Can I adjust my emotions to serve me rather than work against me?

Definitely!

Can I use my mind to achieve peak performance and create success?

Certainly!

Can my mind affect my body’s responses to illnesses, like cancer, stroke or physical injury?

Absolutely!

Why don’t I already know how to do these things?

As the old saying goes, the last person to understand the nature of water is a fish. A fish cannot understand how water could be used to provide hydroelectric power or run a steam engine or make a cup of coffee. The fish is in water all the time, and thus is unaware of its existence. Yet the nature of the water is crucial to his health.

In a similar manner, everything you think, feel, say or do takes place through your mind. And though you think we are seeing or perceiving accurately, you are usually totally unaware of how past experiences, expectations and early life events control everything you feel, think, say or do. And you are probably in denial of this fact.

But when we recognize this and learn how to gain control of our inner mental mechanisms, we can tap from a vast set of inner resources, and transform our lives and our world. Your mind holds the secret of how to heal yourself, fulfill your life’s purpose, and achieve your heart’s desire. LIVE LIFE will show you how to do this and you’ll experience the extraordinary stories of people who have done it. You will discover that the passion, wisdom and power they unleashed lies within you too and you will learn how to gain access to them.

Below you will find summaries of some of the thousands of clinical studies performed in recent years demonstrating the central role the mind plays in the functioning of the body, and its healing. But who needs a study? Just look at the number of times you’ve heard people say (or said yourself), “I really know the best thing for me is to quit this habit or make this important change, but I just can’t seem to motivate myself to do it.” Or look at how a problem at work can give you a headache, or fear can knot up your belly! The thoughts and beliefs you have about yourself in relation to the world around you produce images that directly affect how your body functions . . . or doesn’t function.

Imagery is the language your brain uses to talk to itself, to create emotions, and to control the movement and functioning of your body. Your mental images are the result of the thoughts you are currently thinking, or have thought in the past. So your thoughts create your imagery, which in turn creates the behavior of your body, inside and out. (Internally there are your illnesses and dysfunctions, physical and emotional; externally there are your interactions with the world, (what you communicate, how you act, and what your habits are). You will see how healing and success follow when you are able to modify and powerfully direct your thoughts, emotions, and mental images.

You Are What You Think

Ultimately, the key is to guide your mind to positively impact your brain, your body’s most highly evolved organ. It can be intentionally induced to relax away the toxic influences of excessive physical and emotional activity (fatigue, fear, depression, anger, muscle tension), and to restore balance and energy. Your brain is an endocrine gland, a chemical factory. Your mind, through its innermost thoughts, beliefs and images, induces your brain to secrete the chemicals that create your emotions, the state of your body, your ongoing experiences, and all your behaviors. Health or illness, happiness or misery, success or failure – these are the results of your inner imagery. Learning to control this imagery is central to self-healing.

What is Mind-Body Medicine?

Mind-body medicine is the field of scientific, philosophical and medical inquiry into how the human mind, body, emotion and spirit interact with each other so as to maintain health. The practice of Mind-Body Medicine involves drawing on the strengths of each of these, balancing their energies, and protecting and nurturing those parts that are sensitive and vulnerable. Old-fashioned Remedial Medicine (an earlier paradigm) focuses almost exclusively on using drugs and surgery to fight against illness, which it sees as the enemy. Mind-Body Medicine aims to enhance the mind's capacity to positively affect bodily functions and symptoms, with the aim of nurturing what is healthy, accelerating healing, and preventing future illness. The stars of Live Life employ a wide variety of Mind-Body skills – but the one tool that they all use, in one form or another is Guided Imagery.

Guided imagery

Guided imagery, generally recognized as the most powerful tool of Mind-Body Medicine, is a deceptively simple technique for creating relaxation and healing. Deceptively subtle, the results Guided Imagery produces can be profound and immediate. Moreover, it not only functions comfortably and synergistically with other ongoing therapies, it enhances them.

Intentionally guiding your images gives you great power because mental images bypass cognitive thought (worry, distraction, over-analysis) and sends healing messages directly to the deeper levels of your brain (subcortical structures), then to every cell of your being. These messages travel over primal sensory- and emotion-based pathways in your nervous and immune system. The Right Brain’s ability to sense, perceive, and feel bypasses the inhibitory effect of the Left Brain’s tendency to think, analyze, criticize, judge and decide. Freed of its limits, you create the life you want to have.

Mind-Body Healing – Reality, Not Just Theory

Legitimate medical practitioners practice “evidence-based medicine.” As you will see below, clinical evidence for the success of mind-body techniques is overwhelming. So successful that if a pharmaceutical company could produce a drug that was this effective in so many different diseases, you would see advertisements for it several times an hour.

Many of the experts you will see in this film are the ones who originally created the field of Mind-Body Medicine in the 1970s. The profound changes in our patients were obvious, but double-blind studies, the gold standard of scientific credibility, had not yet been performed. The 1980s and 1990s saw the initiation and completion of thousands of clinical studies showing dramatic clinical effectiveness. Now, no legitimate practitioner can seriously doubt the central role of the mind in creating and resolving the majority of our illnesses. Mind-Body Medicine is the New Medicine. Check it out for yourself.

