Pursuit of Wellness - POWerful Moment: 003 - How Your Mindset and Limiting Beliefs Are Affecting Your Health with Dr. Josh Axe

Episode Date: October 23, 2024

In this POWerful Moment from Episode #108, Dr. Josh Axe shares insights on the profound connection between mindset and physical health. He recounts a pivotal moment from his past that transformed his self-perception and led him to a successful medical career. By discussing concepts like neuroplasticity and the placebo effect, Dr. Axe illustrates how our beliefs and thoughts can significantly impact healing and overall well-being.  Listen or watch the full podcast here:  On Apple click here!  On Spotify click here!  On Youtube click here!

Thank you guys for joining me for another powerful moment from one of my favorite episodes. This is a highlight clip to enhance your week. I hope you enjoy. What is your ethos around mindset and health? The thing that I always say about mindset is it ties into all kinds of things, our identity, our purpose. And I don't think people realize how much our mindset, the way we think about things, our beliefs impact our physical health.

I'll give you an example of this. I mean, if you go back, all the way back to sort of what founded the way we do blind placebo studies today, like a lot of Western medicine, back many years ago during one of the World Wars, one of the practicing physicians ran out of morphine. And we all know morphine's an incredibly strong drug. And so because he ran out of morphine. And we all know morphine's an incredibly strong drug. And so because he ran out of morphine,

he's like, I have to take care of these fallen soldiers. I have to give them something. And so he essentially gave them sugar pills. Well, the crazy part was about 30 to 40% of them saw almost the exact same pain relief from these sugar pills as they would have given morphine. And that's my, I mean, think about that, that your own body can produce the same neurochemicals

to numb pain as morphine. And so, and I, and so I think when it comes to our physical healing, whether somebody's trying to heal from autoimmune disease, inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, no matter what the condition is, a big part of it happens in the mind. And I can tell you from working with

tens of thousands of patients, one of the most important parts of healing is your mindset and the way you think about your condition, about healing in the first place. And I think there's a combination of things that happen. One, I think that you actually do help heal your body through positive thoughts. I mean, there's something called neuroplasticity too,

where your body will start creating new neural pathways in order to repair itself. I think your body will send new growth factors, stem cells, everything to that place that needs healing, whether it's the thyroid or the liver or the reproductive organs. And so all that being said, if we're just talking about health alone,

again, I don't think people realize what a big impact our thinking has on health. And I think current science today proves that. I also think if you go back and look at what some of the wisest sages and saints and philosophers and practitioners have said throughout history, for instance, the Bible talks constantly about your faith or your beliefs or your thoughts will heal you.

And so it's something I'm very excited about because I think it helped save my life. I mean, I almost died about two years ago. And so that's really what I sort of ignited in me, this awareness about mindset medicine and just really how important it is for us to be able to heal. But I think that my, like, to answer your question,

I know I've kind of eluded around it, but I think we have to start with the end in mind. I think that's the big thing. What do you mean by that? So there's something in, that was oftentimes talked about not as much today, and I'm gonna use the Latin frame, it's called the sunum bonum, and it's the greatest good.

And so some of this ties into our identity and purpose in terms of, and I think it's actually very important for our health. And so if you wanna be as healthy as possible, you also have to know what does your ideal life look like and be in tune with that, and then create a plan in order to make that your reality. So for somebody, and I think this is all part

of God's design, if you are living in tune with the way God created us, then that is going to lead to the optimal level of health. I mean, God created fruits and vegetables and animals and these sort of things, and if we're eating real things, if we are enjoying and spending time in nature, if we're living out our purpose in life, I think it's gonna lead to happiness,

fulfillment, better health, but if you're not doing that, it's going to make you sick. So I think for most people, and I think a lot of lead to happiness, fulfillment, better health, but if you're not doing that, it's going to make you sick. So I think for most people, and I think a lot of people go through their life without actually thinking, this is actually exactly what I want in life, and also making sure it aligns with as much as possible what truly will fulfill them.

Because if somebody goes and says, I just wanna have a lot of money, and a big house, and a Lamborghini, and a second home, and they get there, most people are gonna end up being disappointed. Versus saying, you know what? I see the people that have lived the best lives, that are the happiest, they actually the people that sacrifice themselves the most.

