Beliefs are often a matter of faith. This applies in more areas than just the spiritual. We need to believe in ourselves, in our own abilities and strengths. Without that belief we are weakened and are unlikely to realise our full potential. It's about being whom we ‘believe’ we are.

If you were able to harness your self-esteem do you agree that your levels of confidence would surely follow? Can you imagine the huge benefits such ability could have? This phenomenon has something to do with something known as the ‘Placebo Effect’.

Before each and every medication produced by pharmaceutical companies can be offered for sale it has to be thoroughly tested. One such test is to measure the effectiveness of the medication against a control, known as a placebo. A placebo, in this context, is a medicine, pill or potion that has absolutely no medicinal qualities whatever. In effect, it is a ‘sugar pill.’

It has long been recognised that if a patient truly believes that a pharmacologically inactive substance has an ability to cure, then, amazingly, it can, and often does. Research has shown that the power of the human mind has the ability to make people better. It also has the capability to dramatically improve self-esteem and confidence.

As a former stage hypnotist I can give dozens of examples of how the mind consistently proves that it can control the body. For now please accept that it can.

In my book ‘How to Negotiate Through the Power of the Placebo’ I wrote how when we take a placebo we are not told that it is such; our subconscious mind is convinced by our conscious mind that the medicine is going to help us recover from illness. We have faith in the medicine, for we don’t know that it is inert. Our recovery therefore comes from within, and it is the power of the subconscious that heals us. The purveyors of so called quack medicines relied on this to succeed in selling their products, which were often little more than coloured sugar water.

The subconscious part of the brain is like a sponge. It absorbs information uncritically. Normally, we have no control over what it soaks up and thus have no means of directly influencing it. The conscious part of our mind acts like a gatekeeper and tries to filter and make sense of what our subconscious is saying. When we have vivid dreams our conscious mind is off duty and we are flooded with the apparent chaos of the contents of the subconscious.

If we can find ways to convince the subconscious that certain things are true we will have found a route that opens up enormous possibilities. Some of these routes to the subconscious I describe in my book. For now, put quite simply, it is possible to directly influence the subconscious mind by using inert, harmless, placebo-like techniques.

Confidence and self-esteem are much about having a belief, a faith in our own ability. I work internationally as a motivational, conference speaker. Standing in front of large audiences of intelligent and often well-educated delegates and then entertaining them whilst educating, motivating and inspiring them is not natural. I was not born with such ability. Any confidence I exude is a trait I discovered, developed and now gladly share with others. Not only do I practise what I preach, I am also preaching what I practise.

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