In 1959, Dr. Leonard Cobb performed surgery on half of his patients. On the other half, he performed a “dummy surgery” where he just made an incision and nothing else. At the time, he probably didn’t realize the amazing impact this would have on generations to come.

Much to his surprise, Dr. Cobb found that the patients who had dummy surgery did better than those having real surgery. This and other astonishing scientific data all contribute to the well known “placebo effect.” But we need to stop for a moment and consider what it really means to each of us. What’s going on with these surgical patients, or the people who lose all their hair when receiving “placebo” chemotherapy, or those involved in the thousands of other reported cases?

Placebos are often seen as an annoyance by researchers, as they make statistics more complicated. Instead, I feel they should be celebrated. Every time someone responds to a completely inert drug as if it were a powerful medicine, it demonstrates the extraordinary untapped healing ability built into each and every one of us. The problem is that it’s triggered very randomly, with about 30 percent of the people responding at any one time. And it’s not always the same people who respond positively. So this leads to one of the most world-changing questions: How can we get ahold of this innate healing system and learn to use it?

My research over the last few decades has resulted in what I call the “Lightning Process,” a training program that teaches people how to access and use their body-brain-mind connection.

Our brains like to take shortcuts – much like predictive text on phones, sometimes this works for us, other times it gets in our way.

Look at this brilliant video from my colleague Dr. Roger Hanlon. Notice how the octopus seems to appear from nowhere. One minute it’s a rock, the next it’s not. This reminds us that we need to be open to new ways of looking at things to thoughtfully examine what we are told or what we consider possible. The problem is that’s not the way our brain works. Our brain likes to make sense of the world, to see patterns and predict the likely future. We need to help our brain reassess old ways of thinking if we want to create change.

To believe something is possible is the first step in any healing process; research suggests that anything—surgery, pills, ultrasound, affirmation will be hindered by doubt and enhanced by belief in its effectiveness.

So what if, instead of seeing our health issues as immovable, rocklike certainties, we saw them as totally changeable and bursting with potential and possibility?

There are so many ways you can influence your health. But first, ask yourself this: What if you began to realize just how much power you could exert on your health and your life? What if you just took this first baby step and began to tap into that power within you?