Hi guys, I just read this article about the medical industry and you won’t believe what I just discovered. Apparently it is quite common to use placebo tests in the pharmaceutical industry. I read that when a pharmaceutical company wants to test new medicine they conduct an experiment. One group is given the tested medicine and the other one is given a placebo. The subjects of the experiment are observed for several months to see how the medicine works and if there are any side effects. What is really surprising is the fact that many of the subjects of the experiment who were given a placebo tend to automatically say that they feel better. For example, many patients who go to a sleep laboratory to check their sleeping patterns indicate almost automatically that they had a better night’s sleep. It seems that because of the fact that someone has given us the feeling that our problem is going to be solved we already feel much better. Many experiments have shown that various health problems are psychosomatic and can be solved through a short psychological treatment rather than with medical treatment. Issues such as migraines, stomach problems, and back pain can be a result of stress and an imbalanced lifestyle.I wonder if this has something to do with our memory and the way in which we perceive ourselves. Maybe we tend to think that our memory is bad just because we lack self confidence. Maybe if we try to believe in ourselves that we can actually remember stuff and not stress out about remembering things that would make it easier. I kind of remember a Japanese memory expert who said once that the main problem in remembering is that we don’t believe in ourselves. Generally speaking, it is quite common to think that we are not good enough to do a certain task or job. Apparently there is a phenomenon called the imposter syndrome. According to this syndrome when filling a certain job or role we will at times feel as if we are imposters who are not in the right role and it would just take the right person to reveal our secret that we don’t really know what are we actually doing. In fact, 70% of us will feel that way during the course of their life. This is an extremely interesting fact I think. It shows us how most of us are not sure about our own capabilities. Have you ever had a time that you doubted your own capabilities although everyone around you thought you were doing things perfectly? What would be your suggestion to build up self confidence and believing in oneself?