For all the Beatles fans here, and even for everyone else…
The Beatles are considered to be one of the most influential groups in rock and roll, and the members of the band explored many self-help means to better themselves. The author Mitch Horowitz looked into this a bit further in one of his books to show the influence a prominent psychologist had on one of their hit songs.
The Beatles were fans of a late French psychologist who is considered to be the person responsible for the power of positive suggestion. His name is Emile Coue, and he practiced positive psychology in the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries in France.
Because of Coue’s research, the concept of the placebo effect (now known as the placebo response) came to be, and because of the mind’s ability to help heal the body, modern drug studies cannot tell volunteers whether the drug is going to help them or not. Research shows that when people are enthusiastically told the medicine they’re taking is going to help them, they heal better and faster than if they weren’t. So, now, double-blind studies are the only accepted research methods – all because of mind’s ability to influence the way our bodies respond to suggestions. And it all started with Emile Coue.
Coue had his patients repeat a positive mantra up to 20 times a day, and his research (followed up by later studies) showed that those patients got better – with no medicine at all. That phrase, that mantra, is what hypnotists share with their clients to help them practice self-hypnosis, and it’s this: “Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.”
We encourage our clients to repeat that saying to themselves (and we say it to ourselves all the time!), and sure enough, our clients feel better in just a couple of weeks. The Beatles, being fans of Coue and his work, practiced this saying, “Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.”
And it’s this saying that was the inspiration for their song, “Getting Better.” Here is the refrain:
“I’ve got to admit it’s getting better,
A little better all the time;
I have to admit it’s getting better,
It’s getting better since you’ve been mine.”
Our minds are so influenced by our thoughts, that sometimes a song can trigger emotions that either make our day great or make our day lousy. Imagine (probably my favorite Beatles song…) if we practiced keeping our thoughts positive, imagine how we might feel throughout the day listening to that voice inside our head that was positive and affirming. Not only would we treat ourselves better, I bet we’d treat those around us a little better.
Self-love is difficult concept for most people, including yours truly. It’s something I’m working on, though; and I have to admit, it’s getting better … a little better all the time.
Here’s the thing, eventually we all learn that we’re either prisoners of our thoughts or we become liberated through them. When we’re prisoners of them, we (me included) get caught up in hearing a negative inner voice, and the more we get caught up in that negativity, the longer we sentence ourselves to time in that prison. I call this, stinkin’ thinkin’. And that stinkin’ thinkin’ tends to influence a lot of the things we say and do.
But, when you believe that you are worthy and deserving of hearing a positive, loving inner voice, things change. And that change is reflected in our words and actions. I submit to you that you are worthy and deserving of peace; that we are all worthy and deserving of peace in our lives and that we are worthy and deserving of love that includes ourselves as beneficiaries. And that belief just might be the first domino that falls in a chain reaction of getting a little better every day.