Want to make a change? A must-read

I was first introduced to Joe Dispenza’s “You Are the Placebo” in an introductory brain-based fitness class as it was part of the suggested readings. However I did not suspect for a second how enlightening it would be – since then, I have recommended it to countless friends who have all thought the same.

What it’s about

Dispenza breaks down how our own thoughts can affect our brains and ultimately, our life outcomes.

He started out over 25 years ago when as a young chiropracter, a terrible accident left him with a damaged spinal chord, several broken vertebrae and in a wheelchair. He had the options of either doing a life-threatening surgery or live the rest of his life in this state. He chose neither and instead decided to mentally reconstruct his spine and heal through meditation. It worked and he’s basically spent the rest of his life teaching people about it.

Why I loved it

I am one of those people who strongly believe in the mind-body connection and I like to think that science and spirituality live in a unified system. Until I read Dispenza’s book however, I could never really back this belief up with logical arguments or facts. He, on the other hand, comes from a scientific place and has the ability to do so simply with credibility. In fact, he is one of the growing number of medical professionals today who are making links between science, the power of thought and to a certain degree, spirituality.

Who should read it?

If you are looking to make a change in your life – whether it is about your habits, attitudes or personality – “You Are the Placebo” is a powerful tool that will change the way you approach change.

Top 4 learnings

There is a ton of good data, studies and ideas in this piece of work, but here are my take aways:

1. Neurons that fire together wire together
   This is a pretty basic fact in neuroscience that was actually coined by a Canadian neuroscientist in 1949. Simply put, our brain cells communicate with one another via something we call synaptic transmission (one brain cell releases chemical – neurotransmitter – and the other grabs it). This is called “neural firing”. If the two cells repeatedly fire with on another, their messaging will become faster and stronger. It’s the basis of learning. When they fire a lot over time, it becomes stored as an automatic behavior like walking, running, etc. This concept goes hand in hand with the “you are how you move” concept we often use in the fitness world.
   Dispenza however examines this with a mind perspective: “if you repeatedly think and act in identical ways on a daily basis, your brain will become molded into a specific hardwired pattern that will support the same level of mind.” So for example, the more optimistic/negative you are, the more it becomes automatic and the more optimistic/negative you become.
   “Most people routinely think the same thoughts, perform the same actions, and secretly expect something different to show up in their lives.”
2. By mid-life, 95% of our being is on auto-pilot
   By the time we hit our mid-30s, most of our behaviors, skills, beliefs, emotional reactions, habits and perceptions have become subconscious programs that don’t require our minds getting involved: our body just takes over. We end up feeling the same feelings, having the same reactions and behaving the same way over and over. From simple things like our morning routine (brushing teeth, having breakfast, etc) to skills like driving or emotional reactions like worrying, being confident,  having empathy, judging, making others feel guilty, feeling guilty ourselves or complaining, we don’t consciously decide whether or not we should do them, we just do them. This really resonated with me because I love habits and routine: I see them as the building blocks to achievement. And often times, they are. But if you are mostly on auto-pilot, you are basing most of what you do on the past and not questioning yourself to see if that’s what you really want to do. A simple illustration of this would be having breakfast/lunch/dinner: we often end up eating them at the same hour even if we aren’t that hungry. Or when us impatient folks get testy every time we must wait for something: it’s part of our personalities that stem from memories, feelings and habits we have had for the longest time. I know I have to work really hard to not react with impatience. Which brings me to the next point…
3. Why is it so hard to change?
   When you live on auto-pilot, where the body – not the mind – is commanding everything, you are using the same patterns and combinations of neural circuits in our brain. These become very strong hardwired programs and the only way to change them is to re-engage your mind. And that, my friends, is something I for one find very very challenging. You need to basically create and use new brain circuits to react to situations you have reacted the same way to a million times.
4. But change is possible
   Once you are intimately familiar with the processes involved in change and understand the difficulty behind it, you realize that changing yourself requires strategy – and Dispenza helps you get into a mindset to do so. He spends a lot of time explaining how we can use our thoughts to create new realities and unwire some of the autopilot stuff. He also mentions the usual suspects like meditation, hypnosis and mindfulness but he explains the why and how behind them so well that it really helps you do them more effectively.  He also has another book entitled “Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself” which also follows this train of thought.

Anyway, all this to say you gotta read this book. I found it at Kinokonuya but you can also easily purchase it on Amazon. And if you want immediate gratification, check out all the podcasts, videos and interviews he’s done over the years, they will give you some great insight.