dream process, you not only imagine it in your mind and begin to move forward but you actually do something. You take action!

So building the dream is setting up the self-fulfilling prophesy that you want to have happen. You envision your improved health, you envision your achievement of goals at work, you have better sports performance, you have happier children and a better relationship with your significant other.

You see it; you make it come alive in your mind. You see the step by step plan to the dream, moment to moment, you see how it unrolls. You make it something that could truly happen that you can actually do. You picture it clearly, distinctly. You feel it inside of yourself as positive, you affirm this is a reality, and lastly you take action.

So when Dr. Siegel is informing his patients of the possible down sides to having treatment, he also tells them, “You can do this. You can move through this. Here are the things you can do to take control of your life. “ and through this he helps them build a future. That image that they see, hear, feel, realistic step by step plan helps them move forward into an ever better tomorrow by building a positive today.

(to be continued…)

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