And then a miracle happens!
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Arthur Clarke
At one point in my career as a computer consultant, I partnered with a company that employed a powerful saleswoman. Dylia did presentations to sell software projects that were not "completely baked," meaning that those of us in the background hadn't yet figured out how we would get things to work.
Dylia would lead the client audience at breakneck speed through a point-by-point analysis of the ways the software would address their needs. When she arrived at a blank spot -- which was usually some pivotal requirement of the project -- Dylia would flourish her pointer like a magician and proclaim, "And then a miracle happens!" This was accompanied by a disarming laugh that seemed to say, "You and I will never understand these technical details, but thanks to those crazy programmers, we don't have to."
The whole room would laugh along with her and abandon questions about how the software would perform the required magic. After all, only the programmers would ever comprehend the inner workings of the system. It was a relief for the clients to simply throw up their hands and admit their ignorance. This left Dylia to do her real job, which was to convince the client that her company had reliably solved similar business problems many times before and could be counted on to solve this one, too. Once the client had been sold on trusting the company, they naturally assumed the finished program would perform as required.
Similarly, in order to employ the mind-body approach to health we do not need to understand the details of how the mind-body connection works. Instead we must cultivate confidence in the mind's ability to affect the body. Although science does not understand the "mechanism" behind such mind-body miracles as the placebo effect, or spontaneous remission from cancer, or the power of strong social ties on health, scientific research produces abundance evidence that the mind-body connection routinely performs an undeniable, major role in health.
This evidence enables us to assume those who work for us -- our cells -- know what they're doing and can be counted on to do their jobs well. This positive anticipation is the key to getting good results when using the mind-body approach to health. Although science can't say exactly why it works, deliberately cultivating an attitude of optimistic expectation seems to trigger reduction in stress hormones, increase in immune response, decrease in muscle tension, lowered blood pressure and -- "and then a miracle happens!"