They give the most to others. They are using their gifts to make Earth a heavenly place. And so, I know that kind of seems kind of maybe a little far reaching, but I do think even our mindset and our health starts with, you know, thinking about the end. Yeah. How do we overcome limiting beliefs we have about ourselves,

self-sabotaging thoughts, negative thinking in general? Yeah, so I had this life altering experience in high school. And by the way, I think everybody's gonna relate to this. I'm sure you will, I'm sure every person watching and listening to this will relate as well, because we've all had somebody in our life say something destructive and somebody say something

that helped save us in a way. And so I was a freshman in high school and I was a terrible student, absolutely terrible. And I had my freshman English teacher, her name was Miss Noble, she said, "'Josh, can you stay after class?' And I said my freshman English teacher, her name was Miss Noble, she said, Josh, can you stay after class? And I said yes. And she said, hey, what do you wanna do when you graduate?

All right, I'm sorry, actually she didn't say that. She said, what do you wanna do after high school? And I said, I wanna be a doctor. And the reason I said that, Mari, was that the year before my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, she had a mastectomy, she went through rounds and rounds of chemotherapy. I mean, I remember this day, my mom losing,

my mom being bald. I remember her taking a pit, like a comb through her hair and all the chunks of hair coming out. And just as a kid, just crying. And I remember remembering, there's two things I thought at the time. One, I wanna help people like my mom. That's why I wanna be a doctor.

And also there's gotta be a better way. Like this is the way we help heal people is through cutting off her breast and losing her hair and just, and being like 13 years old and thinking, I wanna be a doctor. Well, the teacher asked me, what do you wanna do after high school? And I said, I wanna be a doctor.

And she laughed out loud. And she goes, Josh, listen, with your GPA, you'll never get into med school. She said, my own daughter had a doctor. And she laughed out loud. And she goes, Josh, listen, with your GPA, you'll never get into med school. She said, my own daughter had a 3.8 GPA and barely got into med school. She says, you got an F on this paper, you're getting a D minus in my class.

She said, you need to try harder or you're gonna fail. And that was it. And when I walked out of that room, what I thought to myself was, I can being a junior high kid, I thought, well, I can't be a doctor now. I'm not gonna get good enough grades. Two weeks later, my mom brings me to a physician

who then talks about me like I'm not in the room. And he tells my mom, I still remember today, he says, your son has a learning disability. He has really severe ADHD. I'm gonna write this drug for Ritalin. It should help. But he's gonna have trouble learning his whole life. And then I remember thinking, well, gosh,

not only can I not be a doctor, but there's like something wrong with me, I have a disability. Like with my brain, I can't learn right. And so throughout high school, because of that reason, I thought, I'm just barely gonna try. And so I barely graduated high school.

The only reason I graduated was I knew my dad would be irate if I did not graduate high school. So I graduated with a C minus, applied to a bunch of colleges, got denied by almost all of them. But one college I really wanted to go to, probably because I had a lot of good extracurricular stuff, they sent me a letter back and they said,

here is the gist of it. You're not in, but if you come and take summer school, we'll let you in, if you average above a 3.0. So I thought, okay, I'm going to do this. I'm going to go, I'm actually going to try. And the first class I had to take was English 101. Big assignment, first assignment was a paper. So I went, wrote the paper, felt good about it, turned it in, and a few days later, the teacher said, Josh, can you stay after class? My heart sank.

I was like, oh my gosh, not this again, deja vu. And she asked me, she says, Josh, what's your major? And I said, I haven't chosen a major, Mrs. Williams. And she said, well, I wanna let you know that I think you should consider being an English major, journalism major, because you're a great writer. She said, you got the highest grade in the class in this paper.

I can tell you're really talented, great job. And I walked out of there. And I went through high school believing, the thing that kept ringing in my ear, I had this narrative of, you're not smart. Just over and over and over again. And so I literally believed I was just dumb throughout all through high school.