Clinical Studies Demonstrating the Power of the Mind

The best kind of Most clinical studies are done on a wide variety of people. Most people engaging in these studies have had little or no experience with relaxation or imagery. In addition, many had little motivation or preparation. Still the results are impressive. Imagine what even more remarkable results may be possible if people believe, and are strongly motivated? Here are a few of the thousands of studies revealing the wide applicability and remarkable effectiveness of Mind-Body Approaches. Click on a topic to learn more, and check out the reference for more details.

TABLE OF CONTENTS (TOC)

Addictions

Anxieties & Phobias

Coronary Artery Disease

Eating Disorders- Bulimia Nervosa

Fracture Healing of Bones

Hypertension and Serum Cholesterol

Immune System Healing

Improvements in Fertility

Improvement in Mood

Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Prison Rehab

Recovery From Stroke

Surgery

Wound Healing

Addictions

Mind-body approaches can be helpful in alcoholism and other addictions. One study showed that psychoeducation is effective, but that combining it with visualization seems to make it more effective.

In a study of more than 250 intravenous drug users who used relaxation, meditation or prayer as rating a 4 on a 1 to 5 scale of effectiveness in helping them kick their habit. Substance abusers who worked with guided imagery tapes reported the highest levels of self-esteem and serenity and the least anger and impulsivity when compared with others in treatment who did not use these.

Pekala RJ, Maurer R, Kumar VK, Elliott NC, Masten E, Moon E, Salinger M. Self-Hypnosis relapse prevention training with chronic drug/alcohol users: effects on self esteem, affect, and relapse. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis. 2004 April; 46 (4): pp. 281-97. Ronald.Pekala@med.va.gov
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Anxieties and Phobias

A review of research by investigators from the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders at Boston University concluded that a growing body of research demonstrates that cognitive behavioral therapy is well-tolerated, cost-effective, and produces substantial treatment gains for individuals with panic disorder both in short term and the long term.

Landon TM, Barlow DH. Cognitive-behavioral treatment for panic disorder: current status. Journal of Psychiatric Practice. 2004 July;10 (4) : pages 211-226

Researchers at the University of Minnesota studied patients who received kidney, lung or pancreas transplants. Those who took their class in meditative self-management technique showed significant improvement in sleep disturbance and anxiety.

Gross CR, Kreitzer MJ, Russas V, Treesak C, Frazier PA, Hertz MI. Mindfulness meditation to reduce symptoms after an organ transplant: a pilot study. Advances in Mind-Body Medicine. 2004 Summer; 20 (2): pages 20-9
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Coronary Artery Disease

Authors of a review of 23 major heart disease studies concluded that one psychosocial approaches were added to standard medical treatments, not only survival but further cardiac event rates improved significantly (Linden). Relaxation training is so effective that it is now used routinely at major medical facilities such as Columbia Presbyterian, Stanford, etc.

Linden W, Stossel C Maurice J. Psychosocial interventions for patients with coronary artery disease: a meta-analysis. Arch Intern Med, 1996 Apr 8;156(7):745-52
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Eating Disorders—Bulimia Nervosa

One randomized control trial compared six weeks of individual guided imagery therapy with the control group who received none. The imagery group had a reduction of binges of 74% and of vomiting 73%. The imagery treatment also demonstrated an improvement on measures of attitudes concerning eating, dieting and body rate in comparison to the control group. In addition the guided imagery group showed improvement on psychological measures of aloneness and the ability for self-comforting.

Esplen MJ, Garfinkel PE, Olmsted M, Gallop RM, Kennedy S. Department of Psychiatry/Samuel Lunefeld Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Fracture Healing of Bones

At Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Orthopedists studying fracture healing, the healing of bone fractures treated in the emergency room, showed trends toward faster healing for the hypnosis group through week nine following in the injury. X-rays showed a notable difference in fracture healing at six weeks. Subjects, themselves, also reported improved ankle mobility, creative functional ability to descend stairs, less use of pain medication and less pain overall.

Surgery on the heart and the brain represent some of the most delicate and dangerous procedures a patient can undergo. Clinical research has demonstrated that deep relaxation and guided imagery can reduce pre-operative anxiety and post-operative pain. Patients having surgery who were exposed to deep relaxation and guided imagery had a shorter average length of stay, a decrease in average direct pharmacy costs, and a decrease in average direct pain medication costs while maintaining high overall patient satisfaction.

Ginandes CS, Rosenthal DI. Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, USA
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Hypertension and Serum Cholesterol

Stress management, with techniques such as deep relaxation and guided imagery, as shown, in studies, do be effective in reducing three of the risk factors for coronary heart disease: type A behavior, raised serum cholesterol and hypertension. Evidence also indicates that not only are individual risk factors reduced, mortality and morbidity due to coronary heart disease is reduced.

