Do your Expectations Really affect your Life?

I want to start this article by telling you a story.

In the seventeenth century, there was a popular medical treatment called ''Perkins tractors''.

‘‘Perkins Tractors’’ were metal pointers, supposedly able to ‘‘pull out’’ disease from ill patients.

They were sold at the extremely high price of five gold coins.

In 1799 John Haygarth-an English Physician-wanted to make a test to show that the high cost was unnecessary.

And to show this, he created dummy wooden unreal tractors and used them on his patients, and compared the results with a set of allegedly real active metal tractors. And later, he published his findings in a book.

What he found out was that the wooden pointers were just as useful as the expensive metal ones, showing "to a degree which has never been suspected, what powerful influence upon diseases is produced by mere imagination".

And this was the first real demonstration of the placebo effect.

The Placebo effect is a phenomenon in which a placebo-a fake treatment such as an inactive substance like sugar, distilled water, or saline solution-can sometimes improve a patient's condition simply because the person expects that it will be helpful.

And the more a person believes they are going to benefit from a treatment, the more likely it is that they will experience a benefit.

The placebo effect is related to the perceptions and expectations of the patient; if the substance is viewed as helpful, it can heal, but, if it is viewed as harmful, it can cause negative effects, which is known as the ''Nocebo effect''.

What does this mean to you?

It reflects the power of your imagination and that you get what you expect.

So here are some actions that you can consider:

1- Think and expect only great things to happen to you.

2- If you expect something bad to happen, ask yourself ''what is the reason I am expecting it to happen? Is it because of false beliefs? Is it because of an old experience?''

3- If you expect bad things to happen because of an old experience that you passed through, then ask yourself these questions:

-Are the fundamentals-including the environment surrounding my past old experience-still the same or changed? 

-Do I have more experience and better capabilities now to avoid the previous bad experience, or is almost everything the same?

By answering these questions, you can understand that the situation and circumstances are now different and that you do not need to expect the outcome to be bad as in the past.

Finally, if you like this article, then share it with your family and friends.