And then I had one teacher tell me, you could be a great writer, you're good at this. And it radically changed my confidence in the way that I felt about myself. I mean, from then on, I got well above a 3.0 throughout college. Much later on, when I went to Johns Hopkins University, I graduated there with a 3.9 GPA,

eventually became a doctor. And the reason I say those things is not to boast about any of it, it's to say like, if I would have held onto the one single limiting belief of what that teacher said, none of that would have happened. I wouldn't have gone to John Hopkins, wouldn't become a doctor, you and I wouldn't be having this conversation now, and there are so many people today that have had

a teacher, a parent, a coach, a pastor, whoever it is, say something to them, and then it becomes part of their identity. They believe it wholeheartedly, so then they don't write the book, or they don't start the podcast, or don't go to the, you know, try and do the triathlon, or whatever it is,

this thing they've dreamed about doing. And I saw this a lot in my practice. One of the most common things I heard when patients came into my functional medicine clinic in Nashville was, my doctor told me, I have to be on this drug the rest of my life. Or, my doctor told me this condition is irreversible. I can't tell you how many type two diabetics

and people with certain types of autoimmune disease had come in and told me that. And then after care, you know, especially type two diabetes, that's a great example of one, we reversed it almost every single time. And so that being said, there are so many limiting beliefs people have, and what we really wanna do is adopt new empowering beliefs.

And there's really a few ways that we can do this. One, one thing you need to do is of course, identify, now there's a Yale professor that did a really good job of this and it's called the ABCDE method. And so he said number A is activate. When was the first time that you had this negative memory about yourself? It could have been, you're not smart, you're not beautiful, you're not fast enough, you're not smart enough, you don't have this certain skill set that someone else has, whatever it is. So identify, but when did it start?

B, identify what's the exact belief about yourself that you have. C, here's where it starts really becoming powerful, is what are the consequences if you continue to believe this false narrative about yourself? Like for myself, okay, if I believe that wasn't smart, I wouldn't even apply to John Hopkins. You know what I'm saying?

Like I wouldn't even have thought about, like I wouldn't even apply to becoming a doctor. I wouldn't even have thought about it. So that's gonna be the consequences. I will not live out my dreams. That's the consequence. Okay, and then D is dispute it. Why is that not true?

Why is that a lie? Well, okay, in high school, I did get an A a few times. And I actually, it was the times that I tried. It was, is the issue really, I'm not sure, is it that maybe I'm not learning in the right way? Maybe I needed a mentor or a tutor, or maybe it's a different subject. Maybe I'm just, my mind isn't as good at math,

it's better at science and writing. So, you know, so you have to dispute it. And the E is exchange. What is the thing you need to exchange that lie for? The truth. And then you wanna start reinforcing and building around that truth. And once you know the truth,

ideally you wanna do everything you can to read books, listen to podcasts, do things to prove it out to yourself, because what you can't do is you can't just start saying to yourself, I'm smart, I'm smart, I'm smart, I'm smart, I'm smart, I'm smart, or I'm trying to think of the old, you may not have ever watched this, the old Saturday Night Lives, but there's this guy who said, I'm good enough, I'm smart enough,

and gosh darn it, people like me. I'm trying to remember the guy's name, but. I've heard that somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But the thing is, your nervous system doesn't fully, it doesn't fully believe you if you're the only one that just does that all the time.

You need to prove it out to yourself by going and getting small wins. Okay, I wrote this paper and I got an A. Okay, now I got an A in the whole class. Okay, now I did that. And so you need to kind of have a plan for both learning and building up. And one of the hardest things to have happen,

but one of the most important things in reinforcing your identity is having somebody that you admire confirm that truth. There's a quote that I love, actually it's out of the book, The Lord of the Rings, confirm that truth. There's a quote that I love, actually it's out of the book, The Lord of the Rings, it's a quote by Jarrow Tolkien, it's this, the praise of the praiseworthy is above all rewards. So when you have somebody that's praiseworthy,

somebody that you admire, respect, somebody that's maybe ahead of you in life, it could be a teacher, a mentor, pastor, those sort of things, and they tell you, hey, you're good at this, and they affirm pastor, those sort of things. And they tell you, hey, you're good at this. And they affirm you. It's really powerful. I mean, we're relational beings

and so we can affirm ourselves some, but we really also have to have affirmation for others. This is why our inner circle is so important. Like the people we spend time with, we become who we spend time with. And so picking your mentors, pursuing mentors, having those people around us, I think that's another thing that people need

to be conscious of in order to help start to build a stronger identity and overcome these limiting beliefs. Thanks for listening to this powerful moment. If you want to hear the full episode, click the link in the show notes. Love you guys, bye.