(Bennett P., Carroll D. Health Promotion Authority for Wales, Cardiff, UK)
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Immune System Healing

Many studies have demonstrated that imagery targeted at the immune system can produce changes in the immune system accompanied by reports of enhanced mood and well-being. In two studies hypnosis buffered the effects of stress on immune function in medical students at exam time. Comparison of self-hypnosis with and without imagery targeted at the immune system confirmed advantages to targeted imagery for both immune function and mood, and even fewer winter viral infections. In another study patients with virulent and chronic herpes simplex virus 2—six weeks of training almost have the recurrence rate, improved moods and reduced levels of clinical depression and anxiety. Immune functions improved, including increased functional natural killer cell activity.

Gruzelier JH. Department of Cognitive Neuroscience and Behaviour, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK j.gruzelier@ic.ac.uk
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Improvements in Fertility

184 women who had been trying to get pregnant for one to two years were studied. Some received a ten-session cognitive-behavioral change group. At the end of the year there was statistically significant differences between those who participated in the psychological intervention group.

Domar AD, Clapp D, Slawsby EA, Dusek J, Kessel B, Freizinger M. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
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Improvement In Mood

Although anyone working with effective mind-body techniques can easily see the improvement in symptoms of anxiety, depression and mood instability. The University of Miami studied the use of imagery and music on patients by studying changes in their blood chemistry before and after a 13-week exposure to guided imagery and music and re-evaluated them again at the end of a 6-week follow-up. Those [?] in imagery and music reported significant decreases in depression, fatigue and total mood disturbance. Blood tests indicated significant decreases in Cortisol level which correlated significantly with the improvement in mood.

McKinney CH, Antoni MH, Kumar M, Tims FC, McCabe PM, Department of Music Education/Music Therapy, University of Miami, USA. mckinnych@appstate.edu
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Irritable Bowel Syndrome

One study (Guthrie) on patients who had not responded to medication alone found that the addition of relaxation and therapy produced a 66% success rate. In another study, a program of progressive muscle relaxation, biofeedback, cognitive therapy and education had a 50% success rate that was maintained for at least four years.

Guthrie E; Creed F; Dawson D; Tomenson B; A randomized Controlled trial of psychotherapy in patients with refractory Irritable Bowel Syndrome. British Journal of Psychiatry, 1993 Sep, 163:315-21

Another study showed that many mind-body interventions, such as relaxation techniques, behavioral therapy or biofeedback can lower elevated blood pressure by an average of ten and mmHg (systolic) and 5 mmHg (diastolic). It has also been found that such measures as these often prompt patients to adopt a more health-conscious lifestyle.

Herrmann JM.Reha-Klinik Glotterbad, Gehrenstrasse 10. D-79268 Glottertal j.m.herrmann@rehaklinik-glotterbad.de
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Prison Rehab

Studies on prisoners released from jail show that those who were taught meditation while in jail showed significant reductions in alcohol, marijuana and crack cocaine use after release. They also showed decreases in alcohol-related problems and psychiatric symptoms, as well as increases in positive psychosocial outcomes.

Bowen S, Witkiewitz K, Dillworth TM, Chawla N, Simpson TL, Ostafin BD, Larimer ME, Blume AW, Parks GA, Marlatt GA. Mindfulness meditation and substance use in an incarcerated population. Psychology of Addictive Behavior. 2006 Sep;20 (3): pages 343-7. swbowen@uwashington.edu
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Recovery From Stroke

One to twelve months following a stroke. At this point these patients were exhibiting stable motor deficits in their affected upper limbs. They received therapy three times a week for six weeks. Some of the patients received, in addition, a ten-minute guided imagery session after each therapy session and practiced imagery at home twice weekly. The improvement of the imagery group was significantly increased.

Page SL, Levine P, Sistos S, Johnston MV Kessler Medical Rehabilitation Research and Education Corporation (KMRREC), West Orange, New Jersey 07052, USA. spage@kmrrec.org
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Surgery

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin concluded that providing mind-body strategies help people deal with pain, decrease the amount of opiod medication needed.

Pellino TA, Gordon DB, Engelke ZK. Busse KL, Collins MA, Silver CE, Norcross NJ.Use of nonpharmacologic interventions for pain and anxiety after total hip and total knee arthroplasty. Orthopedic Nursing. 2005 May-Jun; 24;(3): pages 182-90; quiz 191-2
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Wound Healing

Numerous studies indicate that wounds heal more quickly, and that patients can cut their post-operative hospital stay by as much as 25% or more through use of mind-body techniques. In a randomized controlled trial three approaches were compared: the use of hypnosis, general supportive attention, and “usual care only” on early post-surgical wound healing. The study was done on the women receiving medically-recommended reduction mammoplasty. In a double blind procedure, wounds were examined at one and seven weeks post-operatively. The group treated with hypnosis experienced significantly greater wound healing (p-.001) through the seven post-operative weeks. “Usual care” controls showed the smallest degree of healing. In addition, the hypnotically-treated group reported less pain and more rapid recovery of function.

Ginandes C, Brooks P, Sando W, Jones C, Aker J Department of Psychology, Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital, 115 Mill Street Belmont, MA 02478, USA. Carol_ginandes@hms.harvard.edu
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