Meghan Miller H01 Final Blog Post #2

My first blog post was about the power of your dreams.  This post is going to discuss the power of your thoughts, and the idea that ‘whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right’.

Human beings are such incredible creations.  Think of all the wonderful things we have done throughout history.  Using our amazing brains, we have built skyscrapers, created complex societal structures, developed vaccines, etc… The incredible human brain has been the mechanism which enabled these dreams to become reality. 

Retired Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Ben Carson, has said, “The capacity of the human brain is almost incomprehensible… if you learn one new fact every second it would take you more than three million years to begin to challenge the capacity of your brain… it can process more than two million bits of information in one second...It’s incredible. And your brain remembers everything you’ve ever seen and heard. We can put depth electrodes in and stimulate and somebody can quote back verbatim a book they read fifty years ago. It’s all there, it doesn’t go away.”  It seems, practically, that the human brain has unlimited potential.

What a shame it would be, to live life without trying to tap into at least a portion of the power of our brains!  In the words of Thomas Edison, “If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.” Most of us have no idea how much power we hold to do great things on this earth! Those who realize this stand out; the people who make history by pursuing their dreams typically think differently than the rest of society. They realize the power they have and believe they can do the impossible.  People like Thomas Edison (who tried over 1,000 times before creating the lightbulb), Abraham Lincoln (who ran multiple times before ever being elected to office, let alone President), and Henry Ford (who had 5 businesses fail before Ford Motor Co) were persistent.  Why?  Because they believed in themselves!  They believed they were the ones in control of their destiny.  Their mindset towards failure was that it was temporary.  They never accepted defeat, because they knew they had it in them to be successful. If you find a dream, a passion, something that encompasses the highest expression of your talents, don’t make excuses.  Don’t accept when people tell you that you can’t.  Clearly, you can.  The brain’s abilities override any excuses you could come up with.  

The term ‘mind over matter’ refers to the idea that your thoughts can have a greater influence on reality than your physical circumstances.  The placebo effect is one viable example of this.  It has been tested over and over: two groups of people with a certain ailment are given either a medicated pill or a sugar pill.  Both believe they are getting the real pill, and both groups report physical improvements. A related topic is visualization.  Harvard scientists did a study about this; they performed one set of brain scans for people playing notes on the piano, and another set of brain scans for people simply imagining playing the notes.  They discovered that the same parts of the brain were working for both of these groups. They concluded, “Your brain cannot tell the difference between something that’s real and whether you’re just imagining it.”  It is unknown to what degree this has an effect on you, but it is clear that there is an undeniable link between your thoughts and your physical reality.  Immense power is unleashed when you simply decide to believe that your dreams are possible. This is why professional athletes are successful: they use their minds and their will-power to push them past the pain they experience while training.  

A video about the power of your brain here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLqjK3ddSy0 

As Marianne Williamson said, “You must learn a new way to think before you can master a new way to be.”  Your mindset determines your success.  I believe in the power of your thoughts to make your dreams come true!