mindfulness

We often use the left hemisphere of our brain. That means we use language, linear thinking and thinking of details. We also use the left  hemisphere when we make plans for the future and think of the past. We are trained to use the left hemisphere. We need that, but we also need to see the greater picture and live in the the now. We also need feelings and sometimes we need to stop thinking, stop comparing and judging. We probably use the left hemisphere of the brain too much. We need a balanced mind. The Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor, who had a stroke, knows something about this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyyjU8fzEYU

We are influenced by our expectations - if we think that a pill will make our better, we probably will have that result and vice versa. If you are afraid of getting sick, the higher the risk that you really will get ill. Mindfulness can be a method to examine thoughts and worries about sickness. Thoughts are just thoughts and they don't have influence you. Let them pass as clouds do in the sky. Here's an article in NYT about nocebo; http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/opinion/sunday/beware-the-nocebo-effect.html?_r=0